Chapter 10: Reasoning and Intelligence Flashcards
Analogy
A comparison between one thing and another, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification
Induction
The attempt to infer a new principle or claim from observations and facts that act as clues.
e.g. “The coin I pulled from the bag is a penny. That coin is a penny. A third coin from the bag is a penny. Therefore, all the coins in the bag are pennies.”
The predictable world bias
People’s tendency to believe that events are more predictable than they actually are
Availability bias
When we reason, we tend to rely too much on information that is immediately or quickly available to us and we tend to ignore information that is less available.
Confirmation bias
The tendency to only look at evidence that supports your current hypothesis and disregard the information that invalidates it.
Deduction
The attempt to logically deduce the consequences that must be true if certain premises are accepted as true.
Insight problem
Problems that are specially developed to be insolvable until someone looks at it in a way that is unconventional
Mental set
A well-established habit of perception or thought to solving a problem.
Promoting insight
Insight may be promoted by an incubation period or by a happy or playful frame of mind.
Intelligence
Variable-capacity that underlies individual differences in reasoning, problem-solving, and gaining new knowledge.
Fluid intelligence
The ability to relationships between stimuli independently of preconceived exercises or instructions regarding those relationships.
Crystallized intelligence
Mental capacity is directly derived from previous experiences.
General intelligence
The underlying capability that contributes to a person’s performance on all mental tests.
(Factor g)
Heritability
The degree of variation in a phenotypic trait in a population that is due to genetic variation between individuals in that population (as opposed to environmental differences).
Heritability coefficient
A statistic that reflects the proportion of differences in an observed trait that is due to genetic variability.
1.0 = 100% of the differences in a trait are attributed to inheritance.
0= None of the differences in a trait are attributed to inheritance.
Stereotype threat
When someone is made aware of negative stereotypes about their social group, they tend to confirm them.
e.g. Black people do poorly on intelligence tests
Flynn effect
The tendency of IQ scores to change over time, and specifically, the apparent increase in intelligence in the general population evidenced by a steady increase in IQ scores
Phonological loop
Responsible for holding verbal information
Visuospatial sketchpad
Responsible for holding visual and spatial information
Central executive
Responsible for coordinating the mind’s activities and for bringing new information into working memory from the sensory and long-term stores
Memory span
The number of pronounceable items (e.g. words, digits) that a person can keep in mind and report back accurately after a brief delay
Multitasking
Engaging in 2 activities at the same time.
E.g. Driving while talking on the phone
- Both activities are considered highly developed and automated skills, but they both consume a portion of the working memory and interfere with one another.
Executive functions
Relatively basic information-processing mechanisms that, together, are important in planning, regulating behaviour, and performing complex cognitive tasks.
Preattentive processing
All stimuli briefly enter the sensory memory and are unconsciously analyzed to determine their significance for the person’s well being.
Priming
The activation, by sensory input, of information that is already stored in long-term memory.
Echoic memory
Auditory sensory information.
- An echo (brief memory of a sound) fades over seconds and vanishes within 10 sec
Iconic memory
Visual sensory information
- An icon (brief memory trace of a visual stimulus) last only 1/3 of a second
Subcomponents of executive functions
- Working memory: updating the contents of working memory (adding/deleting)
- Switching: shifting flexibly between different tasks and mindsets
- Inhibition: preventing a cognitive and behavioural response, or keep unwanted information out of mind.
The neurological basis of executive functions
- The prefrontal cortex serves as the neural hub for executive functions
- Damage to the prefrontal cortex results in difficulty in planning and decisions making, regulating emotions, and inhibiting thought and behaviour.
Memory
The information in a person’s mind and the mind’s capacity to store and retrieve that information
Explicit memory
The type of memory that can be brought into a person’s consciousness and so it provides the content of conscious thought.
- it is called explicit memory because in the appropriate tests the person is asked to report directly (explicitly) what he or she remembers abt a particular event.
Implicit memory
The type of memory that is cannot be verbalized.
It consists of all the nonverbal and unconscious means through which previous experiences can influence a person’s actions and thoughts.
Episodic memory
Explicit memory that consists of one of your own past experiences. (e.g. your 16th bday, today’s breakfast)
- Also called autobiographical memory
Sematic memory
Explicit memory that is not mentally tied to any specific past experience.
It includes knowledge of word meanings and the vast facts, ideas, and schemas that constitute one’s understanding of the world.
Subclasses of implicit memory
- Procedural memory
- Classical conditioning effects
- Priming
Procedural memory
Implicit memory that stores information for motor skills, habits, and unconsciously learned (implied) rules.
- This type of memory can be improved and the improvement is retained unconsciously
Temporal lobe amnesia
(most associated with the damage to the hippocampus which is essential for the formation of some types of long-term memories)
Unable to make explicit long-term memories
- Patients performed normally on implicit-memory tests and with practice, they were able to improve motor skills
e.g. mirror-tracing task
Infantile amnesia
The inability to remember events from infancy and early childhood
Maintenance rehearsal
The process by which a person holds information in working memory for a period of time
Encoding rehearsal
The process by which a person encodes information into the long-term store
Elaboration
To think deeply about an item and tying it to a structure of information that already exists in your long-term memory.
Ways in which visualization improves memory
- It leaves a distinct visual trace
- Allows for the chunking of several verbally presented ideas into one item
- Links new visualized items with already existing ones in the long-term memory
Anterograde amnesia
The loss of capacity to make new long-term memory post the injury. These patients also show a considerable degree of retrograde amnesia
Retrograde amnesia
Loss of memories of events that occurred before the injury.
Consolidation
When labile memory form is re-encoded and converted into the stable form.
Labile memory
Long-term memories are first encoded into the labile memory form which is easily disrupted and forgotten.
Neural connections of labile and stable forms
- Labile form involves neural connections to the hippocampus
- Stable form involves neural connections to the cerebral cortex, without dependence on the hippocampus
Retrieval cue
A stimulus or thought that primes a particular memory.
Schema
A generalized mental concept of any given class of objects, events, or scenes. e.g. In VN people share a common schema about how a normal street looks like (crowded with motorbikes and noisy)
Script
Schemas that involve the organization of events in time
(instead of objects in space)
e.g. Typical birthday: Presenting the cake, singing Happy bday, blowing out the candles and wishing sth, and opening presents.
Source confusion
When the memory of an actual event becomes confounded with a story heard from others or with an imagined scene in a psychotherapy session.
Prospective memory
A form of memory that involves remembering to perform a planned action or recall a planned intention at some future point in time.
Retrospective memory
Remembering something experienced in the past.
Event-based prospective memory
Remembering to do a particular action when cued by a target event
e.g. Give my friend a message when I see him
Time-based prospective memory
Remember to do a particular action after a period of time
e.g. Cook dinner in an hour
Phases of prospective memory
- A subject forms an intention
- The intention must be maintained
- There must be a “switch” from the ongoing task to execute the intention
e. g. - buy weed on the way home
- remember to buy weed on the way home
- driving home and then stopping at the shop to buy weed
