FlashcardsChapter08
Term
Description
Affective forecasting
The tendency for people to overestimate how events will make them feel in the future. (page 301)
Analogical representations
Mental representations that have some of the physical characteristics of objects; they are analogous to the objects. (page 290)
Anchoring
The tendency, in making judgments, to rely on the first piece of information encountered or information that comes most quickly to mind. (page 298)
Aphasia
A language disorder that results in deficits in language comprehension and production. (page 312)
Availability heuristic
Making a decision based on the answer that most easily comes to mind. (page 299)
Cognition
The mental activity that includes thinking and the understandings that result from thinking. (page 290)
Concept
A category, or class, of related items; it consists of mental representations of those items. (page 291)
Crystallized intelligence
Intelligence that reflects both the knowledge acquired through experience and the ability to use that knowledge. (page 322)
Decision making
Attempting to select the best alternative from among several options. (page 297)
Deep structure
In language, the implicit meanings of sentences. (page 316)
Emotional intelligence (EI)
A form of social intelligence that emphasizes the abilities to manage, recognize, and understand emotions and use emotions to guide appropriate thought and action. (page 324)
Exemplar model
A way of thinking about concepts: All members of a category are examples (exemplars); together they form the concept and determine category membership. (page 292)
Fluid intelligence
Intelligence that reflects the ability to process information, understand relationships, and think logically, particularly in novel or complex circumstances. (page 322)
Framing
In decision making, the tendency to emphasize the potential losses or potential gains from at least one alternative. (page 299)
Functional fixedness
In problem solving, having fixed ideas about the typical functions of objects. (page 305)
General intelligence (g)
The idea that one general factor underlies intelligence. (page 322)
Heuristics
Shortcuts (rules of thumb or informal guidelines) used to reduce the amount of thinking that is needed to make decisions. (page 297)
Insight
(1) The sudden realization of a solution to a problem. (2) The goal of psychoanalysis; a client’s awareness of his own unconscious psychological processes and how these processes affect daily functioning. (page 306)
Intelligence
The ability to use knowledge to reason, make decisions, make sense of events, solve problems, understand complex ideas, learn quickly, and adapt to environmental challenges. (page 319)
Intelligence quotient (IQ)
An index of intelligence computed by dividing a child’s estimated mental age by the child’s chronological age, then multiplying this number by 100. (page 321)
Language
A system of communication using sounds and symbols according to grammatical rules. (page 310)
Linguistic relativity theory
The claim that language determines thought. (page 313)
Mental age
An assessment of a child’s intellectual standing compared with that of same-age peers; determined by comparing the child’s test score with the average score for children of each chronological age. (page 321)
