chapter 9

Question 1

language

Answer 1

a system for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and that convey meaning. Allows individuals to exchange info about the world, coordinate group action, and form strong social bonds

Question 2

grammar

Answer 2

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

Question 3

phoneme

Answer 3

the smallest unit of speech that distinguish one word from another. ex. p, d, and t in the words pad, bad, pat, bat

Question 4

phonological rule

Answer 4

a set of rules that indicate how phonemes can be combined to produce words . typically people learn these rules without instruction, and if rules are violated, resulting speech sounds off.

Question 5

morphemes

Answer 5

the smallest meaningful units of language. Formed by combining morphemes . Ex. incoming = [in] [come] [ing]

Question 6

morphological rules

Answer 6

indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words

Question 7

content morphemes

Answer 7

refers to things or events. ex cat, take, dog, run

Question 8

function morphemes

Answer 8

serve grammatical functions , such as tying sentences together. ex. and, or, but

Question 9

syntactic rules

Answer 9

indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences

Question 10

telegraphic speech

Answer 10

speech that is devoid of function morphemes and consists mostly of content words often made by children around 24 months . ex “more milk”, “throw ball”

Question 11

behaviorist explanation of language development

Answer 11

language is learned through reinforcement, shaping, interaction, and other basic principles of operant learning

Question 12

nativist theory of language development

Answer 12

the view that language development is best explained as an innate, biological capacity

Question 13

universal grammar

Answer 13

a collection of processes that facilitate language learning.

Question 14

interactionist explanation of language development

Answer 14

although infants are born with an innate ability to acquire language, social interactions play a crucial role in language

Question 15

aphasia

Answer 15

difficulty in producing or comprehending language often caused by damage to Wernicke’s or Broca’s areas

Question 16

broca’s area

Answer 16

located in left frontal cortex and is involved in the production of sequential patterns in vocal and sign language

Question 17

broca’s aphasia

Answer 17

caused by damage to broca’s area,. Individuals can understand language relatively well, but struggle to produce coherent language

Question 18

wernicke’s area

Answer 18

located in the left temporal cortex. Involved in the comprehension of language

Question 19

wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 19

caused by damage to Wernicke’s area. Individuals can produce grammatical speech but it tends to be meaningless and have issues comprehending language

Question 20

linguistic relativity hypothesis

Answer 20

the idea that language shapes the nature of thought. developed by whorf

Question 21

concept

Answer 21

a mental representation that groups shared features of related objects, events, or other stimuli

Question 22

necessary condition

Answer 22

something that must be true of the object for it to belong to a category. ex, if you were trying to determine if an animal was a dog, it would be necessary for that animal to be a mammal because all dogs are mammals

Question 23

sufficient condition

Answer 23

something that, if is true of the object, proves that it belongs to a category. ex. if an animal is a German Shepard, you know that it is most definitely a dog

Question 24

prototype theory

Answer 24

the concept that we classify new objects by comparing them to the “best” or most typical member of a category

Question 25

exemplar theory

Answer 25

the concept that we make category judgements by comparing a new instance with stores memories of other instances of the category

Question 26

category specific deficit

Answer 26

a neurological syndrome characterized by an inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category , even when the ability to recognize objects outside the category is undisturbed

Question 27

rational choice theory

Answer 27

the classical view that we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the value of the outcome, and then multiplying the two

Question 28

availability heuristic

Answer 28

a rule of thumb that items that are more readily available in memory are judged as having occurred more frequently

Question 29

heuristic

Answer 29

a fast and efficient strategy that may facilitate decision making but does not guarantee that a solution will be reached

Question 30

algorithm

Answer 30

a well defined sequence of procedures or rules that guarantees a solution to a problem

Question 31

representativeness heuristic

Answer 31

a mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgement by comparing an object or event with a prototype of the object or event

Question 32

conjunction fallacy

Answer 32

thinking that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event alone

Question 33

framing effects

Answer 33

a bias whereby people give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is framed

Question 34

sunk cost fallacy

Answer 34

a framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation on the basis of what they have previously invested in the situation

Question 35

optimism bias

Answer 35

a bias whereby people believe that, compared with other individuals, they are more likely to experience positive events and less likely to experience negative events in the future

Question 36

prospect theory

Answer 36

theory that people choose to take on risk when evaluation potential losses and avoid risks when evaluating potential gains

Question 37

ill defined problem

Answer 37

problem that does not have a clear goal or well defined path(s) to solution

Question 38

well defined problem

Answer 38

problem with clearly specified goals and clearly defined solution paths

Question 39

analogical problem solving

Answer 39

solve a problem by finding a similar problem with a known solution and applying that solution to the current problem

Question 40

functional fixedness

Answer 40

the tendency to perceive the functions of objects as unchanging

Question 41

reasoning

Answer 41

mental activity that consists of organizing info or beliefs into a series of steps in order to reach outcomes

Question 42

belief bias

Answer 42

the idea that people's judgements about whether to accept conclusions depend more on how believable the conclusions are rather than on whether the arguments are logically valid

Question 43

syllogistic reasoning

Answer 43

determining whether a conclusion follows from 2 statements that are assumed to be true

Question 44

illusory truth effect

Answer 44

an error in reasoning that occurs when repeated exposure to a statement increases the likelihood that people will judge that statement to be true

Question 45

illusion of explanatory depth

Answer 45

an illusion that occurs when people overestimate the depths of their understanding.

Question 46

properties of language

Answer 46

symbolic, structure, meaning, generativity, displacement

Question 47

language acquisition device (LAD)

Answer 47

a hypothetical mechanism within the human brain that enables children to rapidly learn and understand language by providing an innate capacity to acquire grammatical rules and structures from limited exposure to speech

Question 48

language acquisition support system (LASS)

Answer 48

the network of people, primarily caregivers and adults, who interact with a young child and actively support their language development through social interactions

Question 49

propositional thought

Answer 49

involves manipulation of propositions (statements that are either true or false)

Question 50

imaginal thought

Answer 50

involves mental images, pictures, or sensory experiences rather than words or propositions.

Question 51

motoric thought

Answer 51

mental processes closely tied to bodily movement and action

Question 52

schemas

Answer 52

how are knowledge is organized. It is mental structures or frameworks that help us organize and interpret info

Question 53

semantic networks

Answer 53

a way of representing knowledge in the mind, specifically how different concepts or info are related to each other

Question 54

priming

Answer 54

exposure to one stimulus influences how a person responds to a related stimulus. Works by activating certain associations or concepts in the brain, which then effect how we process new info

Question 55

inductive reasoning

Answer 55

make generalizations based on specific observations or evidence

Question 56

deductive reasoning

Answer 56

starts with a general principle/ premise and works its way down to a specific conclusion. If the premise are true, the conclusion must also be true

Question 57

belief perseverance

Answer 57

cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for people to hold onto their beliefs even in the face of contrary evidence

Question 58

belief laden reasoning

Answer 58

a type of mental reasoning that is influenced by a person's beliefs. activated left temporal lobe

Question 59

belief neutral reasoning

Answer 59

a type of reasoning that is not influenced by a person's beliefs about the world. activates parietal lobe

Question 60

right hemisphere and language

Answer 60

involved in language comprehension

Question 61

genetic dysphasia

Answer 61

syndrome characterized by an inability to learn the grammatical structure of language despite having otherwise normal intelligence

Question 62

means end analysis

Answer 62

problem-solving strategy in which an end goal is identified and then fulfilled via the generation of subgoals and action plans that help overcome obstacles encountered along the way