Glossary Ch 9-12

Front 1

conditional reasoning

Back 1

occurs when the reasoner must draw a conclusion based on an if-then proposition

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confirmation bias

Back 2

the tendency to seek confirmation rather than disconfirmation of what we already believe

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heuristics

Back 3

informal, intuitive, speculative strategies that sometimes lead to an effective solution and sometimes do not

Front 4

deductive reasoning

Back 4

the process of reasoning from one or more general statements regarding what is known to reach a logically certain conclusion

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mental models

Back 5

knowledge structures that individuals construct to understand and explain their experiences; an internal representation of information that corresponds analogously with whatever is being represented

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pragmatic reasoning schemas

Back 6

general organizing principles or rules related to particular kinds of goals, such as permissions, obligations, or causations

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premises

Back 7

propositions about which arguments are made

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satisficing

Back 8

occurs when we consider options one by one, and then we select an option as soon as we find one that is satisfactory or just good enough to meet our minimum level of acceptability

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subjective probability

Back 9

a calculation based on the individual's estimates of likelihood, rather than on objective statistical computations

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subjective utility

Back 10

a calculation based on the individual's judged weightings of utility (value), rather than on objective criteria

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syllogisms

Back 11

deductive arguments that involve drawing conclusions from two premises

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algorithms

Back 12

sequences of operations that may be repeated over and over again and that, in theory, guarantee the solution to a problem

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convergent thinking

Back 13

attempt to narrow down the multiple possibilities to converge on a single best answer

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creativity

Back 14

the process of producing something that is both original and worthwhile

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divergent thinking

Back 15

when one tries to generate a diverse assortment of possible alternative solutions to a problem

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functional fixedness

Back 16

the inability to realize that something known to have a particular use may also be used for performing other functions

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ill-structured problems

Back 17

problems that lack well-defined paths to solution

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incubation

Back 18

putting the problem aside for a while without consciously thinking about it

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isomorphic

Back 19

the formal structure is the same, and only the content differs

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mental set

Back 20

a frame of mind involving an existing model for representing a problem, a problem context, or a procedure for problem solving

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negative transfer

Back 21

occurs when solving an earlier problem makes it harder to solve a later one

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positive transfer

Back 22

occurs when the solution of an earlier problem makes it easier to solve a new problem

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problem space

Back 23

the universe of all possible actions that can be applied to solving a problem, given any constraints that apply to the solution of the problem

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problem-solving cycle

Back 24

includes problem identification, problem definition, strategy formulation, organization of information, allocation of resources, monitoring, and evaluation

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productive thinking

Back 25

involves insights that go beyond the bounds of existing associations

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transfer

Back 26

any carryover of knowledge or skills from one problem situation to another

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transparency

Back 27

occurs when people see analogies where they do not exist because of similarity of content

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well-structured problems

Back 28

problems that have well-defined paths to solution

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cooperative principle

Back 29

principle in conversation that holds that we seek to communicate in ways that make it easy for our listener to understand what we mean

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dialect

Back 30

a regional variety of a language distinguished by features such as vocabulary, syntax, and pronunciation

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dual-system hypothesis

Back 31

suggests that two languages are represented somehow in separate systems of the mind

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linguistic relativity

Back 32

the assertion that speakers of different languages have differing cognitive systems and that these different cognitive systems influence the ways in which people speaking the various languages think about the world

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metaphor

Back 33

two nouns juxtaposed in a way that positively asserts their similarities, while not disconfirming their dissimilarities

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pragmatics

Back 34

the study of how people use language

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simile

Back 35

introduces the word like or as into a comparison between items

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single-system hypothesis

Back 36

suggests that two languages are represented in just one system

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speech acts

Back 37

addresses the question of what you can accomplish with speech

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comprehension processes

Back 38

used to make sense of the text as a whole

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connotation

Back 39

a word's emotional overtones, presuppositions, and other non-explicit meanings

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content morphemes

Back 40

the words that convey the bulk of the meaning of a language

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deep structure

Back 41

refers to an underlying syntactic structure that links various phrase structures through the application of various transformation rules

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denotation

Back 42

the strict dictionary definition of a word

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discourse

Back 43

encompasses language use at the level beyond the sentence, such as in conversation, paragraphs, stories, chapters, and entire works of literature

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dual-system hypothesis

Back 44

suggests that two languages are represented somehow in separate systems of the mind

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dyslexia

Back 45

difficulty in deciphering, reading, and comprehending text

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function morphemes

Back 46

a morpheme that adds detail and nuance to the meaning of the content morphemes or helps the content morphemes fit the grammatical context

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lexical access

Back 47

the identification of a word that allows us to gain access to the meaning of the word from memory

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lexical processes

Back 48

used to identify letters and words

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lexicon

Back 49

the entire set of morphemes in a given language or in a given person's linguistic repertoire

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morpheme

Back 50

the smallest unit that denotes meaning within a particular language

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noun phrase

Back 51

syntactic structure that contains at least one noun (often, the subject of the sentence) and includes all the relevant descriptors of the noun

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phoneme

Back 52

is the smallest unit of speech sound that can be used to distinguish one utterance in a given language from another

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phonemic-restoration effect

Back 53

sounds that are missing from a speech signal are constructed by the brain so it seems to the listener that he actually heard the missing sound

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phrase-structure grammar

Back 54

syntactical analysis of the structure of phrases as they are used

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psycholinguistics

Back 55

the psychology of our language as it interacts with the human mind

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referent

Back 56

the thing or concept in the real world that a word refers to

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semantics

Back 57

the study of meaning in a language

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surface structure

Back 58

a level of syntactic analysis that involves the specific syntactical sequence of words in a sentence and any of the various phrase structures that may result

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syntax

Back 59

refers to the way in which users of a particular language put words together to form sentences

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thematic roles

Back 60

ways in which items can be used in the context of communication

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transformational grammar

Back 61

involves the study of transformational rules that guide the ways in which underlying propositions can be rearranged to form various phrase structures

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verb phrase

Back 62

syntactic structure that contains at least one verb and whatever the verb acts on, if anything

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word-superiority effect

Back 63

letters are read more easily when they are embedded in words than when they are presented either in isolation or with letters that do not form words