Thought and language Flashcards
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.
Hierarchical model
Issues with the hierarchical model of thought
- There are more objects in our cognitive systems than neurons
- Things would take longer than they do (e.g. face recognition) if this method was correct
Hypothesis that the structure of someone’s native language affects how they perceive the world
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Two main categories of thoughts
Propositional - deals with facts and ideas about the world
Imaginal - related to visual imagery
Properties of a well-defined concept
Likely to have a small number of properties that are easy to learn and use
Core properties of a concept
Properties an object must have to be a part of that concept
Properties of an ill-defined concept
Likely to have a larger number of properties, or it might be possible to define a prototype but difficult to define its core properties
A property which is considered typical of the concept
Prototype property
Classic example of conjunction fallacy
The Monty Hall problem
In decision making, the attractiveness of a prospect as perceived by the decision maker in terms of its risk
Subjective expected utility
Method of reasoning which involves step by step searches - guarantees a solution but is time consuming; more useful in simple problems
Algorithmic method
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
Heuristic method
Heuristic form of decision making which is based on readily available information without a systematic search
Availability heuristics
Heuristic used when a problem is fit into an existing prototype and solved using the known prototype
Representativeness heuristic
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
Gambler’s fallacy/Monte Carlo fallacy
Fallacy where someone ignores the general information on prevalence in favour of individual information in order to come to a conclusion
Base rate fallacy
Linguistics field that studies how sounds in languages are organised systematically
Phonology
Linguistics field that studies how words are built from stems, root words, suffixes etc.
Morphology
Linguistics field that studies sentence structure
Syntax
Linguistics field that studies the physical act of speaking
Phonetics
Linguistics field that studies meaning of language at a grammatical level
Semantics
Linguistics field that studies how context contributes to meaning in language
Pragmatics
Linguistics field that studies the connection of language to social situations
Sociolinguistics
Linguistics field that studies signs and symbols and their use or interpretation
Semiotics
Idea that suggests that speaking a particular language can affect how its speakers perceive the world
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
