AP Psychology Language Vocab

cognition

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

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

insight

a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem

confirmation bias

A tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions

fixation

the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an impediment to problem solving

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

functional fixedness

the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving

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

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

overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than correct--to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs and judgments

framing

The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments

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

belief preserverance

clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

artificial intelligence (AI)

The science of designing and programming computer systems to do intelligent things and to simulate human thought processes, such as intuitive reasoning, learning, and understanding language.

computer neural networks

Computer circuits that mimic the brain's interconnected neural cells, performing tasks such as learning to recognize visual patterns and smells

language

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

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)

grammar

in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others

semantics

the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning

syntax

the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language

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

one-word stage

the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words

two-word stage

beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements

telegraphic speech

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram--'go car'--using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting 'auxiliary' words

linguistic determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think