Quiz 4 Flashcards
Mental Set
one’s strategy/preference to approach a problem
How were people able to solve the tumor problem?
An analogy
Functional Fixedness
A fixed mental set for the function of an object
Example problem for functional fixedness
attaching a candle to wall or 2 string problem
What mattered in the candle problem?
Where the tacks were placed
Divergent Thinking
Expands the number of possible problem solutions
Convergent thinking
narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution
Fluid intelligence
Ability to solve new problems
Crystallized intelligence
Ability to solve similar problems that you have encountered before
How do we measure intelligence?
IQ (linguistic, numerical and spatial ability)
Answering a question on an IQ test involves…
problem solving, reasoning, decision making, and language
Deductive reasoning
the process of applying a general statement to specific facts or situations
Inductive reasoning
reasoning form detailed facts to general principles
Categorical syllogism
a syllogism in which the premises and conclusion describe the relationship between two categories by using statements that begin with all, no, or some; deductive reasoning
Propositional Reasoning
The fact or assertion that you can infer from a sentence
Content effect in four card task
Four card task where you have to choose which cards you would flip to see if the rules are true; people perform better when the example.cards are an example of real life; supports linguistic relativism
Analogical Reasoning
Reasoning in which a speaker compares two similar cases and infers that what is true for the first case is also true for the second; inductive reasoning
Ravens Progressive Matrices
Exception to inductive reasoning because there is only one possible outcome; showed that language can also impact spatial reasoning because deaf/language impaired people performed worse even though language isn’t needed; supports linguistic relativism
Hypothesis testing is an example of…
inductive reasoning
Null Hypothesis
the hypothesis that there is no significant difference between specified populations, any observed difference being bue to sampling or experimental error
Alternative hypothesis
The hypothesis that states there is a difference between two or more sets of data
Type 1 error
Rejecting null hypothesis when it is true; false positive
Type 2 error
Failing to rejecting a false null hypothesis; false negative
Confirmation bias
a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence
Higher level cognition
problem solving, reasoning, and decision making
Box and arrow model of answering a multiple choice question
Perception-> retrieving meaning of words from semantic memory to understand question -> reasoning-> problem solving-> decision making -> shift attention to next question
Things to help you make decisions
Decision trees or cost and benefits lists
Utility Maximization
The proposal that people make decisions by selecting the option that has the greatest utility
Reason based choice
A proposal for how people make decisions, The central idea is that people make a choice when and only when they detect what they believe to be a persuasive reason for making that choice
Framing
The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can affect decisions and judgements
Decision making process
Understand problem, set goal and formulate a hypothesis, brainstorm possible solutions, weigh costs and benefits, final decision
Disease problem and monetary reward problem illustrates…
framing
What does framing support?
Linguistic Relativism
Other factors in decision making
age
Substance abuse and Decision making
Balloon task study showed that weed smokers made riskier decisions; card game also showed these results with weed and cocaine
Emotion control and decision making
patients with damage to their orbitofrontal cortex made riskier decisions in the card game
Children decision making
Children rely on environmental reliability because they don’t have the other necessary cognitive processes
Environmental reliability experiments
break a promise in treatment group and don’t in control group and see how that affects decision making
What is needed for mental stimulation of the selected action to occur?
Experience in order to imagine possible outcomes
If something is familiar, then we…
Quickly select an action instead of planning first
If something is unfamiliar then we…
Reassess and seek more information
Utility maximization
Maximize values when making a decision
Piagets stages of cognitive development
sensorimotor (birth-1.5), pre-operational (1.5-7), concrete operational(7-12), formal operational (12+)
Sensorimotor Stage
Building up the database of memory representation through sensation and perception
Object permanence
the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
Why is peek a boo funny?
Because young kids haven’t developed object permanence
Pre-operational Stage
Burst of vocab size, arbitrary association between sound and object, language specific labels, egocentrism, development of theory of mind
Ecocentric
Thinking from ones own perspective
Theory of mind
peoples ideas about their own and others mental states’ about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict (seeing from others point of view, sympathy, lying/cheating, and socialization)
Test of theory of mind
Sally-Anne False belief task
Autism delays the development of…
Theory of mind
Sally-Anne false belief task
fail: say where ball actually is even though Sally doesn’t know succeed: say Sally’s false belief; Children understand these tasks when they have theory of mind
What did the theory of mind test with deaf children show?
That piaget is inaccurate because 4-7 year olds have many difference; medium of instruction matters
Failing to mentally reverse an action is in which stage?
Pre-operatioal Stage
Mental Reversal of Action Example
Dot test: Which line has more dots?; Kids who haven’t developed mental rotation/sense of quantity say the spread out dot pattern has more dots
Concrete Operations
Theory of mind developed; Ability to reverse transformation in their mind; developed sense of quantity
Formal operations stage
Logical thinking: solving abstract problems; reflective abstraction: learning by self reflection from past experiences
Potential problems with piagets theory
Noteveryone follows these discrete stages of development; age ranges are false; theorized based on his 3 kids; experimenter bias in questions
Experimenter bias
A phenomenon that occurs when a researchers expectation of preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained
Perceptual development in infancy
Evidence against Piagets theory of development; Piaget thought babies in sensorimotor stage show no difference in their response when seeing both events; this study showed that 3 month old babies already showed surprisal when seeing the impossible event
Nativism
Biologically Determined (nature); chomsky
Empiricim
Learning through experiences; assumes that the mind is a blank slate at birth
Behaviorism
Conditioning and reinforcement
How did Chomsky argue against behaviorism
He said that the input from the environment isn’t good enough for kids to acquire their native language
Analytic approach
older children do this better than younger; pay more attentions to details/features
What approach do younger kids use?
Holistic approach
Shape bias
2-3 year olds categorize objects by shape with the same label
Object recognition experiment
Studied if the level of detail of objects affected correct categorization in kids with varying level of vocabulary; level of detail of objects didn’t affect categorization in kids who had the largest vocab; least level of detail improved over time which shows that abstract objects recognition develops over time
Development of working memory experiment
Looked at digit, word, and letter span; showed that working memory capacity increases with age
Alternate explanations to development of working memory
Processing speed rather than memory capacity increases with age; less familiar with the experimental contexts and procedures at younger ages
Contributing factors to differences in cognitive abilities
Attention span, inhibitory control, memory capacity, processing speed, spatial cognition, reasoning skills, and problem solving skills
Cognitive Style
preferred ways of solving problems and making decisions
Cognitive Styles is associated with _____ and influenced by____
Personality and external factors
Field-dependent style
A learning style in which a persons perception of and thinking about a task or problem are strongly influenced by such contextual factors
Field-independent style
People who perceive the elements of an environment as separate from each other and as standing out from the background
What types of style is better for the embedded figure test?
Field independent because they are better at suppressing irrelevant information
Framed line test
looks at individual difference in cognitive styles and the cultural effect; found that Japanese people are field dependent and American are field independent; absolute task: redrawn line is same length; relative task: redrawn line is same ratio
How do we know location matters for the framed line test?
Because Americans in Japan perform like Japanese and vice versa
Reflectivity
Careful in making decisions
Impulsivity
Fast but lots of erros
What test looks at reflectivity and impulsivity?
Matching familiar figure test
Matching familiar figures test
MDMA users made a lot more errors but faster response
What else does matching familiar figures test measure?
Visual search/perception, attention, decision making, search strategy, etc.
Learning
process leading to the acquisition of knowledge and skills
Explicit Learning
Learning that involved conscious awareness of what has been learned
Example of explicit learning
Lecture
Implicit Learning
Learning that takes place largely independent of awareness of both the process and the products of information acquisition
Examples of implicit learning
Speech, playing music, skill in sports, artistic ability, culture
Implicit sequential learning experiment
Seeing sequences of faces on the screen; significant decrease in reaction time as the session went on which shows evidence of implicit learning; slower reaction time in unstructured than structured sequences which is evidence of implicit learning
Surprisal Effect in faces/implicit learning study
Unstructured sequenced yielded larger fMRI activation than structured ones
Contributing factors to individual differences in learning
Cognitive abilities, motivation, learning styles, etc.
Honey and Mufford learning style questionairre
Activists: learn by doing; Reflectors: Learn by reflection; Theorisits: learn through models and concepts; Pragmatists: learn bu putting theories into practice
Cognitive Aging
Lifelong process of gradual, ongoing yet highly variable change in cognitive functions that occur as people get older that is not a disease or a quantifiable level of function
What may contribute to individual differences in cognitive aging?
Health and living environment, stimulus, cognitive styles, etc.
What skills are least impacted by cognitive aging?
Numeric ability and verbal ability
What skills are most impacted by cognitive aging
verbal memory, spatial orientation, perceptual speed and inductive reasoning
Inhibitory control
being aware of the stimulus change and shift attention accordingly
Cognitive aging in bilinguals inhibitory control study
colors and pressing keys computer test; congruent: red dot on right edge; incongruent: red dot on left edge; simon effect = RT-RT; Simon effect is greater in older people; Monolinguals experience even larger simon effect than bilinguals
What other processes are involved in the simon task
Keeping instruction in mind; Seeing the dot; Attending the dot, Shifting from one edge to the other; response
Is everything in our cognition influenced by culture?
Cultural relativism: cognitive process influence by culture; Culture universality: cognitive process independent of culture
Cultural influence on cognition; an empiricist view
How do you fill in the blank slate with our experience; the source of experience is sensorimotor and culture
Cultural influence on cognition; a behvaiorist view
Your behavior can also be conditioned by your culture
How do cultures influence cognition?
Learning styles, memory recall, categorization, perception and counting
Example of cultural influence on counting
Oksapmi; can be explained by conditioning, supports cultural relativism
Example of cultural influence on memory recall
Different cultures have different object frequencies
Example of Cultural influence on categorixation
Knowledge based categorization: cultural and educational influence on knowledge; prototypes and exemplars vary
Piraha counting system supports…
Linguistic relativism and cultural relativism
Individual difference can result from…
Cognitive styels, cognitive abilities, cognitive aging, ad well as cultural influences
Our decision making be be influenced by…
Substance abuse, age, framing of outcomes and emotion
In an emergency, what kind of mechanism do experts use to make decision to solve a problem?
Recognition primed decision
Recognition primed decision
a decision that is quickly made following recognition of a situation
