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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
5641730731cognitionall the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.0
5641730732concepta mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.1
5641730733prototypea mental image or best example of a category.2
5641730734algorithma 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
5641730735heuristica simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.4
5641730736insighta sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.5
5641730737behaviorist 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
5641730738confirmation biasa tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.7
5641730739fixationthe inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.8
5641730740mental seta tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.9
5641730741functional fixednessthe tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.10
5641730742representativeness 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
5641730743availability 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
5641730744nativist theorythe theory of language development that states that humans have a natural, innate ability to develop language (theorized by Chomsky)13
5641730745belief perseveranceclinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.14
5641730746Language Acquisition Devicethis structure allows for the innate development of language (theorized by Chomsky)15
5641730747framingthe way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.16
5641730748languageour spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.17
5641730749phonemein language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.18
5641730750morphemein a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).19
5641730751grammarin a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.20
5641730752semanticsthe set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.21
5641730753syntaxthe rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.22
5641730754babbling stagebabies spontaneously uttering a variety of words, such as ah-goo23
5641730755one-word stagethe stage in which children speak mainly in single words24
5641730756two-word stagethey start uttering two word sentences25
5641730757telegraphic speechearly speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.26
5641730758linguistic determinismWhorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.27
5641736758aphasialoss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage.28
5641757805Broca's areaa region of the brain concerned with the production of speech29
5641764275Wernicke's areaa region of the brain concerned with the comprehension of language30

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