Problem solving and language acquisition

Question 1

algorithm

Answer 1

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier— but also more error-prone—use of heuristics

Question 2

aphasia

Answer 2

impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding).

Question 3

availability heuristic

Answer 3

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common.

Question 4

babbling stage

Answer 4

beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.

Question 5

belief perseverance

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Broca’s area

Answer 6

controls language expression—an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle move- ments involved in speech.

Question 7

Cognition

Answer 7

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

Question 8

concept

Answer 8

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Question 9

confirmation bias

Answer 9

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Question 10

convergent thinking

Answer 10

narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution.

Question 11

creativity

Answer 11

the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

Question 12

divergent thinking

Answer 12

expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions).

Question 13

framing

Answer 13

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments

Question 14

grammar

Answer 14

in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. In a given language, semantics is the set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is the set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

Question 15

heuristic

Answer 15

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms

Question 16

insight

Answer 16

a sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

Question 17

intuition

Answer 17

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

Question 18

language

Answer 18

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

Question 19

linguistic determinism

Answer 19

Whorf’s hypothesis that language deter- mines the way we think.

Question 20

mental set

Answer 20

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

Question 21

morpheme

Answer 21

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).

Question 22

one-word stage

Answer 22

the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.

Question 23

overconfidence

Answer 23

the tendency to be more confident than correct— to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

Question 24

phonemene

Answer 24

in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

Question 25

prototype

Answer 25

a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin).

Question 26

representative heuristic

Answer 26

judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular pro- totypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.

Question 27

telegraphic speech

Answer 27

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—“go car”—using mostly nouns and verbs.

Question 28

two-word stage

Answer 28

beginning about age 2, the stage in speech develop- ment during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements.

Question 29

Wernicke’s Area

Answer 29

controls language reception—a brain area in- volved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe.