AP Psych: Language and Cognition

Phoneme

smallest units of sound

Morpheme

smallest units of meaning

Babbling Stage

stages of speech development in which the infant makes spontaneous sounds which has no meaning to it

One Word Stage

the stage that takes place during when a child is 1-2 years old, where they speak mostly in single words

Two Word Stage

the stage that takes place at around the age of 2, during when children speak in 2 word sentences

Overextension

learning words, use the same word too much incorrectly

Overgeneralization

incorrect grammar usage

Chomsky → language acquisition device

human born with inherent ability to learn language

Whorf → language acquisition device

the idea that language shapes how you think and see the world

Convergent thinking

narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

Divergent Thinking

Expanding the number of possible problem solutions, leading to different creative directions

Concept

Mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

Prototype

A mental image designed to best represent a category

Algorithm

A methoedical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a problem

Heuristic

a mental short-cut that is more error-prone than algorithms

Availability heuristic

judging the likelihood of an event based off of vivid memories; can distort fear factor

Representativeness Heuristic

judging the likelihood of an event to happen based off stereotypes

Mental Set

approaches problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past

Fixation

inability to see the problem from a new perspective

Sunk-cost Fallacy

We like to continue our original plan because of the time invested even when a new approach can save time

Gambler’s Fallacy

When judging the outcome of future events, we tend to use past random events that were repeated