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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
8236156889cognitionall the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.0
8236156890concepta mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.1
8236156891prototypea mental image or best example of a category.2
8236156892algorithma 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
8236156893heuristica simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.4
8236156894insighta sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.5
8236156895behaviorist 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
8236156896confirmation biasa tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.7
8236156897fixationthe inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.8
8236156898mental seta tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.9
8236156899functional fixednessthe tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.10
8236156900representativeness 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
8236156901availability 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
8236156902nativist theorythe theory of language development that states that humans have a natural, innate ability to develop language (theorized by Chomsky)13
8236156903belief perseveranceclinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.14
8236156904Language Acquisition Devicethis structure allows for the innate development of language (theorized by Chomsky)15
8236156905framingthe way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.16
8236156906languageour spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.17
8236156907phonemein language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.18
8236156908morphemein a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).19
8236156909grammarin a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.20
8236156910semanticsthe set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.21
8236156911syntaxthe rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.22
8236156912babbling stagebabies spontaneously uttering a variety of words, such as ah-goo23
8236156913one-word stagethe stage in which children speak mainly in single words24
8236156914two-word stagethey start uttering two word sentences25
8236156915telegraphic speechearly speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.26
8236156916linguistic determinismWhorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.27
8236156917aphasialoss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage.28
8236156918Broca's areaa region of the brain concerned with the production of speech29
8236156919Wernicke's areaa region of the brain concerned with the comprehension of language30

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