Chapter 9 Flashcards
(34 cards)
language
a system for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and convey meaning
grammar
a set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages
phonemes
the smallest units of sound that are recognizable as speech rather than as random noise
phonological rules
indicate how phonemes can be combined to produce speech sounds
morphemes
the smallest meaningful units of language
morphological rules
a set of rules that indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words
syntactical rules
a set of rules that indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences
deep structure
the meaning of a sentence
surface structure
how a sentence is worded
fast mapping
children map a word onto an underlying concept after only a single exposure
telegraphic speech
devoid of function morphemes and consist mostly of content words
nativist theory
the view that language development is best explained as an innate, biological capacity
genetic dysphasia
a syndrome characterized by an inability to learn the grammatical structure of language despite having otherwise normal intelligence
aphasia
difficulty in producing or comprehending language
concept
mental representation that groups or categorizes shared features of related objects, events, or other stimuli
exemplar theory
we make category judgments by comparing a new instance with stored memories for other instances of the category
category-specific deficit
a neurological syndrome characterized by an inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category, although the ability to recognize objects outside the category is undisturbed
rational choice theory
the classical view that we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging he value of the outcome, and then multiplying the two
frequency format hypothesis
the proposal that our minds evolved to notice how frequently things occur, not how likely they are to occur
availability bias
items that are more readily available in memory are judged as having occurred more frequently
conjunction fallacy
when people think that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event
representativeness heuristic
a mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgment by comparing an object or event to a prototype of the object or event
framing effect
occurs when people give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is phrased (or framed)
sunk-cost fallacy
a framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested in the situation
