cognitive processes exam 3

Broca's vs. Wernicke's aphasia

Broca's = difficulty producing speech (expressive). Wernicke's = difficulty understanding language (comprehension).

What are the main components of language structure?

Phonology = sounds; orthography = written letters; semantics = meaning; syntax = grammar; pragmatics = context and use.

Phonemes vs. morphemes

Phoneme = smallest distinctive sound unit. Morpheme = smallest unit carrying meaning.

Semantics vs. pragmatics

Semantics = literal meaning of words/sentences. Pragmatics = interpreting intended meaning using context.

What is coarticulation?

Overlapping speech sounds because neighboring phonemes influence each other.

What is categorical perception?

Perceiving continuously varying speech sounds as distinct categories.

What is the word superiority effect?

Letters are recognized more accurately within real words than alone or in random letter strings.

What is the phoneme restoration effect?

Using context to mentally fill in missing speech sounds.

What is the mental lexicon?

The collection of known words stored in memory, approximately 40,000–60,000 words according to the lecture.

What is the segmentation problem?

Identifying word boundaries in continuous spoken language without clear spaces.

What is lexical priming?

A related word makes another word easier or faster to recognize; e.g., doctor primes nurse.

What is syntactic parsing?

Analyzing grammatical structure to understand how words relate in a sentence.

Deep structure vs. surface structure

Deep = underlying grammatical relationships. Surface = actual arrangement of words in a sentence.

Syntax-first vs. interactive approach

Syntax-first = grammatical structure guides initial comprehension. Interactive = grammar, meaning, and context work together.

What is an anaphoric inference?

Connecting pronouns to previously mentioned people or objects; e.g., Amy went outside. She was happy.

What is dyslexia?

A learning disability affecting reading and spelling, despite typically normal intelligence and vision.

What is the paradox of language production?

Speech errors disrupt intended meaning but often still follow grammatical and sound rules.

What are the main types of speech errors?

Phoneme errors = sound mistakes; morpheme errors = meaningful-unit mistakes; word errors = whole-word mistakes.

Exchange vs. anticipation vs. perseveration errors

Exchange = units swap; anticipation = later unit appears early; perseveration = earlier unit repeats later.

Addition vs. deletion vs. shift errors

Addition = extra unit inserted; deletion = unit omitted; shift = unit moves to the wrong position.

What are the three stages of language production?

Conceptualization = create message; formulation = select words and grammar; articulation = physically produce speech.

What does tip-of-the-tongue demonstrate?

We can access a word's meaning or grammar without retrieving its complete sound form.

What is the picture-word interference paradigm?

Naming pictures while ignoring words; related distractors reveal semantic and phonological processing.

What is the perceptual loop?

Monitoring planned inner speech through comprehension processes to catch errors before speaking.

What are disfluencies?

Hesitations such as um and uh that can signal upcoming speech-planning difficulties.

What is alignment theory?

Conversation partners coordinate their language representations through repetition and priming.

Word association vs. concept mediation models

Word association = words across languages link directly. Concept mediation = words connect through shared meanings.

What is the hierarchical model of bilingual memory?

Combines direct connections between words in different languages with connections through shared concepts.

What is code-switching?

Alternating languages during conversation, intentionally or unintentionally, sometimes following language-specific grammar.

Why is human language considered unique?

Humans use complex grammar and recursive syntax; animal communication conveys information but lacks clear evidence of full human-like language.

What are concepts?

Mental representations of real-world categories that help us organize and identify objects, people, and ideas.

What is family resemblance?

Category members share overlapping features, but no single feature must be present in every member.

What is the typicality effect?

Typical category members are recognized and learned faster and mentioned first; e.g., robin before penguin.

What is the prototype approach?

Categorizing objects by comparing them to an abstract mental representation of a category's common features.

What is the exemplar approach?

Categorizing objects by comparing them to specific remembered examples of category members.

Prototype vs. exemplar approach

Prototype = compare to an abstract average. Exemplar = compare to specific memories of previous examples.

How do prototypes and exemplars explain typicality?

Typical objects resemble the prototype or many stored exemplars, so they are categorized faster.

What did Malt (1989) suggest about categorization?

Both prototype and exemplar representations can be used, depending on the situation.

What is a conceptual hierarchy?

Organizing concepts by specificity into superordinate, basic, and subordinate levels.

What are the three levels of conceptual hierarchies?

Superordinate = animal; basic = dog; subordinate = golden retriever.

What are basic-level concepts?

The preferred everyday level for identifying and naming objects; e.g., dog rather than animal or golden retriever.

What is cognitive economy?

Storing shared properties at higher category levels instead of repeating them for every subordinate category.

What is spreading activation?

Activating one concept in semantic memory spreads activation to related concepts.

What is the distance effect in semantic networks?

More distant concepts in a hierarchy generally take longer to verify; e.g., canary–animal vs. canary–bird.

What is the feature comparison approach?

Determining category relationships by comparing shared features rather than retrieving links in a semantic network.

How does feature comparison explain typicality?

More overlapping features lead to faster category judgments; e.g., robin–bird is faster than kiwi–bird.

What is a feature-binding hub?

A conceptual system that integrates sensory, motor, and linguistic features processed in different brain regions.

What are the two stages of stereotyping?

1. Automatic activation of stereotypic knowledge. 2. Controlled processing that can evaluate or override it.

Why do scientific misconceptions persist?

Intuitive beliefs and scientifically correct knowledge can coexist in semantic memory, even after education.

How does expertise change categorization?

Experts often categorize at more specific subordinate levels; e.g., golden retriever instead of dog.

How do concepts contribute to creativity?

Creative thinking combines previously separate concepts into new ideas, such as binge-watch or working vacation.

What is the associative theory of creativity?

Creativity involves forming new connections among concepts stored in semantic memory.

What is mental imagery?

Mentally representing sensory experiences without direct stimulation; can be visual, auditory, olfactory, or tactile.

What cognitive tasks benefit from mental imagery?

Memory, problem-solving, navigation, reasoning, and performance, including sports.

Spatial vs. propositional representations

Spatial = mental images preserve visual and spatial relationships. Propositional = images represented as abstract descriptions or relationships.

What did Kosslyn's mental scanning research find?

People take longer to mentally scan greater distances, supporting spatial representations.

What did Pylyshyn propose about mental imagery?

Images may be represented propositionally through abstract knowledge rather than picture-like mental representations.

Which imagery representation has more research support?

Spatial representation; mental scanning and neuroimaging provide supporting evidence.

What is the picture superiority effect?

Pictures are generally remembered better than words.

What is Paivio's dual-coding theory?

Pictures automatically create both visual and verbal memory codes, while words do not automatically create images.

What is the concreteness effect?

Concrete, easily imagined words (house) are remembered better than abstract words (justice).

What is the bizarreness effect?

Unusual or bizarre mental images are often remembered better because they are distinctive.

What is auditory imagery?

Mentally experiencing sounds, music, or inner speech without hearing them externally; supports working and long-term memory.

What is the auditory superiority effect?

Sounds can be remembered better than their written labels, such as hearing a bark versus reading 'bark'.

What is the method of loci?

A memory technique that places imagined objects at familiar locations, also called a memory palace.

What is the pegword mnemonic?

Using rhyming number cues (one-bun, two-shoe) as mental placeholders for information.

How can imagery create false memories?

Repeatedly imagining an event can increase familiarity and make an event that never occurred seem real.

How does imagery help problem-solving?

Mentally simulating objects or situations, such as rotating gears, helps predict outcomes and solve problems.

What did Gaesser et al. (2018) find?

Imagining helping someone increased participants' reported willingness to help compared with not imagining it.

Scenographic vs. abstract imagery in wayfinding

Scenographic = first-person view of surroundings. Abstract = map-like overview; abstract imagery is more useful for navigation.

What are verbal and nonverbal imagery codes?

Verbal = word labels. Nonverbal = sensory representations such as images, sounds, smells, and touch.

Cognitive vs. motivational motor imagery

Cognitive = mentally rehearsing skills and strategies. Motivational = imagining goals, coping, and emotions to improve performance.