Chapter 8 Language and Thought

Question 1

cognition refers to

Answer 1

the mental process involved in acquiring knowledge

was discouraged because it was based on introspection, so not empirical enough

came back in the 50’s the cognitive revolution

Question 2

language consists of

Answer 2

symbolic : spoken and written to represent objects, actions, events and ideas

semantic : words are meaningful but with no built in relationship - as in not necessarily onomatopoeia

generative : a limited number of symbols can be combined in an infinite amount of ways to generate meaning

structured : but the sentences must be structured in a limited amount of ways

Question 3

Define phoneme

Answer 3

the smallest speech units in a language that can be distinguished perceptually

100 recognizable but 20 to 80 in use

Question 4

How many phonemes are used in the English language?

Answer 4

40, based on the alphabet plus variations on certain sounds

Question 5

Define morpheme

Answer 5

morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language

about 50 000 in the english language

unfriendly is 3 morphemes un-friend-ly (prefix, noun, suffix)

Question 6

Define semantics

Answer 6

the area of language concerned with understanding the meaning of words and word combinations

comprised of its denotation, which is its dictionary meaning and connotation which is the overtones and secondary meanings

Question 7

Define syntax

Answer 7

is a system of rules that specify how words can be arranged into a sentence

eg: sentence must have a subject and a verb

Question 8

At what age does babbling begin?

Answer 8

around 6 - 18 months

Question 9

At what age are a child’s first words typically produced?

Answer 9

10 - 13 months

Question 10

What is manual babbling?

Answer 10

is what deaf babies do with their hands in the same way that hearing babies do with sound

Question 11

At what ages does a vocabulary spurt typically begin?

Answer 11

18 - 24 months

grade 1 // 10 000 words, grade 5 // 40 000 words

Question 12

Define fast mapping

Answer 12

is the process by which children map a word onto an underlying concept after only one exposure

Question 13

Define overextensions

Answer 13

occurs when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a wider set of objects or actions than it is meant to

eg a ball might be used to describe an orange

Question 14

Define underextensions

Answer 14

occurs when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a narrower set of objects or actions that it is meant to

eg: doll refers to a single favorite doll instead of dolls in general

Question 15

Define telegraphic

Answer 15

consists mainly of content words; articles, prepositions, and other less critical words are omitted
eg give doll

not cross-culturally universal

sounds like someone sending a telegraph

Question 16

Define overregularization

Answer 16

occur when the grammatical rules are incorrectly generalized to irregular cases where they do not apply

eg the girl goed home

Question 17

Define metalinguistic awareness

Answer 17

is the ability to reflect on the use of language

as the awareness grows kids start to play with puns and jokes

Question 18

In what parts of the world is bilingualism uncommon?

Answer 18

North America

Question 19

Specify and describe the three factors that influence the acquisition of a second language

Answer 19

acculturation - the degree to which a person is socially and psychologically integrated into a new culture ; greater acculturation facilitates rapid acquisition of language

motivation and attitude towards the group that uses the language has an effect – i.e. integrative motivation as a willingness to be like the values members of a language community

positive attitude towards learning situation

Question 20

interactionist believe

Answer 20

that we are well equipped biologically but social exchanges with parents play critical roles in learning language

Question 21

Chomsky is a

Answer 21

Nativist and believes in the language acquisition device (LAD)

Question 22

language acquisition device (LAD)

Answer 22

an innate mechanism or process that facilitates the learning of language

Question 23

Skinner is a

Answer 23

behaviourist who believes that children learn language like everything else: imitation, reinforcement, and other principles of conditioning

Question 24

Describe Benjamin Lee Whorf’s linguistic relativity hypothesis

Answer 24

linguistic relativity is the hypothesis that one’s language determines the nature of one’s thought

different languages lead people to see the world differently

more words for a color, more perception awareness of different shades

Question 25

Specify and describe Greeno’s three classes of problems

Answer 25

problems of inducing structure problems of arrangement problems of transformation

Question 26

problems of inducing structure

Answer 26

discover the relations among the parts of the problem | A B M C D M _

Question 27

problems of arrangement

Answer 27

the two string tying together / swing the screwdriver as a pendulum must arrange the parts in a way that satisfies some criterion burst of insight solutions rather than careful planning

Question 28

problems of transformation

Answer 28

the jug of water and getting 100 cups measured must carry out a sequence of transformations to reach a goal planned sequence of steps and not an insight

Question 29

Specify four common obstacles to problem solving

Answer 29

irrelevant information Functional fixedness Mental set Unnecessary constraints

Question 30

irrelevant information

Answer 30

people assume that numerical info is relevant without assessing whether it is effective problem solving requires you picking out what is relevant and what is irrelevant before proceeding

Question 31

Functional fixedness

Answer 31

Tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use (string/screwdriver problem)

Question 32

Mental set

Answer 32

people persist in using problem solving strategies that have worked in the past but don't necessarily work in this instance

Question 33

Unnecessary constraints

Answer 33

people impose their own constraints the 9 dots and 4 lines thing (you can draw further out to be able to reach it in 4)

Question 34

Define problem space

Answer 34

refers to the set of possible pathways to a solution considered by the problem solver

Question 35

Define algorithm

Answer 35

troubleshooting is a methodical, step by step procedure for trying all possible alternatives in searching for a solution to a problem IHCRA anagram - all possibilities will lead to CHAIR

Question 36

Define heuristic

Answer 36

is a guiding principle or "rule of thumb" used in problems or making decisions

Question 37

Describe using subgoals

Answer 37

are intermediate steps towards a solution moving a ring from the pegs and figuring out the proper order as you go

Question 38

Describe working backward

Answer 38

works well for problems with a well specified end point such as the water lilies problem if lilies on the surface double every 24 hours and the pond is full at 60 days, on what day will the pond be half full of lilies answer 59 but if you work forward thinking of the pond size etc... then you get bogged down in numbers and unnecessary info

Question 39

Describe searching for analogies

Answer 39

depends on recognizing the similarity between 2 problems | need to see the underlying structure

Question 40

Describe changing the representation of the problem

Answer 40

switch it up to a list, table, equation, graph, etc..

Question 41

Describe using the incubation effect

Answer 41

an incubation effect occurs when new solutions surface for a previously unsolved problem after a period of not consciously thinking about the problem can occur during sleep

Question 42

Define field-dependence

Answer 42

field dependent people tend to focus on the total context of a problem eastern/holistic

Question 43

Define field-independence

Answer 43

field independent people tend to break things into component parts western/analytical

Question 44

decision making involves

Answer 44

evaluating alternatives and making choices among them when there are too many decisions, people tend to defer their decisions

Question 45

What is the additive strategy used to make choices?

Answer 45

make a list of attributes and rate them according to each option eg for an apt factors such as rent, location, cleanliness all get rated fro -5 to 5

Question 46

What is the elimination-by-aspects strategy?

Answer 46

eliminate all apartments over 1200 for me

Question 47

What is an expected value?

Answer 47

expected value is a calculation of worth and gain depending on probability

Question 48

What is subjective utility?

Answer 48

represents what an outcome is personally worth to an individual as in buying lottery tix may allow someone to dream an buying home insurance can allow someone to feel safe

Question 49

Define availability heuristics

Answer 49

Mental shortcuts involves basing the estimated probability of an event on the ease with which relevant instances come to mind you might estimate the divorce rate based on what you know of your community

Question 50

Define representative heuristic

Answer 50

stereotypes: a nice old lady is a grandma all skateboarders are punks involves basing the estimated probability of an event on how similar it is to the typical prototype of that event if you're gauging how many times a coin will fall on one side or the other TTTTT HTTHT most people believe that the second in more likely but truly they're just as likely as each other

Question 51

Heuristics are what people use when

Answer 51

shortcuts people use to make judgments under conditions of uncertainty

Question 52

ignoring based rates

Answer 52

involves not really adhering to the stats of a particular thing most musicians won't make it, but I will! odds don't apply to me

Question 53

What is the conjunction fallacy?

Answer 53

do you think the sun is in the sky or in the sky and in the eastern part ? sky, because it could be in the west, but it'd still be in the sky in that case do you think that an outgoing go getter kind of guy is more likely a university professor or professor who is also a politician? most people say the latter, but the problem is that university professor contains professors who are politician, so that is a safer assumption people believe erroneously that the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happening alone

Question 54

Define the field of behavioural economics

Answer 54

is a field of study that examines the effect of humans actual decision-making processes on economic decisions

Question 55

theory of bounded rationality asserts that

Answer 55

people tend to use simple strategies in decision making that focus on only a few facets available options and often result in "irrational" decisions that are less than optimal

Question 56

framing refers to

Answer 56

how decision issues are posed or how choices are structured oil companies say you get a discount for using cash instead of a card the card fee is a surcharge, so it's not a true discount, but it's harder to turn down a discount than it is to absorb an extra fee, so people get suckered in to this strategy

Question 57

What are fast and frugal heuristics?

Answer 57

FF heuristics are just quick decisions based on heuristics when you don't have time to get into all the pros and cons they are surprisingly effective

Question 58

What is the recognition heuristic?

Answer 58

1 strategy is the recognition heuristic if one of two alternatives is recognized and the other is not, the recognized one has higher value

Question 59

What are dual-process theories of decision-making?

Answer 59

dual process theory is that we use two modes of thinking fast and furious which is synonymous for intuitive thinking and the more measured approach with all the logical aforementioned techniques

Question 60

Describe the gambler’s fallacy

Answer 60

is the belief that the odds of a chance event increases if the event hasn't occurred recently i.e. it's been red chips on the roulette all along, it's bound to be a black one soon! wrong.

Question 61

The law of small numbers is

Answer 61

like when you think that the chances of getting 5 heads in a row when flipping coins vs 20 heads in a row when you flip 20 coins is greater smaller number samples allow for more extreme skews of outcome but they don't represent the larger sample size, which tend to be more accurate for statistics the likelihood of misleading results is much greater in small sample than in large one results based on small samples are more variable and more likely to be a fluke people are often willing to draw conclusions based on a few individual cases

Question 62

overestimating the improbable

Answer 62

people tend to exaggerate the likelihood of dramatic, vivid but infrequent events that receive heavy media coverage like accidents, murders, tornadoes and floods reflects the availability heuristic because people remember these events so much more because they are in the media so they are available in our memory

Question 63

confirmation bias

Answer 63

the tendency to seek information that supports one's decision and beliefs while ignoring disconfirming information case of doctor asking the patient if he has all the symptoms of a cold while not asking about symptoms that could rule out that it is a cold

Question 64

myside bias

Answer 64

the tendency to evaluate evidence in a manner slanted in favor of one's own opinions dems think dems will win, republican think republicans will win

Question 65

belief perseverance is

Answer 65

the tendency to hang on to beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence

Question 66

over confidence

Answer 66

people put too much faith in their estimates, beliefs and decisions even when they should know better - affects even experts like physicians, weather people, military leaders and scientists

Question 67

framing effects

Answer 67

refers to how decision issue are posed or how choices are structured this project has a success rate of 3 out of 5 this project has a failure rate of 2 out of 5 which question gets more funding? the first one

Question 68

loss aversion

Answer 68

$1000 loss is felt more intensely than the good feelings of $1000 gain because people tend to overestimate the intensity and duration of the negative emotions they will experience after all sorts of losses

Question 69

What is semantic slanting?

Answer 69

refers to deliberately choosing words to create specific emotional responses pre-owned cars water landing (for airlines etc...) pro-life as opposed to anti choice an invasion is a pre-emptive counter-attack civilians killed is collateral damage

Question 70

What is anticipatory name calling?

Answer 70

this is when someone describes another person to you with a negative name to influence your response only a knee jerk liberal would support affirmative action a resistance to this anticipatory name calling would be to say, actually I do believe in affirmative action