Moist Dap
Language
our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.
Rehearsal
the conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage.
One-Word Stage
The stage in which children speak mainly in single words
Critical Period
a specific time in development when certain skills or abilities are most easily learned such as language
Semantic Encoding
the encoding of meaning, including the meaning of words.
Automatic Processing
Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings.
Semantics
the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.
Serial Position Effect
our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.
Aphasia
Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).
Noam Chomsky
theorist who believed that humans have an inborn or "native" propensity to develop language
Phoneme
in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit
Syntax
the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.
Two-Word Stage
they start uttering two word sentences; also known as telegraphic speech
Acoustic Encoding
the encoding of sound, especially the sound of words.
Imagery
mental pictures; a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding.
Effortful Processing
encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.
Babbling Stage
babies spontaneously uttering a variety of words, such as ah-goo
Visual Encoding
the encoding of picture images.
Broca's Area
speech production
Benjamin Whorf
language; his hypothesis is that language determines the way we think
Morpheme
in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).
Spacing Effect
the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.
Linguistic Determinism
Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.
Wernicke's Area
language comprehension
Wolfgang Kohler
researcher who studied insight learning in chimps