Chapter 8 Flashcards
Cognition
All of the mental activities associated with thinking, including knowing, remembering, solving problems, making judgements and decisions, and communicating.
Cognitive psychology
The study of these mental activities and how they work
Mental representations
An internal mental symbol that stands for some object, event, or state of affairs in the world
Concepts
A mental category that groups similar objects, events, ideas, or people
Family resemblance
A concept that can have a set of features that each family member has some subset of, even though different family members have different subsets of features
Prototype
A best example or average member of a concept that incorporates most of the features most commonly associated with it
Basic-level concepts
Words like apple and bird
Superordinate concepts
More abstract and encompass basic-level concepts. Words like furniture, fruit, and animal
Subordinate concepts
More specific concepts within basic-level concepts, like rocking chair, Granny Smith apple, and hummingbird
Algorithms
A step-by-step procedure for solving problems that guarantees a solution
Insight
A sudden, conscious change in a person’s understanding of some situation or problem.
Mental set
A mental framework for how to solve problems based on prior experience with similar problems
Functional fixedness
An obstacle to problem solving that involves focusing on an object’s typical functions, thus failing to recognize atypical functions that could help solve a problem
Restructuring
The process of reorganizing one’s understanding of a problem to facilitate a solution
Judgements
Conclusions we draw from evidence we have at hand
Decisions
Choices that affect our behavior
Rational decision
A decision based purely on reason and logic
bounded rationality
The idea that rational decision making is constrained by limitations in peoples cognitive abilities, available information, and time
Dual-processing theories
People have two types of thinking that they can use to make judgements and decisions
Controlled system
Slower and effortful, leads to more thoughtful and rational outcomes
Automatic system
Fast and fairly effortless and leads to decent outcomes most of the time
Heuristics
A mental shortcut that allows people to efficiently solve problems and make judgements and decisions
Representative heuristic
A mental shortcut for judging the likelihood of something based on how well it represents some category
Availability heuristic
A mental shortcut for deciding how frequent or probable something is based on how easily examples come to mind
Affect heuristic
A mental shortcut for making judgements and decisions that involves relying on affect- the good-for-me feelings we associate with various objects and events in the world
Confirmation bias
The tendency to look for and weigh evidence that confirms preexisting beliefs more strongly than evidence that is inconsistent with those beliefs
Belief perserverance
The tendency for people to resist changing their beliefs, even when faced with disconfirming evidence
Framing
The particular way that an issue, decision, or set of options is described. Framing can change decisions by shifting the decision maker’s reference point
Loss aversion
The tendency to make choices, including riskier ones, that minimize losses
Overconfidence bias
The tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s knowledge and judgements
Hindsight bias
The tendency, once some outcome is known, to overestimate the likelihood that one would have predicted that outcome in advance
Language
A shared system of symbols, including spoken, written, and signed words and gestures, and a set of rules for how to combine those symbols to communicate meaning
Phonemes
The smallest unit of language, such as the individual sounds that make up speech
Morphemes
The smallest unit of language that carries bits of meaning.
Grammar
A system of rules that governs the way that language parts are put together so that people can understand each other
Syntax
Grammatical rules that govern how words and phrases combine into well-formed sentences
Pragmatics
Rules that govern the practical aspects of language use, such as taking turns, using intonation and gestures, and talking to different types of people
Linguistic determinism (Whorf’s hypothesis)
Benjamin Whorf’s proposal that different languages impose different ways of understanding the world that can shape our thinking.
Babbling
The production of speech sounds by infants, usually beginning around 6-7 months of age
Overregularization errors
A language error made by children that involves extending rules of word formation. These errors reveal children’s understanding of grammar
Language acquisition device
An innate mechanism that linguist Noam Chomsky proposed to explain the process of language acquisition in children. He argued that language acquisition is activated by exposure and requires little to no explicit teaching from adults
Sensitive period
An early period in the life of an organism during which it is especially sensitive to and able to learn from specific information in its environment
Intelligence
The capability to think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, reason, plan, solve problems, learn from experience, and acquire new knowledge
Factor analysis
A statistical technique developed by Charles Spearman that involves analyzing the interrelations among different tests to look for the common factors underlying the scores
General intelligence (g factor)
A general mental ability that Charles Spearman hypothesized is required for virtually any mental test
Fluid intelligence; g(F)
A component of general intelligence that involves the ability to deal with new and unusual problems
Crystallized intelligence; g(C)
A component of general knowledge that involves accumulated knowledge and skills
Savant syndrome
A syndrome in developmentally disabled individuals that involves the presence of unusual talents that contrast with low levels of general intelligence
Analytic intelligence
Book smarts, ability to break down problems into component parts for problem solving
Creative intelligence
The ability to deal with new problems and generate innovative ideas and solutions
Practical intelligence
Street smarts, the ability to reason skillfully in day-to-day life
Verbal-linguistic intelligence
Ability to perceive and use language, including the sounds, rhythms, and meanings of words and different functions of language
Logical-mathematical intelligence
Ability to perceive logical or numerical patterns and to reason about long, complex problems
Visual-spatial intelligence
Ability to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately and to represent the spatial world accurately in your mind
Bodily kinesthetic intelligence
Ability to use one’s whole body or parts of the body to solve problems, make things, or communicate
through a performance
Musical intelligence
Ability to perceive and produce music, including rhythm, pitch, and timbre
Naturalistic intelligence
Ability to discriminate among natural things and sensitivity to features and patterns in the natural world
Interpersonal intelligence
Ability to understand other people, such as recognizing and responding appropriately to their moods, temperaments, motivations, and desires
Intrapersonal intelligence
Ability to understand one’s self, including accessing and recognizing one’s feelings, drawing on one’s feelings to guide behavior, and knowing of one’s own strengths, weaknesses, desires, and intelligences
Mental age
A number that represents the average age at which children perform closest to a given child’s score on an intelligence test
Intelligence quotient (IQ)
A measure of intelligence that is calculated by dividing a child’s mental age by his or her chronological age and then multiplying it by 100
Achievement tests
A test that is designed to measure how much a person has learned over a certain period of time
Aptitude tests
A test defined to measure a person’s potential to learn new skills
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales (WAIS)
An intelligence test composed of many subtests that can be combined into a single composite to capture overall ability. Scores on separate subtests of the WAIS can be used to identify relative strengths and weaknesses that are useful to educators and therapists.
Standardization
A process of making test scores more meaningful by defining them in relation to the performance of a pre tested group
Reliability
The degree to which a measure yields consistent results each time it’s administered
Validity
The appropriateness or accuracy of a conclusion or decision
Content validity
The extent to which a test samples whatever behavior is of interest
Predictive validity
Whether they can predict how well a person will do in settings that require intelligence
Stereotype threat
A concern that one’s performance or behavior might confirm a negative stereotype about one’s group
Achievement gaps
Persistent differences in the performance of certain groups of people, usually based on characteristics like race or gender
Heritability
An indication of how much variation in phenotype across people is due to differences in genotype
Self-fulfilling prophecy (Pygmalion effect)
A cycle by which others’ beliefs or our own can affect behavior in ways that make the beliefs true
Mindset
A set of attitudes or beliefs that shape how a person perceives and responds to the world. In the domain of intelligence, a mindset may be an implicit belief about where intellectual ability comes from.
Ventromedial frontal cortex
When this region of the brain is damaged, people are unable to evaluate the emotional consequences of their actions
Larynx
A structure in the throat in most mammals that makes vocal sounds possible
Emotionality
The feeling of anxiety itself
Worry
The part of test anxiety that gets people into trouble
