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Concept
a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people
Schema
a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
Prototype
a mental image or best example of a category
Trial and error
A problem-solving strategy that involves attempting different solutions and eliminating those that do not work.
Algorithm
A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
Insight
a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem
Heuristic
a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms
Heuristic examples
Representativeness, availability, forming sub groups, working backwards, searching for analogies, changing the representation of the problem
representativeness heuristic
judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information
Availability heuristic
estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common
forming subgoals
breaking down a problem into smaller parts
Working backwards
heuristic in which you begin to solve a problem by focusing on the end result and going step by step backwards to the start
searching for analogies
a problem-solving heuristic that involves trying to find a connection between the current problem and some previous problem you have solved successfully
Changing the representation of the problem
changing the way you think about the problem
Belief perseverance
clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited
Belief bias
The tendency to judge arguments based on what one believes about their conclusions rather than on whether they use sound logic
cognition
all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
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
Overconfidence
Tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct predictions
framing
the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.
implicit knowledge
knowledge that a person cannot consciously recall or explain but that nevertheless affects the person's thinking or behavior
language
our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
phoneme
in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit
Morpheme
in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)
grammar
in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others
semantics
the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning
syntax
the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language
receptive language
comprehension of spoken language
productive language
the ability to produce language
babbling stage
beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language
one-word stage
the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words
two-word stage
beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements
telegraphic speech
early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs. (two-word stage)
universal grammar
Noam Chomsky's theory that all the world's languages share a similar underlying structure
statistical learning
certain sounds (making words) are more likely to occur together and babies are sensitive to those probabilities, find rules and identify syllables, grammar, word breaks
decision making
attempting to select the best course of action among several options
additive strategies
all possible options weighed for pros and cons, used when there are fewer options
purely additive strategy
option w/highest number of pros wins
weighted additive strategy
If an additive strategy is modified slightly by treating some attributes as being more important than others, thus assigning more weight to some attributes than others
elimination by aspects
gradually eliminate options whose attributes fail to satisfy a minimum criteria
expected utility
used for decisions w/unknown outcome, choose option w/highest probability of positive outcome
expected value
how valuable and probably a possible outcome is
subjective utility
represents what an outcome is personally worth to an individual, depends on individual's perception
mental set (rigidity)
the tendency to fall into established thought patterns
functional fixedness
a type of mental set, the tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use
creativity
the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas
divergent thinking
expands the number of possible problem solutions
convergent thinking
narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution
does syntax or semantics come first?
SYNTAX
aphasia
impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).
Broca's aphasia
condition resulting from damage to Broca's area, causing the affected person to be unable to speak fluently, to mispronounce words, and to speak haltingly
Wernike's Aphasia
Unable to understand language: the syntax and grammar jumbled
Examples of language abilities
Singing, speaking, reading, signing, writing
unsymbolized thoughts
wordless, imageless thoughts
linguistic determinism
Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think
bilingual advantage
ability of bilinguals to exert executive control and control attention
Process stimulation
imagining doing the actions
holophrastic stage
One word stage
overextension
the use of a given word in a broader context than is appropriate, common in telegraphic stage
overregularization
Applying a grammatical rule too widely and thereby creating incorrect forms. Common in two word stage
underextension
the overly restrictive use of words, common in telegraphic stage
social learning theory
the theory that we learn language by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished, bf skinner
Nativist theory
a theory of language development that says the ability to use language is inborn, Noam Chomsky
Fast-mapping theory
Child forms an idea of a new word after hearing it only once or twice, may help explain the incredible rate at which children acquire new vocabulary. Susan Carey and Elsa Bartlett
Linguistic relativity
view that characteristics of language shape our thought processes
Emergentist/interactionist Perspective
human language is a dynamic interaction between inherited biology, environmental factors, and social pressures
Pinker and Bloom's Evolutionary Language Theory
Language is a product of evolutionary pressures. Being able to acquire and communicate info second hand increases survival
Benjamin Lee Whorf
Famous for describing concept of "liguistic determinism"
Note 
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