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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
5186834468cognitionall the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.0
5186834469concepta mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.1
5186834470prototypea mental image or best example of a category.2
5186834471algorithma 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
5186834472heuristica simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.4
5186834473insighta sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.5
5186834474behaviorist 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
5186834475confirmation biasa tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.7
5186834476fixationthe inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.8
5186834477mental seta tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.9
5186834478functional fixednessthe tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.10
5186834479representativeness 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
5186834480availability 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
5186834481nativist theorythe theory of language development that states that humans have a natural, innate ability to develop language (theorized by Chomsky)13
5186834482belief perseveranceclinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.14
5186834483Language Acquisition Devicethis structure allows for the innate development of language (theorized by Chomsky)15
5186834484framingthe way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.16
5186834485languageour spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.17
5186834486phonemein language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.18
5186834487morphemein a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).19
5186834488grammarin a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.20
5186834489semanticsthe set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.21
5186834490syntaxthe rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.22
5186834491babbling stagebabies spontaneously uttering a variety of words, such as ah-goo23
5186834492one-word stagethe stage in which children speak mainly in single words24
5186834493two-word stagethey start uttering two word sentences25
5186834494telegraphic speechearly speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.26
5186834495linguistic determinismWhorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.27

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