Chapter 10: Reasoning and Intelligence

Question 1

Analogy

Answer 1

A comparison between one thing and another, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification

Question 2

Induction

Answer 2

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.”

Question 3

The predictable world bias

Answer 3

People’s tendency to believe that events are more predictable than they actually are

Question 4

Availability bias

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Confirmation bias

Answer 5

The tendency to only look at evidence that supports your current hypothesis and disregard the information that invalidates it.

Question 6

Deduction

Answer 6

The attempt to logically deduce the consequences that must be true if certain premises are accepted as true.

Question 7

Insight problem

Answer 7

Problems that are specially developed to be insolvable until someone looks at it in a way that is unconventional

Question 8

Mental set

Answer 8

A well-established habit of perception or thought to solving a problem.

Question 9

Promoting insight

Answer 9

Insight may be promoted by an incubation period or by a happy or playful frame of mind.

Question 10

Intelligence

Answer 10

Variable-capacity that underlies individual differences in reasoning, problem-solving, and gaining new knowledge.

Question 11

Fluid intelligence

Answer 11

The ability to relationships between stimuli independently of preconceived exercises or instructions regarding those relationships.

Question 12

Crystallized intelligence

Answer 12

Mental capacity is directly derived from previous experiences.

Question 13

General intelligence

Answer 13

The underlying capability that contributes to a person’s performance on all mental tests.
(Factor g)

Question 14

Heritability

Answer 14

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).

Question 15

Heritability coefficient

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

Stereotype threat

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Flynn effect

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Phonological loop

Answer 18

Responsible for holding verbal information

Question 19

Visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 19

Responsible for holding visual and spatial information

Question 20

Central executive

Answer 20

Responsible for coordinating the mind’s activities and for bringing new information into working memory from the sensory and long-term stores

Question 21

Memory span

Answer 21

The number of pronounceable items (e.g. words, digits) that a person can keep in mind and report back accurately after a brief delay

Question 22

Multitasking

Answer 22

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.

Question 23

Executive functions

Answer 23

Relatively basic information-processing mechanisms that, together, are important in planning, regulating behaviour, and performing complex cognitive tasks.

Question 24

Preattentive processing

Answer 24

All stimuli briefly enter the sensory memory and are unconsciously analyzed to determine their significance for the person’s well being.

Question 25

Priming

Answer 25

The activation, by sensory input, of information that is already stored in long-term memory.

Question 26

Echoic memory

Answer 26

Auditory sensory information.

- An echo (brief memory of a sound) fades over seconds and vanishes within 10 sec

Question 27

Iconic memory

Answer 27

Visual sensory information

- An icon (brief memory trace of a visual stimulus) last only 1/3 of a second

Question 28

Subcomponents of executive functions

Answer 28

1. Working memory: updating the contents of working memory (adding/deleting)
2. Switching: shifting flexibly between different tasks and mindsets
3. Inhibition: preventing a cognitive and behavioural response, or keep unwanted information out of mind.

Question 29

The neurological basis of executive functions

Answer 29

• 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.

Question 30

Memory

Answer 30

The information in a person’s mind and the mind’s capacity to store and retrieve that information

Question 31

Explicit memory

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

Implicit memory

Answer 32

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.

Question 33

Episodic memory

Answer 33

Explicit memory that consists of one of your own past experiences. (e.g. your 16th bday, today’s breakfast)
- Also called autobiographical memory

Question 34

Sematic memory

Answer 34

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.

Question 35

Subclasses of implicit memory

Answer 35

1. Procedural memory
2. Classical conditioning effects
3. Priming

Question 36

Procedural memory

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Temporal lobe amnesia

Answer 37

(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

Question 38

Infantile amnesia

Answer 38

The inability to remember events from infancy and early childhood

Question 39

Maintenance rehearsal

Answer 39

The process by which a person holds information in working memory for a period of time

Question 40

Encoding rehearsal

Answer 40

The process by which a person encodes information into the long-term store

Question 41

Elaboration

Answer 41

To think deeply about an item and tying it to a structure of information that already exists in your long-term memory.

Question 42

Ways in which visualization improves memory

Answer 42

• 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

Question 43

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 43

The loss of capacity to make new long-term memory post the injury. These patients also show a considerable degree of retrograde amnesia

Question 44

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 44

Loss of memories of events that occurred before the injury.

Question 45

Consolidation

Answer 45

When labile memory form is re-encoded and converted into the stable form.

Question 46

Labile memory

Answer 46

Long-term memories are first encoded into the labile memory form which is easily disrupted and forgotten.

Question 47

Neural connections of labile and stable forms

Answer 47

• Labile form involves neural connections to the hippocampus

- Stable form involves neural connections to the cerebral cortex, without dependence on the hippocampus

Question 48

Retrieval cue

Answer 48

A stimulus or thought that primes a particular memory.

Question 49

Schema

Answer 49

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)

Question 50

Script

Answer 50

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.

Question 51

Source confusion

Answer 51

When the memory of an actual event becomes confounded with a story heard from others or with an imagined scene in a psychotherapy session.

Question 52

Prospective memory

Answer 52

A form of memory that involves remembering to perform a planned action or recall a planned intention at some future point in time.

Question 53

Retrospective memory

Answer 53

Remembering something experienced in the past.

Question 54

Event-based prospective memory

Answer 54

Remembering to do a particular action when cued by a target event
e.g. Give my friend a message when I see him

Question 55

Time-based prospective memory

Answer 55

Remember to do a particular action after a period of time

e.g. Cook dinner in an hour

Question 56

Phases of prospective memory

Answer 56

1. A subject forms an intention
2. The intention must be maintained
3. There must be a “switch” from the ongoing task to execute the intention
   e. g.
4. buy weed on the way home
5. remember to buy weed on the way home
6. driving home and then stopping at the shop to buy weed