Chapter 8 - Thought and Language

Question 1

Concept

Answer 1

The mental representation of an object, event, or idea (makes things organized)

Question 2

Categories

Answer 2

Clusters of interrelated concepts

Question 3

Definition-based categorization

Answer 3

Membership in a category is all-or-none and all members are equal

Question 4

Graded membership

Answer 4

Members of category vary in typicality; some things are better fit than others; sentence verification technique

Question 5

Prototypes

Answer 5

Mental representations of an average category member; classification by resemblance; explains graded membership; more difference = more response time

Question 6

Exemplars

Answer 6

Categorization made by comparing stimulus to an available example from memory (ie. whatever comes to mind)

Question 7

What is the difference between prototypes and exemplars?

Answer 7

Prototypes provide information about typicality, exemplars provide information about variability within a category

Question 8

Semantic networks

Answer 8

Categories and concepts organized from general to more specific in a semantic network; superordinate to basic to subordinate

Question 9

Lexical decision task

Answer 9

Are both of the following real words?; can either be 1 word and 1 non word, 2 unrelated real words, or 2 related real words

Question 10

Linguistic relativity hypothesis

Answer 10

Language influences how we experience the world

Question 11

Categorical perception

Answer 11

Faster and more accurate discrimination of stimuli that straddle a colour boundary

Question 12

Universalist view

Answer 12

Common repertoire of thought and perception that then influences all languages; languages guide what we pay attention to, then attention shapes our cognition; languages evolve along predictable lines

Question 13

Algorithms

Answer 13

Strategies based on following a series of rules; like a computer, uncommon

Question 14

Heuristics

Answer 14

Strategies that rely on our prior experiences; educated guesses, mental shortcuts

Question 15

Mental set

Answer 15

Can result from rote learning during problem solving with no deeper understanding of problem developed; routine; something we are used to that usually works until something is changed

Question 16

Functional fixedness

Answer 16

Occurs when an individual can only think of an object’s most obvious function rather than thinking outside the box

Question 17

Conjugation fallacy

Answer 17

Mistaken belief that finding a specific member in two overlapping categories is more likely than finding any member of one of the larger, general categories

Question 18

Representative heuristic

Answer 18

Making judgements of likelihood based on how well an example represents a specific category; probability substituted for resemblance; law of small numbers; gambler’s fallacy

Question 19

Base-rate neglect

Answer 19

Participants are asked if someone is chosen at random from 70 lawyers and 30 engineers, what is their likely profession; if participants are given descriptions of certain individuals, participants ignored base rate information and chose based on the descriptions; decided based on whether the person resembles their conception of a lawyer or engineer, rather than using base-rate likelihood

Question 20

Availability heuristic

Answer 20

Estimating the frequency of an event based on how easily examples of it come to mind; frequency information substituted with ease of examples coming to mind; constant media exposure to certain events can provide an example that is ‘top of mind’

Question 21

Emotion-based decisions

Answer 21

Emotional memories are particularly influential for our availability heuristic

Question 22

Framing questions

Answer 22

Changing how a question is asked often changes the result

Question 23

Framing of outcomes

Answer 23

When things are framed as a loss, people become more risk averse and try to alleviate that loss

Question 24

How is framing used in the real world?

Answer 24

Political polls; sales and negotiating tactics; anchoring effect

Question 25

Belief perseverance

Answer 25

Tendency to readily accept evidence consistent with our beliefs and to ignore information that refutes them; we are stubborn in our beliefs even when we know we are wrong

Question 26

Confirmation bias

Answer 26

Tendency to search only for evidence that will confirm our beliefs instead of for evidence that might disconfirm them; actively seeking for information that confirms what we believe

Question 27

Conspiracy theories

Answer 27

Challenging information reinterpreted to fit with current beliefs

Question 28

Langauge

Answer 28

Communication that involves spoken, written, or gestural symbols that are combined in a rule-based form

Question 29

What are the unique features of language?

Answer 29

Semanticity (only has meaning because we all agree that it does); productivity (infinite number of meanings); displacement (we can talk about past and future as well as other locations); socially learned (requires exposure to it to learn)

Question 30

Phonemes

Answer 30

The most basic unit of speech sounds; vocal tract is capable of 200 different phonemes

Question 31

Experience-dependent plasticity

Answer 31

Young infants capable of discriminating all 200 phonemes, but lose this ability around 10 months

Question 32

Morphemes

Answer 32

The smallest meaningful units of a language; about 50000 in English (includes root words, prefixes, and suffixes; leads to productivity)

Question 33

Semantics

Answer 33

Deriving meaning from words; often words are ambiguous and their meaning needs to be considered in the context of how they are being used

Question 34

Syntax

Answer 34

The rules for combining words and morphemes into meaningful phrases and sentences; evaluated on a word-by-word basis rather than once all the information is available

Question 35

Garden path sentences

Answer 35

Lead you to one misleading or unintended interpretation based on early words in the sentence

Question 36

Pragmatics

Answer 36

Non-linguistic aspects of language (how context contributes to meaning; prior knowledge, environment, tone of voice, gestures); informal rules of language (social assumptions, sarcasm)

Question 37

Aphasias

Answer 37

Disorders of language (not thought) caused by damage to the brain structures that support using and understanding language (Broca's aphasia: can't form words; Wernicke's aphasia: no meaning behind words)

Question 38

What are the problems with the Wernicke-Geschwind model?

Answer 38

Brain damage rarely isolated to region of theoretical interest; isolated damage to Broca's and Wernicke's areas rarely produces lasting deficits; language functions more distributed, aphasias associated with widespread damage; localization vs. circuits (not localized)

Question 39

Language development

Answer 39

Listening begins in the womb; newborns distinguish function and content words, then prefer the content words by 6 months

Question 40

Naming explosion

Answer 40

A rapid increase in vocabulary size around 20-24 months aided by 'fast mapping' (hearing it once and adding it to vocabulary); receptive vocabulary larger than productive vocabulary (can understand more than they can speak)

Question 41

What are the predictable errors children make during language development?

Answer 41

Overextension (~2 years; don't realize things are different); underextension (~2 years; too specific); overgeneralization (~3-4 years; use rules of language when not actually applicable)

Question 42

Metalinguistic awareness

Answer 42

Understanding of how language is being used; between the ages of 6-8 children can learn to understand irony and sarcasm (ie. pragmatics)

Question 43

Sensitive period

Answer 43

A time during childhood during which children's brains are primed to develop language skills; ability fades starting 7th year; same with sign language

Question 44

Critical period

Answer 44

A time during development in which a child needs to be exposed to language or else language skills will not develop normally (exposure needs to occur within first 12 years); Genie case study (developed large vocabulary but never mastered more complex language skills)

Question 45

What are the costs of being bilingual?

Answer 45

Smaller vocabulary in bilingual children; word access diminished in adulthood compared to unilingual adults (competing between languages)

Question 46

What are the benefits of being bilingual?

Answer 46

Executive functions improved (ability to inhibit one language and use the other); potential health benefits (less risk of Alzheimer's, dementia, etc.)

Question 47

Behaviourist theory

Answer 47

Children acquire sentence structure and syntax through imitation and operant conditioning (B.F. Skinner in the 1950s); many aspects of language have a learned component (such as accents); however, children often produce novel utterances that cannot have been the product of imitation or reinforcement; some types of language errors are resistant to feedback (overgeneralizations)`

Question 48

Nativist theory

Answer 48

Assumes humans have a native (genetic) predisposition to develop language effortlessly (Noam Chomsky in the 1950s); pace of language acquisition consistent across cultures

Question 49

Universal grammar

Answer 49

Common grammatical building blocks present in all languages; nouns/verbs, subjects/objects

Question 50

Interactionist theory

Answer 50

Language development involves both biology and experience (modern understanding); special emphasis on the need for social interaction for proper language development; balanced approach to nature-nurture debate

Question 51

Cross-fostering studies

Answer 51

Individual raised as a member of a different species (Viki the chimp was able to learn four words: mama, papa, up, cup); however, the vocal apparatus of chimps is very different from those of humans; focus was then shifted to learning sign language (much more successful than speaking)

Question 52

Lexigram approach

Answer 52

Kanzi (bonobo); lexigram board comprised of symbols that represent various objects and ideas; understood 350 symbols and 3000 spoken words (large receptive vocabulary)

Question 53

Language use in other animals

Answer 53

Dolphins use syntactic rules in an artificial gestural language; Chaser (border collie) learned over 1000 words; Alex (African grey parrot) could say ~150 words to identify shapes, colours, numbers, etc.

Question 54

Honeybee waggle dance

Answer 54

Shows displacement in honeybees; higher intensity of waggle = more distance, also shows direction

Question 55

Referential alarm calls

Answer 55

Function as primitive words; shows semanticity

Question 56

Vocal learning species

Answer 56

Some select animal groups (like humans) need to learn species-typical vocalizations to communicate properly; 'cultural transmission' of whale songs

Question 57

Is human language unique?

Answer 57

Yes and no; all forms of animal communication, human or otherwise, exist along a continuum; evolutionary building blocks of language can be found in other species