Ch. 10 Quiz

Prototype

-a mental image or best example that incorporates all the features we associate w/a category -the more closely something matches our prototype of a concept, the more readily we recognize it as an example of the concept -best example of a concept -Ex: a robin closer resembles our bird prototype than a goose would

Phonemes

-a set of basic sounds, 1st building block for a spoken language -smallest unit of sounds, how you learn to read -Ex: to say "bat" we utter b, a, t chat ch-a-t

One-word stage (Holophrastic)

-around 12 months -word learning begin to explodes around 18 months -"juice" "doggie"

Babbling stage

-begins around 4 months -around 10 months babbles restricted to noise of home language -"dada"

Noam Chomsky Theory

-children acquire untaught words and grammar at a rate too extraordinary to be explained solely by learning principles (say things they've never heard before) -Nature side, most famous linguist -Universal grammar that underlies all human language

Concepts (schemas)

-mental groupings of similar objects, events, and people -Ex: chair: includes a recliner, high chair, etc.

Belief Perseverance

-our tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face of contrary evidence, even after proven wrong -Angelina Jolie doesn't smoke

Problem Solving: Heuristics

-simple thinking strategies that often allow us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently (speedier and more error-prone than algorithms) -can make a snap judgement -short-cut to problem solving -Ex: to find guava juice, check the beverage, natural foods, and produce sections

Morphemes

-smallest unit of language that carries meaning-combos of 2+ phonemes, includes pre and suffixes -consonants mean more than vowels -Ex: undesirables: un-desir-able-s the un changes the meaning of desirables, etc.

Problem Solving: Algorithms

-step by step procedures that guarantee the right solution to a problem -guarantees you will eventually find what you need -Ex: to search for guava juice you could search every supermarket aisle

Two-word stage

-telegraphic speech -around 24 months -follows rules of syntax -start putting together their thoughts -after age 2, children very quickly develop long phrases -"come back" "Mommy up"

Belief (Confirmation) Bias

-the tendency for our beliefs to distort our logic, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or vice versa -we look for evidence to confirm our beliefs and ignore evidence that contradicts them (look at successes and not the failures)

Framing

-the way a problem is presented can drastically effect the way we view it -Ex: 90% will be saved from this medicine, or, 10% will die despite this medicine

Describe how the Hopi tribe is an example of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

-they have no past tense for their verbs. So, a Hopi could not so readily think about the past -if you didn't have a word for it, you won't think about it

Representative Heuristic

-to judge the likelihood of things in terms of how well they represent particular prototypes -a stereotype -Ex: someone is short and reads poetry-are they a professor or truck driver? Professor bc are more representative of a p than a td

Availability Heuristic

-we base our judgements on how mentally available info is; if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common -vivid images, news, choosing things by default -leads us astray bc anything that increases the ease of our retrieving info can increase its perceived ability -Ex: words w/k as first letter come to mind easier than words w/k as third letter, so we think k as first letter occurs more commonly; scared to get mugged in Bronx or Alabama? Bronx bc we know its a rough area from stuff on news, it's available to us, familiar

Operant Learning Theory

-we can explain language development w/familiar learning principles-association, imitation, reinforcement -association: images w/words -modeling: baby'll imitate a parent -r: if they are reinforced, they keep saying the word (Nurture aspect) -Ex: babies learn to talk in many of same ways that animals learn to peck keys and press bars

Cognitive Neuroscientists: Debate how much our language is inborn, Critical Period

-what children represent to master certain aspects of language -0-7

The case of the Apes

Apes have a large capacity for thinking and communication whereas children can soak up many words in a short time, apes learn a few words with great difficulty

Linguistic Determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think-different language imposed different conceptions of reality, radical

Do Animals exhibit language?

Yes, but they are not considered to have a language

Inborn universal language acquisition devise

a sort of switch box already in place that we come equipped with to help our development of language to be quick and natural -chip in our brain to pick up language

Heuristics can lead to overconfidence

a tendency to overestimate the accuracy our knowledge and judgements

Language Development: Receptive language ( ) before productive language ( )

ability to comprehend speech, matures ability to produce words

Linguistic Relativity

concerns relationships between language and thought; specifically, that thoughts vary w/language

Thinking in Images

helps us to mentally rehearse

Language

our spoken, written, signed words and the way we combine them as we think

Functional Fixedness

our tendency to think of only the familiar functions for objects, without imaging alternative uses -being stuck in that mental set that you can't see another way to use the object -an impediment to problem solving -Ex: a rock used as a writing utensil

Thinking (Cognition)

refers to all mental activities associated w/processing, understanding, remembering, and communicating

Fixation

the inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective-is a true impediment to problem solving, includes mental set and functional fixedness

Syntax

the rules we use to order words into sentences (adj come before n)

Grammar: Semantics

the set of rules we use to derive meaning from morphemes, words, and even sentences (adding -ed to laugh=past tense)

Benjamin Lee Whorf (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis:)-Argued that language determines the way we _____

think

Animal Thinking/Language -Some animals do display a remarkable ability to ____ -Animals also demonstrate ______ -Animals also problem solve as seen with tool use

think problem-solving

Hurdles to Problem Solving: Mental Set (Rigidity)

type of fixation that predisposes how we think refers to our tendency to approach a problem w/mindset of what has worked for us previously -fall into established thought patterns