PSYC1101 - Chapter 9 - Thinking and Language

Cognition

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

Cognitive psychology

The study of mental activities and processes

Concept

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people (the building blocks of thought)

Prototype

A mental image or best example of a category

Problem solving

The thinking we do in order to answer a complex question or resolve an unfavorable situation

Trial and error

A method of problem solving in which you try various possible solutions until you find one that works

Algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

Heuristic

A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently

Insight

A sudden realization of a problem's solution

Confirmation bias

A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Mental set

A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past

Fixation

The tendency to get stuck in one way of thinking; an inability to see a problem from a new perspective

Availability heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory (if instances come readily to mind we presume such events are common)

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct; overestimating the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments

Belief perseverance

Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

Framing

The way an issue is posed (which can significantly affect decisions and judgments)

Language

Our spoken, written, or signed words, and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning; a structured system (governed by rules) of arbitrary symbols used to communicate meaning

Phonemes

The smallest distinctive sound unit in a language, newborns can differentiate between all of these but later on in life we can only differentiate between the ones in our own language

Morpheme

The smallest unit that carries meaning in a language

Grammar

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

Semantics

The set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds

Syntax

The set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences

Babbling stage

Stage in which an infant spontaneously utters various sounds

One-word stage

Stage in which a child speaks mostly in single words

Two-word stage

Stage in which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements

Fast mapping

A period of very fast language learning resulting in a vocabulary spurt between 2 and 6 years old

Telegraphic speech

Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram using mostly nouns and verbs

MLU

The average number of morphemes used in speech (increases with age)

Pragmatics

Cultural and social rules about how to use language appropriately, many of these are observed even by children who cannot fully speak the language

Language interference

Confusion about which word applies to an object or concept because of the multiple words available in different languages, experienced by bilinguists

Language Acquisition Device

An innate language processing system programmed to recognize universal rules of language

Conditioning

Parents are happy when their children learn language so ___ must be the force behind language acquisition

Imitation

Children tend to imitate the actions of their parents and other people around them so ___ must be the force behind language acquisition

Broca's area

The area of the brain responsible for speech production

Wernicke's area

The area of the brain responsible for language comprehension

Critical period

The time during which you must learn something if you are ever going to learn it (for language this is between birth and age 7)

Genie

A "feral child" that did not hear language until she was 13 and was able to learn words and increase her vocabulary but not learn the structure of language

Linguistic determinism

The hypothesis that language determines the way we think

Benjamin Whorf

An American linguist responsible for the theory of linguistic determinism