Psychology Chapter 9 Language and Thought – Flashcards
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human language
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a communication system specific to Homo Sapiens; it is open and symbolic, has rules of grammar, and allows its users to express abstract and distant ideas.
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syntax
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Arrangement of words in phrases and sentences
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grammar--
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entire set of rules for combining symbols and sounds to speak and write a particular language
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open
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the system is dynamic and free to change
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symbolic
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there is no real rudimentary language; also known as prelanguage; used by previous species of homo
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cooing--in first 6 months
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the first sounds humans make other than crying, consisting most exclusively of voweels, occus first 6 months
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babbling-starts 6 months
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starts around 6 months-- sound made as a result of the infants experimentation with complex range of phonemes, which include consonants followed by vowels;
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phonemes
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In language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
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one- word utterances
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single words such as "mama" "dada" "no" "more" occurs around 12 months of age
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recency effect
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Tendency to recall last things in a list (recalled easiest short term)
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two- word utterance--e.g. "my ball", "mo wawa", or "go away"
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18 months putting 2 words from vocab put together.
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sentence phase
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stage when children begin speaking in fully grammatical sentences; usually age 2 1/2 to 3
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The sensitivity Period
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if children are not exposed to any human language before a certain age, their language abilities never fully develop. (begins at age 1 and ends at 12 years)
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social cultural theories
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the way the social world influences an infants conceptual development, theory suggests that language and culture both play central roles in the early development of autobiographical memory, language is important because we use it to communicate our memorie
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Vygotsky
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Believed that cognitive development was largely the result of the child's interaction with members of his or her own culture rather than his or her interaction with concrete objects
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child directed speech
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a special form of speech with an exaggerated and high-pitched intonation that adults use to speak to infants and young children
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conditioning and learning theory--skinner
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From B.F. Skinner. Idea that language is like any other behavior and exists because it is reinforced and shaped.
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nativist theory
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- Chomsky's theory that children have an innate ability to learn language through a biological brain mechanism called the Language Acquisition Device
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nativist view of language
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the idea that we discover language rather than learn it, that language development is inborn
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language acquisition device-LAD
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Chomsky's concept of an innate, prewired mechanism in the brain that allows children to acquire language naturally
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mirror neurons
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Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain's mirroring of another action may enable imitation, language learning, and empathy
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whorf - sapir hypothesis
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language creates thought as much as thought creates language
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linguistic determinism theory
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Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think
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linguistic relativism
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the assertion that language "reflects" the way that we see the world
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mental representation
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a structure in our mind-such as an idea or image-that stands for something else, such as an external object or thing sensed in the past or future, not the present
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cognition
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mental processes involving in acquiring, processing, and storing knowledge
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cognitive psychology--sternburg
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the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve
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visual imagery
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visual representation created by the brain after the original stimulus is no longer present
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visual representation
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think in images and words
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mental rotation--3 dimensional
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process of imagining an object turning in three-dimensional space
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concept
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A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
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concept hierarchy
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arrangement of related concepts in a particular way, with some being general and others specific
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parallel distributed processing
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A model of memory in which knowledge is represented as connections among thousands of interacting processing units, distributed in a vast network, & all operating in parallel.(McClelland and Rumblehart 2003)
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category
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A group of people or things having something in common
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inductive reasoning--specific evidence
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reasoning to general conclusions from specific evidence
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deductive reasoning--specific conclusions
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reasoning from general statements of what is known to specific conclusions
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reasoning
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Drawing conclusions or inferences from observations, facts, and assumptions
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prototypes
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the best-fitting examples of a category
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critical thinking
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process by which one analyzes, evaluates, and forms ideas
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confirmation bias
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the tendency to selectively attend to information that supports ones general beliefs while ignoring information or evidence that contradicts ones beliefs
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causal inferences--whether 1 thing causes another
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judgements about causation of one thing by another
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critical thinker
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analyze, evaluate, make inferences, interpret, explain, self-regulate
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metacognitive thinking--think first->then reflect (this ability not universal)
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process that includes the ability first to think and then to reflect on one's own thinking.
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availability heuristics--eg, airplane
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a device we use to make decisions based on the ease with which estimates come to mind or how available they are to our awareneness
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representativeness heuristics .-typical
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a strategy we use to estimate the probability of one event based on how typical it is of another event
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scientific thinking
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process using the cognitive skills required to generate, test, and revise theories
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heuristics--quick & efficient decisions
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mental shortcuts; methods of making complex and uncertain decisions and judgements
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conjunctive fallacy
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error in logic that occurs when people say the combination of two events is more likely than either event alone.
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vividness
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Clearness
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rational choice theory (Kahneman & Tversky) intuition
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A popular theory in political science to explain the actions of voters as well as politicians. It assumes that individuals act in their own best interest, carefully weighing the costs and benefits of possible alternatives.
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idioms
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"look like the cat that swallowed the canary" and "it's raining cats and dogs" are examples of...
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parameters
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different rules for what is allowed and what is not in different languages
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Noam Chomsky-- (nativist approach to language development)
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"Aspects of the Theory of Syntax" -- theorist who believed that humans have an inborn or innate (not acquired) propensity to develop language. Developed the Six Stages of Language Acquisition
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imitation
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A learning strategy that young children frequently use to replicate someone's behaviors, actions, phrases, etc.
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universal grammar
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Chomsky-no dialect or language is more complex or sophisticated than the other. We are all born with the capacity to learn any language w/o formal instruction
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photolanguage --pre-language
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is a very rudimentary language also known as pre-language, used by earlier species of homo
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universal--
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(adj) Relating to or done by all people or things in a particular group; applicable to all cases; Contrasted with particular; widespread; present everywhere
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lexicon
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(n.) a dictionary of a language; the special vocabulary of a person, group, or subject; a compendium
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telegraphic speech
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early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram--'go car'--using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting 'auxiliary' words
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memory phenomenon
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tip of the tongue
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what makes human language unique?
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only system for communicating abstract ideas
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conditioning theory-Watson
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The theory that learning is a trial-and-error process. Also called stimulus-response theory
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nativist approach--Chomsky
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the theory that a genetically determined, innate mechanism directs language development (We are predisposed to learn a language)
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Broca's area
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Controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.
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Wernick's area-speech understand
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controls language reception a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression usually in teh left temporal lobe
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linguistic determination hypothesis
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Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think
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what a critical thinker does
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analyze, evaluate, make inferences, interpret, explain, self regulate
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informal reasoning --everyday reasoning
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the process of evaluating a conclusion, theory, or course of action on the basis of believability of evidence
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second language acquisition
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A collection of theories and principles about how foreign languages are learned .
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sensitivity period
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able to learn 2nd language and speak without accent ends around age 13-15yr.
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nativist
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approach to language development proposes that there is an innate mechanism that directs language development in humans
