Ch 9-Language and Thinking

Question 1

language

Answer 1

system for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and to convey meaning

Question 2

grammar

Answer 2

a set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages

Question 3

semantics

Answer 3

the meaning of words and sentences

Question 4

generativity

Answer 4

the symbols of language can be combined to generate and infinite number of messages that have novel meaning

Question 5

displacement

Answer 5

language allows us to communicate about events and objects that are not physically present

Question 6

phoneme

Answer 6

the smallest unit of sound that is recognizable as speech rather than random noise

Question 7

morphemes

Answer 7

the smallest meaningful units of language

Question 8

syntax

Answer 8

how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences

Question 9

deep structure

Answer 9

what the words mean/convey

Question 10

surface structure

Answer 10

syntax, how the words are arranged

-possible to have multiple surface structures with the same deep meaning

Question 11

the three characteristics of language development

Answer 11

• children learn language at an astonishing rate
• children make few errors while learning (and more often than not, they’re errors stemming from learned patterns (goed instead of went))
• children’s passive mastery develops faster than their active mastery (comprehension comes before production)

Question 12

language milestones

Answer 12

first words: 10-12 months
-following this, fast mapping begins (learning words after only one exposure)
two-word/telegraphic speech: 24 months
-overgeneralization of the rules they are learning and picking up from the environment
complete simple sentences: 3 years

Question 13

Behaviourist explanations (skinner)

Answer 13

• language is learned through operant conditioning and imitation
• problematically though, parents spend v little time formally teaching kids to talk, kids generate more than just what they hear, and the behaviourist approach cannot explain the common errors made by children

Question 14

nativist explanation (Chomsky)

Answer 14

• opposed the behaviourist view
• everyone is born w an innate Language Acquisition Device which separates us from animals, helps us develop language and has to be used by a critical/sensitive period (usually before 10)

Question 15

genetic dysphasia

Answer 15

inability to learn grammatical structure of language (not to be mistaken with low intelligence)

• -a biological/genetic condition that runs in families
• cause indv to have an impaired or absent LAD

Question 16

social learning processing/interactionist approach

Answer 16

• integrates both the language acquisition device of the nativist explanation and the observation/imitation aspect of the behaviourist explanation
• idea that social interactions play a crucial role in language learning

Question 17

broca’s area

Answer 17

• left frontal lobe
• responsible for language production
• aphasia: difficulty in producing speech

Question 18

wenicke’s area

Answer 18

• left temporal lobe
• responsible for language comprehension
• apahsia: difficulty in understanding and producing comprehensible speech (word salad)

Question 19

kanzi

Answer 19

chimp who learned language indirectly while researchers were trying to teach his mother

• could understand complex sentences and even use his own logic at times
• limited; not much in the way of generativity of production or of displacement

Question 20

alex the parrot

Answer 20

• much more complex language than seen in chimps (like kanzi)
• expressed desires, not just following demands
• abstract/displaced thinking (“I want to go back”)
• responded, made observations/spoke with out prompting

Question 21

linguistic relativity hypothesis (Whorfian hypothesis)

Answer 21

proposal that language helps to shape the nature of thought

• since innuit ppl have many words for snow, do they thinks abt snow differently?
• the dani tribe, which only had 2 colour words had no trouble distinguishing btw a bunch of different shades, but the himba tribe, which had 5 colour words, seemed to only do well if they had a name for that colour

Question 22

propositional though

Answer 22

mental thoughts, statements, propositions
-can be thought or spoken
note that a proposition is a statement expressing facts, and needs concepts

Question 23

concepts

Answer 23

basic units of semantic memory

Question 24

prototypes

Answer 24

hypothetical typical or “best/ideal” member (concept) of a specific category

Question 25

imaginal thought

Answer 25

images we can see/hear/feel in our minds

Question 26

motoric thought

Answer 26

mental representations or thoughts of motor movement

Question 27

reasoning

Answer 27

ability to think logically about something and come to a logical conclusion

Question 28

deductive reasoning

Answer 28

- top down process (from general principles to possible conclusions) - starts from a proposition and often involves if/then statements - useful in forming hypotheses - if both propositions are true, the conclusion is certainly true (but if the propositions are incorrect, the conclusion may be factually incorrect even if it is logically sound)

Question 29

inductive reasoning

Answer 29

- bottom up process (from witnessed/observed behaviours to general principles) - starts with specific facts and tries to develop a general principle - not as good as deductive reasoning bc this conclusion is based on likelihood and probability

Question 30

stumbling blocks in reasoning

Answer 30

- irrelevant info/failure to focus on relevant info - belief bias - framing

Question 31

belief bias

Answer 31

- abandoning logical rules in favour of personal beliefs | - confusing factual correctness with logical correctness

Question 32

framing

Answer 32

when people arrive at different conclusions due simply to the way information is presented, which may interfere with reasoning

Question 33

stages in problem solving

Answer 33

1. interpret (frame)/understand the problem 2. generate hypotheses or possible solutions 3. test the hypotheses/solutions, seeking to disconfirm 4. evaluate results and revise previous steps as necessary

Question 34

algorithms

Answer 34

formulas or procedural steps that when followed to a T guarantee a solution to the problem, even if they may not be the most efficient

Question 35

heuristics

Answer 35

-general problem-solving strategies that we apply to certain classes of situations -a form of means-end analysis useful for problems like the tower of Hanoi

Question 36

representativeness heuristic

Answer 36

making a probability judgements by comparing an object or event to a prototype of the object or event -may fall prey to the conjunction fallacy or the priming function

Question 37

conjunction fallacy

Answer 37

when people think that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event (ex. is linda a bank teller who is also a feminist?)

Question 38

priming function

Answer 38

when a problem primes us with info that might not be relevant (if I have only blue and black socks, how many do I need to draw from the drawer to get a matched pair?)

Question 39

availability heuristic

Answer 39

items that are more readily available in memory are judged as having occurred more frequently

Question 40

confirmation bias

Answer 40

- a decision making error | - looking for way to prove a conclusion and overlooking things that might disprove it

Question 41

overconfidence

Answer 41

- a decision making error | - tendency to overestimate correctness about factual knowledge, beliefs or decisions

Question 42

incubation (creativity and insight)

Answer 42

- spontaneous restructuring/new way of looking at a problem | - use of unconscious processes to solve a problem

Question 43

functional fixedness

Answer 43

fixating on the way we normally use things to solve a problem ex. the candle problem, the tie two strings together problem, the nine-dot problem

Question 44

metacognition

Answer 44

- recognizing/understanding what we know and how well we know if - composed of metacomprehension (accuracy in judging what you do and don't know) and metamemory (awareness and knowledge of memory abilites)