Question 1

Your family dog is named "Happy". Any time your young child sees a dog, she calls out "Happy". This is an example of ________.

Accepted Answer

A) overgeneralisation 
B) undergeneralisation 
C) incorrect word meaning 
D) comprehension before production

Question 2

When psychologists say language is generative, they mean that

Accepted Answer

A) children learn syntax gradually. 
B) language acquisition is solely a function of nurture. 
C) language is a function of social pragmatics. 
D) a limited number of symbols can be used to create an unlimited number of sentences.

Question 3

Henry hears German spoken in his home, but he is exposed only to English in school. It is likely that Henry will

Accepted Answer

A) fail to experience difficulties in either language. 
B) have improved metalinguistic ability. 
C) show metalinguistic deficits. 
D) have difficulties in vocabulary, but not syntax.

Question 4

According to ________ theory, children can deduce the meaning of words they do not understand by inferring meaning from the context.

Accepted Answer

A) social pragmatics 
B) nativist 
C) general cognitive processing 
D) imitation

Question 5

The meanings derived from words or sentences are collectively known as the ________ of language.

Accepted Answer

A) semantics 
B) proxemics 
C) syntatics 
D) pragmatics

Question 6

If I am given 10 math problems, and I can and do solve the first nine in the same way, I may struggle with the tenth problem if it requires a different method to solve it. This best illustrates the concept of ________.

Accepted Answer

A) the salience of surface properties 
B) thin slicing 
C) mental sets 
D) hindsight bias

Question 7

The term dialect is used to indicate

Accepted Answer

A) distinct and different languages found in the same country. 
B) language forms that are based on another language, but that do not have a syntactic structure of their own. 
C) variations of the same language based on geographical or ethnic similarities. 
D) variations of a language that follow no structural patterns.

Question 8

Why do people speak in different dialects?

Accepted Answer

A) The culture and environment in which a person is raised affects the way they communicate linguistically. 
B) Dialects represent grammatical errors that are reinforced by one's surroundings. 
C) People in different areas have genetic variations that impact the way their brains interpret language skills. 
D) People from different countries naturally speak different languages, and that is all a dialect really is.

Question 9

A famous lecturer argues that because the Hopi Indians have only two nouns for things that fly, one for birds and another for non-birds, the Hopi MUST interpret all flying things in terms of these two nouns. This argument is based on ________.

Accepted Answer

A) the linguistic relativity hypothesis 
B) bottom-up processing 
C) top-down processing 
D) deep structure elaboration

Question 10

The average college student reads at a rate of about ________ words per minute.

Accepted Answer

A) 50-100 
B) 100-150 
C) 150-200 
D) 200-300

Question 11

By the time they are roughly one-year old, babies tend to use the ________ of their native language when babbling.

Accepted Answer

The answer of By the time they are roughly one-year...

Question 12

Compare and contrast functional fixedness and mental set.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Compare and contrast functional fixedness and mental...

Question 13

Which of the following is true of sign language?

Accepted Answer

A) There is one universal form of sign language. 
B) Most deaf babies are born to deaf parents. 
C) There are complex syntax structures. 
D) It lacks generativity.

Question 14

Your friend's six-month-old baby has begun to vocalise long strings of repeated syllables in a continuous stream. For example, the baby vocalises "Malamalamalamalamala". This baby is in the ________ stage.

Accepted Answer

A) cooing 
B) babbling 
C) syllables 
D) holophrastic speech

Question 15

Many people drew faulty conclusions about the relative safety of air travel compared to automobile travel in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Such poor reasoning was the result of ________.

Accepted Answer

A) thin slicing 
B) hindsight bias 
C) mental sets 
D) the availability heuristic

Question 16

To say that using and interpreting language typically requires little attention is to say that it is ________.

Accepted Answer

The answer of To say that using and interpreting language...

Question 17

The closest vocalisations observed among animals that mirror human language are the different ________ of the vervet monkey.

Accepted Answer

The answer of The closest vocalisations observed among animals that...

Question 18

Sally is enrolled in a high school geometry course, which she describes as "drawing figures and figuring drawings". In a typical class, students draw geometric figures and use a formula to calculate an aspect of the figure such as its area. Each time Sally uses a formula, she is making use of what psychologists call ________.

Accepted Answer

A) heuristics 
B) logarithms 
C) algorithms 
D) convergence

Question 19

Jay, a popular TV show host, made a joke regarding Hyundai Getz's and the dangers of owning them because of their "perceived" tendency to blow up. Many Getz owners took issue with Jay's view as presented, in part due to a fear that they could never re-sell their car. Jay's very public joke and its potential to affect peoples' perceptions is an example of a(n)________.

Accepted Answer

A) representative heuristic 
B) availability heuristic 
C) exemplar 
D) additive strategy

Question 20

According to famed linguist Noam Chomsky, humans have an innate ability to understand and produce language through a device he called

Accepted Answer

A) syntax synthesiser (SS). 
B) grammar grabber (GG). 
C) language acquisition device (LA
D) . 
D) language learning system (LLS).

Exam 8: Thinking, Reasoning and Language