Chapter 9 Flashcards
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
cognition
A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
Concept
A mental image or best example of a category. ________provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories ( as when comparing feathered creatures to a ________ bird, such as a robin).
Prototype
A mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories ( as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin).
A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier - but also more error-prone - use of heuristics.
algorithm
A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than an algorithm.
Heuristic
A sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions.
Insight
A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.
Confirmation Bias
In thinking, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an obstacle to problem solving.
fixation
A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.
Mental Set
An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.
Intuition
Estimating the likelihood of events in terms of how they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.
representativeness Heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common.
Avaliability heuristic
The tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.
Overconfidence
Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
belief perseverance
The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.
framing
The ability to produce new and valuable ideas.
creativity
Narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution.
Convergent thinking
Expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions.
Divergent thinking
Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.
language
In a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
phoneme
In a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. Semantics is the language’s set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is its set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.
Grammar
Beginning around 4 months, the stage of speech development in which an infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.
babbling stage
The stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.
one-word stage
Beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements.
two-word stage
Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram - “go car’ - using mostly nouns and verbs.
telegraphic speech
Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding).
aphasia
Helps control language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.
Brocas area
A brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe.
Wernickes area
