AP Psychology: Language

Cognition

is the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Concept

Mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas and people

Prototype

A mental image or best image example

Creativity

Ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable

Convergent thinking

thinking that requires one way of thinking, a single answer

Divergent thinking

thinking that requires more than one way of thinking

“What factors influence climate change?” Is an example of

divergent thinking

“What is after A in the alphabet?” is an example of

Convergent thinking

According to Robert Sternberg what are the 5 components of creativity?

• Expertise

• Imaginative thinking

• venturesome personality

• intrinsic motivation

• creative environment

Obstacles we confront when solving problems

• Confirmation bias

• Fixation

• Mental set

• Functional fixedness

• Trial and error

Confirmation Bias

seeking evidence that affirms our ideas rather than refute it

Mental set

approaching a problem a way we are used to solving it, mentally set

Fixation

failing to view a problem from a fresh perspective

what are three ways our cognitive tendencies lead us away?

• Heuristics

• Overconfidence

  • Belief perseverance

Heuristic

thinking strategies that help us solve a problem quickly

Representative heuristic

likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent or match prototypes

Availability heuristic

Likelihood of events based on availability in memory

If instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common

availability heuristic

Overconfidence

tendency to overestimate accuracy

Belief perseverance

Cling to belief in face of contrary evidence

Intuition

automatic response to conscious reasoning

The likelihood of truck accidents

Representative heuristic

Framing

The way an issue is posed

4 stages of language structure

• phonemes

• Morphemes

• Semantics

• Syntax

4 stages of language acquisition

• Babbling

• One word

• Two word; telegraphic speech

• Full sentences

Phonemes

In a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit, “b”

Morphemes

Smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word

Semantics

set of rules, derive meaning from morphemes, study of meaning

Syntax

The rules for combining words into grammarly sensible sentences

Babbling

Beginning at 4 months, uttering random sounds

One-word

1 to 2 years of age, kid speaks in single words

Two-word AKA Telegraphic spech

Age 2, child speaks in two-word statements

“Go car”

Telegraphic speech

Full sentences

Occurs at 24 months old

Aphasia

Impairment to communicate either vocal or written discourse as a result through damage to broca’s area or wernickes area.

Brocas area

Helps with speaking and controls language expression

Wernickes area

It is in the left temporal lobe and is responsible for language comprehension

Benjamin Lee Whorf

He was a linguist who believed that language determines the way we think

Linguistic determinism

Whorf’s hypothesis the language determines the way we think

Linguistic influence

Language affects thought

Noam Chomsky

He is a linguist that proposed that we are born with language knowledge and we strengthen it as we grow and develop