Ch9 Flashcards
Cognition
All the mental associations with
thinking,
knowing
remembering
communicating
Metacogntion
Cognition about our cognition; keeping our track of and evaluating our mental processes
Concepts
A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas or people.
Prototype
A mental image or best example of a category
Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for scoring items into categories
(As when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical rid, such as a crow)
Algorithms
a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
Contrasts with the usually speedier - but also more error-prone - use of heuristics.
insights
a sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions
Heuristics
a simple thinking strategy - mental shortcut - that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithm
confirmation bias
a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence
fixation
in cognition, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; on obstacle to problem solving.
In psychoanalytic theory, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved.
Mental set
A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.
intuition
an effortless, immediate, automatic, feeling or thoughts, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning
representativeness heuristic
judging the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.
availability heuristic
judging the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; in instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common.
Overconfidence
the tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements.
Belief perseverance
Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
framing
the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements.
nudge
framing choices in a way that encourages people make beneficial decisions.
creativity
the ability to produce new and valuable ideas
convergent thinking
narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution
divergent thinking
expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions.
language
our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
phonemes
in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
morphemes
in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)
grammar
in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.
Semantic is the language’s set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and
syntax is its set of rule for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.
babbling stage
the stage in speech development, beginning around 4 months, during which an infant spontaneously utters various sounds that are not all related to the household language.
one-word stage
the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.
two-word stage
the stage in speech development, beginning about age 2, during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements.
telegraphic speech
the early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram - “go car” - using mostly nouns and verbs.
aphasia
impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to
Broca’s area (impairing speaking or
Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding)
Broca’s area
a frontal lobe brain area,
usually in the left hemisphere, that helps control language expression by directing the muscle movements involved in speech.
Wernicke’s area
a brain area, usually in the left temporal lobe.
linguistic determinism
Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think
linguistic relativism
the idea that language influences the way we think
