ELDs 122: Psychology of Language Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary practice flashcards generated from ELDs 122: Psychology of Language study notes covering major language processes, memory systems, types of thinking, linguistic relativity, volition, emotion, behaviorism, and language acquisition.

Psycholinguistics

The scientific study of how people acquire, understand, produce, and use language through psychological and neurological processes.

Psychology

The study of the mind, thoughts, emotions, and behavior.

Linguistics

The study of language structure, rules, and use.

Inference

Understanding a meaning that is not directly stated, calculated as Language + Memory + Context + Reasoning.

Comprehension

The process of understanding spoken or written language.

Production

The process of turning thoughts, ideas, or feelings into speech or writing.

Acquisition

The process of learning language rules, patterns, vocabulary, and structures over time.

Sensory Memory

Memory system that briefly holds raw sensory information before it is processed, with a duration of approximately 0.2-0.5 seconds.

Iconic Memory

A sensory memory sub-system responsible for holding visual information.

Echoic Memory

A sensory memory sub-system responsible for holding auditory information.

Haptic Memory

A sensory memory sub-system responsible for holding touch information.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

Memory that temporarily stores information for a short period of time, mainly holding recently received information.

Working Memory (WM)

A mental workspace that temporarily holds information while also processing or manipulating it.

Explicit Memory

Long-term memory that involves conscious recall of information.

Episodic Memory

A type of explicit memory containing personal experiences or events.

Semantic Memory

A type of explicit memory containing facts, vocabulary, concepts, and word meanings.

Implicit Memory

Long-term memory that works without conscious awareness or deliberate recall.

Procedural Memory

A type of implicit memory responsible for skills, actions, and procedures.

Conceptual / Abstract Thinking

Thinking about ideas, concepts, or categories that are not directly physical or observable.

Creative Thinking

Producing new ideas or original ways of using existing things.

Reflective Thinking

Deeply considering experiences, choices, or decisions to gain personal insight.

Perceptual / Concrete Thinking

Thinking based mainly on direct sensory information and literal observation.

Non-Directed / Associative Thinking

An unstructured flow of thoughts involving imagination, memories, dreams, or fantasies.

Critical Thinking

Carefully analyzing and evaluating information using logic, judgment, and awareness of different perspectives.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

A concept of linguistic relativity/determinism suggesting that the structure and vocabulary of a language can influence how speakers perceive, organize, and categorize reality.

Volition

The cognitive process of choosing, deciding, and committing to an intended action, involving purposive striving or acting toward a goal.

Linguistic Agency

The way language is framed to show whether an action was intentional or unintentional.

Volitional Control

The combination of intentional action, self-monitoring, and control over behavior or speech.

Subjective Experience

The personal feeling of an emotion, which varies from person to person.

Physiological Response

Physical changes associated with emotion that may involve the sympathetic nervous system and amygdala.

Behavioral Response

Observable expression or behavior associated with emotion, such as facial expressions, posture, gestures, or body language.

Primary Emotions

Paul Ekman's six commonly identified basic emotions: Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, Anger, and Surprise.

Schadenfreude

A German culture-specific emotion term meaning pleasure at another person's misfortune.

Amae

A Japanese culture-specific emotion term referring to a desire to be lovingly cared for, pampered, or indulged.

Behaviorism

A psychological approach that emphasizes observable behavior and how the environment influences it.

B. F. Skinner

The psychologist associated with operant conditioning, proposing that behavior can be strengthened or weakened through consequences.

Tabula Rasa

A term meaning 'blank slate,' describing the behaviorist view that children begin without fully developed language knowledge and acquire language through experience and environmental learning.

Positive Reinforcement

The addition of something rewarding to encourage and increase a behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

The removal of something unpleasant to encourage and increase a behavior.

Critical Period

A proposed period in development, commonly placed around age 7 in simplified materials, when language can be acquired especially naturally and efficiently.

Lexical Association

The concept that words are connected through semantic networks.

Emotional Reframing

The process of changing how a situation is verbally interpreted.