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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
8151479579cognitionall the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.0
8151479580concepta mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.1
8151479581prototypea mental image or best example of a category.2
8151479582algorithma 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
8151479583heuristica simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.4
8151479584insighta sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.5
8151479585behaviorist 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
8151479586confirmation biasa tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.7
8151479587fixationthe inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.8
8151479588mental seta tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.9
8151479589functional fixednessthe tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.10
8151479590representativeness 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
8151479591availability 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
8151479592nativist theorythe theory of language development that states that humans have a natural, innate ability to develop language (theorized by Chomsky)13
8151479593belief perseveranceclinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.14
8151479594Language Acquisition Devicethis structure allows for the innate development of language (theorized by Chomsky)15
8151479595framingthe way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.16
8151479596languageour spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.17
8151479597phonemein language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.18
8151479598morphemein a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).19
8151479599grammarin a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.20
8151479600semanticsthe set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.21
8151479601syntaxthe rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.22
8151479602babbling stagebabies spontaneously uttering a variety of words, such as ah-goo23
8151479603one-word stagethe stage in which children speak mainly in single words24
8151479604two-word stagethey start uttering two word sentences25
8151479605telegraphic speechearly speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.26
8151479606linguistic determinismWhorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.27
8151479607aphasialoss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage.28
8151479608Broca's areaa region of the brain concerned with the production of speech29
8151479609Wernicke's areaa region of the brain concerned with the comprehension of language30
8151494333Divergent thinkingThinking that searches for multiple possible answers to a question31
8151498098Convergent thinkingThinking pointed toward one solution32

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