thinking and language

Question 1

cognition

Answer 1

the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses

Question 2

concepts

Answer 2

a verbal or written understanding of abstract thought

Question 3

prototypes

Answer 3

a mental representation of the idealized form of an object or concept (a mental image or best example of a category)

Question 4

algorithms

Answer 4

a methodical, logical rule of procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

Question 5

heuristics

Answer 5

mental shortcuts that allow people to make fast decisions

Question 6

when you see a person with their hood up in a dark alley, and you decide to subtly walk faster, this is

Answer 6

heuristics

Question 7

insight

Answer 7

when a solution to a problem presents itself quickly and without warning (in a cartoon when the character can’t find their way out of a situation, but then a lightbulb lights up above their head)

Question 8

confirmation bias

Answer 8

people’s tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with their existing beliefs

Question 9

fixation

Answer 9

having attachments to people or things that persist from childhood to adulthood

Question 10

mental set

Answer 10

a tendency to only see solutions that have worked in the past

Question 11

functional fixedness

Answer 11

a cognitive bias that limits a person to use an object only in the way it’s traditionally used

Question 12

convergent thinking

Answer 12

a type of thinking that focuses on coming up with the single, well established answer to a problem

Question 13

divergent thinking

Answer 13

thinking outside the box and tendency to involve the free flow of concepts and spontaneous ideas

Question 14

representativeness heuristic

Answer 14

occurs when we estimate the probability of an event based on how similar it’s to a known situation (stereotype)

Question 15

thinking that because someone is wearing a suit and tie and carrying a brief case, that they’re a lawyer because they fit the “typical” lawyer category

Answer 15

representativeness heuristic

Question 16

availability heuristic

Answer 16

occurs when we judge the likelihood of an event based on how easily we can recall similar events

Question 17

overconfidence

Answer 17

the tendency to overestimate our knowledge and abilities in a certain area

Question 18

belief bias

Answer 18

a cognitive bias in which a person judges the conclusion of an argument based on their prior knowledge and existing beliefs rather than on the validity or invalidity of the argument itself

Question 19

intuition

Answer 19

a hunch or feeling in your gut when something is right or wrong

Question 20

framing

Answer 20

distorts our decisions and judgments based on how information is presented or “framed”

Question 21

phonemes

Answer 21

the smallest unit of sound that makes a meaningful difference in language. They correspond to the sounds associated with the letters of the alphabet

Question 22

these can help us distinguish the difference between “pat”, “bat”, and “hat”

Answer 22

phonemes

Question 23

morphemes

Answer 23

are the smallest unit of meaning in an language (the word incoming has three morphemes, “in”, “come”, “ing”)

Question 24

grammar

Answer 24

the study of rules governing the use of an language

Question 25

semantics

Answer 25

the meaning and interpretation of words, signs, and sentence structure

Question 26

syntax

Answer 26

the set of rules that describes how words and phrases in a language are arranged into grammatical sentences

Question 27

receptive language

Answer 27

the ability to understand and comprehend spoken language that you hear or read (a child’s ability to understand the direction of “putting on the coat”)

Question 28

productive language

Answer 28

the ability to communicate in a language with skills like writing and speaking

Question 29

babbling stage

Answer 29

children spontaneously utter different sounds

Question 30

holophrastic stage

Answer 30

the one word stage is the second major phase in the child’s language acquisition process. It comes after the babbling stage and is characterized by the use of single words

Question 31

telegraphic speech

Answer 31

a form of communication consisting of simple two word long sentences

Question 32

overgeneralization

Answer 32

a cognitive distortion where a person assumes an experience from one event will apply to other events

Question 33

operant learning

Answer 33

occurs when behavior changes as a function of its consequences (positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment)

Question 34

association

Answer 34

a brain connection made between various stimuli, such as words, images, sounds, and emotions

Question 35

imitation

Answer 35

the process of copying the behavior of another person, group, or object intentionally or unintentionally

Question 36

reinforcement

Answer 36

the use of providing something or taking it away to achieve a desired behavior

Question 37

inborn universal grammar

Answer 37

all children are born with an innate ability to acquire, develop, and understand language

Question 38

critical period

Answer 38

an early stage in life where a child is especially open to specific learning, emotional, or socializing experiences that occur as part of normal development and will not reoccur at a later stage

Question 39

aphasia

Answer 39

a language disorder caused by damage in a specific area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension

Question 40

broca’s area

Answer 40

region of the brain that contains neurons involved in speech function

Question 41

wernicke’s area

Answer 41

region of the brain that contains motor neurons involved in the comprehension of speech

Question 42

angular gyrus

Answer 42

the part of the brain associated with complex language functions (reading, writing)

Question 43

linguistic determinism

Answer 43

the theory that differences in languages and their structures determine how people think and interact with the world around them