Thinking and Language

Question 1

process of thinking

Answer 1

working through your memories

Question 2

cognition psychologists

Answer 2

study mental processes of thinking, knowing, communicating

Question 3

availability heuristic

Answer 3

our tendency to judge the likelihood of an event by how available it is in our memory (how easy we can think of examples of the event)

Question 4

common things

Answer 4

easier to think about (memories are biased so not always accurate)

Question 5

probability of natural disasters

Answer 5

people rate the probability of dramatic events higher than reality (because it’s publicized)

Question 6

confirmation bias

Answer 6

our tendency to seek out and pau more attention to information that confirms our beliefs
- avoid evidence that indicates we’re wrong
- want to prove ourselves correct more than find the truth

Question 7

belief perseverance

Answer 7

our tendency to cling to our beliefs even when presented contradictory evidence
- takes more evidence to change someone’s mind than it takes for them to form those beliefs in the first place

Question 8

overconfidence

Answer 8

our tendency to be overconfident regarding accuracy of our knowledge/judgements

Question 9

dunning-kruger effect

Answer 9

tendency for those who lack skill to overestimate their skill, those who do have skill underestimate their skill

Question 10

essential characteristics of language

Answer 10

symbols and grammar

Question 11

babbling

Answer 11

• meaningless syllable repetition
• starts around 4 months

Question 12

one word stage

Answer 12

babies start using words to communicate
- around age 1, only use one word at a time
- understand more words than they can produce

Question 13

receptive language

Answer 13

what you understand

Question 14

productive language

Answer 14

what you produce

Question 15

productive language

Answer 15

what you produce

Question 16

two word stage

Answer 16

babies start putting words together
- around age 2, kids use 2 words
- “telegraphic speech”
- words follow native language grammar rules
- also overgeneralize some grammar rules

Question 17

language acquistion

Answer 17

biologically predisposed to acquire a language
- babies acquire language at impressive speed

Question 18

childhood language acquisition

Answer 18

• childhood is a critical period for language acquisition
• if we don’t learn early enough, we won’t be able to speak as well later in life

Question 19

feral child

Answer 19

a child who grows up with little to no human contact due to severe neglect and abuse

Question 20

critical language acquisition period

Answer 20

critical period slows around 7, completely closed around puberty

Question 21

thinking and language

Answer 21

reciprocal relationship between thinking and language

Question 22

linguistic relativitity hypothesis

Answer 22

language influences thinking
- better able to notice, remember, think about something if we have a word for it

Question 23

bilingualism

Answer 23

bilinguals show greater creativity, cognitive skills, social skills, language skills
- globally most people are bilingual (in US, only ~20% are bilingual)

Question 24

doublespeak

Answer 24

language that is manipulative
- commonly used by governments, institutions, companies