Exam 9: Language and Thinking

Justine's best friend has just told her that Jason,Justine's boyfriend is cheating on her.Justine can't believe this and decides to watch him very closely the next few days for signs of his cheating.Jason brings Justine flowers on Wednesday,ends their Thursday night date early so Justine "can get her beauty sleep," and visits a sick friend in the hospital,missing their date on Friday night.Justine still thought that he was being faithful,"Just look at the wonderful things he does!" Justine was only looking for evidence to prove that Jason was being faithful to her thereby falling sway to the ______________________.

People typically believe that fires cause more deaths,but statistics reveal that drowning actually causes significantly more deaths than fire.Some researchers argue that we make this error because TV news programs show much more footage of fires than drowning,because fires are more exciting to televise.This presumably makes it much easier for us to call up examples of death by fire.This particular finding is best considered as an example of a judgment error caused by:

The problem-solving pitfall called a(n)_____________ was demonstrated using Luchins' water jar problems.

A psychologist has a theory that a certain mood disorder is largely due to a deficiency of the neurotransmitter ACS2.The psychologist believes that if the theory is correct then increasing the levels of ACS2 in people with that mood disorder will reduce their symptoms of the mood disorder.To test that hypothesis,the psychologist conducts a well-designed experiment.This example best represents:

When using means-ends analysis,another heuristic is also often utilized where intermediate steps toward a solution are formulated.This heuristic is called _________.

Researchers have found that to guide problem solving in their fields,experts in many different areas all rely heavily on the use of _________.

The fact that children in all cultures are able to master the rules of language relatively early in life without formal instruction was discussed as evidence indicating that:

One study asked college students to predict the likelihood of experiencing different personal life events.The researchers found that students' accuracy in making predictions was unrelated to how certain they were about their predictions.This is an example of:

While at the park,19-month-old Suzy points to the swing set and says,"Push swing!" After she has had enough and wants to leave,she turns to her father and says,"Go car." Phrases such as these are called:

The thought,"I need to study for my psychology exam" enters your head.This thought is best considered as an example of:

You can readily use language to describe the features of a person that you know.This use of language demonstrates how language is symbolic and illustrates the linguistic feature of ____________.

Amelia and Scott are assembling a bunk bed set together.Amelia is reading the plans and tells Scott that the next part they need is an L shaped piece.Scott holds up a piece upside down and asks if it is the correct one.Amelia says he is holding it wrong so he turns it sideways.Assuming it is the correct piece,based on the research by Shepard and Metzler on mental rotation,for which orientation will Amelia find it easiest to recognize that the piece matches the picture in the instructions?

The generally high-pitched tone of voice that people often use to speak to infants,babies,toddlers,and even to some small pets is technically called:

To infer how closely something fits our prototype for a particular class and the likelihood that it belongs to that class,we use __________.

Which of the following is a hallmark of creativity?

The proposal that humans have a language acquisition device is based on the evidence that the development of language:

Prior to 6 months of age,infants around the world are able to differentiate the phonemes of all languages,but between 6 to 12 months of age they begin to differentiate ____________.

The most typical and familiar members of a category are known as _________.

As an English speaker,you recognize that if you want to put a verb into the past tense you can add an 'ed' to it,such as changing 'walk' to 'walked'.The rules governing this type of transformation are known as:

Research by Perani and coworkers on how different languages are processed in the brains of bilinguals found,in PET scans,that: