Cognition and Language Flashcards
Attention
the tendency to respond and remember some stimuli more than others
attentive process
one that requires searching through the items in series
bottom-up process
the peripheral stimuli control it. It is when something sudden and unexpected grabs your attention. we allow the stimulus itself to shape our perception, without any preconceived ideas
change blindness
it is the failure to detect changes in parts of the scene
choice blindness
a phenomenon as people act as if they don’t know what they had chosen
cognition
thinking and using knowledge
preattentive process
something that stands out immediately
priming
It helps get a concept started. Reading or hearing one word makes it easier to think or recognise a related word. Seeing something makes it easier to recognise a related object. Priming a word helps you recognise it more easily than usual if it were flashed briefly on a screen or spoken very softly
prototype
familiar or typical examples. many categories are best described by prototypes
spreading activation
thinking about one of the concepts shown in this figure will activate, or prime, the concepts linked to it
Stroop effect
the tendency to read the words instead of saying the colour of ink
People do better on think task if they blur their vision, say the colours in a different language, or manage to regard the colour words as meaningless
top-down process
when you can deliberately decide to shift your attention. We use our background knowledge and expectations to interpret what we see.
mental imagery
Mental images resemble vision in certain respects. The time required to answer questions about a rotating object depends on how far the object would actually rotate between one position and another.
attention bottleneck
attention is limited and items compete for it
distraction
Directing attention to one item means subtracting it from another. For example, talking on a cell phone distracts from attention to driving.
algorithm
an explicit procedure for calculating an answer or testing every hypothesis
availability heuristic
the tendency to assume if we easily think of examples of a category, then that category must be common. However, this heuristic leads us astray when uncommon events are highly memorable, and incorrectly attribute predictive values to things like hunches or dreams
base-rate information
how common the two categories are. To decide whether something belongs in one category or another, you should consider the base-rate information
confirmation bias
accepting a hypothesis and then looking for evidence to support it instead of considering other possibilities. This is how people often make mistakes
critical thinking
the careful evaluation of evidence for and against any conclusion
far transfer
benefit from practicing something less similar. it is more difficult
framing effect
the tendency to answer a question differently when it is framed differently
heuristics
strategies for simplifying a problem and generating a satisfactory guess. They provide quick guidance when you are willing or forced to accept some possibility or error, and they work well most of the time
maximising
thoroughly considering all available choices to find the best one
near transfer
benefit to a new skill based on practice of a similar skill. It is a robust phenomena and easy to demonstrate
representativeness heuristic
the assumption that an item resembles members of a category is probably also in that category
satisficing
searching only until you find something satisfactory
sunk cost effect
the willingness to do something undesirable because of money or effort already spent
system 1
quick, automatic processes. E.g: recognising familiar faces and routine actions. It saves time and effort, so we rely on it whenever we can
system 2:
for mathematical calculations, evaluating evidence, and anything else that requires attention. It relies heavily on working memory and if your working memory is already loaded as you are trying to remember something else, you tend to fall back onto system 1
expertise
Becoming an expert requires years of practice and effort, but a given amount of practice benefits some people more than others. Experts recognize and memorise familiar and meaningful patterns more rapidly than less experienced people do.
what are other errors people may have
People tend to be overconfident about their judgments on difficult questions. They tend to look for evidence that confirms their hypothesis instead of evidence that might reject it. They answer the same question differently when it is framed differently. They sometimes take unpleasant actions to avoid admitting that previous actions were a waste of time or money.
