psy200 exam #3

conceptual knowledge

knowledge allowing to recognize and categorize

category

set including all examples

concept

characteristics defining a category

gradual organization

some things are more like the concept / category than others

sentence verification technique

participants are asked to verify sentences about if an item fits a category and reaction time measures how similar

prototypes

items that perfectly describe a category

semantic networks

each node represents a concept, each connection represents a relation between two such concepts

lexical decision task

decide whether a series of letters forms an actual word or a nonsense-word

imageless thought debate

does all thought require mental imagery

breakfast table experiment

asked people to picture breakfast table and describe; large variety of ability to imagine so all thought does not involve mental imagery

aphantasia

inability to form mental images

mental rotation experiment

participants are shown an item and a rotated version of the item and are asked if they are the same item; more rotated = longer reaction

language

system of communication using symbols enabling expressing of feelings, thoughts, and experiences

communication

exchange information

phonemes

short segment of speech that, if changed, changes the meaning of word

morphemes

smallest unit of language that has meaning or function

creole language

developed among children where adults speak a different language

nicaraguan sign language

developed among deaf children where teachers didn’t know how to communicate

parallel process

evaluate all sources and levels at the same time

phenome restoration effect

when a phoneme is inaudible due to other noise, the mind can fill in the missing phoneme based on context

mcgurk effect

the sound we hear can change based on how we see their mouth move

speech segmentation

ability to identify where one word ends and the next begins based on knowledge of statistical patterns in language

psuedowords

words that are made up of letters that are likely to follow each other but not real words