psych exam 3

Language

a form of communication that uses symbols to represent concepts

Words are...

arbitrary

Organization of Language

Pragmatics
semantics
syntax
morphology
phonology

Content/free morphemes

the primary carriers of meaning

Function/bound morphemes

specify relations among words

Phoneme

smallest unit of sound (refers to sound not letters), English has 47

Phonology organization

voicing (whether vocal cords vibrate or not), manner of production (whether air is fully stopped or merely restricted), place of articulation (where in the mouth air is restricted [closing of lips, top teeth against bottom lip, tongue behind upper teeth])

Speech segmentation

refers to our ability to perceive individual words even though there are often no pauses between words

What produces misheard song lyrics?

errors in speech segmentation

Coarticulation

a trait of speech production in which the way a sound is produced is altered slightly by the immediately following sounds

Phonemic restoration effects

occurs when phonemes are perceived in speech when the sound of the phenomenon is covered up by noise

Waren study with the phonemic restoration effect

Ps listened to recordings of sentences where a letter in a word was replaced with a cough. Ps were able to identify the word or which letter was missing, we use prior knowledge to fill in missing info (top-down processing)

Categorical perception

the pattern in which speech sounds are heard merely as members of a category

Perception of language is...

constructed

McGurk effect

occurs when visual info influences the way we hear a phenomenon ("ba" as "va")

Pollack and Picket spliced out words from Ps conversations

hard to do without context, most Ps could only identify about half

Sequences

only some acceptable in a language (tl not acceptable in English language), adjustments for certain phonemes ("bag[z]")

The wug test

children 4-5 can perform this task (say there are 2 wugs), suggests they are able to extract generalizable rules, we don't memorize language

Vocabulary is...

fluid (new words are being created all the time)

Generativity

the capacity to create an endless series of new combinations, all built from the same fundamental units

Syntax

the manner in which morphemes and words are combines to create grammatically correct phrases and sentences

Tree structure

a style depiction often used to indicate hierarchal relationships, such as the relationships among the words in a phrase or sentence

Semantics

the meaning of words and sentences

A sentence can be semantically correct, but syntactically wrong

I am doing good today

A sentence can be syntactically correct, but semantically wrong

Colourless green ideas sleep furiously

Prescriptive rules

how language is "supposed" to be

Descriptive rules

how language is actually used

Phrase structure

the large tomato/made/a satisfying/splat when it/hit the/floor

Ambiguous sentences

John frequently beat both his kids at tennis matches
-this could be interpreted in different ways

Parse

process of assigning words to a phrase structure (after the musician played "," the piano was wheeled off the stage
-without comma, you might be led "down the wrong path"]

Garden-path sentences

-appear to mean one thing but end up meaning something else (the secretary applauded for his efforts was soon promoted)
-background knowledge of the meaning of words is important (the bird saw the man with the binoculars), only one interpretation (because we know birds can't use binoculars)

Extralinguistic context

refers to factors outside of language (ex. images) that influence interpretation (put the apple on the towel into the box)
-confusing without context... easier to understand when seeing the picture

Prosody

refers to the patterns of rhythm and pitch changes that characterize speech production (signal sarcasm and the difference between a question and an assertion)

Pragmatics

knowledge of how language is used in ordinary conversations

Common ground

the set of usually unspoken beliefs and assumptions shared by conversational patterns (shared knowledge)

Grecian maxims of conversion

principals to ensure cooperation
(principles to ensure cooperation)
1. quantity
2. quality (be truthful)
3. relation (be relevant)
4. manner (be clear)

Illocutionary intent

what a speaker means to say (there are toys all over the floor) = "clean up the mess"

2 approaches of language

primate studies, biological structures

Chimpanzees and bonobos

may learn to understand human with extensive teaching (ex. Kanzi has basic grammar of a 2 year old), don't spontaneously produce complex spoken language, limited to present environment, unable to use displacement (refer to objects not physically present)

Broca's area

involved in production of language, when damaged the individual's speech is either absent or severely disrupted

Wernicke's area

involved in comprehension of language, when damaged the individual's speech makes little sense

Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

a disorder in which individuals seem to have normal intelligence but experience problems in learning rules of language

Chomsky's Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

biological predisposition to learn the basic systems of language

Universal grammar

built in storehouse of rules that apply to all human languages, supported by overregularization errors (e.g., I brushed my tooths or the boy hitted the ball)

Overregulizaton error

in speech production, an error in which a person produces a form that is consistent with a broad pattern, even though it does not apply to the currant utterance

Linguistic relativity

the proposal that the language people speak shapes their thought, because the structure and vocabulary of their language create certain ways of thinking about the world

Whorf hypothesis

the nature of a culture's language determines the way people think (ex having multiple different words for love)
-e.g., having lots of words for snow causes people to become skilled in discriminating between different types of snow

Milder version of hypothesis

language influences cognition by shaping what you pay attention to (colour perception)

Frequency estimate

an essential step in judgement in which someone makes as assessment of how often they have experienced or encountered a particular object or event

Attribute susbstitution

a commonly used strategy in which a person needs one type of info but relies instead on a more accessible form of info

Availability heuristic

a particular form of attribute substitution in which a person needs to judge the frequency of a certain type of object, or the likelihood of a certain type of event

Representativeness heuristic

a strategy that is often used in making judgements about categories; making the assumptions that in general, the instances of the category will resemble the instances of the prototype for that category

Heuristics

mental shortcuts that speed up info processing (efficient, but sometimes lead us astray when making judgements)

Covariation

a relationship between 2 variables that can be predicted from the presence or magnitude of the other (positive if increases in one cause an increase in the other, negative if vice versa)

Base rate info

info about the broad likelihood of a particular type of event (also referred to as prior probability)

Diagnostic info

info about a particular case

Tversky and Kahneman: judgements

events that are more available in memory are judged as being more likely to occur (easier to remember shark attacks than bathtub drowning)

Schwarz: ease of retrieval

Ps asked to recall either:
-6 times they acted assertively,
-12 times

-6 times they had acted unassertively
-12 they acted unassertively,

Ps found it easy to think of 6 instances, and difficult to think of 12, which affected their judgements of how assertive they actually were

The representatives of heuristic

the likelihood of an object's belonging to a certain category is based on how representative that object is of the larger category (if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, is probably a duck)

Gambler's fallacy

tendency to perceive a link between past and future events, when the events are actually independent

Tversky and Kahnman: babies born in large vs. small hospital

-large hospital: 45 babies / day
-small hospital: 15 babies / day
-Q: which hospital likely to have more days / year on which > 60% of babies were boys?
-large or small or no difference?

-correct answer is small
-Ps who chose larger or no difference incorrectly assumed that small samples are representative of the entire population

Conjunction fallacy

occurs when people estimate the odds of 2 events happening together are greater than the odds of either happening alone

Illusory correlation

believing that 2 variables are related to one another when in fact they are not (ex. full moon and strange behaviour)

Paired distinctiveness

the pairing of 2 distinctive events that stand out because they can co-occur (can lead to illusory correlations)

Hamilton and Gifford: bad acts

Ps overestimated the number of bad acts committed by group B (minority group)... they were highly distinctive

Two modes of information processing: Automatic processing (system 1)

unintentional, unaware, efficient, uncontrollable (make a disgusted face when seeing something gross, drive a car on an empty road, etc.)

Controlled processing (system 2)

intentional, aware, elaborate, controllable (calculate tip in your head, focus on voice of one person in crowded and noisy room)

Dual process models

system 1: generates impressions of intuitions -> system 2: decides whether or not to endorse suggestions of system 1-deliberates

Inductive reasoning

act of relying on past experiences to make inferences and predictions about the future (ex. received good service at a store in the past, will eat there in the future)

Goodman's new riddle of induction

-imagine that you are an emerald examiner​

-every emerald that you have seen in your life so far has been green​

-so, using your knowledge of the past, and attempting to predict the future, you’d make the induction, with confidence, that all emeralds are green ​

-therefore, the next emerald that you inspect will also be green

-The paradox: “all emeralds are green” and “all emeralds are grue” can both be true​

But…​

-They make opposite predictions about what colour the next emerald will be! ​

And we would all predict green, because green is an entrenched concept​

conclusion: we can only make reliable inductions from entrenched concepts and neutral kinds

Deductive reasoning

make specific predictions based on general assumptions (e.g., German predicts that Canadian exchange student will like hockey and beer)

Confirmation bias

tendency to search for info that confirms what we already know/believe while ignoring disconcerting evidence, leads to selective memory

Lord et al.: confirmation bias

Ps more convinced on articles about capital punishment that aligned with their original view

Belief perseverance

people's beliefs can persist, even in the face of disconfirming evidence

Ross et al.: belief perseverance

Ps asked to identify if a suicide note was real or fake, type of feedback (good judgers: 24/25 vs bad judgers: 10/25)

Reasoning about syllogisms

type of logical argument that begins with 2 assertions and a confusion that may or may not follow from these premises

e.g.,
-premise 1: all dogs are animals
-premise 2: all animals eat food
-conclusion: all dogs eat food

this is a valid conclusion
conclusion follows logically from premises

modus ponens (affirming the antecedent)

a conditional statement
-if antecedent X, then consequent Y
-e.g.,
-if P is true, then Q is true.
-P is true.
-Therefore Q is true.

affirming the consequent

-If P is true then Q is true.
-Q is true therefore
-P is true. (false)

Watson's four card task

If a card has a vowel on one side, then it must have an even number on the other side, which 2 cards must be turned over to test this rule (A, 6, J, 7) only 4% of Ps chose A and 7

Falsification principal

to test a rule, it's necessary to look for situations that would falsify the rule

Griggs and Cox: falsification principal

drinking a beer, 22 years of age, drinking a coke, 16 years of age (people able to apply real life schema)

Normative model

humans are optimal decision makers who always select choice leading to largest "expected utility" gain (ex. dice game, deal or no deal)

Post et al.: normative model

Contestants take more risks when doing poorly, perhaps to avoid feeling like a loser

Framing

the effect of how info about alternatives is presented on people's choices

Tversky and Kahneman: framing

disease problem (when choice is framed in gains people use risk aversion strategy, when framed in terms of losses, people use risk seeking strategy)

Reason based choice

people make a choice when, and only when, they detect what they believe to be a persuasive reason for making that choice

Somatic markers

states of the body used in decision making

Paradox of choice

people want to have as many options as possible (they assume more choice is better), having too many options can make people less satisfied with their decisions

Lyengar and Lepper: paradox of choice

study 1:
Ps more likely to stop at 24-jam display, but 10x more likely to buy from 6-jam display

study 2:
Ps more likely to write extra-credit essay when given 6 options (than 30)...
and also wrote better essays

Maximizers

goal is to make sure they choose the best alternative

Satisfiers

goal is to choose an option that meets a certain standard (ex. is good enough)

Haynes: paradox of choice

-Ps given either 3 or 10 prize alternatives from which to choose
-Ps given either limited time to make decision (2 or 5 min)
-after making choice, Ps answered questions about decision (difficulty, satisfaction, regret).
-Maximizers experienced more regret

How to avoid choice overload

restrict choice to reasonable number of alternatives, learn to satisfied (saves energy)

Schwartz and Clore: feelings as info perspective

we rely on current moods/emotional states to make judgements about event (happier on sunny days)

Semantic markers

states of body arousal that serve as a guide for decision (ex. nervous feeling in stomach [gut feeling]= alternative is risky)

Negativity bias

the tendency for negative events and emotions to affect us more strongly than positive ones (ex. hear about. violent crime then overestimate danger of neighbourhood [mean world syndrome])

Kermer et al.: money

-Gave Ps $5.00; told them they would either win another 5 or lose 3, Ps didn't feel as unhappy for loosing the 3 as they thought, positive effect of winning almost equal to negative affect of losing

Affective forecasting

-we're often not very accurate at predicting our emotional reactions to future events
-e.g., overestimate how badly we'd feel after being diagnosed with an illness, and how good we'd feel after winning a championship or meeting a favourite celebrity

Gilbert et al.: breakups

Ps in newer relationships thought they would be more unhappy after a breakup than in reality

affective forecasting susceptible to error resulting from...

-impact bias (tendency to overestimate intensity and duration of our emotional reaction to an event)

-focalism (focusing only on 1 event, while failing to consider other events that might impact our lives)