Cognition Flashcards
Mnemonic Devices
Memory tricks that aid in encoding information for easier recall.
Mnemonics are specific examples of chunking, such as memorizing the names of the planets by remembering “My very excellent mother just served us nothing.”
Belief Bias (or Belief Perseverance)
Tendency not to change our beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence.
A person who believes in ghosts and interprets every noise in an old house as a sign of “ghostly behavior” is engaging in belief bias.
Functional Fixedness
The inability to see a new use for an object.
A guitar player who loses her pick and doesn’t realize she could use a paperclip is falling victim to functional fixedness.
Confirmation Bias
Tendency to look for evidence that confirms our beliefs and to ignore evidence that contradicts what we think is true.
For example, if you believe that all students who play sports are competitive and intense, you are likely to look for evidence that confirms that belief (like a volleyball player pushing past someone in the lunch line to get the last salad) and unintentionally ignore evidence that contradicts your belief (like a soccer player who is quiet and introverted off the field)
Heuristic
A problem-solving rule of thumb.
Rule that is generally, but not always, true that we can use to make a judgment in a situation.
Two common types of heuristics are the Representativeness Heuristic and the Availability Heuristic.
Availability Heuristic
Judging a situation based on examples of similar situations that come to mind initially.
Might lead to incorrect conclusions due to variability in personal experience.
For example, if someone asks you whether or not you are more likely to be injured by a shark or a parrot, you might reply “shark” because of the number of media reports about shark bites, when in fact parrot bites are much more common.
Representativeness Heuristic
Judging a situation based on how similar the aspects are to prototypes the person holds in his or her mind.
For example, if you meet someone who knows all of the Shakespearean sonnets by heart, wears glasses, and loves reading, you might assume that this person is an English teacher because she fits your “prototype” of an English teacher.
Algorithm
A problem-solving rule that guarantees the right solution by using a formula or other foolproof method.
For example, if you are trying to remember your three digit password for an online account, you could use an algorithm and try every combination of three numbers until you find the password.
Overgeneralization
Misapplication of grammar rules.
Occurs during language acquisition.
Example: “Marky hitted my head so I throwed the truck at him
Images
Mental pictures of the outside world that we create in our minds.
Prototypes
The most typical example of a particular concept.
If someone says the word “bird” and you think of a robin, then a robin represents your prototype of a bird.
Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
The ability to learn a language rapidly as children (this is also called the Nativist Theory of Language Acquisition).
Noam Chomsky theorized that humans are born with this device.
Language acquisition
Stages in how we learn language.
Stages include babbling, holophrastic, and telegraphic speech.
Researchers disagree regarding whether language acquisition is governed more by nature or nurture:
Nature-Biological influences such as the language acquisition device described by Noam Chomsky.
Nurture-Environmental influences such as Skinner’s operant conditioning principles.
Syntax
Particular word order of a language.
Each language has its own syntax, such as where the verb is usually placed in the sentence.
Morphemes
The smallest unit of meaningful sound.
Morphemes can be words, such as a and but, or parts of words, such as the prefixes un- and pre-.
Language consists of phonemes put together to become morphemes, which make up words.
