Chapter 8 Definitions

phonetics

The study of sounds in human speech

Phonology

The methodical organisation of sounds in languages

syntax

The order in which words are put together to form a sentence

morphology

The system of meaningful words

lexicon

a language’s word-stock

Discourse

Signifies written and unspoken communication

pragmatics

The study of how people use language in different context

language acquisition device

An innate mechanism or process that facilitates the learning of language

bilingualism

The acquisition of two languages that use different speech sounds, vocabulary and grammatical rules

Linguistic relativity

The hypothesis that one’s language determines the nature of one’s thought

problem-solving

Active efforts to discover what must be done to achieve a goal that is not easily achievable

functional fixedness

The tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use

Mental set

when people persist in using problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past

insight

occurs when people suddenly discover the correct solution to a problem after struggling with it for a while

trial and error

trying possible solutions sequentially and discarding those that are in error until one works

Heuristic

A guiding principle or open “rule of thumb“ used in solving problems or making decisions

Incubation effect

occurs when new solutions surface for a previously unsolved problem after a period of not consciously thinking about the problem

decision-making

Evaluating alternatives and making choices among them

theory of bounded rationality

asserts that people tend to use simple strategies in decision-making that focus on a few aspects of available options and often result in “irrational” decisions that are less than optimal

risky decision making

Involves making choices under conditions of uncertainty

availability heuristic

involves basing the estimated probability of an event on the ease with which relevant instances come to mind

representativeness heuristic

involves basing the estimated probability of an event on how similar it is to the typical prototype of that event

conjunction fallacy

occurs when people estimate that the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happening alone

intelligence

The border ability of acquiring a neutralising complex mental skills

Mental age

a measure of a person's intellectual or emotional development, expressed as the age level of the average person who would have similar cognitive abilities

intelligence quotient (IQ)

A numerical representation of the level of an individual’s intelligence

normal distribution

A symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that represents the pattern in which many characteristics are dispersed in the population

deviation IQ schools

locate respondents precisely within the normal distribution

Percentile score

indicates the percentage of people who score at or below the score one has obtained

reliability

The measurement of consistency of a test

correlation coefficient

a numerical index of the degree of relationship between two variables

validity

The ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure

Heritability ratio

an estimate of the proportion of a trait variability in a population that is determined by variations in genetic inheritance

reaction range

Genetically determined limits to IQ or other traits