AP Notes, Outlines, Study Guides, Vocabulary, Practice Exams and more!

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
5355210608cognitionall the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.0
5355210609concepta mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.1
5355210610prototypea mental image or best example of a category.2
5355210611algorithma 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
5355210612heuristica simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.4
5355210613insighta sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.5
5355210614behaviorist 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
5355210615confirmation biasa tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.7
5355210616fixationthe inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.8
5355210617mental seta tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.9
5355210618functional fixednessthe tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.10
5355210619representativeness 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
5355210620availability 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
5355210621nativist theorythe theory of language development that states that humans have a natural, innate ability to develop language (theorized by Chomsky)13
5355210622belief perseveranceclinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.14
5355210623Language Acquisition Devicethis structure allows for the innate development of language (theorized by Chomsky)15
5355210624framingthe way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.16
5355210625languageour spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.17
5355210626phonemein language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.18
5355210627morphemein a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).19
5355210628grammarin a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.20
5355210629semanticsthe set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.21
5355210630syntaxthe rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.22
5355210631babbling stagebabies spontaneously uttering a variety of words, such as ah-goo23
5355210632one-word stagethe stage in which children speak mainly in single words24
5355210633two-word stagethey start uttering two word sentences25
5355210634telegraphic speechearly speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.26
5355210635linguistic determinismWhorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.27

Need Help?

We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.

For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.

If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.

Need Notes?

While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!