Ch. 10 Flashcards
The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
Cognition
Cognitive psychologists
Study these mental activities, including the logical and sometimes illogical ways in which we create concepts, solve problems, make decisions, and form judgements.
Concepts
Mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
Mental image or best example of a category.
Matching new items to the prototype provides a quick and easy method for including items in a category.
Prototype
Development of concepts
We form concepts with definitions. For example, triangle has three sides. Mostly we for concepts with mental images or typical examples (prototypes). For example, robin is a prototype of a bird, but penguin is not.
An attempt to find an appropriate way of attaining the goal when it’s not readily available.
Problem solving
Problem solving methods
Trial/error
Algorithms
Thomas Edison and light bulb filaments.
Trial/Error
Algorithm
Step by step procedures that guarantee a solution to the problem.
Shortcuts
Heuristics
Insight
A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to the problem. (All of a sudden the answer comes to you.) provides a sense of satisfaction.
Tendency to search for information that confirms ones perception.
We seek evidence verifying our ideas more eagerly than we seek evidence that might refute them.
Confirmation bias
Fixation
The inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an impediment to problem solving. Once you were stuck on the matches being two dimensional, then it’s hard to see them three dimensionally.
Inability to solve a problem, because it is viewed only in terms of usual function.
Functional fixedness
Mental set
A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.
Representative heuristic
Availability heuristic
Two types of heuristics
Representative heuristic
Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead one to ignore other relevant information.
Ex. Thinking that someone has a home or away game because they’re dressed up.
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because if their vividness), we presume such events are common.
Ex. Casinos make noises and sounds and lights when people win, but nothing when they lose, and it stays silent. Making it more memorable when you win.
Availability heuristic
Overconfidence
The tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of ones beliefs and judgements.
Ex. Our team rules!
The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements.
Framing
Belief bias
The tendency for ones pre existing beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid.
Ex. I believe In Santa
Clinging to ones initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been distracted.
Belief perseverance
Language
Our spoken, written, or signed words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning to ourselves and others.
One of the most famous linguists of all time. He believed that language will naturally occur.
Noam Chomsky
Phonemes
The smallest distinctive sound units.
Remember; phones “hello can you hear me” sounds
The smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word. ( such as a prefix )
Stars with M ( meaning )
Morpheme
Grammar
A system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.
The set of rules by which we derive meaning in a given language; also, the study of meaning.
Semantics
Syntax
The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.
Children learn their native language before they can add 2+2
Language development
Babbling stage
Beginning at 4 months, the infant spontaneously utters various sounds, like ah-goo. Babbling is not imitation of adult speech.
Beginning at or around his first birthday, a child starts to speak one word at a time and is able to make family members understand him. The word doggy may mean ‘look at the dog out there.’
One word stage
Two word stage
Before the second year a child starts to speak In two word sentences. This form of speech is called telegraphic speech.
Telegraphic speech, according to linguistics and psychology, is speech during the two-word stage of language acquisition in children, which is laconic and efficient. Two or three word sentences.
Telegraphic speech
Linguistic determinism
People of different languages have different thought processes.
