Language & Thought (Module 4 Ch 9)

Question 1

Cognitive Miser

Answer 1

Humans are cognitively lazy (we don’t want to use our cognitive resources if we don’t have to)
This can lead to poor decisions, but is also positively correlated with happiness

Question 2

Reasoning

Answer 2

The process of drawing inferences from evidence

Question 3

Inductive Reasoning

Answer 3

Drawing general conclusions from specific evidence
Tends to be less accurate
This is the reasoning detectives use

Question 4

Casual Inferences

Answer 4

Judgements about causation used in inductive reasoning

Question 5

Deductive Reasoning

Answer 5

Going from general statements (that we know to be true) and combining them to get specific ideas (which must also then be true)

Question 6

Syntax vs Grammar

Answer 6

Rules for how we arrange words in sentences in order to create meaning
VS
General language rules that have no ties to meaning (including verb agreement, plurals, and possessives)

Question 7

Who was Genie?

Answer 7

Grew up in an abusive household and didn’t learn to speak until she was about 12
Shifted our understanding of language from a critical to sensitive period

Question 8

Homesign

Answer 8

A type of personalized sign language that occurs when deaf children are born to hearing parents (absence of known/formal sign language)

Question 9

What are the 3 rules of identifying something as a language?

Answer 9

Symbolic - words or sounds represent non-tangible or abstract concepts
Generative - small number of symbols, but infinite number of words or messages
Structured - rules make the infinite creations understandable

Question 10

Protolanguage

Answer 10

AKA Pre-Language
Rudimentary language used by early species of humans

Question 11

Semantics

Answer 11

The different types of meanings behind words

Question 12

Denotation vs Connotation

Answer 12

The dictionary definition of a word
VS
How you personally understand a word (ex: slang)

Question 13

Sociocultural Acquisition Theory

Answer 13

Focuses on observational and interactional language learning from those around us
Helps us build our vocabularies and connotations as we grow up

Question 14

Child-directed Speech

Answer 14

Universal changes in adult speech patterns (such as pitch, volume, and complexity of sentences) that occur when talking to young kids

Question 15

Behaviorist Acquisition Theory

Answer 15

Defined by BF Skinner - language is learned through operant conditioning, with positive interactions with parents serving as the reinforcement

Question 16

Nativist Acquisition Theory

Answer 16

Defined by Chomsky - language is an innate skill for humans rather than one learned through experience

Question 17

Language Acquisition Device

Answer 17

A biologic directive that facilitates speech
Part of the nativist theory

Question 18

Interactionist Acquisition Theory

Answer 18

Use a combination of sociocultural, behaviorist, and nativist theories to explain the acquisition of language

Question 19

What are the five components of language?

Answer 19

Phonemes, Morphemes, Receptive Vocabulary, Productive Vocabulary, Telegraphic Speech

Question 20

Phonemes

Answer 20

The sounds used for language
Smallest unit of speech
Do not have meaning by themselves

Question 21

Morphemes

Answer 21

Smallest units of meaning
Prefixes, suffixes, and root words

Question 22

Receptive Vocab vs Productive Vocab

Answer 22

The words we understand
VS
The words we actually use
Receptive always > productive

Question 23

Telegraphic Speech

Answer 23

The way that children begin understanding and using language by combining a simple subject with a simple verb

Question 24

Neural Commitment

Answer 24

Kids can discriminate phonetic sounds outside their native language until about 12 months, when the neural networks in the language areas of the brain wire/commit themselves to one language

Question 25

Stages of Language development

Answer 25

Cooing (vowel sounds), Babbling (consonants+vowels), One-word Utterances, Two-word Utterances, Sentence Phase

Question 26

Overextension vs Underextension

Answer 26

Using a word more liberally than it should VS Using a word more conservatively than it should

Question 27

Overregularization

Answer 27

Applying regular grammar rules to irregular examples Ex: saying gooses instead of geese

Question 28

Field Dependence vs Field Independence

Answer 28

Relying on the context of a situation in order to solve the problem VS Ignoring the context of a situation in order to solve the problem Eastern societies tend to us Dep. while Western tends to use Indep.

Question 29

Irrelevant Information

Answer 29

Getting distracted by information that isn't important when trying to solve a problem

Question 30

Functional Fixedness

Answer 30

Having a hard time seeing an unusual function of an everyday object when solving a problem

Question 31

Unnecessary Constraints

Answer 31

We put constraints on problems even when they aren't actually there

Question 32

Anticipated Regret

Answer 32

When we do or don't make a certain decision because we think we'll regret it later, even if we won't People are bad at predicting when they'll feel regret

Question 33

Theory of Bounded Rationality

Answer 33

Focusing on one or two aspects of a decision rather than all aspects of it, leading to illogical decision making

Question 34

Conjunction Fallacy

Answer 34

Thinking two traits are more likely to occur together (being a feminist and a cat owner) than they occur individually (being just a feminist vs just a cat owner), even though it's statistically inaccurate

Question 35

Recognition Heuristic

Answer 35

Making a decision based on the option we recognize rather than facts or logic

Question 36

Availability Heuristic

Answer 36

Making decisions based on the information that more easily comes to mind

Question 37

Hindsight Bias

Answer 37

Once we know the outcome of an event, we think we always believed in that outcome

Question 38

Affect Heuristic

Answer 38

People are more likely to make decisions based on emotions than logic or reason

Question 39

Alternative Outcomes Effect

Answer 39

Thinking past random events will have an impact on future random events AKA the Gambler's Fallacy

Question 40

Anchoring Heuristic

Answer 40

Making our decisions based off of other's decisions that we've previously heard Occurs because we don't want to be wrong or rejected

Question 41

Confirmation Bias

Answer 41

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

Question 42

Overconfidence

Answer 42

We have more trust or confidence in the accuracy of our decision making than we probably should

Question 43

Ostrich Bias

Answer 43

Ignoring negative information and focusing on the positive (more optimistic view than we should)

Question 44

Linguistic Determinism Hypothesis

Answer 44

Language determines our way of thinking and our perceptions of the world

Question 45

Mental Representation

Answer 45

A structure in the mind (idea or image) that stands for something else (usually something external that cannot currently be sensed)

Question 46

Visual Imagery

Answer 46

Visual representations created by the brain after the stimulus is no longer present The "mind's eye"

Question 47

Mental Rotation

Answer 47

Imagining an object rotating in 3-D space

Question 48

Category

Answer 48

Grouping ideas, objects, or events together based off of perceived similar features and the treating them as if they are the same Ex: birds

Question 49

Prototypes

Answer 49

The best-fitting examples of a category Ex: "robin" can be representative of "birds" more accurately than "ostrich" or "penguin"

Question 50

Concept

Answer 50

Mental grouping of objects, events, or people based on similarities Mental representations of categories Ex: animals is a category but animal is a concept

Question 51

Concept Hierarchy

Answer 51

Looking at how concepts are related to one another in particular ways (broad or specific)