Unit 5 Vocab - Thinking & Language

Question 1

cognition

Answer 1

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Question 2

conception

Answer 2

the understanding of a subject/object retained in the mind from experience, reasoning, or imagination

Question 3

prototype

Answer 3

a mental image/best example of a category

Question 4

algorithm

Answer 4

a methodical, logical rule/procedure that guarentees solving a particular problem

Question 5

heuristic

Answer 5

a simple thinking strategy that allows us to make judgements/solve problems efficiently
speedier but more error prone than an algorithm

Question 6

insight

Answer 6

a sudden realization of a problem’s solution

Question 7

confirmation bias

Answer 7

a tendency to search for info that supports our preconceptions and ignore/distort contradictory evidence

Question 8

fixation

Answer 8

the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, an obstacle to problem solving

Question 9

mental set

Answer 9

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

Question 10

functional fixedness

Answer 10

cognitive bias that impacts an individuals ability to be creative, prevents us from thinking of novel/creative solutions to problems

Question 11

representativeness heuristic

Answer 11

estimating the liklihood events in terms of how well they seem to represent/match particular prototypes

Question 12

availability heuristic

Answer 12

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory, if instances come readily to mind we presume such events are common

Question 13

overconfidence

Answer 13

the tendency to be more confident than correct, overestimating the accuracy of our beliefs/judgements

Question 14

framing

Answer 14

the way an issue is posed, how an issue is worded can affect decisions and judgements

Question 15

belief bias

Answer 15

over-relying on preexisting beliefs and knowledge when evaluating the conclusions of an argument

Question 16

belief perseverance

Answer 16

clinging to one’s initial conception after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

Question 17

language

Answer 17

our spoken/written/signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Question 18

phoneme

Answer 18

the smallest distinctive sound unit in language

Question 19

morpheme

Answer 19

the smallest unit that carries meaning in language, may be a word or part of a word

Question 20

grammar

Answer 20

a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others

Question 21

semantics

Answer 21

the study of how meaning is stored in the mind

Question 22

syntax

Answer 22

allows us to connect linguistic meaning with linguistic form

Question 23

babbling stage

Answer 23

beginning around 4 months, stage of speech development in which an infant spontaneously utters various sounds

Question 24

one-word stage

Answer 24

the stage in speech development from ages 1-2 during which a child speaks in mostly single words

Question 25

two-word stage

Answer 25

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

Question 26

telegraphic speech

Answer 26

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram using mostly verbs and nouns

Question 27

linguistic determination

Answer 27

the strong form of Whorf’s hypothesis - that language controls the way we think and interpret the world around us