Thought and language

Question 1

Model of thought which suggests that increasingly specialised neurons are responsible for cognition e.g. one neuron determines you are looking at a face, another decides if it is a female face etc.

Answer 1

Hierarchical model

Question 2

Issues with the hierarchical model of thought

Answer 2

1. There are more objects in our cognitive systems than neurons
2. Things would take longer than they do (e.g. face recognition) if this method was correct

Question 3

Hypothesis that the structure of someone’s native language affects how they perceive the world

Answer 3

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Question 4

Two main categories of thoughts

Answer 4

Propositional - deals with facts and ideas about the world

Imaginal - related to visual imagery

Question 5

Properties of a well-defined concept

Answer 5

Likely to have a small number of properties that are easy to learn and use

Question 6

Core properties of a concept

Answer 6

Properties an object must have to be a part of that concept

Question 7

Properties of an ill-defined concept

Answer 7

Likely to have a larger number of properties, or it might be possible to define a prototype but difficult to define its core properties

Question 8

A property which is considered typical of the concept

Answer 8

Prototype property

Question 9

Classic example of conjunction fallacy

Answer 9

The Monty Hall problem

Question 10

In decision making, the attractiveness of a prospect as perceived by the decision maker in terms of its risk

Answer 10

Subjective expected utility

Question 11

Method of reasoning which involves step by step searches - guarantees a solution but is time consuming; more useful in simple problems

Answer 11

Algorithmic method

Question 12

Method of reasoning which uses rules of thumb - tries most likely solutions to see if they work; doesn’t give a guaranteed solution but is quicker; more useful for complex problems

Answer 12

Heuristic method

Question 13

Heuristic form of decision making which is based on readily available information without a systematic search

Answer 13

Availability heuristics

Question 14

Heuristic used when a problem is fit into an existing prototype and solved using the known prototype

Answer 14

Representativeness heuristic

Question 15

The erroneous belief that a certain random event is more or less likely depending on the outcome of a previous event e.g. you have lost a coin toss three times in a row so are due a win

Answer 15

Gambler’s fallacy/Monte Carlo fallacy

Question 16

Fallacy where someone ignores the general information on prevalence in favour of individual information in order to come to a conclusion

Answer 16

Base rate fallacy

Question 17

Linguistics field that studies how sounds in languages are organised systematically

Answer 17

Phonology

Question 18

Linguistics field that studies how words are built from stems, root words, suffixes etc.

Answer 18

Morphology

Question 19

Linguistics field that studies sentence structure

Answer 19

Syntax

Question 20

Linguistics field that studies the physical act of speaking

Answer 20

Phonetics

Question 21

Linguistics field that studies meaning of language at a grammatical level

Answer 21

Semantics

Question 22

Linguistics field that studies how context contributes to meaning in language

Answer 22

Pragmatics

Question 23

Linguistics field that studies the connection of language to social situations

Answer 23

Sociolinguistics

Question 24

Linguistics field that studies signs and symbols and their use or interpretation

Answer 24

Semiotics

Question 25

Idea that suggests that speaking a particular language can affect how its speakers perceive the world

Answer 25

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis