Language and Thinking Study Guide

Language

Consists of symbols that convey meaning, plus rules for combining those symbols, that can be used to generate an infinite variety of messages.

Phonemes

- smallest speech units in a language that c an be distinguished perceptually
- ex. sounds letters make (about 40 in English language)

Morphemes

-smallest units of meaning in a language
- ex. fire, guard, friend(1), unfriednly (3) (about 50,000 in English language)

Syntax

-system of rule that specify how words can be arranged into sentences
- ex. sentence must have a noun phrase + verb phrase

Semantics

-area of language concerned w/understanding the meaning of words/word combinations
- ex. denotation= dictionary definition
connotation= emotional overtones + secondary implications

overextension

-occurs when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a wider set of objects/actions than it is meant to
- ex. using ball for anything round (orange,apple,moon)

underextension

- occurs when a child incorrectl uses a word to describe a narrower set of objects/actions than it is meant to
- ex. "use doll only for a specific favorite doll

telegraphic speech

- consists mainly of content words; articles, prepositions, othe less critical words are omitted
- ex. "give doll" vs "please give me the doll"

overregularization

-grammatical rules are incorrectly generalized to irregular cases where they dont apply
- ex. "the girl goed gome" or :i hitted the ball"

Behaviorist theory(Skinner)

Argued that children learn language the same way they learn everything else: throught imitation, reinforcement, other established principles of conditioning

Behaviorist theory(Skinner)

Children develop language skills based on positive reinforced for using language
Child gets positively reinforced by speaking. Able to get needs met through language
Child who is hungry gets positively reinforced when expressed to parents that he is hungry
Also, parents praising kids for using language
Might explain vocab differences in kids

Evolutionary theory

- language evolved asa device to build and maintain social conditions in increasingly larger groups, some speculate that differences in language skill influence reproductive fitness

Nativist Theory of Language (Chomsky)

humans have an inborn or "native" propensity to develop language

Nativist Theory of Language (Chomsky)

Chomsky believes that language is an innate skill that is specific to humans
The language acquisition device is the hypothetical device in the mind that provides humans with ability to acquire and develop language
Supported by the fact that children universally develop language at the same rate, regardless of environment
Children have an innate sense of putting sentences together with proper syntax, putting words in proper order.

Language Acquistion Device

- innate mechanism or process that facilitates the learning of language
- ex humans learn language same way birds learn to fly (biologically equipped for it)

Whorfian THeory of Liguistic Relativity

-hypothesis that ones language determines the nature of ones thought
- whorf speculated that different languages lead people to view the world differently

Whorfian THeory of Liguistic Relativity

simply the idea tha language impacts the way we think about things, events, etc. in our environment
Because the eskimos have so many different words for snow,it shapes the way people think about snow
Some cultures might have more words for types of the color blue thus influencing the way they think about the colors
Think about an activity you do, which causes you to have multiple words for certain things

Functional Fixedness

- tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use
- ex. screwdriver is only for screws/ opening things, not a weight

Mental Set

Persist in using problem solving strategies that have worked in the past
-ex. diagnosing everyone w/ similar symptoms the same

Overconfidence bias

- a tendency to hold a false and misleading assessment of our own abilities

hindsight bias

- tendency upon learning outcome of an event to overestimate ones ability to have forseen the out come

trial and error

- trying possible solutions and discarding those that are in error until one works
- ex. eating berries, some kill some dont, they learn and try more

Algorithm

-a step by step process which guarantees a solution, slow but accurate
-ex. writing out all possible combinations for an anagram

Heuristic

-a heuristic is a mental shortcut, a rule of thumb, a speedy but prone to error
-ex. forming subgoals, working backwards, searching for analogies, etc.

Availability heuristic

-When we make judgements or decisions based on how much it stands out in our mind that is how much its available as a mental
- ex. estimating divorce rate by recalling divorces withing your friends parents

Representative Heuristic

-A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype.
-ex. people believe HTTHTH is more likely than TTTTTT bc coi tossing is random, they are wrong

conjunction fallacy

-The assumption that more specific conditions are more probable than general ones
-ex. college teacher + politician vs just politician

Gamblers Fallacy

-The belief that the odds of a chance event more likely to occur if this event has not occured recently
- ex. keep losing at spinning wheel, think youll win next time

Confirmation BIas

-The tendency to only seek info that is likely to support one's preexisting views, decisions and beliefs. And often disregard contradictory info.
- ex. diagnosing someone w/ something b/c looking for those specific symptons

Framing

-refers to how decision issues are posed/how choices are structured
-ex. 200 people will be saved vs 400 will die (out of 600)

Belief Perserverance

- the tendency for people to hold their beliefs as true, even when there is ample evidence to discredit the belief

incubation effect

-occurs when new solutions surface for a previously unsolved problem after period of conciously thinking about the problem
-thats why taking a break from a difficult problem might help

insight

- occurs when people suddenly discover correct solution after struggling for a while
-Sudden understanding
-No conscious understanding of how a solution came to us

divergent thinking-

-seeking multiple ways to solve problems and or ake decisions. People who dont have functional fixedness are divergent thinkers

Convergent thinking

-seeking a single way to solve problems and/or making decisions

Tolmans Study on Latent Learning

- 3 groups of rats (group A, B, C)
- group A rewarded each time they completed maze
- Group B not reinforced at all
-Group C rewarded after 11th time
-C ran at same time as A, showing they were learning the whole time
-Tolman's experiments with rats demonstrated that organisms can learn even if they do not receive immediate reinforcement
- latent learning is the learning that is not readily apparent util received reinforcement

Apply latent learning to humans

- students dont participate in class, but when teacher offers reward, student end up participating and showing they knew the answer the whole time

Rescorola's Study on Signal relations/Contigency THeory

- 1 group of rats(A and B)
-both shocked 20 times, A had tone 20 times and B had tone 40 times
-Contingency theory is one approach to formalizing associative learning (Rescorla, 1967, 1968). According to Rescorla, the "American" view of Pavlovian conditioning focused upon the frequency of pairings between reinforcement (or more generally the unconditioned stimulus (US)) and the conditioned stimulus (CS).
- conigency theory is that for learning to take place the stimulus provides subject in for concerning likelihood or chance that certain event will occur

Apply Rescorola's theory to humans

- if supersticious, make connection wearing "Special" socks and winning game