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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
8236158505cognitionall the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.0
8236158506concepta mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.1
8236158507prototypea mental image or best example of a category.2
8236158508algorithma 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
8236158509heuristica simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.4
8236158510insighta sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.5
8236158511behaviorist 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
8236158512confirmation biasa tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.7
8236158513fixationthe inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.8
8236158514mental seta tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.9
8236158515functional fixednessthe tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.10
8236158516representativeness 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
8236158517availability 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
8236158518nativist theorythe theory of language development that states that humans have a natural, innate ability to develop language (theorized by Chomsky)13
8236158519belief perseveranceclinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.14
8236158520Language Acquisition Devicethis structure allows for the innate development of language (theorized by Chomsky)15
8236158521framingthe way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.16
8236158522languageour spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.17
8236158523phonemein language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.18
8236158524morphemein a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).19
8236158525grammarin a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.20
8236158526semanticsthe set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.21
8236158527syntaxthe rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.22
8236158528babbling stagebabies spontaneously uttering a variety of words, such as ah-goo23
8236158529one-word stagethe stage in which children speak mainly in single words24
8236158530two-word stagethey start uttering two word sentences25
8236158531telegraphic speechearly speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.26
8236158532linguistic determinismWhorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.27
8236158533aphasialoss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage.28
8236158534Broca's areaa region of the brain concerned with the production of speech29
8236158535Wernicke's areaa region of the brain concerned with the comprehension of language30

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