Thought and Language Flashcards
single unit of sound that change meaning
Phonemes
the smallest units that carry meaning, only realized when attached to the word. Honest - dishonest
Bound Morphemes
convey meaning and concepts. Includes categories
Content Words
words that carry grammatical information
Function words
processing relies on processing content words - nouns, verbs, adjectives
Semantic processing
processing relies on processing function words - pronouns, propositions
Syntactic processing
refers to the structure of language - phrases and sentences
Syntax
organisation of words at a surface level - words in two sentences that are organised differently but the underlying meaning is the same
Surface structure
words organised the same but meaning of sentence is ambiguous - remember ‘I saw a Zebra flying over Africa’
Deep structure
used to detect whether infants can notice changes in sound - infant will suck if it has become interested following the new sound
HAS
when the perception of sound becomes categorical
Categorical speech perception
relying on social cues and interaction for the development of their speech
Cooing
same syllable over and over
Reduplicated babbling
syllables with different consonants and vowels
Variegated bubbling
word comprehension precedes productive vocabulary by an average of 4 months
Comprehension v production
“dog” only for family dog and not other dogs
Under extension
“dog” to refer to dogs and cats
Over extension
words which have an actual meaning but is no accepted as a word
Protowords
a single word that stands for an entire statement
Holophrases
children are biologically predisposed to learn language
Nativist views of language
children are innately predisposed to acquire the syntax of language
Language bioprogram hypothesis
invented language drawing on words and grammar from a group of languages
Pidgin language
when the pidgin is acquired as a native language
Creoles
ideal time for acquiring certain parts of language - harder afterwards
Sensitive period
children have highly developed pattern recognitions
General learning capacities
if babies see patterns before then they internalise this pattern, making them less likely to respond in the future. Children more interested in novel words
Statistical learning
is it possible that children can use the language they hear to learn that language?
Social learning
how you think of yourself
Self-construal
personal goals take priority over group goals, internal attributes more salient
Independent cultures
group goals take more priority, social role more salient
Interdependent cultures
adapt talk to children’s level
Child-centered talk
child learns to adapt to situation
Situation-centered talk
knowledge of the world which forms the content of our thoughts
Representation
mental images
Analogical representations
a representation of a stimulus that originates inside your brain, rather than from external sensory input
Mental imagery
represent any kind of content, but don’t resemble what is is they stand for
Symbols
made up of concepts, statements that express ideas. Made up of a subject and what’s being asserted about that subject
Propositions
intelligent thought, making decisions, problem solving
Reasoning
start with belief, what are the implications of those beliefs. General principles or rules to specific instances. Validity of conclusion follows from the premises
Deductive reasoning
testing hypothesis, start with specifics and infer general principles
Inductive reasoning
tendency to rely on prior beliefs rather than to fully obey logical principles
Belief bias
tendency to recall or interpret information in a way that confirms our prior beliefs or values
Confirmation bias
making judgements, drawing conclusions from experience, shortcuts that are correct much of the time
Heuristics
probability estimates are influenced by how easy it is to retrieve information, used to judge the frequency of something happening
Availability heuristic
saliency bias, Trump’s use of violent imagery often associated with immigrants
Availability explanation
overcoming an obstacle to reach a goal
Problem solving
Trial and error, algorithm, heuristics
Strategies for problem solving/decision making
work step-by-step to get closer to your goal
Means-end analysis
change the state of the problem so that you are one step closer to solving the problem; sometimes getting further away from the solution helps solve the problem
Hill climb
night-dots problem, matchstick problem. Changing the representation of the problem, thinking outside the box
Divergent thinking
the right hemisphere does a better job of bringing together these things which are more remote
Remote associate tasks
Habits and assumptions you bring to solving a problem
Mental set
How can mental set hinder problem solving?
people get stuck in their way of thinking when there is a much easier was of reaching the solution
How do we overcome obstacles
take a break, practice divergent thinking
Language is independent of cognition
Position 1
Language influences cognition
position 2
Having a specific langauge determines of influences how we think
The Whorfian Hypothesis
Colour processing, space and time, culture and thinking style
Evidence for a weak version of the Whorfian hypothesis
In Russian the two spectrums of blue have different names that must be used, just as pink and red must be discriminated in English
Russian Blues experiment, evidence for the Whorfian hypothesis
