Chapter 9 Flashcards
Cognition
The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remember, and communicating
Concept
A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, and people
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.)
Algorithm
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
Heuristic
A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error prone than algorithms
Insight
A sudden realization of a problems solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions
Confirmation bias
A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence
Mental set
A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past
Intuition
An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning
Availability 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
Overconfidence
The tendency to be more confident than correct-to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments
Belief perseverance
Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited
Framing
The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments
Creativity
The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas
Convergent thinking
Narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution
Divergent thinking
Expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions)
Language
Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
Phoneme
In a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit
Morpheme
In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)
Grammar
In a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. In a given language, semantics is the set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is the set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences
Babbling stage
Beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language
One-word stage
The stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words
Two-word stage
Beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements.
Telegraphic speech
Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram- “go car”- using mostly nouns and verbs
Aphasia
Impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding)
Broca’s area
Controls language expression-an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech
Wernicke’s area
Controls language reception-a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe
Intelligence
Mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations
General intelligence (g)
A general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test
Savant syndrome
A condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing
Emotional intelligence
The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions
Intelligence test
A method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores
Aptitude test
A test designed to predict a person’s future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn
Achievement test
A test designed to assess what a person has learned
Mental age
A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does as well as an average 8 year old is said to have a mental age of 8
Stanford-Binet
The widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet’s original intelligence test
Intelligence quotient (IQ)
Defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ = ma/ca x 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.
Wechsier Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
The WAIS is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests
Standardization
Defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group
Normal curve
The bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes
Reliability
The extent to which a test
The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to
Validity
The extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest
Content validity
The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior.
Predictive validity
Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age
Crystallized intelligence
Our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood
Fluid intelligence
A condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence test score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life
Intellectual disability
A condition of mild to severe intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21
Down syndrome
Heritability
The proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied
Stereotype threat
A self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype.
How many morphemes are in the word cats? How many phonemes?
Two morphemes-cat and s, and four phonemes- c-a-t-s
What is the difference between receptive and productive language, and when do children normally hit these milestones in language development?
Infants normally start developing receptive language skills (ability to understand what is said to and about them) around 4 months of age. Then, starting with babbling at 4 months and beyond, infants normally start building productive language skills (ability to produce sounds and eventually words.)
__________ ___________ is the part of the brain that, if damaged, might impair your ability to speak words. If you damage ______ ________, you might impair your ability to understand language.
Broca’s area; Wernicke’s area
What three criteria must a psychological test meet in order to be widely accepted? Explain.
A psychological test must be standardized (pretested on a similar group of people), reliable (yielding consistent results), and valid (measuring what it is supposed to measure)
A check on your understanding of heritability; If environments become more equal, the heritability of intelligence would?
Heritability -variation explained by genetic influences- will increase as environmental variation decreases
The heritability of intelligence scores will be greater in a society marked by equal opportunity than in a society of peasants and aristocrats. Why?
Perfect environmental equality would create 100 percent heritability, because genes alone would account for any remaining human differences
The most systematic procedure for solving a problem is a(n)
Algorithm
After the 9/11 attacks by foreign-born terrorists, some observers initially assumed that the 2003 U.S. East Coast blackout was probably also the work of foreign-born terrorists. This assumption illustrates the __________
Availability heuristic
When consumers respond more positively to ground beef described as “75 percent lean” than to the same product labeled “25 percent fat,” they have been influenced by?
Framing
Children reach the one-word stage of speech development at about
1 year
The three basic building blocks of language are
Phonemes; morphemes, grammar
When young children speak in short phrases using mostly verbs and nouns, this is referred to as?
Telegraphic speech
According to Chomsky, all languages share a(n)
Universal grammar
Charles Spearman suggested we have one ________ _________ underlying success across a variety of intellectual abilities
General intelligence (g)
Sternberg’s three types of intelligence are?
Academic, practical, creative
Emotionally intelligent people tend to
Succeed in their careers
The IQ of a 6 year old with a measured mental age of 9 would be
150
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is best able to tell us
How the test taker compares with other adults in vocabulary and arithmetic reasoning
The strongest support for heredity’s influence on intelligence is the finding that
Identical twins, but not other siblings, have nearly identical intelligence scores
To say that the heritability of intelligence is about 50% means that 50% of
The variation in intelligence within a group of people is attributable to genetic factors
The environmental influence that has the clearest, most profound effect on intellectual development is
Being raised in conditions of extreme deprivation
________ _________ can lead to poor performance on tests by undermining test-takers belief that they can do well on the test
Stereotype threat
