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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
7782021701cognitionall the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.0
7782021702concepta mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.1
7782021703prototypea mental image or best example of a category.2
7782021704algorithma 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
7782021705heuristica simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.4
7782021706insighta sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.5
7782021707behaviorist 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
7782021708confirmation biasa tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.7
7782021709fixationthe inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.8
7782021710mental seta tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.9
7782021711functional fixednessthe tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.10
7782021712representativeness 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
7782021713availability 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
7782021714nativist theorythe theory of language development that states that humans have a natural, innate ability to develop language (theorized by Chomsky)13
7782021715belief perseveranceclinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.14
7782021716Language Acquisition Devicethis structure allows for the innate development of language (theorized by Chomsky)15
7782021717framingthe way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.16
7782021718languageour spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.17
7782021719phonemein language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.18
7782021720morphemein a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).19
7782021721grammarin a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.20
7782021722semanticsthe set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.21
7782021723syntaxthe rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.22
7782021724babbling stagebabies spontaneously uttering a variety of words, such as ah-goo23
7782021725one-word stagethe stage in which children speak mainly in single words24
7782021726two-word stagethey start uttering two word sentences25
7782021727telegraphic speechearly speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.26
7782021728linguistic determinismWhorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.27
7782021729aphasialoss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage.28
7782021730Broca's areaa region of the brain concerned with the production of speech29
7782021731Wernicke's areaa region of the brain concerned with the comprehension of language30

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