Deck 3: The Foundations of Language

Question 1

The way in which information is abstracted from the world to fit existing cognitive structures is known as:

A)Accommodation
B)Implementation
C)A signal
D)A symbol
E)Assimilation

Answer 1

E

Question 2

The critical period hypothesis is the best-known version of the ______________ hypothesis.

A)Cognition
B)Equipotentiality
C)Sapir-Whorf
D)Irreversible determinism
E)Reversible determinism

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following accounts of lateralization states that the left hemisphere is specialized for language at birth, and the right hemisphere only takes over language functions if the left is damaged over a wide area, involving both the anterior and the posterior regions?

A)Irreversible relativism hypothesis
B)Emergentist account hypothesis
C)Reversible determinism hypothesis
D)Equipotentiality hypothesis
E)Irreversible determinism (or invariance) hypothesis

Answer 3

E

Question 4

According to the critical period hypothesis, when does the process of brain lateralization begin?

A)In utero
B)At birth
C)Between ages 2 and 5
D)Between ages 10 and 12
E)During implantation

Question 5

During the pre-operational stage, children or adolescents:

A)Are now able to adopt alternative viewpoints, as shown by the conservation task, but are still limited to reasoning about concrete objects
B)Are not limited to concrete thinking, and are able to reason abstractly and logically
C)Show behavior that is organized around sensory and motor processes
D)Are unable to adopt alternative viewpoints to their own, and are unable to change their point of view
E)Attain the concept of object permanence

Question 6

A considerable amount of development continues after birth and throughout childhood (and indeed perhaps in adolescence); this process of development is called:

A)Maturation
B)Progression
C)Assimilation
D)Association
E)Permanence acquisition

Question 7

Which of the following hypotheses states that humans have a superior capacity for learning language early in life, but unless this capacity is implemented early, it is lost?

A)Critical period
B)Maturational state
C)Exercise
D)Implemental
E)Application

Question 8

Which of the following was brought up as a human child, doing things such as eating, toilet training, playing, and was taught specifically American Sign Language?

A)Gua the chimpanzee
B)Viki the ape
C)Sarah the chimpanzee
D)Washoe the chimpanzee
E)Nim the monkey

Question 9

Difficulty in finding the names of things is known as:

A)Receptive disorder
B)Specific language impairment
C)Deep dyslexia
D)Semantic-pragmatic disorder
E)Anomia

Question 10

Color naming and memory studies show that:

A)Although linguistic factors play the most important role in dividing up the color spectrum, there are some biological influences on memory for colors
B)Memory for colors and dividing the color spectrum solely rely on biological factors
C)Although biological factors play the most important role in dividing up the color spectrum, there is some linguistic influence on memory for colors
D)Memory for colors and dividing the color spectrum solely rely on linguistic factors
E)Both linguistic and biological roles have equal influence on memory for colors and dividing the color spectrum

Question 11

When we speak, this information is sent along a pathway of fibers known as the:

A)Thalamus fasciculus
B)Arcuate fasciculus
C)Basal ganglia
D)Lexical fasciculus
E)Transmission fasciculus

Question 12

Chimpanzees and gorillas, like humans, show an asymmetry between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, with what is called ______________ being particularly enlarged on the left.

A)Broca´s area
B)Wernicke´s area
C)Hienmans´s area 44
D)Brodmann´s area 44
E)Thalamus area

Question 13

Damage to the arcuate fasciculus results in difficulties repeating language, while comprehension and production remain otherwise unimpaired. This pattern is an example of:

A)Specific language impairment
B)Receptive disorder
C)Deep dyslexia
D)Disconnection syndrome
E)Semantic-pragmatic disorder

Question 14

The idea that because different languages map onto the world in different ways, different languages will generate different cognitive structures, is called linguistic:

A)Deprivation
B)Implementation
C)Provocation
D)Relativism
E)Determinism

Question 15

Which of the following hypotheses is a statement of Piaget´s ideas about language,and says that language needs certain cognitive precursors in order to develop?

A)Reversible invariance
B)Determinism
C)Second language
D)Relativism
E)Cognition

Question 16

In an experiment by Hoffman, Lau, and Johnson, Chinese-English bilinguals read descriptions of people, and were later asked to provide descriptions of the people they read about. The results showed that the:

A)Language used did not influence the stereotypes used, regardless of the participants´ ethnic origin
B)Language used did not influence the stereotypes used, but did influence what was remembered
C)Participants thinking in English were more apt to use the Chinese stereotypes
D)Language used influenced the stereotypes used, and therefore the inferences made and what was remembered
E)Participants thinking in Chinese were more apt to use the English stereotypes

Question 17

Which of the following is characterized by fluent language that makes little sense and a great impairment in the ability to comprehend language, although hearing is unaffected?

A)Temporal aphasia
B)Wernicke´s aphasia
C)Cortical aphasia
D)Geschwind´s aphasia
E)Broca´s aphasia

Question 18

Chomsky argued that only humans possess a ________________________that enables us to acquire language; without this device, we would be stuck forever at the level of a protolanguage.

A)Linguistic activation device
B)Lexicon
C)Fixative device
D)Protolanguage
E)Language acquisition device

Question 19

Which of the following hypotheses states that humans have a superior capacity for learning language early in life, but this capacity disappears or declines as development progresses, regardless of other factors?

A)Maturational state
B)Critical period
C)Sapir-Whorf
D)Exercise
E)Language

Question 20

Deacon proposed that language:

A)And the brain co-evolved in an interactive way, converging towards a common solution of cognitive and sensorimotor problems
B)Arose from a communication system through many interacting "tweaks and twiddles"
C)Arose not from primate calls, but from primate gestures
D)Arose not from primate gestures, but from primate calls
E)Arose as a side effect of the evolution of something else, such as an increase in overall brain size