language: a system of symbols and rules that is used for meaningful communication

phonemes: the smallest distinguishable units in a language

morphemes: the smallest meaningful units in a language

syntax: a system of rules that governs how words can be meaningfully

babbling stage: producing sounds that resemble many different languages

telegraphic speech: like telegrams contains no articles or prepositions

metalingual awareness: the capacity to think about how language is used

B. F. Skinner: believed that language is acquired through principles of conditioning including association, imitation, and reinforcement

Noam Chomsky: argues that human brains have a language acquisition device (LAD) an innate mechanism or process that allows children to develop language skills

Benjamin Lee Whorf: proposed linguistic relativity hypothesis that language determines the way people think (Like how not all words have direct translations)

Semantic slanting: a way of making statements to evoke specific emotional responses like saying preemptive counterattack over invasion)

Name calling: strategy of labeling people in order to influence their thinking

semantics: the set of rules by which we derive meaning in a language (ex. adding ed to the end of words is past tense

syntax: the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences (like noun adjective placement in Spanish vs. english)

one word stage: 1-2 year old uses one word to communicate big meanings

Benjamin Lee Whorf's Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis: Linguistic Determinism → The idea that language determines the way we think not vice versa

Washoe: chimpanzee taught ASL to communicate

concept: a mental category that groups similar objects events qualities or actions

prototypes: a typical example of concept used to decide whether a particular instance of something belongs to a concept

cognitive schema: mental models of different aspects of the world (ex. knowledge, beliefs, assumptions, etc)

cognition: another term for thinking knowing and remembering

Lev Vygotsky's theory of Social Influences: Cognitive development works best through the interaction with others (Saw child as an apprentice)

Algorithm: a methodical logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

Heuristics: a rule of thumb strategy that often allows us to make judgements solve problems efficiently (AKA a shortcut that’s prone to errors)

Representative Heuristic: likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype

Availabily Heuristic: Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in our memory

Dialectical Reasoning: the process of arriving at truth through a process of comparing contrastingvarious solutions (Pros and Cons list)

Insight: a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem

The Gambler's Fallacy: the mistaken belief that if something happens a lot it won't happen as much later (when it's independent)

Confirmation Bias: a tendency to search for info that confirms one's preconceptions

Fixation: The inability to see a problem from another POV

Functional Fixedness: the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions

Mental set: tendency to approach a problem in a particular way especially if it has worked in the past

Overconfidence: the tendency to be more confident than correct overestimating your beliefs

Belief Bias: tendency of our own beliefs to distort logical reasoning

Belief Perseverance: clinging to your initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

Divergent thinking: like brainstorming

Convergent thinking: Narrow down idea

Problem solving: the active effort people make to achieve a goal that cannot be easily attained

trial and error: involves trying out different solutions until one works

deductive reasoning: the process by which a particular conclusion is drawn from a set of general premises of statements

inductive reasoning: the process by which a general conclusion is drawn from examples

additive strategy: a person lists the attributes of each element of the decision weighs them according to importance adds them up and picks the best

elimination by aspects: involves eliminating alternatives based on whether they do or do not possess aspects or attributes deemed important