Chapter 10 Flashcards
Concepts
Mental grouping of similar objects, ventral ideas, or people
Cognition
The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing,remembering, and communicating
Prototypes
A mental image or best example of a category
Algorithm
Step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution
Heuristic
A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error prone than algorithms (mental shortcuts)
Insight
A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem (all of a sudden the answer comes to you), provides a sense of satisfaction
Confirmation Bias
A tendency to search for information that confirms ones preconceptions (women better drivers example)
Fixation
The inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an impediment to problem solving [once you were stuck on the matchsticks being two-dimensional, it was hard to view them as three-dimensional]
Mental Set
A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past
Functional Fixedness
Inability to solve a problem because it is viewed only in terms of usual function (activity)
Representative Heuristic
Judging the likelihood of hints in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead one to ignore other relevant information
Availability Heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if 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 ones beliefs and judgements
Framing
The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements (10% die, 90% live example)
Belief Bias
The tendency for ones preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid
Belief Perseverance
Clinging to ones initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited
Language
Spoken, written, or signed words that we combine to communicate meaning to ourselves and others
Phoneme
The smallest distinctive sound unit —> bat = b, a, and t
Morpheme
The smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word (such as a prefix)
Grammar
A system of rules that enable us to communicate with and understand others
Semantics
The set of rules by which we derive meaning in a given language; also, the study of meaning (adding -ed means in the past)
Syntax
The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language (English, adjectives before nouns)
Babbling Stage
Beginning at 4 months, the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated 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
