Psychology Ch 9

signs

non-arbitrary connection between sign and what it signifies. They are limited/closed systems of communication

symbols

arbitrary in that there's no necessary connection between a symbol and what it symbolizes.

language is...

creative, arbitrary, symbolic, structured, discrete and interpersonal

phoneme

smallest unit of sound

morpheme

smallest unit of meaning

deep structure

the underlying meaning of a sentence

surface structure

the sound and order of words

behaviorist theory of language development

language is learned through operant conditioning and imitation

nativist theory of language development

humans are neurologically prewired to learn language

interactionist theory of language development

both biology and experience make important contributions to language development

concept

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

problem

generally impossible to produce a definition of a concept that allows unambiguous assignment of every case to a specific concept or category

prototype theory

a theory in which concepts or word meanings are formed around average or typical values

exemplar theory

a theory of categorization that argues that we make category judgments by comparing a new instance with stored memories for other instances of the category

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

frequency

the ratio of the number of a given event and the total number of all events

algorithm

a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem

heuristics

shortcut strategies or guidelines that suggest a solution to a problem but do not guarantee an answer

conjunction fallacy

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

representative heuristic

judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes

framing effect

the tendency for people's choices to be affected by how a choice is presented, or framed, such as whether it is worded in terms of potential losses or gains

prospect theory

theory that suggests that a decision, or argument, can be framed in different ways and that the framing affects risk assessments consumers make

functional fixedness

the tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use

belief bias

a tendency to draw conclusions based on what one already believes rather than sound logic

illusory truth effect

enhanced probability of evaluating a statement as being true upon repeated presentation

probability

the expected frequency of a given event