Thinking & Language

Question 1

Heuristics

Answer 1

Mental rules of thumb that permit us to make decisions and judgments in a rapid and efficient manner.

Question 2

Availability heuristic

Answer 2

A cognitive rule of thumb in which the importance or probability of various events is judged on the basis of how readily they come to mind.

Question 3

Representativeness heuristic

Answer 3

A mental rule of thumb suggesting that the more closely an event or object resembles typical examples of some concept or category, the more likely it is to belong to that concept or category.

Question 4

Anchoring-and- Adjustment Heuristic

Answer 4

A cognitive rule of thumb for making decisions in which existing information is accepted as a reference point but then adjusted (usually insufficiently) in light of various factors.

Question 5

Escalation of Commitment

Answer 5

The tendency to become increasingly committed to bad decisions even as losses associated with them increase.

Question 6

Stages of creative thinking

Answer 6

1. Preparation
2. Incubation
3. Illumination
4. Evaluation
5. Revision

Question 7

Convergent thinking

Answer 7

Critical thinking in which an individual uses linear, logical steps to analyze a number of already formulated solutions to a problem to determine the correct one or the one that is most likely to be successful.

Question 8

Divergent thinking

Answer 8

Creative thinking in which an individual solves a problem or reaches a decision using strategies that deviate from commonly used or previously taught strategies.

Aka lateral thinking

Question 9

Language

Answer 9

A system for expressing or communicating thoughts and feelings through speech sounds or written symbols

Question 10

Features of linguistic competence

Answer 10

1. Knowledge of sounds of letters and combining them to make words
2. Knowledge of grammar, syntax & rules of language
3. Storage in long-term semantic memory
4. Knowledge to use speech to have intended effect on others
5. Knowledge of rules to interpret speech from others

Question 11

Psycholinguistics

Answer 11

Study of behaviour of using language and ways in which behaviour is influenced by language

Question 12

Phoneme

Answer 12

A speech sound that plays a meaningful role in a language and cannot be analyzed into smaller meaningful sounds

Eg: ‘p’ in tap - plays a role to separate the word from tan, tag, tad

Question 13

Syllable

Answer 13

Smallest unit of speech perception

Question 14

Theories of language development

Answer 14

Social learning: combination of operant conditioning and imitation

Nativist theory: Acc. to Chomsky, humans have a language-acquisition-device [LAD] with an innate intuitive grasp of grammar

Cognitive theory: combination of innate & learning; children possess certain information-processing abilities or strategies that they use in acquiring language

Question 15

Basic components of language development

Answer 15

Phonological development—development of the ability to pronounce the sounds and words of one or more languages

Semantic development—learning to understand the meaning of words

Acquisition of grammar—the rules by which words are arranged into sentences in a given language

Question 16

Linguistic relativity hypothesis by Whorf

Answer 16

View that language shapes thought; people who speak different languages may perceive the world in different ways, because their thinking is determined, at least in part, by the words available to them

Question 17

Thinking

Answer 17

Cognitive behaviour in which ideas, images, mental representations, or other hypothetical elements of thought are experienced or manipulated.

Includes imagining, remembering, problem solving, daydreaming, free association, concept formation, and many other processes.

(a) It is covert—that is, it is not directly observable but must be inferred from actions or self-reports
(b) it is symbolic—that is, it seems to involve operations on mental symbols or representations, the nature of which remains obscure and controversial

Question 18

Concept

Answer 18

An idea that represents a class of objects or events or their properties

Question 19

Algorithm

Answer 19

A well-defined procedure or set of rules that is used to solve a problem or accomplish a task or that is used for conducting a series of computations.

Question 20

Functional fixedness

Answer 20

The tendency to perceive an object only in terms of its most common use

Question 21

Chomsky’s theory of grammar

Answer 21

Surface structure of a sentence is the actual word order of the words in a sentence.

Deep / abstract structure is an underlying form that specifies the meaning of the sentence.

Transformational rules tell us how we can change one structure into another.

Question 22

Mental sets

Answer 22

Tendency to keep repeating solutions that worked in other situations

Question 23

Base-rate fallacy

Answer 23

When provided with both individuating information, which is specific to a certain person or event, and base rate information, which is objective, statistical information, we tend to assign greater value to the specific information and often ignore the base rate information altogether.

Question 24

Morpheme

Answer 24

Smallest unit of meaning in language

Eg: Walked [walk; ed]

Question 25

Gambler’s fallacy

Answer 25

Aka Monte Carlo fallacy; when an individual erroneously believes that a certain random event is less likely or more likely to happen based on the outcome of a previous event or series of events.

Question 26

Phones

Answer 26

Speech sounds

Question 27

Characteristics of a creative person

Answer 27

• prefer complexity
• psychodynamically complex and greater personal scope
• reject suppression
• more assertive & dominant
• more independent in judgements

Question 28

Connotative meaning

Answer 28

Emotional & evaluative meaning of a word / concept

Question 29

Pragmatics of language

Answer 29

Speech or writing to have an impact on others

Depends on context and status of people we are addressing

Question 30

Aphasia

Answer 30

Impairment in speech comprehension and/or production that can be permanent or temporary.

Question 31

Apraxia

Answer 31

Inconsistent production of sound and rearrangement maybe due to a stroke or progressive illness

Question 32

Dysarthria

Answer 32

Weakness of speech muscle caused by neuronal damage.

Question 33

Cognitive universalism of language

Answer 33

By Heider

Concepts are universal and influence the development of language

Question 34

Language acquisition stages

Answer 34

Babbling - 4 months
Holophrase - 1 y/o
Telegraphic speech - 2 y/o
Between 2 and 3 years, child’s vocabulary expands exponentially. Sentences increase in length and complexity.
By the age of 3, children begin to follow the rules of grammar without any instruction.
Overgeneralization or overregularization in which children apply grammatical rules without making appropriate exceptions.