AP Psychology Chapter 9 Thinking & Language
Mental set
A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, especially a way that has been successful in the past but may or may not be helpful in solving a new problem
Two-word stage
Beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements.
Broca's area
controls language expression-an aread of the frontal, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech
Wernicke's area
controls language reception-a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression;usually in the left temporal lobe
Telegraphic speech
early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram--'go car'--using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting 'auxiliary' words
Availability heuristic
estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common
Intuition
knowing or sensing something without the use of reason; an insight
Language
our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
Syntax
studies of the rules for forming admissible sentences
Fixation
the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an impediment to problem solving
Cognition
all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Confirmation bias
a tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions
Computer Neural Networks
Computer circuits that mimic the brain's interconnected neural cells, performing tasks such as learning to recognize visual patterns and smells
Semantics
The study of meaning in language.
Linguistic relativity
Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think
Concept
a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people
Prototype
a mental image or best example of a category
Algorithm
a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem
Heuristic
a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 398)
Insight
a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem
Babbling stage
beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language
Belief perseverance
clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
Aphasia
impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to wernicke's area (impairing understanding)
Grammar
in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others
Phoneme
in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit
Morpheme
in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)
Representativeness heuristic
judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead one to ignore other relevant information
Artificial Intelligence
the science of designing and programming computer systems to do intelligent things and to simulate human thought processes suchs as reasoning and understanding language
One-word stage
the stage in speech development, from about 1 to 2, during which a childspeaks mostly in single words.
Belief bias
the tendency for one's preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid
Overconfidence
the tendency to be more confident than correct--to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs and judgments
Functional fixedness
the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving
Framing
the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments