Thinking and Language - PSYC 201 Lecture Notes

These flashcards cover key concepts related to thinking, language, and problem-solving from the psychology lecture notes.

Cognition

Internal mental processes including information processing, thinking, reasoning, and problem solving.

Symbolic Representation

A type of mental representation that bears no resemblance to the actual object, such as language.

Analogical Representation

A type of mental representation that maintains some characteristics of the real object, like maps and pictures.

Concept

An organizing principle derived from experience.

Prototype

A representation of a category formed by averaging all members of that category.

Exemplar

A specific member of a category used to represent that category.

Schemas

Organized structures of knowledge that influence memory storage and retrieval.

Problem Solving

The use of information to meet a specific goal.

Algorithm

A precise, step-by-step set of rules that will reliably generate a solution to a problem.

Heuristics

Shortcuts to problem solving based on past experience or predictions.

Availability Heuristic

The frequency of an event’s occurrence predicted by the ease with which it is brought to mind.

Recognition Heuristic

Higher value is placed on more easily recognized alternatives.

Aphasia

The loss of the ability to speak or understand language due to brain damage.

Broca's Aphasia

Difficulty producing speech; speech may be slow and effortful.

Wernicke's Aphasia

Difficulty comprehending speech; speech may be fluent but meaningless.

Dyslexia

Linguistic difficulties that occur despite adequate language skill training, affecting reading ability.

Sign Language

A system of communication using visual signals, such as gestures, commonly used by the deaf community.

Phonemes

The most basic units of speech sounds.

Morphemes

The smallest meaningful units of a language.

Grammar

The rules that combine morphemes into phrases and sentences.