Chapter 4: Cognition, Consciousness, and Language Flashcards
Which lobe is much larger in humans?
Frontal lobe
What is cognitive development? How is it limited during early childhood?
- The development of one’s ability to think and solve problems across the lifespan
- Limited by the pace of brain maturation
Jean Piaget divided the lifespan into four stages of cognitive development. What are they?
- Sensorimotor
- Preoperational
- Concrete operational
- Formal operational
- Each stage prepares the individual for the stage that follows
According to Piaget, how do infants mainly learn?
Through instinctual interaction with the environment (ex: grasping reflex)
Piaget referred to organized patters of behaviours and thought as schemata. What can a schema include?
- Concept, behavior, or a sequence of events
According to Piaget, how is new information processed in a child?
- Processed via adaptation
- As a child proceeds through the stages, new information has to be placed into the different shcemata
According to Piaget, adaptation comes about by two complementary processes, what are they?
Assimilation and accomodation
What is assimilation?
The process of classifying new information into existing schemata
What is accommodation?
The process by which existing schemata are modified to encompass this new information
How long does the sensorimotor stage last? What does the child need to learn?
- From birth until 2 years old
- Learns to manipulate his or her environment in order to meet physical needs
Differentiate the two types of circular reactions? Why are they repeated?
Primary: repetition of a body movement that originally occurred by chance (sucking thumb), repeated since child finds it soothing
Secondary: when manipulation is focused on something outside the body (throwing tows from high chair), repeated since child gets a response from the environment
What is the key milestone that ends the sensorimotor stage?
The development of object permanence, which is understanding that objects continue to exist even when outside of view (ex: peek-a-boo is entertaining since infants lack object permanence)
Object permanence marks the beginning of what?
Representational thought, in which the child has begun to create mental representations of external objects and events
How long does the preoperational stage last? What is it characterized by?
- 2 to 7 years old
- Symbolic thinking, egocentrism and centration
Define symbolic thinking.
Refers to the ability to pretend, play make-believe, and have an imagination
Define egocentrism.
Refers to the inability to imagine what another person may think or feel
Define centration.
The tendency to focus on only one aspect of a phenomenon or inability to understand the concept of conservation (ex: 1 large slice vs 2 small slices = same size BUT child will want 2 slices of pizza)
How long does the concrete operational stage last? What do they understand? They can engage in logical thought as long as what? Can they think abstractly?
- 7 to 11 years
- Can understand conservation and consider the perspectives of others
- Able to engage in logical thought as long as they are working with concrete objects or information that is directly available
- NO ability to think abstractly
When does the formal operational stage start? What is it marked by?
- At around 11 years old
- Marked by the ability to think logically about abstract ideas
- Problem-solving
Who proposed that the engine driving cognitive development is the child’s internalization of her culture?
Lev Vygotsky
Compare fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. When do they peak? Do they decline?
Fluid: problem-solving skills (peak in early adulthood)
Crystallized: use of learned skills and knowledge (peak in middle adulthood)
They both decline with age
What is delirium? What can it be caused by?
- Rapid fluctuation in cognitive function that is reversible and caused by medical (nonpsychological) causes
- Electrolyte and pH disturbances, malnutrition, low blood sugar, infection, drug reaction, alcohol withdrawal, and pain
Define mental set.
The tendency to approach problems in the same way.
Define functional fixedness.
The inability to consider how to use an object in a nontraditional manner.
What is the trial-and-error problem-solving approach? When is it effective?
- Various solutions are tried until one is found to work.
- Only effective when there are relatively few possible solutions
What is the algorithm problem-solving approach?
A formula or procedure for solving a certain type of problem
What is the deductive (top-down) reasoning problem-solving approach?
Starts from a set of general rules and draws conclusions from the information given
What is the inductive (bottom-up) reasoning problem-solving approach?
Seeks to create a theory via generalizations. This type of reasoning starts with specific instances, and then draws a conclusion from them.
Define heuristics. What are they also called?
- Simplified principles used to make decisions
- Called rules of thumb
- Efficient, although sometimes inaccurate, method for problem-solving
What is the availability heuristic? Provide an example.
- Used when we try to decide how likely something is, can lead to an incorrect answer at times
- ex: Are there more words in the English language that start with the letter “K” or that have “K” as their third letter? Ans: third letter, but availability heuristic leads to the wrong answer
What is the representativeness heuristic?
- Categorizing items on the basis of whether they fit the prototypical, stereotypical, or representative image of the category.
- Can also lead us astray
What is the base rate fallacy?
Using prototypical or stereotypical factors while ignoring actual numerical information
What is the disconfirmation principle?
- The evidence obtained from testing demonstrated that the solution does not work
- The presence of a confirmation bias may prevent an individual from eliminating this solution
What is the confirmation bias? What do they contribute to?
- The tendency to focus on information that fits an individual’s beliefs, while rejecting information that goes against them
- Contribute to overconfidence
What can seriously impede a person’s analysis of available evidence?
Confirmation bias and overconfidence
Define intuition. How is it developed?
- The ability to act on perceptions that may not be supported by available evidence.
- Developed by experience
What is the recognition-primed decision model? What does it explain?
Decision-making model in which experience and recognition of similar situations play a large role in decision-making and actions; also one of the explanations for the experience of intuition
How can emotion effect decision-making? (2)
- The way the person feels when making a decision (angry = more risky)
- The way the person expects to feel once a decision has been made (car will make them more powerful = buys car)
The theory of multiple intelligences presents 7 different types of intelligence. What are they? Who’s theory is it?
- Howard Gardner
- Linguistic
- Logical-Mathematical
- Musical
- Visual-Spatial
- Bodily-Kinesthetic
- Interpersonal
- Intrapersonal
What is the original formula used to calculate the Intelligence Quotient (IQ)?
IQ = (mental age/chronological age) x 100%
Define consciousness.
One’s level of awareness of both the world and one’s own existence within that world
What are the 4 accepted states of consciousness?
- Alertness
- Sleep
- Dreaming
- Altered states of consciousness
What is alertness? What levels are higher?
- When we are awake and able to think
- Cortisol levels tend to be higher, and EEG waves indicate a brain in the waking state
How is alertness maintained? What causes a coma?
- Neurological circuits in the prefrontal cortex communicate with the reticular formation (brainstem) to keep the cortex awake and alert
- Brain injury that results in the disruption of these connections results in a coma
How is sleep studied?
By recording brain wave activity occurring during the course of a night’s sleep with an EEG, which records an average of the electrical patters within different portions of the brain
What are the five characteristic EEG patters correlated with different stages of waking and sleeping? These sleep stages form a complete cycle lasting how long?
- Beta
- Alpha
- Theta
- Delta
- Wave for REM
- Complete cycle lasts about 90 minutes
Which waves characterize wave activity when we are awake? Which wave is faster? When does it occur? Which is slower? Which is more synchronized?
- Beta and Alpha
- Beta waves have a high frequency and occur when the person is alert or attending to a mental task that requires concentration (neurons randomnly fire)
- Alpha waves occur when we are awake but relaxed with our eyes closed
- Alpha waves are more synchronized
What waves are detected in Stage 1 of sleep? How are the frequencies and voltages?
- Theta waves
- Irregular waveforms, slower frequencies, higher voltages
What waves are detected in Stage 2 of sleep?
- Theta waves
- Sleep spindles (high frequency)
- K complex (high voltage then drops to low voltage)
What waves are detected in Stages 3 and 4 of sleep? What is this sleep also called? How are the frequencies and voltages? What is likely to occur?
- Delta waves
- Low-frequency, high-voltage
- Slow-wave sleep (SWS)
- Declarative memory consolidation
Which stage(s) is it difficult to rouse someone from sleep?
Stages 3 and 4
What stages are part of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep?
Stages 1 through 4
When does rapid eye movement (REM) sleep occur? What happens? What is it also called? Why?
- Interspersed between cycles of the NREM sleep stages
- Arousal levels reach that of wakefulness, muscles are paralyzed
- Paradoxical sleep, since one’s heart rate, breathing patterns, and EEG mimic wakefulness (but person is asleep)
What is the sequential order of the brain waves when someone is awake and then falls asleep?
BAT-D
Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta
Which sleep stage is there most likely dreaming? What is it also associated with?
- REM sleep
- Procedural memory consolidation
Which sleep state predominates early in the night? Which sleep state predominates later in the night?
Early: SWS
Late: REM
What is the length of the sleep cycle in children? What about in adults? Children spend more time in which sleep cycle?
- Children: 50 minutes
- Adults: 90 minutes
- Children spend more time in SWS
What regulates sleep? What external cues is it affected by? How long is the cycle?
- Circadian rhythm
- Light
- Around 24-hours