Cognitive Psychology and Language Development

These flashcards cover key concepts from cognitive psychology and language development, focusing on heuristics, problem-solving, the structure of language, and developmental periods.

Availability heuristic

A mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to mind, leading to judgments about the frequency or likelihood of an event.

Heuristic

A mental shortcut that allows people to solve problems and make judgments quickly.

Algorithm

A step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution to a problem.

Mental set

The tendency to approach a problem in a way that has worked in the past, possibly ignoring simpler solutions.

Representativeness heuristic

The tendency to judge the likelihood of an event based on how similar it is to a prototype.

Prototype

The mental image or best example of a category used for comparison.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to seek out evidence that supports one’s preconceptions while ignoring contradictory evidence.

Insight

A sudden realization of a solution to a problem, not focused on strategy.

Analogy

Using information from one domain to solve problems in another domain.

Framing

The way information is presented that affects decisions and judgments.

Phoneme

The smallest distinctive sound unit in a language.

Morpheme

The smallest unit of language that carries meaning.

Grammar

The system of rules that enables communication and understanding in a language.

Critical period

A specific time during development when an organism is particularly receptive to certain environmental influences.