Final Exam Review Flashcards

1
Q

Cognitive Psychology

A

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)

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2
Q

Cognition

A

Refers to all processes by which sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used.

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3
Q

Cognitive Style

A

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.

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4
Q

Field-dependent person

A

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)

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5
Q

Field-independent person

A

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)

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6
Q

Thinking

A

Manipulating information (forming concepts, solving problems, and making decisions)

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7
Q

Concepts

A

Mental categories, semantic memory, adaptation for survival, guide behaviour

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8
Q

Dual-Process Theory

A

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.

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9
Q

Schemata

A

Schemata (schema in the singular) are knowledge structures that represent substantial information about a concept, its attributes, and its relationships to other concepts.

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10
Q

Knowledge structures

A

Organized packets of information that are stored in memory.

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11
Q

Self schema

A

Our memory, influences, and information about other people.

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12
Q

Person schema

A

Beliefs about other people, their traits, and their goals.

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13
Q

Role schema

A

Behaviours that are expected of people in particular social situations or in particular occupations/roles.

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14
Q

Event schema

A

Scripts for well-known situations.

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15
Q

Priming study by Bargh, Chen & Barrows (1996)

A

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.

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16
Q

Heuristic

A

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.

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17
Q

Availability Heuristic

A

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.

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18
Q

Representativeness Heuristic

A

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.

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19
Q

Decision-Making

A
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20
Q

Controlled thinking

A

Controlled thinking is conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful.

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21
Q

Automatic thinking

A

Automatic thinking is often non-conscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless.

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22
Q

Priming

A

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.

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23
Q

Confirmation bias

A

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for and use information that supports ideas rather than refutes them.

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24
Q

Belief perseverance

A

Belief perseverance is the tendency to hold onto a belief in the face of contradictory evidence.

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25
Q

Overconfidence bias

A

Overconfidence bias is the tendency of people to have more confidence in judgments and decisions than is appropriate.

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26
Q

Hindsight bias

A

Hindsight bias is the tendency of people to believe they have predicted an event after it has occurred.

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27
Q

Cognitive interactionist approach to language acquisition

A

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.

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28
Q

Social communication interactionist approach to language acquisition

A

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).

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29
Q

Emergentist interactionist approach to language acquisition

A

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.

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30
Q

Five traits of language

A

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.

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31
Q

Phonemes

A

Smallest units in speech that can be distinguished (40 phonemes).

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32
Q

Morphemes

A

Smallest units of meaning (50 000 in English).

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33
Q

Semantics

A

Area of language combined with understanding the meaning of words and word combinations.

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34
Q

Syntax

A

The system of rules that specify how words can be arranged into sentences. The syntax acquisition of children progresses very quickly.

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35
Q

Language acquisition at 3 months of age

A

Infants can distinguish phonemes from all of the world’s languages. This ability deteriorates between 4-12 months of age.

36
Q

Language acquisition at 8 months of age

A

Infants recognize and store common word forms. Werker suggests optimal periods for the different subsystems involved in language acquisition (not as rigidly absolute as sometimes thought).

37
Q

Language acquisition in first year

A

Language acquisition systems become tuned to the speech properties of their native language. This is because the question of the existence of critical periods has been answered in the form of the affirmative. In first six (6) months, babies vocalize primarily by crying, cooing, and laughter- after which they start babbling- this gradually becomes more complex and increasingly resembles the language spoken boy parents and others in their enivronment. This first year is critical to language acquisition.

38
Q

Critical period

A

A critical period is the time span in the development of an organism when it is optimal for certain capacities to emerge because the organism is responsive to action-experiences.

39
Q

Language acquisition at 10-13 months of age

A

Most children begin to hear sounds that are similar to words (similar in phonetic form and meaning, even in different languages).

40
Q

Receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary with reference to toddler language acquisition

A

The receptive vocabulary of a toddler is larger than their productive vocabulary. That is to say, they can comprehend more words spoken than they can produce. Early words refer to objects, second to social actions (that is to say, nouns before words).

41
Q

Language acquisition at two (2) years of age

A

Two-year-olds learn as many as 20 new words each week. They do this using fast mapping, which can result in overextensions and underextensions. Toward the end of their second year, children combine words into sentences. Their early sentences are characterized by telegraphic speech.

42
Q

Language acquisition at three (3) years of age

A

At three, children can express plural and past tenses (more complex), but still make mistakes, such as overgeneralization.

43
Q

Overextension

A

Overextension occurs when a child incorrectly uses a words to describe a wider set of objects than is appropriate. For example, a child using the word “ball” for oranges, apples, and the moon. These appear between ages one and two and a half.

44
Q

Underextension

A

Underextension occurs when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a narrower set of objects or actions than it is meant to. For example, a child using “dog” to refer to a horse, cat, or non-dog stuffed animal.

45
Q

Fast mapping

A

Fast mapping is the process by which children map a word onto an underlying concept after only one exposure.

46
Q

Telegraphic speech

A

Telegraphic speech consists mainly of content words, omitting articles, prepositions and other critical words. Characterizes the early sentences of two-year-olds.

47
Q

Overgeneralization

A

Grammatical rules that are incorrectly generalized to irregular cases where they do not apply. These occur in all languages and do linger, but demonstrate that the child is working to develop and master language.

48
Q

Language acquisition at four to five (4-5) years of age

A

At four to five years of age, the biggest strides in language acquisition are made. Children generate longer and more complex sentences as they learn to write.

49
Q

Language acquisition at around school-age

A

School-age children begin to appreciate ambiguities in language. This means they are developing metalinguistic awareness.

50
Q

Language acquisition at around six to eight (6-8) years of age

A

Children appreciate irony and sarcasm at ages 6-8.

51
Q

Metalinguistic awareness

A

Metalinguistic awareness refers to the ability to reflect on the use of language. This grows as children begin to play with language (for example, puns and jokes).

52
Q

Theories of language acquisition

A

Schools of thought governing language acquisition are behaviourist, nativist, and interactionist.

53
Q

Behaviourist theory of language acquisition

A

According to behaviourists like BF Skinner, children learn language through imitation and reinforcement. Ergo, vocalizations that are not reinforced gradually decline in frequency, and remaining vocalizations are shaped with reinforcement until they are correct. The same applies for syntax: if a request is made right, a need is met- reinforcing their verbal behaviour.

54
Q

Nativist theory of language acquisition

A

According to nativists like Noam Chomsky, there are infinite sentences in a language. Therefore, children cannot learn solely by imitation- they learn rules of language, not specific verbal responses. They propose an alternative theory, that humans have an in-born “native” propensity to develop language- by means of a Language Acquisition Device (LAD), which is an innate mechanism or process which facilitates the acquisition of language.

55
Q

Interactionist theory of language acquisition

A

Interactionists argue that the concept of LAD is incredibly vague, but assert that the human organism is biologically equipped for learning language. Much of this involves the acquisition of rules, but like social exchange plays a critical role. The human brain hardwired the sound patterns that make up human languages.

56
Q

Problem-solving

A

Active efforts to discover what must be done in order to achieve a goal that is not readily attainable.

57
Q

Three basic classes of problems

A

Problems of inducing structure, problems of arrangement, and problems of transformation

58
Q

Insight

A

Sudden discovery of the correct solution following incorrect attempts based primarily on trial and error.

59
Q

Problems of inducing structure

A

Problems of inducing structure require people to discover the relationship among numbers, words, symbols, or ideas.

60
Q

Problems of arrangement

A

Problems of arrangement require people to arrange the parts of a problem in a way that satisfies some criterion (only one or a few of the arrangements form a solution).

61
Q

Problems of transformation

A

Problems of transformation require people to carry out a specific sequence of transformations in order to achieve a specific goal.

62
Q

Common obstacles to effective problem-solving

A

Common obstacles to effective problem-solving include irrelevant information, functional fixedness, mental set and the imposition of unnecessary constraints.

63
Q

Irrelevant information

A

What it says on the tin. Leads people astray.

64
Q

Functional fixedness

A

Functional fixedness is the tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use.

65
Q

Mental set

A

Mental sets exist when people persist in using problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past. This is often demonstrated in chess experts working on chess problems. This can explain why having expertise in an area sometimes backfires and hampers problem-solving.

66
Q

Schools of thought on how the cognitive process leads to insight

A

Special process view, the business-as-usual-view, and the integrated view.

67
Q

Special-process view of insight

A

Insights arise from sudden restructurings of problems as that at the unconscious level.

68
Q

Business-as-usual view of insight

A

Insights arise from normal, step-by-step, analytical thinking that occurs at a conscious level.

69
Q

Integrated view of insight

A

Sudden, unconscious restricting and gradual, conscious, analytical thinking can contribute to the emergence of insights.

70
Q

Trial and error

A

Trying possible solutions and discarding those that are in error until one works.

71
Q

Subgoals

A

Immediate steps toward a solution. Useful strategy in trial and error.

72
Q

Analogies

A

Similarities between problem and previously solved problems. Can help facilitate effective thinking. Useful strategy in trial and error.

73
Q

Incubation effect

A

Incubation effect occurs when new solutions surface for a previously unsolved problem after a period of not consciously thinking about the problem. This has a positive effect on changing problem-solving context.

74
Q

Eastern cognitive styles vs Western cognitive styles

A

Eastern cognitive styles are holistic, focusing on context and relationships among elements, whereas Western cognitive styles are analytic, focusing on objects and their properties.

75
Q

Choice overload

A

Choice overload occurs when people feel overwhelmed by decisions involving a large array of choices.

76
Q

Choice mindset

A

The choice mindset is is the tendency to think about and interpret behaviour as a matter of choice. This can lead people to more easily accept wealth inequity, as well as discrimination against minority groups.

77
Q

Risky decision-making

A

Risky decision-making involves making choices under conditions of uncertainty, involves expected value, weighing known outcomes, and subjective utility/probability.

78
Q

Three key processes in memory

A

Encoding, storage, and retrieval are the three key processes in memory.

79
Q

Encoding

A

Attention plays a decently-sized role in encoding. Encoding shows that one must pay attention to remember, as it involves focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimulus and events. Attention in this case is likened to a filter that screens out most partial stimuli while allowing a select few to pass on to conscious awareness (selective attention).

80
Q

Short-term memory

A

Short-term memory has a limited capacity store of memory that can maintain unrehearsed information for up to 20 seconds.

81
Q

Chunking

A
82
Q

Working memory

A
83
Q

Baddeley’s model of working memory

A
84
Q

Long-term memory

A
85
Q

Flashbulb memories

A

Flashbulb memories are usually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous occasions, related to traumatic events.