Cognition and language review

Language

The way we communicate meaning (spoken, written, or gestured) to ourselves and others.

Phonemes

The smallest distinctive units of sound used in a language.

Morphemes

The smallest units of meaning in a language.

Grammar

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

Semantics

The set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences.

Overregularization

Occurs when children apply a grammatical rule too widely and therefore create incorrect forms.

Syntax

The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

Receptive language

The ability to understand language.

Productive language

The ability to produce language.

Babbling

Universal noises made by babies around the age of 4 months.

Holophrase

One-word phrases babies make around the age of 12 months.

Telegraphic speech

Two-word phrases babies make around the age of 24 months.

Critical period

If children are not exposed to language before a certain age, they will be unable to acquire language.

Universal grammar

All human languages have the same grammatical building blocks.

Language Acquisition Device

Innate speech-enabling structures in the brain that allow us to learn language.

Surface structure

Learning ABCs; just the letters and layout of the words.

Deep structure

Combining words to make meanings.

Linguistic determinism

The idea that thinking affects our language, which in turn affects our thoughts.

B.F. Skinner

Argues that language acquisition is based on the principles of operant conditioning.

Noam Chomsky

A linguist who argues young children possess an innate capability to learn and produce speech.

Benjamin Whorf

Believed that a person’s language may shape their thoughts and perceptions.

Metacognition

Thinking about thinking.

Cognition

All of the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Concepts

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Definitions

Some concepts fit into a group because of their definition.

Hierarchies

Breaking things down from broad to specific.

Prototypes

A mental image of the best example of a category.

Schemas

An organized mental framework about a particular topic, event, object, idea, or group.

Trial and error

Trying random methods to solve an answer.

Means-end analysis

Breaking a problem into subgoals to reach the ultimate goal.

Algorithm

A logical, step-by-step procedure to solve a specific problem.

Heuristic

A general rule of thumb or shortcut to reduce possible solutions.

Insight

Coming up with the answer; the 'aha' moment.

Fixation

Having a preoccupation with something, unable to stop thinking of it.

Mental set

The tendency to continue using belief systems and strategies that have worked in the past.

Functional fixedness

The tendency to think of an object as functioning only in its usual way.

Availability heuristic

Judging the likelihood of an event based on readily available personal experiences.

Representative heuristic

Judging the likelihood of an event based on how well it matches a typical example.

Anchoring effect

The tendency to be influenced by a reference point.

Framing

Posing a question or wording a phrase to persuade thoughts.

Bias

Having pre-existing positions or beliefs about events or people.

Confirmation bias

A preference for information that confirms preexisting beliefs.

Belief perseverance

Holding onto a belief even after it has been discredited.

Hindsight bias

The inclination to see events as more predictable than they were.

Overconfidence bias

The tendency to be more confident than correct.

Exaggerated fear

Being overly fearful of something to the point of a phobia.

Brainstorm

Coming up with new ideas.

Creativity

The ability to think about a problem in new and unconventional ways.

Divergent thinking

Devise a number of possible alternative approaches to a problem.

Convergent thinking

Using logic to solve problems with only one answer.

Inductive reasoning

Reasoning from the specific to the general.

Deductive reasoning

Reasoning from the general to the specific.