Chapter 9

Question 1

What is language?

Answer 1

A system of communication with others using combined signals according to rules of grammar, and convey meaning

Question 2

Describe grammar

Answer 2

A set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combines to produce a meaningful message

Question 3

How is human language different from others?

Answer 3

• More complex
• Describe more non objective things
• Used to think and conceptualize

Question 4

What is a phenome?

Answer 4

The smallest unit of sound that is recognized as speech

Question 5

What is a morpheme?

Answer 5

The smallest meaningful units of language (bat)

Question 6

What are the syntactical rules?

Answer 6

Set of rules that indicate how morphemes can be combined to produce speech sounds

Question 7

What are the three characteristics of language development?

Answer 7

1. Children learn language at an astonishing rate
2. Children make few errors while learning to speak
3. Children’s comprehension of language develops faster than production

Question 8

How many words do children have at each age?

Answer 8

• 1 year, 10 words
• 4 years, 10,000 words
• 6-7 years, 6-7 words daily

Question 9

When do children start babbling?

Answer 9

4-6 months

Question 10

What is telegraphic (two word) speech and when do children do it?

Answer 10

• When children use function morphemes of mainly content words (more milk)
• Occurs around 24 months

Question 11

What is over regularizing words?

Answer 11

Apply grammatical ruled to everything and making errors in sentences (I eated)

Question 12

What is the behaviourist explanation of language development?

Answer 12

Language is learnt through operant conditioning (reinforcement/punishment) and imitation

Question 13

What is the nativist explanation of language development?

Answer 13

Language is innate and comes automatically

Question 14

When is it hardest to learn language?

Answer 14

After puberty

Question 15

What is the interactionist explanation of language development?

Answer 15

That social interaction is a major part of learning language

Question 16

What is the brocas area? and what is brocas aphasia?

Answer 16

• The left frontal cortex
• Difficulty producing sentences

Question 17

What is wenicke’s area? and what is wenicke’s aphasia?

Answer 17

• Left temporal cortex
• Difficulty making meaningful sentences

Question 18

What does bilingualism do to the brain?

Answer 18

• Decreases chances of Alzheimers
• Increases density of grey matter

Question 20

Can other species learn language?

Answer 20

• Mainly have tried with apes but vocal tracts are not well equipped and vocabulary small
• Success has come with asl and computerized keyboards

Question 21

What is the linguistic relativity hypothesis?

Answer 21

Language shapes the nature of thought originated by Whorf

Question 22

What is a concept?

Answer 22

A mental representation that groups shared features of related objects, events or stimuli

Question 23

What is necessary condition?

Answer 23

Something that must be true about an object in order for it to belong to that category

Question 24

What is sufficient condition?

Answer 24

If something it true about the object then it must belong to a certain object
- An animal has 4 legs so it must be a dog

Question 25

What is prototype theory?

Answer 25

New objects that are compared to the most typical member of a category - The closer it resembles the prototype the faster we categorize it

Question 26

What is exemplar theory?

Answer 26

Comparing new objects with something already stored in our memory

Question 27

What is category specific deficit?

Answer 27

A neurological syndrome that is the inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category

Question 28

Can our brains be rewired?

Answer 28

Yes, if an incident happens other regions of the brain can take over that control

Question 29

What is rational choice theory?

Answer 29

Decisions are made by determining how likely something is to happen - Judging the value of the outcome then multiplying it by 2

Question 30

Are people better at judging frequencies or probabilities?

Answer 30

People are better at estimating the frequency of an event

Question 31

What is heuristics?

Answer 31

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

Question 32

What is an algorithm?

Answer 32

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

Question 33

What is availability heuristic?

Answer 33

Items in memory that are judged as having occurred more frequently

Question 34

What is conjunction fallacy?

Answer 34

When people think to events are more likely to occur together than either as an individual event

Question 35

Explain representative heuristic

Answer 35

A mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgement by comparing an object or event with its prototype

Question 36

What is the framing effect?

Answer 36

People give different answers to a question based on how the question is asked

Question 37

Explain prospect theory

Answer 37

People choose to take on risk to avoid potential loss and avoid risks when evaluating potential gains

Question 38

Explain means-end analysis

Answer 38

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

Question 39

What are the steps in means-end analysis?

Answer 39

1. Analyze the goal state 2. Analyze the current state 3. List the differences between states 4. Reduce the list differences

Question 40

What is analogical problem solving?

Answer 40

Solving a problem by finding a similar problem with a known solution then applying it

Question 41

What is functional fixedness?

Answer 41

A tendency to see the function of objects as unchanging - a hammer is for hammering nails

Question 42

Explain reasoning

Answer 42

Organizing information or beliefs into a series of steps to reach conclusions

Question 43

Explain belief bias

Answer 43

The judgement on whether to accept conclusions based on the believability of the argument, looking at if the argument is valid

Question 44

What is the illusory truth effect?

Answer 44

When repeated exposure to a statement increases the likelihood that people will judge the statement to be true