S

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

The hypothesis that our language determines the way we think  (linguistic determinism) and that the distinctions found in a given language will not be the same as those in any other languages (linguistic relativity)

Schizophrenia

A very severe mental disorder characterized by such symptoms as thought disorders, hallucinations, delusions, and difficulty in relating to others

Schoty

A Russian version of the abacus

Scripts

Sequences of frames stored as a unit (see frame)

Second-language acquisition

The learning of another language after a first language has already been acquired

Second-language attrition

The loss of a language acquired subsequent to one’s native language

Semantic memory

The complex structure, or network, in long-term memory that includes such components as concepts and words, enabling us to understand ideas, solve problems, and use language

Semantics

The area of language and language study that pertains to the meaning of words and sentences

Sense

In the context of words, the meaning of a particular word, as opposed to the entity it denotes (see reference)

Sense receptors

Specialized nerve cells that respond to sensory stimuli leading to the propagation of nerve impulses

Sensory discrimination

The ability to distinguish between differing intensities or other qualities of similar stimuli

Sensory store

Within the multistore model of memory, the structural component of the system where incoming sensory information remains only very briefly before “decaying” and being completely lost

Short-term (working) memory store

The structural component of the memory system where the work of the current moment is carried out

SHRDLU

An early program in artificial intelligence intended to model natural language processing

Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)

A technique for imaging body structures that relies on radioactive entities (photons) introduced into the bloodstream, whose emissions are sensed by detectors and whose patterns are then reconstructed by computers

Soma

The main body of a nerve cell

Spatial relations 

The manner in which entities in space are perceived to relate to one another and to the perceiver, the sense of which enables an individual to maneuver in the world and to adjust and readjust perceptions in order to do so efficiently

Speech acts 

See performatives

Stream of consciousness

A process in which one thought or perception leads to another, which in turn stimulates a third, and so on

Subordinate semantic category

A category that falls within another (e.g., chair, a category containing high chair, desk chair, easy chair, etc., falls within-is subordinate to-the category  furniture)

Subsumption architecture

The type of programming in artificial intelligence (and, in a sense, in human  intelligence)in which commands to act are carried out based on a hierarchy  according to which those behaviors designated as more important override, or subsume, those designated as less important

Sulcus

The “valley”, or concave region, between one gyrus and another in a concave region,between one gyrus and another in a convolution of the cerebral cortex

Superordinate semantic category

A category that subsumes another (e.g., animal is superordinate to cat, dog, lemming

Synapse

A link from one neuron to another

Syntax

The rules for the arrangement of words into sentences