language exam review

Question 1

What are the 3 theories of language development?

Answer 1

1. behaviorist
2. nativist
3. interactionist

Question 2

What is the behaviorist theory of language development based on?

Answer 2

explains that language is learned thru operant conditioning and imitation

ex. reinforcement (correct vocalizations) vs. punishment / shaping

Question 3

What is shapings role in language development?

Answer 3

parents shape children’s speech patterns by reinforcing those that are grammatical vs. punishing those that aren’t

Question 4

What is the nativist theory of language development?

Answer 4

language development is an innate biological capacity

ex. universal grammar - a collection of processes that facilitate language learning

Question 5

What is genetic dysphasia?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

what is the interactionist theory of language development?

Answer 6

argues that social interactions play crucial role in language development

ex. social experience interacts with innate biological language abilities

Question 7

What is the Broca’s area’s role in language?

Answer 7

language production - when damaged, people have hard time producing speech but comprehension is fine

Question 8

What is the Wernicke’s area’s role in language?

Answer 8

language comprehension - people produce meaningless sentences

Question 9

What is aphasia?

Answer 9

difficulty in producing/ comprehending language

Question 10

What is a concept *in language

Answer 10

a mental representation that groups or categorizes shared features of related objects

–> brain organizes concepts into categories based on similarities

Question 11

What is the prototype theory?

Answer 11

people make category judgments by comparing new instances to a prototype

ex: the concept of a bird… is a robin or ostrich a better example?

Question 12

What is the exemplar theory?

Answer 12

people make category judgments by comparing a new instance with stored memories for other instances of category

ex: encountering a wolf or coyote and comparing it to your friend’s german sheherd

Question 13

What is the rational choice theory?

Answer 13

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

–> judgement varies depending on the value of the outcome

Question 14

What is the availability heuristic?

Answer 14

things that are more readily available in memory are judged as occurring more frequently

Question 15

What is the conjunction fallacy?

Answer 15

thinking two events are more likely to occur together than either event occurring apart

Question 16

What is the representation heuristic?

Answer 16

ignoring base rate info, and instead, making judgments by comparing to a prototype

Question 17

What is the framing effect?

Answer 17

people give different answers to same problem, depending on how it’s framed

Question 18

What is the 2-factor theory of intelligence? (Spearman)

Answer 18

general intelligence (g-factor) and specific intelligence (s-factor)

*people with higher g-factor learn new concepts quickly and solve complex problems easily

• people with high g-factor / develop specific skills (s-factor) more readily

*work together

Question 19

What is universal grammar?

Answer 19

all languages contain nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and humans are born with an innate ability to acquire language

Question 20

What is telegraphic speech?

Answer 20

early speech stage using mostly nouns/verbs

Question 21

What is Thurston’s theory of primary mental abilities?

Answer 21

*suggests intelligence of a person can be divided amongst 7-different areas

1. verbal comprehension
2. verbal fluency
3. numerical ability
4. perceptual speed
5. inductive reasoning
6. spatial visualization
7. memory

Question 22

What is fluid vs. crystallized intelligence?

Answer 22

1. fluid: ability to reason quickly and independently of own past experiences… relies heavily on working memory/ attention
2. crystallized: ability to apply knowledge from prior learning that’s stored in long term memory… mostly formed by environment

Question 23

What is a category-specific deficit?

Answer 23

an inability to recognize objects that belong to particular category, although ability to recognize objects outside of the category is undisturbed

ex. not recognizing human-made objects but knowledge of living things in in-tact

Question 24

what is human language characterized by?

Answer 24

complex organization, phonemes to morphemes to phrases and finally sentences

Question 25

What stage of development can children distinguish all contrasting sounds of human language? *other languages besides native

Answer 25

children can distinguish between all contrasting sounds of human language, but they lose that ability within the first 6 months *vocal babbling occurs at about 4 yo 6 months, and first words are uttered or signed by 10 to 12 months - sentences emerging at around 24 months

Question 26

How do children acquire grammatical rules?

Answer 26

children acquire grammatical rules in development, even without being explicity taught

Question 27

What is the difference between behaviorist, nativist, and interactionists theory on language development?

Answer 27

1. behaviorist is based on operant conditioning 2. nativists believe that humans are biologically predisposed to process language 3. interactionists explain it as both a biological and social process

Question 28

What are the roles of the Broca's and Wernicke's area for language?

Answer 28

1. Broca's area is critical for language production 2. Wernicke's area is critical for comprehension

Question 29

How do we organize knowledge?

Answer 29

we organize knowledge abt objects, events, or other stimuli by creating concepts, prototypes, and exemplars

Question 30

What are the two theories on how we acquire concepts?

Answer 30

1. prototype theory states that we use the most typical member of a category to assess new items 2. exemplar theory states that we compare new items with stored memories of other members of the category

Question 31

how does the brain organize concepts?

Answer 31

the brain organizes concepts into distinct categories, such as living things, and human-made things; visual experience is not necessary for the development of such categories

Question 32

How do people make probability judgments?

Answer 32

people will turn the problem into something they know how to solve, such as judging memory strength, judging similarity to prototypes, or estimating frequencies --> this can lead to judgment errors

Question 33

how does the framing effect influence our choices?

Answer 33

because we feel that avoiding losses is more important than achieving gains emotional information also strongly influences our decision making, even when not aware of it

Question 34

What role does the prefrontal cortex play in decision making?

Answer 34

influences people to make more risky decisions when they have damage to this part of the brain compared to healthy individuals

Question 35

People who score well on one test of mental ability tend to score how? on others

Answer 35

people who score well on one test of mental ability tend to score well on others, which suggests that each person has a particular level of general intelligence (g), but they don't always score well on every other test, which suggests that different people have specific abilities (s) research reveals several middle-level abilities between g and s

Question 36

what are the three middle level intelligence abilities that standard intelligence tests DON'T measure?

Answer 36

1. practical 2. creative 3. emotional

Question 37

the combing of words to form phrases and sentences is governed by?

Answer 37

syntactic rules

Question 38

evidence suggests that exemplar-based learning involves analysis and decision making involving which area of the brain?

Answer 38

prefrontal cortex

Question 39

most scientists now believe that intelligence is best described ?

Answer 39

by a three-level hierarchy