Language and Thought 1

Question 1

What is cognition?

Answer 1

How we “think”.
- It encompasses a broad range of how we think, problem solve, anticipate, believe in things, creativity, integrate emotion into thoughts etc.
- Past experiences, beliefs, emotion, creativity, language, problem solving

Question 2

What is a concept?

Answer 2

Group/categories of shared features of related objects, events, or stimuli

Question 3

What is a prototype?

Answer 3

The best example of a concept. Possesses many, if not all of the characteristics of the category.

Question 4

What is the relationship between prototype and new information?

Answer 4

Our prototype influences how we relate to new pieces of information. This is because your prototype is very closely matched to the overall concept.

Question 5

What are category judgments?

Answer 5

The closer the new fruit is to the prototype, the better example of a fruit it would be considered. (does this new example belong to the category) based off of the category’s prototype

Question 6

How do concepts and prototypes influence how we think about the world? (looking for a specific word)

Answer 6

We make probability judgements by comparing an object or event with its prototype?

Question 7

How are concepts useful to us? What type of memory do they work off of? Are the concrete or abstract? Agreed upon?

Answer 7

concepts help us organize the world. They are informed by semantic memory. Concepts can be concrete or complex/abstract. Agreed upon (laws of a society) or individual (what you look for in a class)

Question 8

What are examples of concrete concepts?

Answer 8

Fruit, clouds

Question 9

What are examples of complex/abstract concepts?

Answer 9

Psychology, Pythagoras’ theorem, schmimon

Question 10

What are natural concepts?

Answer 10

Experienced in the world. Ex: snow, fruit, birds.
- can construct an understanding of it through direct observation.

Question 11

What are artificial concepts?

Answer 11

Understood through a set of propertied/characteristics. Build on one-another. The area of a square/pythagoras’ theorem/ dictionary definitions

Question 12

What are schemas?

Answer 12

clusters of interrelated concepts that interact to help us understand the world. Further help us organize and interact with the world

Question 13

What are the 2 types of schemas?

Answer 13

Role schemas and event schemas

Question 14

What is a role schema?

Answer 14

How a person should behave based on their categorization
(Ex: seeing Simon in the grocery store doesn’t match my role schema)

Question 15

What are event schemas?

Answer 15

Cognitive scripts: what do you do in certain events?

Question 16

What do we do when we’re uncertain about event schemas?

Answer 16

We look to others.

Question 17

What is an example of an event schema?

Answer 17

When in an elevator you expect people to stand facing the opening of the door.

Question 17

What is an example of an event schema?

Answer 17

When in an elevator you expect people to stand facing the opening of the door.

Question 18

What is an example of a situation that has a more flexible event schema?

Answer 18

The bar has some more flexible event schemas so there is more room for you to influence your cognitive script

Question 19

Does our culture relate to the way we relate to things constructed by language?

Answer 19

Yes.

Question 20

What is language?

Answer 20

a system with communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules (grammar) and that convey meaning.

Question 21

What are phonemes? How many are there in english?

Answer 21

Smallest unit of language. 44 different phonemes in English.

Question 22

What are phonetic rules?

Answer 22

How we combine phonemes to produce sounds . Ex: PH = f

Question 23

What are morphemes?

Answer 23

the smallest meaningful units of language that convey meaning.

Question 24

What are phonemes that are also morphemes?

Answer 24

a is a phoneme and a morpheme. Ex: I ate a pie.

Question 25

What are morphological rules?

Answer 25

How we combine morphemes to remix words. Ex: s goes at the end of the sentence to make it plural.

Question 26

What do we use grammar for?

Answer 26

To construct language.

Question 27

What are 2 ways we use grammar to construct language?

Answer 27

-semantics (what words mean) - Syntax (how words are organized)

Question 28

What are the 2 perspectives for language acquisition?

Answer 28

behaviourist, nativist.

Question 29

What is the behaviourist perspective of language acquisition?

Answer 29

We learn language through reinforcement (baby learns that saying mumma gets a good reaction)

Question 30

What is the nativist perspective of language acquisition?

Answer 30

innate, biological capacity for language

Question 31

What facts about language acquisition support nativists?

Answer 31

- It is more difficult to learn a language after puberty -Initial language leaves lasting traces in the brain -Similar language development irrespective of culture

Question 32

What are people who believe in the combination of behaviourist and nativist principles?

Answer 32

interactionists

Question 33

How many phonemes are babies able to make at birth?

Answer 33

babies are born with the ability to make all phonemes form all languages

Question 34

What language milestones are expected at 0-4 months?

Answer 34

can tell the difference between all possible speech sounds (phonemes), cooing, especially in response to speech

Question 35

What is telegraphic speech?

Answer 35

Throw ball- no function morphemes, only content morphemes 18 months

Question 36

When do kids lose the ability to produce every phoneme?

Answer 36

6 months