General Psychology/chapter 8

Front 1

This refers broadly to mental processes or thinking.

Back 1

cognition

Front 2

This consists of symbols that convey meaning, plus rules for combining those symbols, that can be used to generate an infinite variety of messages.

Back 2

language

Front 3

The smallest speech units in a language that can be distinguished perceptually.

Back 3

phonemes

Front 4

The smallest units of meaning in a language.

Back 4

morphemes

Front 5

The area of language concerned with understanding the meaning of words and word combination's.

Back 5

semantics

Front 6

A system of rules that specify how words can be arranged into sentences.

Back 6

syntax

Front 7

The process by which children map a word onto an underlying concept after only one exposure.

Back 7

fast mapping

Front 8

This occurs when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a wider set of objects or actions than it is meant to.

Back 8

over-extension

Front 9

This occurs when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a narrower set of objects or actions than it is meant to.

Back 9

under-extension

Front 10

This consists mainly of content words; articles, prepositions, and other less critical words are omitted.

Back 10

telegraphic speech

Front 11

The average length of youngsters' spoken statements (measured in morphemes).

Back 11

mean length of utterance (MLU)

Front 12

These occur when grammatical rules are incorrectly generalized to irregular cases where they do not apply.

Back 12

over-regularization's

Front 13

The ability to reflect on the use of language.

Back 13

metalinguistic awareness

Front 14

The acquisition of two languages that use different speech sounds, vocabulary, and grammatical rules.

Back 14

bilingualism

Front 15

An innate mechanism or process that facilitates the learning of language.

Back 15

language acquisition device (LAD)

Front 16

The hypothesis that one's language determines the nature of one's thought.

Back 16

linguistic relativity

Front 17

This refers to active efforts to discover what must be done to achieve a goal that is not readily attainable.

Back 17

problem solving

Front 18

The tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use.

Back 18

functional fixedness

Front 19

This exists when people persist in using problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past.

Back 19

mental set

Front 20

This occurs when people suddenly discover the correct solution to a problem after struggling with it for a while.

Back 20

insight

Front 21

This refers to the set of possible pathways to a solution considered by the problem solver. A spatial metaphor used by Allen Newell and Herbert Simon to describe the process of problem solving.

Back 21

problem space

Front 22

This involves trying possible solutions and discarding those that are in error until one works.

Back 22

trial and error

Front 23

A methodical, step-by-step procedure for trying all possible alternatives in searching for a solution to a problem.

Back 23

algorithm

Front 24

A guiding principle or "rule of thumb" used in solving problems or making decisions.

Back 24

heuristic

Front 25

This entails selecting the alternative at each choice point that appears to lead most directly to one's goal.

Back 25

hill-climbing heuristic

Front 26

This involves evaluating alternatives and making choices among them.

Back 26

decision making

Front 27

This asserts that people tend to use simple strategies in decision making that focus on only a few facets of available options and often result in "irrational" decisions that are less than optimal.

Back 27

theory of bounded rationality

Front 28

This involves making decisions under conditions of uncertainty.

Back 28

risky decision making

Front 29

This involves basing the estimated probability of an event on the ease with which relevant instances come to mind.

Back 29

availability heuristic

Front 30

This involves basing the estimated probability of an event on how similar it is to the typical prototype of that event.

Back 30

representativeness heuristic

Front 31

This occurs when people estimate that the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happening alone.

Back 31

conjunction fallacy

Front 32

The belief of the odds of a chance event increase if the event hasn't occurred recently.

Back 32

gambler's fallacy

Front 33

The tendency to only seek information that is likely to support one's decisions and beliefs.

Back 33

confirmation bias

Front 34

This refers to how decision issues are posed or how choices are structured.

Back 34

framing