Language And Thought

Question 1

Cognitive miser

Answer 1

Tendency of people to be cognitively lazy and not use cognitive resources if we don’t have to, leading to less rational decision making

Question 2

Inductive vs deductive reasoning

Answer 2

Inductive: drawing general conclusions from specific ideas
Deductive: drawing specific conclusions from general ideas

Question 3

Syntax vs grammar

Answer 3

Syntax: how words/phrases are put together to create meaning
Grammar: general tools for language, not tied to meaning

Question 4

Genie

Answer 4

Girl that suffered serious abuse and learned to speak at age 12, challenged understanding that language was a critical period

Question 5

Homesign

Answer 5

Personalized language created in the absence of known language, in deaf children with hearing parents

Question 6

3 Language rules

Answer 6

Symbolic: words/signs represent objects, actions, concepts
Generative: infinite sentences/expressions can be created using finite set of rules
Structured: language follows a specific set of rules governing arrangement of words/sounds

Question 7

Semantics

Answer 7

Study of meaning in language
Denotation: dictionary definition (more important when communicating with unfamiliar people)
Connotation: emotional/cultural understanding (more important when communicating with familiar people)

Question 8

4 language acquisition theories

Answer 8

Sociocultural: language is deeply rooted in social interaction and cultural context
Behaviorist: language is primarily learned through OC, (reinforcement = positive interactions w/ parents)
Nativist: language is an innate skill for humans, and language acquisition device is a cognitive structure in the brain that facilitates speech
Interactionist: believes language is part innate and part learned through social interactions, combines elements of behaviorist and nativist

Question 9

2 language components

Answer 9

Phonemes: sounds we use in language
Morphemes: units of meaning in language (prefixes, root words, suffixes)

Question 10

Receptive vs productive vocabulary

Answer 10

Receptive = words we understand
Productive = words we actually use
Receptive vocabulary is always higher than productive

Question 11

Telegraphic speech

Answer 11

Young children speak/create units of meaning from “Simple subject + simple verb” structure

Question 12

Language errors in children

Answer 12

Overextension: using words more liberally than you should, like calling every utensil a fork
Under extension: using a word more conservatively than you should, like only calling it a fork if its blue
Overregularization: applying regular grammar rules to irregular examples, like saying “octopuses, gooses”

Question 13

Field independent vs dependent

Answer 13

Field independent: ignoring context of a situation to solve a problem (more common in western/individualist cultures)
Field dependent: taking context into account to solve a problem (more common in eastern/collectivist cultures)

Question 14

Irrelevant information

Answer 14

Cognition barrier where irrelevant info in a sentence takes interest/focus away from relevant information

Question 15

Functional fixedness

Answer 15

Cognition error where you a hard time seeing an unusual/non traditional function of an object in order to solve a problem

Question 16

Unnecessary constraints

Answer 16

Cognition barrier when you put constraints you put on the problem that are not in the problem

Question 17

Anticipated regret

Answer 17

Cognition barrier where we have the tendency to think “If I do this, I’ll regret it,” while in actuality we don’t regret that many things

Question 18

Theory of bounded rationality

Answer 18

People oftentimes focus on one or two assets of a decision instead of all of them, which leads to irrational decisions, is a result of evolution

Question 19

Conjunction fallacy

Answer 19

Belief that two traits are more likely to occur together than separately

Question 20

Recognition heuristic

Answer 20

Making decisions based on what we recognize rather than facts or logic

Question 21

Affect heuristic

Answer 21

The tendency of humans to be more emotional than rational and logical, and make decisions this way

Question 22

Alternative outcomes effect

Answer 22

Belief that past random events impact future events (aka gambler’s fallacy)

Question 23

Anchoring heuristic

Answer 23

First response to be heard will affect all subsequent responses, which will be close to the first response for fear of rejection

Question 24

Availability heuristic

Answer 24

Mental shortcut where people rely on immediate examples that come to mind when evaluating a topic, decision or topic.

Question 25

Confirmation bias

Answer 25

You process and remember information that agrees with you, and ignore and forget what disagrees with you

Question 26

Ostrich bias

Answer 26

Tendency to ignore negative info and focus on positive info, to protect mentality, egos and worldview. Clinically depressed people do not have ostrich bias.

Question 27

Overconfidence

Answer 27

Tendency of people to have a lot more confidence in our thought processes, actions, and decision making that we should