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AP Psychology - Language and Cognition Flashcards

Advanced Placement Psychology
Enterprise High School, Redding, CA
All terms from Myers Psychology for AP (BFW Worth, 2011)

Terms : Hide Images
8236160927cognitionall the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.0
8236160928concepta mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.1
8236160929prototypea mental image or best example of a category.2
8236160930algorithma methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier—but also more error-prone—use of heuristics.3
8236160931heuristica simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.4
8236160932insighta sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.5
8236160933behaviorist theorythe theory of language development that argues humans learn language through trial/error and gradually learn more effective ways to speak to get what they want6
8236160934confirmation biasa tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.7
8236160935fixationthe inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.8
8236160936mental seta tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.9
8236160937functional fixednessthe tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.10
8236160938representativeness heuristicjudging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.11
8236160939availability heuristicestimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common.12
8236160940nativist theorythe theory of language development that states that humans have a natural, innate ability to develop language (theorized by Chomsky)13
8236160941belief perseveranceclinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.14
8236160942Language Acquisition Devicethis structure allows for the innate development of language (theorized by Chomsky)15
8236160943framingthe way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.16
8236160944languageour spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.17
8236160945phonemein language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.18
8236160946morphemein a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).19
8236160947grammarin a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.20
8236160948semanticsthe set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.21
8236160949syntaxthe rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.22
8236160950babbling stagebabies spontaneously uttering a variety of words, such as ah-goo23
8236160951one-word stagethe stage in which children speak mainly in single words24
8236160952two-word stagethey start uttering two word sentences25
8236160953telegraphic speechearly speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.26
8236160954linguistic determinismWhorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.27
8236160955aphasialoss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage.28
8236160956Broca's areaa region of the brain concerned with the production of speech29
8236160957Wernicke's areaa region of the brain concerned with the comprehension of language30

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