Intelligence and Reasoning Flashcards
(122 cards)
1
Q
What is human language?
A
a system of communication specific to Homo sapiens
2
Q
What are the characteristics of human language?
A
open and symbolic, has rules of grammer, allows its users to express abstract and distant ideas
3
Q
What does open mean, in relation to language?
A
the system is dynamic and free to change
4
Q
What does symbolic mean, in relation to language?
A
no real connection between a sound and the associated meaning/idea
5
Q
How does human language differ in terms of what ideas can be expressed from most other forms of animal communication?
A
most animals only communicate on immediate events related to mating, survival, etc. whereas humans can discuss ideas not tied to the present moment/location
6
Q
What are morphemes?
A
the smallest units of meaning in a language
7
Q
What are phonemes?
A
the smallest units of sound in a language
8
Q
What is an example of a morpheme?
A
“ball” - means ball
“s” - means plural
9
Q
What is an example of a phoneme?
A
”s” sound at end of word
10
Q
What is syntax?
A
rules for arranging words and symbols in sentences or parts of sentences
11
Q
What is grammar?
A
comprises the entire set of rules for combining symbols and sounds
12
Q
What is the first stage of language development and when does it occur?
A
cooing - during the first 6 months
13
Q
What are cooing sounds?
A
almost all vowels (regardless of native language)
14
Q
What is the second stage of language development, and when does it occur?
A
babbling - starts around 5/6 months
15
Q
What are babbling sounds?
A
experimentation with a range of phonemes, including consonants and vowels
16
Q
What can babies hear but adults can’t, and when does this stop?
A
babies can pick out more phonemes than adults in languages they haven’t been exposed to; ability disappears at 6-12 months
17
Q
What is the third stage of language development, and when does it occur?
A
one-word utterances, starts around 12 months
18
Q
What are one-word utterances?
A
single words, usually nouns (“mama” “more” “no”), and usually words spoken at ends of sentences
19
Q
What aspect of language development illustrates the recency effect?
A
one-word utterances stage - babies usually acquire words spoken at ends of sentences first
20
Q
What is the fourth stage of language development, and when does it occur?
A
two-word utterances; starts around 18 months
21
Q
What is a two-word utterance?
A
phrases children put together (“my ball”, “go away”)
22
Q
What is the last stage of language development, and when does it occur?
A
sentence phase, starts between 2.5 to 3 years
23
Q
What occurs in the sentence phase of language development?
A
children start speaking in fully-gramatical sentences
24
Q
Which sex tends to acquire language skills faster?
A
female
25
Why do adults lose the abilities to distinguish as many sounds as babies?
neurons change - become better at perceiving native language but lose ability to perceive sounds in other languages
26
What does language development map well onto and why?
brain growth; both start out changing very quickly and get longer/level out over time
27
What is the sensitive period?
period during development when exposure to human language is necessary
28
What happens if a child is not exposed to much language during the sensitive period?
language does not develop
29
What is the range of ages for the sensitive period?
begins in first years of life, ends around age 12
30
What are the theories of language acquisition?
sociocultural theory;
conditioning and learning theory;
nativist theory;
nature, nurture, and language learning
31
According to the sociocultural theory, how do we learn language?
environmental influence - learn language from people around us - acquire vocabulary by hearing it, determine meaning based on context
32
What effect does a mother's verbal responsiveness have on her child's language development, and which theory does this support?
higher verbal responsiveness, child reaches 50 word vocabulary earlier; supports sociocultural theory
33
What is child-directed speech?
universal changes in adult speach patterns when speaking to young children, characterized by higher pitch, volume changes, simpler sentences, emphasis on here/now, use of emotion to communicate messages
34
How does child-directed speech relate to imitation?
facilitates it - when parents draw words out children pay attention and focus on certain aspects of language
35
What theory of language development does imitation relate to?
sociocultural theory
36
Why does observation assist with language learning (sociocultural theory)?
mirror neurons fire upon observing, so it's like you're actually speaking
37
Who is behind the conditioning and learning theory of language development?
Skinner
38
How does language develop according to the conditioning and learning theory?
develops like any other behaviour - it is reinforced and shaped
39
How can language be reinforced like other behaviours?
parents reward better approximations of words with praise/smiles (conditioning and learning theory)
40
How does language progress from cooing/babbling to full sentences, according to the conditioning and learning theory?
progresses through shaping, successive approximations, and reinforcement
41
According to the nativist theory, how do we develop language?
we discover language rather than learn it - language development is inborn (like an instinct)
42
Who is the main advocate behind the nativist theory?
Noam Chomsky
43
According to Chomsky, what do humans have and how does it allow them to acquire language?
language acquisition device (LAD) - innate, biologically-based capacity to acquire language
44
Why does the presence of an LAD in humans make sense?
fits how easily and automatically humans learn complex/difficult things in language - universal and develops in children everywhere the same way
45
What ust the LAD have that can be applied to the parameters of each language?
principles of universal grammar
46
What studies show that humans are "built to speak" (nativist theory)?
enslaved people - adults develop "pigeon language" to communicate (little grammar, more nouns/verbs); their children automatically put grammar in it when raised
47
What kind of language learning does the nature/nurture theory propose?
innately-guided learning
48
What aspects of language are more innate (genetic contribution)?
grammar
49
What aspect of language is more environmental?
vocabulary
50
According to nature/nuture language learning, what two things change together over time?
brain and language skills
51
What gene may be related to understanding and producing speech?
FOXP2 gene
52
How was the FOXP2 gene discovered?
a study on a family with a prevalent language disorder - had a mutation on the FOXP2 gene
53
What human ancestor also had the FOXP2 gene, and what does that suggest?
Neanderthals - sugggests they had some spoken language
54
Why can't chimps produce the same range of sounds as humans?
humans have a much larger pharynx - chimps have no real vocal apparatus
55
What species have learned nonvocal sign language?
primates - chimps...
56
What sort of range of signs have chimps learned?
100 to 400 words
57
How did Kanzi learn sign language?
from watching his mother's training - he knows 3000 words
58
How much can primates learn language compared to humans?
only achieve rudimentary ability - slow learning, only 2-3 word combos in no particular order...
59
What ability do dogs have regarding human language?
some can understand it (make associations between words and objects, show some deeper understanding of language principles)
60
If given a novel word, what does Rico (border collie) do?
fetches novel object
61
How large is Rico's (border collie) vocabulary?
200 words
62
What language abilities do computer programs posess?
learn, understand, and translate language
63
What did Whorf and Sapir propose?
that language creates thought as much as thought creates language - the language ou speak shapes the thoughts/cognitive processes you might engage in
64
What is linguistic determinism?
language determines our way of thinking and perception of the world
65
What support is there for linguistic determinism?
Piraha of the Amazon - have no words for numbers past 2 and can't do simple math (but they function without it); also can't put clauses within clauses, so end up speaking like "I finish eating. I speak to you." and they can't talk about past or future
66
What theory does the Piraha tribe challenge?
Chomsky's concept of universal grammar
67
What native languages make simple math easier and what theory does this support?
Vietnamese, etc. - languages with words for numbers that follow base 10 (11 = ten-one), rather than memorizing numbers past ten (like in English);
supports linguistic determinism
68
What is the linguistic relativism theory?
language influences the way we think
69
What support is there for linguistic relativism?
colour matching experiment between native english speakers (1 word for "blue") and russian speakers (1 word for light blue, 1 for dark);
measure reaction time for colour discrimination task;
no difference in english speakers based on shade of blue while russians slower if shown colour in same category (suggests they think about colours in a different way)
70
What is cognitive psychology?
the science of how people think, learn, remember, and perceive
71
What is cognition?
mental proccesses involved in acquiring, processing, and storing knowledge
72
What is a mental representation?
a structure in the mind that stands for something else in the past or future (not present)
73
What are some types of mental representations?
visual and verbal
74
What is visual representation?
thinking in images - visual imagery
75
What can visual imagery be used for?
imagining outcomes, mental rotation
76
What effect does imagining outcomes (success) have on performance and the brain?
enhances performance; activates brain in similar way as performing a task
77
What is crucuial for cognitive tasks like mental rotation?
visual representations
78
What is mental rotation?
process of imagining an object turning in 3-D space
79
What is involved in mental rotation?
conjure up image and manipulate it
80
How can mental rotation be tested?
present two images of 3-D tetris-like shapes with different orientations and measure amount of time needed for subject to decide if images are of same object
81
In mental rotation tasks, what is the time to a decision proportional to?
degree of rotation
82
What sex differences exist in mental rotation tasks?
males outperform women (unless time is unlimited)
83
Why might males be better than women at mental rotation tasks?
testosterone may help them (women with high levels of testosterone do better than normal women too)
84
What do verbal representations do?
organize and classify our perceptions into categories
85
What is the most basic unit of knowledge?
concept
86
What is a concept?
mental groouping of objects, events, or people
87
Why do we use concepts?
make our ability to use info much more efficient - help organize our perceptions into hierarchies/parallel-distributed processes
88
What is a concept hierarchy?
arrangement of related concepts from general to specific
89
What is an example of a concept hierarchy?
animal - bird - chickadee
90
What do hierarchies provide?
more information about a specific concept from the general concepts before it
91
What is parallel-distributive processing?
more complex model of knowledge organization in brain - associations between concepts activate many networks or nodes at same time based on how strongly associated they are to each other
92
What is a category?
concept that organizes other concepts around shared characteristics (can be concrete or abstract)
93
What is a prototype?
the best-fitting examles of a category - a simple/common example most people would choose
94
What is an examle of a prototype for the category "birds"?
robin (NOT ostrich, which is unusal in its lack of flight)
95
What is reasoning?
the process of drawing inferences or conclusions from principles and evidence
96
What is deductive reasoning?
reasoning from general statements (of what is known) to specific conclusions
97
If proper logic is used, what is the only way in which deductive reasoning can produce an incorrect conclusion?
if the premises (general statements) are wrong
98
Which type of reasoning is less prone to errors?
deductive
99
What is inductive reasoning?
reasoning from specific evidence to general conclusions
100
In science, what is inductive reasoning used for?
constructing hypotheses
101
What is often used for inductive reasoning?
causal inferences
102
What are causal inferences?
judgements made about the causation of one thing by another
103
What error is inductive reasoning prone to?
confirmation bias
104
What is the confirmation bias?
tendency to selectively attend to info that supports one's general beliefs while ignoring information/evidence that contradicts them
105
Why is inductive reasoning more prone to error and bias than deductive reasoning?
it's more open-ended
106
What test shows the confirmation test?
subject given sequence: 2-4-6;
asked to guess rule by asking if other sequences follow the rule too;
most guess 6-8-10, etc. (correct) and assume rule is all even numbers (incorrect - actual rule is sequence of increasing numbers);
would be less likely to make mistake if tried to disprove their guess rather than confirm it
107
Each card has a number on one side and a letter on the other. If a car has a vowel on one side, then it must have an even number of the other. Which cards (E, J, 4, 7) must you definitely turn over to test whether this rule is being followed? What type of reasoning is used?
E (to check if it has even number) and 7 (to make sure the odd number doesn't have a vowel on the back);
NOT 4 since rule doesn't say anything about even numbers needing vowels;
deductive reasoning
108
What is a schema?
mental representation of a class of objects, scenes, events, etc.
109
What are reasoning schemas?
mental representations of familiar types of problems
110
What kinds of problems are the easiest for us to solve?
pragmatic problems - tend to be more practical, with contexts we're familiar with
111
What are the two general ways of making judgements?
algorithms and heuristics
112
What are algorithms?
formulas/procedures that generate the correct answer - try every single possibility
113
What are heuristics?
mental shortcuts used to make decisions and judgements
114
What is the problem with algorithms?
take a long time - try every possibility
115
Why are heuristics used?
faster than algorithms (ex: solving anagram - can use shortcuts like common consontant combos to make phonemes to guess word, rather than trying every possibility)
116
What is the problem with using heuristics?
prone to error and bias
117
What is the representative heuristic?
strategy used to estimate the probability of one event based on how typical it is of another
118
What is the problem with the representative heuristic?
tend to rely on it in the face of other types of evidence
119
Joe was chosen randomly from group of doctors and real estate agents. He's friendly, often works weekends, and knows his way around town well. Which profession is he most likely? Which heuristic is used to determine this?
real estate agent; representative heuristic (which can lead to overestimates of probability of being real estate agent if given that group is 70 doctors and 30 real estate agents)
120
What is the availability heuristic?
decision-making strategy based on how easily estimates come to mind or their availability to awareness
121
If there's a dog attack, what heuristic is used when someone assumes it was a pit bull rather than a german shepherd?
availability heuristic - used to conjuring up image of aggressive pit bull, so that answer comes to mind more easily (even if false)
122
What statistical fact do people tend to overlook as a result of (representative) heuristics?
the probability of two events can never be more than the probability of one of the events
