Chapter 8- Thought, Language, Intelligence

Question 1

What is language?

Answer 1

Language is a shared system of symbols, including spoken, written, and signed words and gestures, and a set of rules for how to combine those symbols to communicate meaning

Question 2

What are phonemes?

Answer 2

Phonemes are individual speech sounds

Question 3

What are morphemes?

Answer 3

Morphemes are the smallest units of language that carry bits of meaning

Question 4

What is grammar?

Answer 4

Grammar governs the way that language parts are put together so that people can understand each other

Question 5

What is syntax?

Answer 5

Syntax is the grammatical rules that governs how words and phrases combine into well-formed sentences

Question 6

What are pragmatics?

Answer 6

Pragmatics are rules that govern the practical aspects of using language

Question 7

What is the linguistic determinism hypothesis?

Answer 7

The linguistic determinism hypothesis states that different languages impose different ways of understanding the world that can constrain and shape our thinking

Question 8

What is babbling?

Answer 8

Babbling often takes the form of consonant-vowel combinations, such as “ma” or “ba” repeated over and over

Question 9

What are overregularization errors?

Answer 9

Overregularization errors are when children extend rules, such as adding an -ed, which usually marks the past tense for English verbs, to irregular verbs that don’t follow the rules such as runned, comed, and eated

Question 10

What does the larynx do?

Answer 10

The larynx makes speech possible

Question 11

What does the language acquisition device refer to?

Answer 11

Noam Chomsky proposed that the language acquisition device gets turned on when children are exposed to language and that it guides language learning

Question 12

What is the sensitive period?

Answer 12

The sensitive period is the period where language acquisition can occur, but afterward, language acquisition will be limited

Question 13

What does the “less is more” hypothesis?

Answer 13

The “less is more” hypothesis states that languages are learned best from the ground up: learners master the smallest components of language first followed by the more complex components

Question 14

What is cognition?

Answer 14

Cognition refers to all mental activities associated with thinking

Question 15

What is cognitive psychology?

Answer 15

Cognitive psychology is the study of mental activities and how they work

Question 16

What are mental representations?

Answer 16

Mental representations are internal mental symbols that stand for some object, event, or state of affairs in the world

Question 17

What are concepts?

Answer 17

Concepts are mental categories that group similar objects, events, ideas, or people

Question 18

What are prototypes?

Answer 18

Prototypes are a kind of best example or average member of the concept that incorporates more of the features most commonly associated with it

Question 19

What are superordinate concepts?

Answer 19

Superordinate concepts are more abstract and encompass basic-level concepts

Question 20

What are Subordinate concepts?

Answer 20

Subordinate concepts are more specific concepts within basic-level concepts

Question 21

What is trial and error?

Answer 21

Trial and error involves trying actions or strategies at random until they find something that works

Question 22

What are algorithms?

Answer 22

Algorithms are step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution

Question 23

What is insight?

Answer 23

Insight is a sudden, conscious change in a person’s understanding of some situation or problem

Question 24

What is a mental set?

Answer 24

A mental set is a mental framework for how to solve later problems

Question 25

What is functional fixedness?

Answer 25

Functional fixedness is a tendency to focus on an object's typical functions and thus fail to recognize unusual functions that could solve a problem

Question 26

What is restructuring?

Answer 26

Restructuring is best when prior experience gets in the way of one's understanding of a problem

Question 27

What are judgments?

Answer 27

Judgments are conclusions drawn from some evidence we have at hand

Question 28

What are decisions?

Answer 28

Decisions are choices that affect our behavior

Question 29

What are rational decisions?

Answer 29

Rational decisions are based purely on reason and logic

Question 30

What is bounded rationality?

Answer 30

Bounded rationality states that people's capacity to make rational decisions are bounded, or constrained by their limited resources

Question 31

What are the dual-processing theories?

Answer 31

People have two types of thinking that they can use to make judgments and decisions

Question 32

What is the controlled system?

Answer 32

The controlled system is slower and more effortful and leads to more thoughtful and rational outcomes

Question 33

What is the automatic system?

Answer 33

The automatic system is fast and fairly effortless and leads to decent outcomes most of the time

Question 34

What are Heuristics?

Answer 34

Heuristics are a powerful set of mental tools that people use to navigate everyday judgments and decisions

Question 35

What is a representativeness heuristic?

Answer 35

Representativeness heuristics are a shortcut for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent or be prototypical of some category?

Question 36

What are availability heuristics?

Answer 36

Availability heuristics are a strategy for deciding how frequent or probable something is based on how easily it comes to mind

Question 37

What is the affect heuristic?

Answer 37

The affect heuristic is a tendency to use the affect we associate with various objects and events in the world to make judgments and decisions

Question 38

What are moral judgments?

Answer 38

Moral judgments are about the "rightness" or "wrongness" of a particular behavior

Question 39

What is the confirmation bias?

Answer 39

Confirmation bias is the tendency to look for and weigh evidence that confirms preexisting beliefs more strongly than evidence that is inconsistent with those beliefs

Question 40

What is belief perseverance?

Answer 40

Belief perseverance is a phenomenon that makes it difficult for people to change their beliefs even when faced with disconfirming evidence

Question 41

What is framing?

Answer 41

Framing means the way information is presented

Question 42

What is loss aversion?

Answer 42

Loss aversion is a tendency for people to try and make choices that will minimize or avoid loss

Question 43

What is hindsight bias?

Answer 43

Hindsight bias is the tendency for people to overestimate the likelihood that they would have predicted some outcome