Thinking & Language

Question 1

Concept

Answer 1

A mental grouping of familiar objects, events, ideas, on people

Question 2

Prototypes

Answer 2

A mental image or the best example of a category. Matching new items to one of these provides a quick and easy method for including items in a category (as when comparing feathered creatures to the “standard” bird, like a robin)

Question 3

Algorithm

Answer 3

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier–but also more error-prone–use of heuristics

Question 4

Heuristic

Answer 4

A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms

Question 5

Insight

Answer 5

A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions. (AHA! Moment)

Question 6

Confirmation Bias

Answer 6

A tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions

Question 7

Fixation

Answer 7

The inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an impediment to problem solving

Question 8

Mental Set

Answer 8

A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past

Question 9

Functional Fixedness

Answer 9

He tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; and impediment to problem solving

Question 10

Representative Heuristics

Answer 10

Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or math, particular prototypes; may lead one to ignore other relevant information

Question 11

Availability Heuristic

Answer 11

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

Question 12

Overconfidence

Answer 12

The tendency to be more confident than correct–to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments

Question 13

Framing

Answer 13

The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments

Question 14

Belief Bias

Answer 14

The tendency for one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid

Question 15

Belief Perseverance

Answer 15

Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the bias on which they were formed has been discredited

Question 16

Language

Answer 16

Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Question 17

Phoneme

Answer 17

In a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

Question 18

Morpheme

Answer 18

In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word (such as a prefix)

Question 19

Grammar

Answer 19

In a language, the system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others

Question 20

Semantics

Answer 20

The set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning

Question 21

Syntax

Answer 21

The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language

Question 22

Babbling Stage

Answer 22

Beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the house-hold language

Question 23

One-Word Stage

Answer 23

The stage begins speech development, from about age 1-2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words

Question 24

Two-Word Stage

Answer 24

Beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements

Question 25

Telegraphic Speech

Answer 25

Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram–go car–using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting auxiliary words

Question 26

Linguistic Determinism

Answer 26

Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think