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Chapter 9: Language and Thinking

Language

  • Mental Representations: include images, ideas, concepts, and principles

  • Language: a system of symbols and rules for combining these symbols in ways that can generate an infinite number of possible messages and meanings

  • Psycholinguistics:  is the scientific study of the psychological aspects of language

  • Grammar: is the set of rules that dictates how symbols can be combined to create meaningful units of communication

  • Syntax: the rules that govern the order of words

  • Generativity: means that the symbols of language can be combined to generate an infinite number of messages that have novel meaning

  • Displacement: refers to the fact that language allows us to communicate about events and objects that are not physically present

  • Surface Structure: consists of the symbols that are used and their order

  • Deep Structure: refers to the underlying meaning of the combined symbols

  • Morphemes: the smallest units of meaning in a language

  • Bottom-up Processing:  individual elements of a stimulus are analyzed and then combined to form a unified perception

  • Top-Down Processing: sensory information is interpreted in light of existing knowledge, concepts, ideas, and expectations

  • Speech Segmentation: perceiving where each word within a spoken sentence begins and ends

  • Pragmatics: a knowledge of the practical aspects of using language

  • Bilinualism: the regular use of two languages

  • Phonological awareness:  to refer to this overall awareness of the sound structure of one’s language

Thinking

  • Proposition thought: expresses a proposition, or statement

  • Motoric Thought: relates to mental representation of motor movements

  • Propositions: statements that express ideas

  • Concepts: basic units of semantic memory- mental categoties into which we place objects, activities, abstractions, and events that have essential features in common

  • Deductive Reasoning: we reason from the top down, that is, from general principles to a conclusion about a specific case

  • Belief Bias: is the tendency to abandon logical rules in favor of our own personal beliefs

  • Framing:  refers to the idea that the same information, problem, or options can be structured and presented in different ways

  • Mental Set: the tendency to stick to solutions that have worked in the past

  • Algorithms:  are formulas or precise sequences of procedures that automatically generate solutions

  • Heuristics: are general problem-solving strategies, similar to mental rules-of-thumb, that we apply to certain classes of situations

  • Means-ends analysis: involves identifying differences between the present situation and a desired goal, and then making changes that reduce these differences

  • Subgoal analysis:  formulating subgoals, or intermediate steps, toward a solution

  • Representativeness Heuristic: we think about how closely something fi ts our prototype for that particular concept, or class, and therefore how likely it is to be a member of that class

  • Confirmation bias: tending to look for evidence that will confirm what they currently believe rather than looking for evidence that could disconfirm their beliefs

  • Overconfidence: the tendency to overestimate one’s correctness in factual knowledge, beliefs, and decisions

  • Creativity: is the ability to produce something that is both new and valuable

  • Divergent Thinking: the generation of novel ideas that depart from the norm

  • Functional Fixedness: the tendency to be so fixed in their perception of the proper function of an object or procedure that they are blinded to new ways of using it

  • Incubation: processing a problem, presumably at a subconscious level, while doing some other activity

  • Schema: a is a mental framework, an organized pattern of thought about some aspect of the world

  • Wisdom: is a system of rich, expert knowledge about fundamental matters of life

  • Mental Image: is a representation of a stimulus that originates inside your brain, rather than from external sensory input


Chapter 9: Language and Thinking

Language

  • Mental Representations: include images, ideas, concepts, and principles

  • Language: a system of symbols and rules for combining these symbols in ways that can generate an infinite number of possible messages and meanings

  • Psycholinguistics:  is the scientific study of the psychological aspects of language

  • Grammar: is the set of rules that dictates how symbols can be combined to create meaningful units of communication

  • Syntax: the rules that govern the order of words

  • Generativity: means that the symbols of language can be combined to generate an infinite number of messages that have novel meaning

  • Displacement: refers to the fact that language allows us to communicate about events and objects that are not physically present

  • Surface Structure: consists of the symbols that are used and their order

  • Deep Structure: refers to the underlying meaning of the combined symbols

  • Morphemes: the smallest units of meaning in a language

  • Bottom-up Processing:  individual elements of a stimulus are analyzed and then combined to form a unified perception

  • Top-Down Processing: sensory information is interpreted in light of existing knowledge, concepts, ideas, and expectations

  • Speech Segmentation: perceiving where each word within a spoken sentence begins and ends

  • Pragmatics: a knowledge of the practical aspects of using language

  • Bilinualism: the regular use of two languages

  • Phonological awareness:  to refer to this overall awareness of the sound structure of one’s language

Thinking

  • Proposition thought: expresses a proposition, or statement

  • Motoric Thought: relates to mental representation of motor movements

  • Propositions: statements that express ideas

  • Concepts: basic units of semantic memory- mental categoties into which we place objects, activities, abstractions, and events that have essential features in common

  • Deductive Reasoning: we reason from the top down, that is, from general principles to a conclusion about a specific case

  • Belief Bias: is the tendency to abandon logical rules in favor of our own personal beliefs

  • Framing:  refers to the idea that the same information, problem, or options can be structured and presented in different ways

  • Mental Set: the tendency to stick to solutions that have worked in the past

  • Algorithms:  are formulas or precise sequences of procedures that automatically generate solutions

  • Heuristics: are general problem-solving strategies, similar to mental rules-of-thumb, that we apply to certain classes of situations

  • Means-ends analysis: involves identifying differences between the present situation and a desired goal, and then making changes that reduce these differences

  • Subgoal analysis:  formulating subgoals, or intermediate steps, toward a solution

  • Representativeness Heuristic: we think about how closely something fi ts our prototype for that particular concept, or class, and therefore how likely it is to be a member of that class

  • Confirmation bias: tending to look for evidence that will confirm what they currently believe rather than looking for evidence that could disconfirm their beliefs

  • Overconfidence: the tendency to overestimate one’s correctness in factual knowledge, beliefs, and decisions

  • Creativity: is the ability to produce something that is both new and valuable

  • Divergent Thinking: the generation of novel ideas that depart from the norm

  • Functional Fixedness: the tendency to be so fixed in their perception of the proper function of an object or procedure that they are blinded to new ways of using it

  • Incubation: processing a problem, presumably at a subconscious level, while doing some other activity

  • Schema: a is a mental framework, an organized pattern of thought about some aspect of the world

  • Wisdom: is a system of rich, expert knowledge about fundamental matters of life

  • Mental Image: is a representation of a stimulus that originates inside your brain, rather than from external sensory input


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