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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
8493346164cognitionall the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.0
8493346165concepta mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.1
8493346166prototypea mental image or best example of a category.2
8493346167algorithma 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
8493346168heuristica simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.4
8493346169insighta sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.5
8493346170behaviorist 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
8493346171confirmation biasa tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.7
8493346172fixationthe inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.8
8493346173mental seta tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.9
8493346174functional fixednessthe tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.10
8493346175representativeness 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
8493346176availability 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
8493346177nativist theorythe theory of language development that states that humans have a natural, innate ability to develop language (theorized by Chomsky)13
8493346178belief perseveranceclinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.14
8493346179Language Acquisition Devicethis structure allows for the innate development of language (theorized by Chomsky)15
8493346180framingthe way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.16
8493346181languageour spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.17
8493346182phonemein language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.18
8493346183morphemein a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).19
8493346184grammarin a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.20
8493346185semanticsthe set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.21
8493346186syntaxthe rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.22
8493346187babbling stagebabies spontaneously uttering a variety of words, such as ah-goo23
8493346188one-word stagethe stage in which children speak mainly in single words24
8493346189two-word stagethey start uttering two word sentences25
8493346190telegraphic speechearly speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.26
8493346191linguistic determinismWhorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.27
8493346192aphasialoss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage.28
8493346193Broca's areaa region of the brain concerned with the production of speech29
8493346194Wernicke's areaa region of the brain concerned with the comprehension of language30

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