Chapter 7 Flashcards
what are cognitive abilities?
mental skills, such as paying attention, reasoning, remembering, solving problems, speaking and interpreting speech
how is intelligence (or general mental ability) defined?
the general capacity to understand ideas, think abstractly, reason, solve problems and learn (NOT book smarts, academic skill or test taking marks)
what is cranioscopy (or phrenology)?
the study of how the size and shape of the skull relates to mental abilities and personal attributes
used to reinforce gender roles and stereotypes (ex. womens smaller foreheads were interpreted as womens capacity for love of children)
is phrenology still a belief today?
no, viewed as pseudoscience
what are dendrites?
neuronal structures that receive information from other neurons
how is the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) an important tool for researchers?
allows them to measure brain activity and depict where such activity occurs within specific brain regions
what is essentialism?
the belief that human differences arise from qualities (usually biological) within individuals
what is the intelligence quotient (IQ)?
a standardized score that represents an individuals level of intelligence relative to his or her same- age peers. IQ is calculated such that the average for an individuals same age peers is always set to 100 (IQ shifted consensus on the supposed superiority of male intelligence)
when were tests to measure intelligence and IQ developped?
early 20th century (assumed women were intellectually inferior)
what is eugenics?
the study of how to arrange reproduction within a human population to increase the occurrence of heritable characteristics regarded as desirable
(preventing the reproduction of those deemed genetically inferior (immigrants, people of color, low income))
what is forced sterilization?
permanent medical procedures that prevent reproduction
what is factor analysis?
a statistical procedure used to identify clusters of related scores or items
what is the flynn effect?
the observation that scores on standardized intelligence tests have increased over the last century in various countries. (IQs have substantially increased in only the last few generations)
what is verbal fluency? how is it tested?
the ability to generate words, and tests of this ability require people to generate as many words as possible that belong to a certain category (ex. birds) in a short period of time (ex. 1 minute)
are sex differences in boys and girls close to -1 (favoring girls), close to 0 (favoring neither) or close to +1 (favoring boys)?
close to zero (in spatial abilities, and verbal abilities)
what is verbal reasoning?
the ability to understand and analyze concepts, offers an exception to the general trend toward a female advantage in verbal abilities
what are visual- spatial abilities?
cognitive skills that help individuals understand relationships between objects and navigate three dimensional space (ex. ability to rotate figures mentally, remember locations of objects (dice))
who has better spatial ability, boys or girls?
boys (play more video games)
what is mental rotation ability?
the ability to rotate an object in ones mind
what are spatial relations?
the ability to perceive, understand and remember relations between objects in 3D space
what is spatial perception?
the ability to perceive, understand, and remember spatial relations between objects
what is spatial visualization?
ability to mentally manipulate spatial information sequentially (imagining what a folded shape will look like when unfolded)
what is spatial location memory?
the ability to remember the location of objects in physical space
who is better with spatial location memory girls or boys?
women (this is the only spatial task that they are better than men at)
what may influence spatial abilities?
evolution, environmental experiences, prior experience (video games), prior learning
what are outliers?
people at the extreme ends of distributions
men have more within- group variance scores than women in cognitive ability, what does that mean?
mens distribution has more very low and very high scores, while the women’s scores more tightly cluster around the mean
what is the greater male variability hypothesis?
the prediction that men show more variability than women in their distributions of scores on cognitive performance measures leading them to be overrepresented in the very bottom and very top of score distributions
what learning disabilities and developmental disorders are boys more likely to be diagnosed with?
dyslexia
autism
down syndrome
what is dyslexia?
a learning disability characterized by impairments in reading, including difficulties with word recognition and spelling
what is autism?
a developmental disorder typically characterized by sensory sensitivities, repetitive behaviors and difficulties with speech, nonverbal communication and social interaction
what is down syndrome?
a genetic disorder characterized by physical growth delays, mild to moderate intellectual impairment and distinct physical features
what are alleles?
a variant form of a gene
what is the biopsychosocial model?
assumes that biological factors (ex. genes), psychological variables (ex. learning) and social factors (ex. culture) are linked and mutually shape each other
what verbal abilities favor girls over boys?
speech production, reading comprehension, writing (size difference of girls being better than boys at these tasks is small to moderate)
are boys better than girls at math?
no (girls just have less confidence and more anxiety about math)
are there sex differences in cognitive performance?
hard to say but differences seem to be decreasing over time
what school is better for learning? single sex or mixed sex school?
each offers unique advantages and disadvantages
why might women be underrepresented in STEM?
discrimination
different interests
family responsibilities
what is education debt?
the ongoing cumulative lack of investment in the education of low- income and racial minority students that leads to different educational experiences and outcomes based on race and income (low income and minority students face barriers in their access to high quality education)
ex. schools serving primarily low- income and minority students are less equipped to offer high- level math and science courses, and schools offering such classes regularly track minority students out of them
what is achievement motivation?
an individuals need to meet goals and accomplish tasks
how does achievement motivation help explain girls lower performance in math?
girls feel less motivated to succeed or persist in the face of failure than boys do
what is interest based learning? what part of the world uses this?
adults encourage students to channel their efforts into particular domains of interest common in western cultures (an explanation as to why there are less women in STEM)
what is effort based learning? what parts of the world use this?
teachers and other adults expect students to put effort into their studies regardless of their personal interest in the subject matter. common in east asian cultures (taiwan and japan)
what is an example of how home environments can shape childrens academic expectations and interests?
ex. if you have math anxious parents you will likely have math anxiety too because you will get less practice doing math
