Chapter 7 - Thinking and Intelligence Flashcards
Cognition
The mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the sensory input.
In other words: Thinking
Combining a bunch of stuff to make thought
Cognitive Psychology
a field dedicated to examining how people think.
Study concepts such as: Language, Problem-Solving, Decision-Making, Intelligence, Attention, Perception
Steps of cognition
- Information sensation
- Emotions, memories
- Thoughts (can make memories, may loop)
- Behavior
How do we organize all of the information around us?
Concepts and Prototypes
Concepts
Mental representations that help us categorize and understand objects, ideas, or experiences
Seeing stuff in the environment then sorting them into concepts
Example: Bird
Prototype
The best or most typical example
of a concept
Natural concepts
Concepts created “naturally”, through your experiences both directly and indirectly.
Example: Snow
Direct experience: Living by snow
Indirect experience: Knowing about snow through media
Artificial concepts
Concepts defined by specific rules or characteristics.
Example: Shapes - Triangles always have 3 angles and 3 sides
Need both of what to understand the world
Natural and artificial concepts
EX: car & driving
Schema
A cognitive framework or mental structure that helps organize and interpret concepts in the brain.
Used to modify behavior to fit in the environment. Know based in the schemas built
Role schema
Represents the expectations, behaviors, and norms associated with a particular social role
How they would behave, how we interact with them, if we were the role (how we interact with others because of the role)
Ex. Parent, doctor, police officer
Event schema (cognitive script)
Represents the typical sequence of actions or events associated with a specific situation or activity
Ex. Eating at a Restaurant, gym, work
Language
A communication system that involves using words and systematic rules to transmit information from one individual to another.
Biological predisposition
Ability to learn language is same across cultures
Universal grammar
by noam chomsky
everyone can learn language
Critical period to acquire language - ~1 when children first speaks
Passing this period can affect ability to learn
Phonetic Discrimination
The ability to distinguish between different sounds in words, also known as phonemes, and to analyze them based on their acoustic and articulatory characteristics.
Infants can differentiate phonetic sounds from various languages
After 1 year, they become less sensitive – favoring sounds of their primary language
Linguistic Relativity
The idea that language influences thought processes and perception.
* Helps us categorize experiences, affecting how we understand concepts
* Embodies cultural values, shaping thought patterns and social behaviors
* Shapes how we think about and understand the world
EX: speakers of languages with multiple words for snow may perceive winter differently.
Problem solving strategies
Trial and error, algorithm, heuristic
Trial and error
Continue trying different solutions until problem is solved
EX: Restarting phone, turning off WiFi, turning off bluetooth in order to determine why your phone is malfunctioning
Algorithm
Step-by-step problem-solving formula
EX: Instruction manual for installing new software on your computer
Heuristic
General problem-solving framework
Working backwards; breaking a task into steps
Types of Bias
Anchoring, confirmation, hindsight, representative, avalibility
Anchoring
Tendency to focus on one particular piece of information when making decisions or problem-solving
Focusing on the wrong piece, unaware of the other possibilities
Confirmation
Focuses on information that confirms existing beliefs
