Ch 9 - Language and Thought

Question 1

agrammatism

Answer 1

a neurological condition arising from damage to a brain region just anterior to Broca’s area, where the patient is incapable of using words in grammatical sequence.

Question 2

availability heuristic

Answer 2

judging easily-recalled events as more common.

Question 3

bounded rationality

Answer 3

the fact that in many situations, our ability to make clear rational decisions is limited or “bounded” by things like a lack of information, time constraints, or emotions attached to aspects of the problem we are trying to solve.

Question 4

Broca’s aphasia

Answer 4

a neurological condition arising from damage to Broca’s area where the patient is unable to produce coherent speech.

Question 5

Broca’s area

Answer 5

a brain region located in the frontal lobe that is important for speech production.

Question 6

child-directed speech

Answer 6

speech characterized by exaggerated emotional responses and a slower pace that is cross-culturally common among caregivers communicating with babies and young children.

Question 7

cognition

Answer 7

mental processes of thinking and knowing.

Question 8

cognitive control

Answer 8

the ability to direct thought in accord with one’s intentions.

Question 9

decision making

Answer 9

evaluating and choosing from among options.

Question 10

dysexecutive syndrome

Answer 10

impairments in the ability to control and direct mental activities.

Question 11

executive function

Answer 11

the brain’s ability to control and manage the mental processing of information.

Question 12

functional fixedness

Answer 12

tendency to view objects as having only one function.

Question 13

heuristic

Answer 13

a shortcut thinking strategy.

Question 14

lexical meaning

Answer 14

dictionary meaning of a word.

Question 15

linguistic relativity hypothesis

Answer 15

hypothesis suggesting that the vocabulary available for objects or concepts in a language influences how speakers of that language think about them.

Question 16

mental imagery

Answer 16

picturing things in your mind.

Question 17

mental set

Answer 17

tendency to use problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past.

Question 18

metacognition

Answer 18

thinking about one’s own thoughts.

Question 19

morpheme

Answer 19

the smallest units of a language that convey meaning.

Question 20

obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Answer 20

a mental disorder associated with abnormal anxiety-provoking thoughts that can lead to ritualistic behaviours.

Question 21

overregularization

Answer 21

the process by which elementary school children over-apply newly learned grammatical rules to improperly “correct” an irregular part of speech, such as a verb (e.g., “goed” instead of “went”).

Question 22

phoneme

Answer 22

the smallest unit of sound in a language; an individual sound such as ba, da, or ta

Question 23

phonology

Answer 23

the study of how individual sounds or phonemes are used to produce language.

Question 24

pragmatics

Answer 24

the practical aspects of language usage, including speech pace, gesturing, and body language.

Question 25

representativeness heuristic

Answer 25

the assumption that individuals share characteristics of the category of which they are a member.

Question 26

schizophrenia

Answer 26

a mental disorder characterized by disorganized thoughts, lack of contact with reality, and sometimes auditory hallucinations.

Question 27

semantics

Answer 27

the study of how meaning in language is constructed of individual words and sentences.

Question 28

sensitive period

Answer 28

a point in development during which the brain is more susceptible to influences.

Question 29

speech

Answer 29

the expression of language through sounds.

Question 30

syntax

Answer 30

the system for using words (semantics) and word order to convey meaning (grammar).

Question 31

telegraphic speech

Answer 31

speech that consists of minimalistic sentences; characterizes early toddlerhood and is the first evidence of sentence formation.

Question 32

theory of mind

Answer 32

an awareness of one's own mental states and the mental states of others.

Question 33

Wernicke's aphasia

Answer 33

a neurological condition associated with damage to Wernicke's area where a person cannot understand language.

Question 34

Wernicke's area

Answer 34

a brain region located in the temporal lobe that is important for language comprehension.

Question 35

symbolic

Answer 35

Sounds/words, and now emojis represent things in our world e.g., bell= class change; sound of "tsk-tsk' = shame

Question 36

Generative

Answer 36

Symbols can be combined to generate new meanings

Question 37

Phonemes

Answer 37

smallest unit of sound that can be distinguished e.g., "p" sound in "pansy"; "ng" sound in "string"

Question 38

Words

Answer 38

unit of sound with meaning. Can be combined with morphemes to generate new words (un+real)

Question 39

Phases/sentences

Answer 39

rules for arranging words into sentences = syntax

Question 40

overextension errors

Answer 40

whereby they apply a word to a wider category than it should be applied to.

Question 41

overextension error example

Answer 41

might use the word 'doggie' to apply to all pets

Question 42

underextension errors

Answer 42

whereby they apply a word to a narrower category than it should be applied to.

Question 43

Underextension error example

Answer 43

may think the word cat refers only to the family cat, but not a cat outside the house

Question 44

telegraphic speech

Answer 44

whereby children begin to use 2-3 word combinations, using the most necessary words.

Question 45

 overregulations

Answer 45

-over-applying grammar rules. For instance, while adding the suffix 'ed' to imply past tense is often correct (e.g., I grated the cheese), children often apply it incorrectly

Question 46

Overregulations example

Answer 46

"I goed to the zoo" or, "two mans"

Question 47

Whorf hypothesis

Answer 47

 argues that language determines our ability to express thought.

Question 48

4 Barrier of problem solving

Answer 48

1. Irrelevant information 2. functional fixedness 3. mental sets 4. unnecessary constraints

Question 49

Irrelevant information

Answer 49

Focusing on the irrelevant information distracts us from processing the relevant information.  

Question 50

Functional fixedness

Answer 50

occurs when we think of an item in terms of its most common use rather than having other functions

Question 51

Unnecessary constraints

Answer 51

we put constraints on a problem that may not necessarily have to be there, and if we remove them, we could resolve the problem.

Question 52

6 techniques to get around barriers of problems

Answer 52

1. algorithm 2. sub-goal 3. work backwards 4. analogies 5. changing the representation 6. incubation effect

Question 53

algorithm 

Answer 53

is a step by step procedure for trying all possible alternatives

Question 54

Sub-goals

Answer 54

break down the problem into tasks

Question 55

Work backwards

Answer 55

This is an important tactic for prospective thinking, whereby you have to think ahead in the future to understand what is required of you now.

Question 56

Analogies

Answer 56

transferring information from one source to another

Question 57

Incubation effect

Answer 57

solutions arise after time away from a problem

Question 58

humans tend to have what 4 cognitive biases

Answer 58

1. availability heuristic 2. representative heuristic 3. confirmation bias 4. framing bias

Question 59

availability heuristic

Answer 59

the more available something is in our mind, the more common we think it is

Question 60

representative heuristic

Answer 60

we think one event is representative of all events- stereotypes

Question 61

Confirmation bias

Answer 61

we seek out information that confirms our beliefs

Question 62

Framing Bias

Answer 62

how choices are structured affects our decision