Thinking/Language Flashcards
Thinking (Cognition)
mental activity that goes on in the brain when a person is organizing and attempting to understand information and communicating information to others
Mental images
mental representations that stand for objects or events and have a picture-like quality
Concepts
ideas that represent a class or category of objects, events, or activities
Superordinate concept
the most general form of a type of concept, such as “animal” or “fruit”
basic-level type
an example of a type of concept around which other similar concepts are organized, such as “dog,” “cat,” or “pear”
subordinate concept
the most specific category of a concept, such as one’s pet dog or a pear in one’s hand
formal concepts
concepts that are defined by specific rules or features
natural concepts
concepts people form as a result of their experiences in the real world
prototype
an example of a concept that closely matches the defining characteristics of a concept; formed by averaging the different characteristics of a group of things
problem solving
process of cognition that occurs when a goal must be reached by thinking and behaving in certain ways
trial and error (mechanical solution)
problem-solving method in which one possible solution after another is tried until a successful one is found
algorithms
very specific, step-by-step procedures for solving certain types of problems
heuristic
an educated guess based on prior experiences that helps narrow down the possible solutions for a problem; also known as a “rule of thumb”
representative heuristic
assumption that any object (or person) sharing characteristics with the members of a particular category is also a member of that category
availability heuristic
estimating the frequency or likelihood of an event based on how easy it is to recall relevant information from memory or how easy it is for us to think of related examples
means-end analysis
heuristic in which the difference between the starting situation and the goal is determined and then steps are taken to reduce that difference
Insight
when the solution to a problem seems to come suddenly to mind
functional fixedness
a block to problem solving that comes from thinking about objects in terms of only their typical functions
mental set
the tendency for people to persist in using problem-solving patterns that have worked for them in the past
confirmation bias
the tendency to search for evidence that fits one’s beliefs while ignoring any evidence that does not fit those beliefs
creativity
the process of solving problems by combining ideas or behavior in new ways
convergent thinking
type of thinking in which a problem is seen as having only one answer, and all lines of thinking will eventually lead to that single answer, using previous knowledge and logic
divergent thinking
type of thinking in which a person starts from one point and comes up with many different ideas or possibilities based on that point
language
a system for combining symbols (such as words) so that an unlimited number of meaningful statements can be made for the purpose of communicating with others
grammar
the system of rules governing the structure and use of a language
syntax
the system of rules for combining words and phrases to form grammatically correct sentences, ex. “this material will be on the exam” vs “will exam material this on the be”
morphemes
the smallest units of meaning within a language; ex. talked: 2 morphemes, talk and ed (includes prefixes and suffixes)
semantics
the rules for determining the meaning of words and sentences
phonemes
the basic units of sound in language, ex. bit has 3 phonemes, pit has 3 has well and one of them is different from bit
pragmatics
aspects of language involving the practical ways of communicating with others, or the social “niceties” of language, social rules for communicating, examples include: turn-taking in conversations, intonation, emphasis, speed/rate, when to use simple vs complex words
linguistic relativity hypothesis
the theory that thought processes and concepts are controlled by language
cognitive universalism
theory that concepts are universal and influence the development of language
scaffolding
process in which a more skilled learner gives help to a less skilled learner, reducing the amount of help as the less skilled learner becomes more capable
zone of proximal development (ZPD)
Vygotsky’s concept of the difference between what a child can do alone versus what that child can do with the help of a teacher
What are the stages of language development that all children experience?
1) Prenatal responsivity to human voices
2) Postnatal Cooing: at around 1-2 months of age, babies begin to make vowel-like sounds (phones; all the possible sounds across all languages), these sounds are the same with babies throughout the entire world, deaf infants still coo
3) Babbling: at about 6 months, infants add consonant sounds to the vowels to make a babbling sound and producing phonemes, which at times can almost sound like real speech; at this point deaf infants tend to stop vocalizing
4) One-word speech (holographic): somewhere just before or around age 1, most children begin to say actual words; these words are typically nouns and may seem to represent and entire phrase of meaning; they are called holophrases (whole phrases in one word) for that reason; for example, a child might say “Milk!” and mean “I want some milk!” or “I drank my milk!”
5) Two word utterances (telegraphic): at around a year and a half, toddlers begin to string words together to form short, simple sentences using nouns, verbs, and adjectives such as “baby eat,” “mommy go,” and “doggie go bye-bye”, only the words that carry the meaning of the sentence are used
5) Whole sentences: as children move through the preschool years, they learn to use grammatical terms and increase the number of words in their sentences, until by age 6 or so they are nearly as fluent as an adult, although the number of words they know is still limited when compared to adult vocabulary
How are concepts (or schemas) formed and why are they useful?
Concepts are formed based on previous experiences around a certain prototype, or example; they’re useful because they help us identify objects more quickly
spreading activation
all of the different concepts we have are linked in our minds, some connections are strong and some are weak; if one of our concepts is used or thought of, the other concepts that are related to it are more likely to be thought of or used as well
Fuzzy Set
important, but not necessary features that we associate with something when we thing of it and characterize it
cognitive miser principle
our cognitive resources are limited so we only want to use them when we have to so we often use these shortcuts, this principle explains why we use heuristics (easy way to remember: misers don’t like to give anything away or use their money, our brain doesn’t want to use up resources thinking too hard)
representativeness heuristic
using similarity to mental concept to judge frequency or likelihood
base rate
numerical data about the frequency or probability of a given item/event, information that people tend to ignore (ex. There is a short slim man who enjoys poetry. Is he a classics professor at an Ivy League college or a truck driver? He is more likely to be a truck driver because there are many more truck drivers than Ivy League classics professors)
communication
an exchange of thoughts and ideas
semantics
the meaning of a word in a particular context, ex. I bought a present FOR my nephew because he turned FOUR. (same sound, different meanings which we know because of context)
What are the properties of language? Explain them.
- Communicative
- Arbitrarily symbolic: language creates an arbitrary relationship between a symbol and what that symbol refers to
- Regularly structured: language has a structure, only particularly patterned symbols/ arrangements have meanings
- Structured at multiple levels: examples include phonemes and morphemes
- Generative/Productive: the possibility of creating new phrases/sentences
- Dynamic: language constantly evolves and is always changing, ex: slang phrases
overextension vs overgeneralization when learning language in children
overextension: when children use the same word for wrong things because their vocabulary isn’t large enough to know the words for the other things yet, example: calling all men “daddy”
overgeneralization: when language rules are applied where there’s an exception to those rules, example: saying “I goed to the grocery store” or “I have 2 foots”, researchers have found that the best way to correct this is to restate what they said the correct way
critical periods
times of rapid development during which a particular ability must be developed if it’s ever going to be developed well, example: transition between cooing and babbling
Is there such a thing as animal language? Why or why not?
Although many animals are able to communicate, they do not have a “language”. All language is a type of communication, but not all communication meets the requirements for language. Animals don’t have language because the can’t create new phrases, they don’t have syntax, and they don’t posses the 6 properties of language.
