Ch 8 - Language and Thought

essential properties of language

symbolic, structured, and generative

phonemes

The smallest speech units in a language that can be distinguished perceptually.

morphemes

The smallest units of meaning in a language.

semantics

The area of language concerned with understanding the meaning of words and word combinations.

syntax

A system of rules that specify how words can be arranged into sentences.

reflexive communication

Age: 1-5 months. Coos, laughs, cries - Random vocal play.

babbling

Age 6-18 months. Producing a wide range of sounds that correspond to phonemes and eventually many repetitive consonant - vowel combinations, such as "lalalalala".

first words

Age 10-13 months. Uttering sounds that correspond to words, such as mama, dada and papa.

receptive vocabulary

To comprehend words spoken by others. Usually greater than productive vocab. of toddlers.

productive vocabulary

Produced and expressed words.

fast mapping

Age 18-24 months. The process by which children map a word onto an underlying concept after only one exposure.

overextension

Occurs when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a wider set of objects or actions than it is meant to. E.g., A child might use the word ball to anything that is round, like apples or even the moon.

underextension

Occurs when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a narrow set of objects or actions than it is meant to. E.g., A child might use the word doll to refer only to a single favourite doll.

telegraphic speech

Consists mainly of content words; articles, prepositions, and other less critical words are omitted. E.g., "Give doll" rather than "please give me the doll".

holophrase

communicate complex ideas using only single words and simple fixed expressions. As an example, the word "food" might be used to mean "Give me food" and the word "up" could convey "Pick me up".

overregularizations

Occur when grammatical rules are incorrectly generalised to irregular cases where they do not apply. E.g., "I hitted the ball" or "The girl goed home".

metalinguistic awareness

At school age: The ability to reflect on the use of language. They can for instance, recognize two possible meanings in sentences such as "Visiting relatives can be bothersome".

language acquisition device

A theoretical innate mechanism or process that facilitates the learning of language. According to this view, humans learn language for the same reason birds learn to fly - because they are biologically equipped for it. A nativist theory

interactionist perspective

Theories that of language acquisition asserting that biology and experience BOTH make important contributions to the development of language.

Emergentist Perspective

Theories like interactionist theory, arguing that the neural circuits supporting language are not prewired but emerge gradually in response to language learning experiences.

linguistic relativity hypothesis

The hypothesis that one's language determines the nature of one's thought.

problems of inducing structure

Problems requiring people to discover the relations among numbers, words symbols, or ideas. Ex: analogies

problems of arrangement

Problems requiring people to arrange the parts of a problem in a way that satisfies some criterion. The parts can usually be arranged in many ways, but only one or few of the arrangements form a solution. Ex: anagrams

problems of transformation

Problems requiring people to carry out a sequence of transformations in order to reach a specific goal. E.g., The water jugs and tower or Hanoi problems.

irrelevant information

An obstacle in problem solving because of information that leads people astray.

functional fixedness

An obstacle in problem solving with the tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use (the screwdriver in the string problem).

mental set

An obstacle in problem solving that exists 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.

Unnecessary constraints

An obstacle in problem solving when people tend to structure the problem poorly by imposing unnecessary boundaries (like in the 9 dot problem).

problem space

To refer to the set of possible pathways to a solution considered by the problem solver.

trial and error

Involves trying posible solutions and discarding those that are in error until one works.

algorithm

A methodical, step-by-step procedure for trying all possible alternatives in searching for a solution to a problem.

heuristic

A guiding principle or "rule of thumb" used in solving problems or making decisions.

subgoals

Formulating intermediate steps by solving part of a problem.

holistic cognitive style

A cultural problem-solving style that focuses on context and relationships among elements in a field. (more likely in Eastern cultures)

analytic cognitive style

A cultural problem-solving style that focuses on objects and their properties rather than context. (more likely in Western cultures)

Field dependence-independence

refers to individuals' tendency to rely primarily on external versus internal frames of reference when orienting themselves in space

Simon's theory of bounded rationality

The theory asserting that people tend to use simple strategies in decision making that focus on only a few facets of available options and often result in "irrational" decisions that are less than optimal.

additive strategy

A decision strategy by listing influencing attributes and selecting the highest total.

elimination by aspects

A decision strategy by eliminating less attractive alternatives. E.g., When buying a car, you may eliminate all cars over $24k, with this smaller group you may eliminate all the cars with automatic transmission, and so on.

risky decision making

Involves making choices under conditions of uncertainty.

subjective utility

Represents what an outcome is personally worth to an individual. For example, buying a lotto ticket allows one to dream about becoming wealthy. Just like buying insurance may give you a sense of security.

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.

gambler's fallacy

The belief that the odds of a chance event increase if the event hasn't occurred recently.

confirmation bias

The tendency to only seek information that is likely to support one's decisions and beliefs.

overconfidence effect

People tend to put too much faith in their estimates, beliefs, and decisions, even when they should know better.

framing

Refers to how decision issues are posed or how choices are structured.

loss aversion

In general, losses loom greater than gains or equal size, leading people to pass up excellent opportunities.

semantic slanting

Refers to deliberately choosing words to create specific emotional responses.

name calling

People often attempt to neutralise or combat views that they don't like by attributing such views to "radical feminists", "knee-jerk liberals" and so on.

anticipatory name calling

imply that if someone thinks in a particular way, he or she will receive an unfavorable label

availability heuristic

Most persons mistakenly believe that more people die from tornados than from asthma. This is because they apply the ................ ..................

confirmation bias

Failure to seek contrary evidence may lead to:

framing

People generally prefer a choice that provides an 80 percent chance of success over one that provides a 19 percent chance of failure. This illustrates the effect of?

semantic slanting

Owner's of automobile junkyards prefer to use the term automobile recycling centers. This is an example of the use of:

behaviorist perspective

perspective that proposes that children learn language through the established principles of learning (imitation and reinforcement)

Noam Chomsky

Proposed that children learn language through a biologically built-in language acquisition device.

expected value for decision making

the decision's outcome/payoff multiplied by the probability of that decision

tendency to ignore base rates

Connected to the representative heuristic; people ignore the general probabilities of what people are likely to be (Ratio of sales people to librarians; 75 to 1)

overestimating the improbable

people tend to greatly overestimate the likelihood of dramatic, vivid, but infrequent events that receive heavy media coverage

belief perseverance

tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them

Fast and Frugal Heuristics

shortcuts that guide us in decision making about probabilities. Can be useful and more successful than expected according to the evolutionary perspective

law of small numbers

people have a tendency to believe that a relatively small number of observations will closely reflect the general population

Alternative outcomes effect

Phenomenon that occurs when people's belief about whether an outcome will occur changes depending on how alternative outcomes are distributed, even though the assumed probability of the alternative outcomes is held constant.

anchoring bias

a tendency to fixate on initial information, from which one then fails to adequately adjust for subsequent information

priming effect

the activation of certain associations, thus predisposing your perception, memory, or response (decision making)

sunk cost fallacy (bias)

our tendency to follow through with something that we've already invested heavily in (be it time, money, effort, or emotional energy), even when giving up is clearly a better idea