Final Exam Review Flashcards
Cognitive Psychology
The area of psychology which seeks to explain behaviour by investigating mental processes and structures that cannot be observed directly (attention, memory, learning, problem-solving, language, etc)
Cognition
Refers to all processes by which sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used.
Cognitive Style
A person’s preferred method of performing cognitive tasks. People differ in the way they perceive information and how they organize information for present and future use.
Field-dependent person
Field-dependent people are especially alert to social cues, and they prefer emotional and physical closeness with others. They are sociable, gregarious, like being with others, want to help others, know many people, and are known by many people. (Ex: Fred and George, Orihime Inoue, Sayaka Miki, Quinlan Vos, Scanlan Shorthalt)
Field-independent person
Field-independent people tend to perceive objects or situations from an internal base; independent of the environment in which the information is presented (Ex: Byakuya Kuchiki, Severus Snape, Wednesday Addams, Percival De Rolo)
Thinking
Manipulating information (forming concepts, solving problems, and making decisions)
Concepts
Mental categories, semantic memory, adaptation for survival, guide behaviour
Dual-Process Theory
The theory that thinking (including social thinking) involves two systems: Systems 1 and 2 respectively. System 1 is cognitively efficient, fast, automatic, involves heuristics, is vulnerable to bias, and is domain-specific. System 2 is cognitively demanding, slow, controlled, limited, and domain-general.
Schemata
Schemata (schema in the singular) are knowledge structures that represent substantial information about a concept, its attributes, and its relationships to other concepts.
Knowledge structures
Organized packets of information that are stored in memory.
Self schema
Our memory, influences, and information about other people.
Person schema
Beliefs about other people, their traits, and their goals.
Role schema
Behaviours that are expected of people in particular social situations or in particular occupations/roles.
Event schema
Scripts for well-known situations.
Priming study by Bargh, Chen & Barrows (1996)
In a 1996 study, researchers Bargh, Chen, and Barrows had participants complete a word task (unscrambling sentences) involving and were primed with a rude, polite, or control condition. They were then timed on how long it took for them to interrupt a conversation between the experimenter and a confederate seemingly having a difficult time. It was found that participants with a rude condition were significantly more likely to interrupt than participate in the polite conditions.
Heuristic
An heuristic is a mental shortcut used to form a judgment or make a decision - not necessarily a form of biased thinking, but the use of the shortcut introduces the possibility of biased thinking.
Availability Heuristic
An availability heuristic is a form of bias (there’s a trade-off, in that we get speed and conserve effort) which refers to the tendency to judge the frequency/likelihood of an event by the ease with which relevant instances come to mind. This heuristic is used when one is trying to judge the frequency or probability of an event.
Representativeness Heuristic
An representativeness heuristic is a form of bias (there’s a trade-off, in that we get speed and conserve effort) wherein the user exhibits the tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the extent to which it represents a typical case.
Decision-Making
Controlled thinking
Controlled thinking is conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful.
Automatic thinking
Automatic thinking is often non-conscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless.
Priming
The activation of certain associations when a neutral frame is cued. The accessibility to a given concept/schema is increased due to a prior experience.
Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for and use information that supports ideas rather than refutes them.
Belief perseverance
Belief perseverance is the tendency to hold onto a belief in the face of contradictory evidence.
Overconfidence bias
Overconfidence bias is the tendency of people to have more confidence in judgments and decisions than is appropriate.
Hindsight bias
Hindsight bias is the tendency of people to believe they have predicted an event after it has occurred.
Cognitive interactionist approach to language acquisition
The cognitive interactionist approach to language acquisition asserts that language development is just an aspect of natural cognitive development that comes with a child’s growth and maturity.
Social communication interactionist approach to language acquisition
The social communication interactionist approach to language acquisition asserts that language develops because humans are social animals and communication is vital to our social world (a functional approach).
Emergentist interactionist approach to language acquisition
The emergentist interactionist approach to language acquisition asserts that the young brain is still maturing and forming, and that the connections are still emerging, as the child is still exposed to language and has a chance to try language, their brain will solidify and consolidate connections that support this development.
Five traits of language
Language is symbolic (representative of objects, events, and ideas). Language is semantic (meaningful), generative (limited number of symbols can be combined in an unlimited number of ways), and also structured (rules govern arrangement of words into sentences), as well as hierarchical.
Phonemes
Smallest units in speech that can be distinguished (40 phonemes).
Morphemes
Smallest units of meaning (50 000 in English).
Semantics
Area of language combined with understanding the meaning of words and word combinations.
Syntax
The system of rules that specify how words can be arranged into sentences. The syntax acquisition of children progresses very quickly.