PSYC-1100: Chapter 8

What are the adjectives that describe the four essential characteristics of language?

• symbolic, generative, phonemic, & structured

• syntactic, symbolic, generative, & semantic

• semantic, symbolic, structured, & generative

• generative, rule-governed, phonemic, & synactic

If you draw an arrow in order to indicate where someone should go, what function of language does the arrow serve?

• generative

• structural

• symbolic

• phonemic

Phonemes are the smallest units of which component of language?

• meaning

• sound

• dialect

• syntax

Dr. Sciorro believes that because the majority of children acquire language without any effort, there must be a biological mechanism that facilitates language learning. Which of the following theorists most closely mirror Dr. Sciorro's views of language development?

• Benjamin Whorf

• B. F. Skinner

• Noam Chomsky

• Herbart Simon

In general, which of the following is true of toddlers' language abilities?

• They understand more words than they can say

• They can say more words than they understand

• They understand and say about the same number of words

• They say a lot of words, but we have no idea what they actually understand

Which of the following would constitute underextension, if done by a 3-year-old child?

• Using the word "dress" for all items of clothing

• Leaving words out of sentences while retaining the basic meaning

• Forgetting the word "banana" because it was just learned today

• Only using the word "kitty" to refer to her own cat and not others

The vocabulary and style of communication used by Washoe, the chimp who was raised by researchers to use sign language, was sufficient for some basic communication with humans. Which of the following children would have a communication level that is similar to that of Washoe?

• A one-year-old child who has spoken a few words

• A two-year-old child who produces telegraphic speech

• A four-year-old child who shows evidence of over-regularization

• A six-year-old child who is learning to read

What are you demonstrating if you tend to persist in using the same problem-solving strategy time after time?

• delusion

• mental set

• illusion

• generic insight

You can't think of a single instance when Cathy helped you out, and so you decide that Cathy must be an ungenerous person. What are you using to make this judgement?

• representative heuristic

• expected value

• availability heuristic

• subjective utility

Walter mistakenly estimates that the probability of two separate events occurring at the same time is higher than the probability of either event occurring on its own. Which term is exemplified by Walter's mistake?

• framing effect

• mental set

• belief perseverance

• conjunction fallacy