Thinking
Making Decisions
Language Structure
Language Develpment
Language and Thinking
100

The mental activities associated with understanding, processing, and communicating information

What is thinking?

100
a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem; contrasts with the usually speedier, but more error-prone, heuristics
What is an algorithm
100
our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
What is language
100
beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language
What is the babbling stage
100

behaviorist; believed that we can explain language development with familiar learning principles, such as association, imitation, and reinforcement

Who is B. F. Skinner?

200
A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
What is a concept
200
a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but more error-prone than algorithms
What is a heuristic
200
in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit
What is a phoneme
200
the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words
What is the one-word stage
200

This psychjologhist opposed Skinner’s ideas and suggested that the rate of language acquisition is so fast that it cannot be explained through learning principles, and thus most of it is inborn.

Who is Chomsky?

300
a mental image or best example of a category; matching new items to it provides a quick and easy method for including items in a category
What is a prototype
300

A bias in which one's initial judgment or expectation prevents them from deviating very far, even in the face of new or contradictory information; often based on standards held by the individual

What is the anchoring heuristic?

300
in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)
What is a morpheme
300
beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements
What is the two-word stage?
300

Chomsky theorizes the existence of a structure within the brain which allows for the inborn ability to gain language.

What is the Language Acqusition Device?

400
a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions
What is insight
400

involves using a successful problem-solving approach to solve a similar problem

What is an analogy?

400
in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with an understand others
What is grammar
400
early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram--"go car"--using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting auxiliary words
What is telegraphic speech
400

The tendency to categorize a situation based on a previous experience or belief, which are similar to the present scenario. This can aid quick decision-making, but can also lead to limiting information or stereotyping.

What is the representative heuristic?

500
the tendency to be more confident than correct--to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs and judgments
What is overconfidence
500
a tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past
What is mental set
500

the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning

What are semantics?

500
the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language
What is syntax
500
the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions, an impediment to problem solving
What is functional fixedness?
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