Week 10 Lecture Flashcards
Thinking - Representation and manipulaiton
- The form of mental images, words and concepts - we can manipulate information in our mind to solve problems, make decisions and Creative thinking
Vygotsky - Thought and Language
- Thought and Language are separate systems in new born babies - Thought and Language merge at around 3 years of age. - Language guides and stimulates thinking
Piaget - Thought and Language
- Thought comes before language - Language depends on thought for its development
Language has rules
- There are symbols that convey meaning - grammar rules for combining these symbols - language is semantic or meaningful
Generative Language
- our language sympols can be combined in an infinite number of ways to create new messages
Structure of language
- We have rules and grammar to govern phrases and sentence
Psycholinguistics
- How language is acquired, produced and used - How sounds and symbols are translated into meaning - Basic sounds are combined to make words and then eventually into language
phonemes
- Smallest units of speech - there are about 100 Phonemes - Most languages only use around 20-80 Phonemes - in English we only use 40 - In Spanish there are 24
Morphemes
- The smallest units of meaning in a language -Root words, prefixes and suffixes
Pragmatics
- Patterns of Intonation - Social roles associated with Language
Syntax
- Rules of arranging and combining words
Semantics
- The meaning of words and word combinations - The variety of objects and their related actions
Implicit Memory
- Rules of language and culture - Concepts and Ideas - Can’t explain where ideas come from but we know what they are.
Surface Structure in a sentence
The order of words in a sentence
Deep Structure in a sentence
The underlying meaning of the sentence eg; Young Girls wanted for Pickling and Bottling Avoid ambiguous use of It, That, They, This
Speech Anatomy
It is the interaction of all of these features that facilitates speech production in Humans
Behaviourist Perspective of Language Acquisition - BF Skinner
- Children acquire language through conditioning and Imitation
- The environment determines our language acquisition
Nativist Theory of Language Acquisition - Noam Chomsky
- Humans have an innate capacity to learn language
- it is nature that impacts language acquisition
Interactionist Theory of Language Acquisition - Cognitive/Social Communication
- Both Nature and Nurture play a role in language development
- Cognitive Theory
- is an important aspect of more general cognitive development depending on maturation and personal experience
- Social Communication theory
- interpersonal communication has functional value
- emphasises the social context in which language is developed
Maturation
- The development of our brain
- The ability for the way we think to become more sophisticated
Emergent Theories
- Neural circuits support language
- not prewired
- incremental changes in response to learning
- predisposition to learn language but dependant on experience
Language Acquisition Device
- Innate prewired mechanism for language development
- built in universal grammer
Critical Period hypothesis
- Eric Lenneberg (1967)
- Critical period of language occurs in childhood
- Due to neuroplasticity language must be acquired prior to puberty
- Neuroplasticity slows as we get older and almost halts by age 24
Interactionist Approach to Language Acquisition
- Biology and Experience contribute to language development
- Humans are well equipped for learning language
- language learning involves acquisition of rules
- social experiences with parents and others also mold language skills
Bilingual children
- Bilingual children have the same vocabulary capacity but it is split across both languages
- Vocabulary extends as child gets older
- Bilinguals process raw language processing and verbal fluency more slowly
Decision Making
- involves evaluating alterntives
- choosing from alterntives
- often simplistic and irrational
Elimination by Aspects
- alternatives evaluated against each other
- ranked according to importance
Majority of Confirming Decisions
- alternate options are considered two at a time
- comparing sets of features but not necessarily the same features
- all features have equal value
Satisficing
- There are a number of options
- can only evaluate 3 features of each option
- prioritise each feature but they don’t have to be the same feature across the platforms
Availability Heuristics
- Judging the chances of something based on how easily examples of it come to mind.
- Leads to biased judgements
Representativeness Heuristics
- Thinking strategy bases judgement on how closely the situation matches existing experience of that situation
Recognition Heuristics
- When we decide that something is more appealing because it is familiar and we recognise it.
Decision Making - Framing
The way that information is framed to appear to emphasise as a gain or loss as the outcome.
eg:
- Yoghurt contains only 20% fat
VS
- Yoghurt is 80% fat free
Decision Making - Anchoring
Overestimating the value or importance of something by focusing on it to the exclusion of relevant facts
Define Problem Solving
- thinking and acting to acheive a goal
- goal is not easily acheived
Warmth Ratings
- Monitoring progress of problem solving
- as you get closer to a solution you get more warmth ratings
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Confirmation Bias
- underlies both Functional Fixedness and Mental Set
- Pay selective attention to information that already conforms our pre-existing beleifs and ideas
- Ignore information that contradicts our pre-existing beleifs
