Psych 102 Chapter 9: Language and Thoughts

Is the meaning or wording of a sentence typically more memorable?

Meaning ~ To generate a sentence you go from DEEP STRUCTURE to SURFACE STRUCTURE. When you comprehend a sentence you do the reverse to extract the deep structure (meaning) while the surface is forgotten.

What have cross-cultural studies shown us about reasoning tests?

...A principal finding from this kind of cross-cultural research is that the appearance of competency on reasoning tests depends more on whether the task makes sense to participants than on their problem- solving ability.

Why are analogies useful in problem solving?

...Analogical problem solving shows us that successfully solving a problem often depends on learning the principles underlying a particular type of problem and also that solving lots of problems improves our ability to recognize certain problem types and generate effective solutions.

To a behaviorist, why will an infant repeat "da-da" and not "prah"?

...Because children are more likely to receive positive reinforcement when they vocalize a sound resembling "da-da" whereas "prah" is most likely not a sound that parents will reward (i.e, by cooing, clapping, etc).

Why are studies of internationally adopted children especially useful?

...Chinese preschoolers who are adopted by English-speaking parents progress through the same sequence of linguistic milestones as do infants born into English-speaking families, suggesting that these milestones reflect experience with English rather than general cognitive development.

What is the relationship of the prefrontal cortex to risky behavior?

...DIRECT CORRELATION: risky decision making depend critically on the contributions of the prefontal cortex. Those with damage to this area of the brain show that their emotional reactions did not guide their thinking, so they continued to make risky decisions.

How are memory strength and frequency of occurrence related?

...DIRECTLY: frequently occurring item are remembered more easily than infrequent, so you naturally conclude that items for which you have better memory must also have been more frequent = AVAILABILITY BIAS: items that are more readily available in memory are judged as having occurred more frequently.

Is a 70% success rate better than a 30% failure rate?

...FRAMING EFFECTS: people give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is phrased. (i.e, the info is the same, they way the info is framed leads to substantially different conclusions.

Why are we better at estimating frequencies than probabilities?

...FREQUENCY FORMAT HYPOTHESIS: our minds evolved to notice how frequently things occur, not how likely they are to occur. Thus we interpret, process, and manipulate info. about frequency with ease because that's the way quantitative info usually occurs in natural circumstances.

What is the role of the unconscious in flashes of insight?

...Insightful solutions result from incremental processes- one that occurs outside of conscious awareness. The process works something like this: the pattern of clues that constitute a problem unconsciously activates relevant information in memory. Activation then spreads through the memory network, recruiting additional relevant information. When sufficient info. has been activated, it crosses the threshold of awareness and we experience a sudden flash of insight into the problems' solution.

Why is a better decision more likely when considering frequency, versus likelihood, that something will happen?

...It is easier to understand and calculate the frequency of an event while finding the probability of such event occurring is much more difficult (1% of women have breast cancer vs. 10 in 100 women have breast cancer).

How can more information sometimes lead people to wrong conclusions?

...It's always more probable that any one state of affairs is true than is a set of events simultaneously = CONJUNCTION FALLACY: people think that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event. Actually, the probability diminishes rapidly.

Why will most people take more risks to avoid losses than make gains?

...PROSPECT THEORY: People choose to take on risk when evaluating the potential losses and avoid risks when evaluating potential gains. You'll most likely choose the lower sure payoff over the higher potential payoff. This asymmetry in risk preferences shows that we are willing to take on risk if we think it will ward off a loss but we're risk-adverse if we expect to lose some benefits.

What can cause people to ignore the base rate of an event?

...People seem to ignore information about base rate (the existing probability of an event) basing their judgments on similarities or categories. This is called the REPRESENTATIVENESS HEURISTIC- making a probability judgement by comparing an object or event to a prototype of the object or event.

Why is it unlikely that children are using imitation to pick up language?

As children acquire their grammatical rules for their language, they tend to over generalize. (run becomes runned or even ranned instead of ran) These errors show that children acquire grammatical rules by listening to the speech around them and using the rules to create verbal forms they've never heard.

In what way do 2 year olds show a basic understanding of language rules?

At 24 mo. Kids can form two worded sentences called telegraphic speech. ("More milk") With these primitive expressions, they show that they have already acquired an appreciation of he syntactical rules of the language they are learning.

How does a horizontal concept of time contrast with a vertical concept of time?

HORIZONTAL: "Future is ahead of you, the past is behind you." VERTICAL: Earlier events in life are up while later events are down.

How does the interactionist theory of language acquisition differ from behaviorist and native theories?

INTERACTIONIST: Although infants are born with an innate ability for language, social interactions play a crucial role as well. BEHAVIORIST: Children learn language because of positive reinforcement from their parents. Parents reward and encourage certain phonemes and se fence structure, etc. NATIVIST: Children are born with the ability to acquire language skills.

How does language processing change in the brain as the child matures?

In early infancy, language processing is distributed across many areas of the brain. But it gradually becomes more and more concentrated in the Broca's and Wernicke's area.

How would a nativist explain why deaf infants babble?

People are born with the ability to learn languages wether or not they have ever heard the words, sounds, or phonemes before. Which is why infant babbling is relatively similar in all languages.

How do prototypes and exemplars relate to each other?

Prototypes are the most common or ideal member of a category (German Shepard for dog) which helps us classify new stimuli based on what it SHOULD be. Exemplars help us do the same but with variation helping us to classify what a new stimuli COULD be (pug, poodle, etc.).

What do studies of apes and language teach us about humans and language?

Research with apes suggests that the neurological "wiring" that allows us to learn language overlaps with theirs. It's also nights the complexity of human language as well as the ease and speed with which we generate and comprehend it.

How does language influence our understanding of color?

The complexity of any given language can dictate how children perceive different colors. (Himba who group red pink and orange as one color; Americans who have terms for 9-11 major colors; and Russians who have an even more detailed and complex language for colors)

Why are concepts useful to us?

They are used by our brains to organized and categorize the world around us based on similarities which helps us make sense of the world.

What language ability do infants have that adults do not?

They can tell the difference between speech sounds (phonemes). [ex. La-la sound v. Ra-ra sound]

What is the role of vision in category-specific organization?

Visual experience is not necessary for the development of distinct categories which we know based on studies of people with cognitive and visual deficits. (Blind testees can categorize human made and living things just as easily as a testee with sight).

What are the distinctions between human language and animal communication?

[1] Human language has a more complex structure han simpler signaling systems. [2] Humans can use words to refer to intangible things (ex. Democracy). [3] Humans can use language to name, categorize, and describe things to ourselves when we think; this influences how knowledge is organized into our brains.

What do all languages all have in common? (P.M.S)

[P] PHONEMES: smallest units of sound that are recognizable as speech rather than random speech. [P] PHONOLOGICAL RULES: indicate how phonemes can be combined to produce speech sounds. [M] MORPHEMES: the smallest meaningful units of language. [M] MORPHOLOGICAL RULES: indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words. [S] SYNTACTICAL RULES: indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences.