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KEY QUESTION: How do children acquire language?
CORE CONCEPT: Infants and children face an especially important developmental task with the
acquisition of language
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Language Structures in the Brain

Language: ​Formal system of communication which involved combination of words and symbols either
written or spoken

Innateness Theory Of Language: ​Children acquire language not only by imitating but also by following
an inborn program of steps

LAD Language Acquisition Device: ​Biologically organized mental structure in the brain that facilitates
the learning of language

Babbling Stage: ​The stage where children produce all sorts of sounds put together

Acquiring Vocabulary and Grammar: ​Inborn language abilities where children must learn the words
and structure of a particular language
● Grammar​: rules of language on how to use words

One Word: 1 year of age, children utter single concrete nouns or verbs
Two Word: When one-word utterances in different sequences to convey more complex meaning come in
pairs
Telegraphic Speech: Short, simple sequences of nouns and verbs without plural, tenses, or functions
Morphemes: ​Meaningful units of language that make up words

Overgeneralization/Overregularization: ​Applying a grammatical rule too widely creating incorrect forms

Computer Metaphor: ​Idea that the brain is an information-processing organ that operates like a
computer

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KEY QUESTION: What are the Components of Thought?
CORE CONCEPT: Thinking is a cognitive process in which the brain uses information form the
senses, emotions, and memory to create and manipulate mental representations, such
as concepts, images, schemas, and scripts.
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Concepts

1. Natural Concepts:​Mental representations of objects and events drawn from our direct experience

​Prototype: ​An ideal or most representative example of conceptual category

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2. Artificial Concepts: ​Concepts defined by rules such as word definitions and mathematical formulas

Concept Hierarchies​: Levels of concepts from most general to most specific

Culture, Concepts, and Thought ​p. 272-273

--Recent work by cross-cultural psychologists cautions us not to assume that thinking works exactly the same in all
cultures.
--One Major Cultural Difference: The use of logic….many cultures do not value the use of logical reasoning as
Europeans/North Americans
--Another Difference: Concept Formation…Asians’ conceptual boundaries tend to be more fluid, place less
importance upon precise definitions

Schemas and Scripts

Schema: ​Cluster of related concepts that provides a general conceptual framework for thinking about a
topic, an event, an object, people, or a situation

Script: ​Specific events and actions expected to occur in a certain way in particular settings

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KEY QUESTION: What abilities do good thinkers possess?
CORE CONCEPT: good thinkers not only have a repertoire of effective strategies (called ​algorithms​ and
heuristics​), they also know how to avoid common impediments to problem solving/decision making.
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Problem Solving
a. Identifying the Problem- Learns to consider all the relevant possibilities without leaping to conclusions
b. Selecting a strategy

Algorithms: ​Problem solving procedures or formulas that guarantee a correct outcome if correctly
applied (formulas or procedures)

Heuristics​: Simple, basic rules, called “rules of thumb” that helps us cut through confusion of complicated
situations

​Heuristics Strategies
Working Backward

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 Searching for Analogies
Breaking a big problem into smaller problems

Obstacles to Problem Solving

1. Mental Set: ​Tendency to respond to a new problem in the same way you approached a similar
problem previously

2. Functional Fixedness: ​Inability to perceive a new use of an object associated with a different purpose

3. Self Imposed Limitations: ​Restriction we allow to enter into our psyche that confuses our thinking

Judging and Making Decisions

Confirmation Bias: ​Tendency for a person to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions

Hindsight Bias: ​Tendency after learning about an event or to believe that one could have predicted the
event in advance

Anchoring Bias: ​Faulty heuristic caused by basing (“anchoring”) an estimate on a completely unrelated
quantity

Representativeness Bias: ​Faulty heuristic strategy based on the presumption that once people or
events are categorized, they share all the features of other members in that category

Availability Bias: ​Faulty heuristic strategy to judge probabilities based on information that can be
recalled from personal experience

Creativity: ​Mental process that produces novel responses that contribute to the solutions of problems

Aptitudes:​Innate potentialities (specific to certain domains)