Chapter 9 - Keywords

language

a system for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and that convey meaning

grammar

a set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages

phoneme

the smallest units of speech that distinguish one word from one another

phonological rules

indicate how phonemes can be combined to form words

morphemes

the smallest meaningful units of language

morphological rules

indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words

syntactic rules

indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences

telegraphic speech

sentences devoid of function morphemes and consist mostly of content words

nativist theory

language development is best explained as an innate, biological capacity

universal grammar

a collection of processes that facilitate language learning

aphasia

difficulty in producing or comprehending language

linguistic relativity hypothesis

the idea that language shapes the nature of thought

concept

a mental representation that groups or categorizes shared features of related objects, events, or other stimuli

prototype theory

the concept that we classify new objects by comparing them to the “best” or “most typical” member of a category

exemplar theory

we make category judgments by comparing a new instance with stored memories of other instances of the category

category-specific deficit

a neurological syndrome characterized by an inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category, even when the ability to recognize objects outside the category is undisturbed

rational choice theory

the classical view that we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the value of the outcome, and then multiplying the two

availablility heuristic

a rule of thumb that items that are more readily available in memory are judged as having occurred more frequently

heuristic

fast and efficient strategy that may facilitate decision making but does not guarantee that a solution will be reached

algorithm

a well-defined sequence of procedures or rules that guarantees a solution to a problem

representativeness heuristic

a mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgment by comparing an object or event with a prototype of the object or event

conjunction fallacy

people think that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event

framing effects

people give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is framed

sunk-cost fallacy

a framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation on the basis of what they have previously invested in the situation

optimism bias

people believe that, compared with other individuals, they are more likely to experience positive events and less likely to experience negative events in the future

prospect theory

people choose to take on risks when evaluating potential losses and to avoid risks when evaluating potential gains

means-ends analysis

a process of searching for the means or steps to reduce the differences between the current situation and the desired goal

analogical problem solving

solve a problem by finding a similar problem with a known solution and applying that solution to the current problem

functional fixedness

the tendency to perceive the functions of objects as unchanging

reasoning

a mental activity that consists of organizing information or beliefs into a series of steps in order to reach conclusions

belief bias

the idea that people’s judgments about whether to accept conclusions depend more on how believable the conclusions are than on whether the arguments are logically valid

syllogistic reasoning

assesses whether a conclusion follows from two statements that are assumed to be true

illusory truth effect

an error in reasoning that occurs when repeated exposure to a statement increases the likelihood that people will judge the statement to be true

illusion of explanatory depth

an illusion that occurs when people overestimate the depth of their understanding