Thinking

Question 1

What is cognitive psychology?

Answer 1

The study of thinking, processing, and reasoning.

Question 2

What are concepts?

Answer 2

How one represents the relationship between two things. “A bird is an animal that has wings and flies.”

Question 3

What are hypotheses?

Answer 3

Ideas used to test relationships and then to form concepts.

Question 4

What is a mental set or set?

Answer 4

Preconceived notice of how to look at a problem. This may help future problem solving. “A bird cage is good for housing birds.”

Question 5

What is a schema?

Answer 5

An organized bunch of knowledge gathered from prior experiences that includes ideas about specific events or objects and the attributes that accompany them.

Question 6

What are scripts?

Answer 6

Ideas about the way events typically unfold. “When people go to the movies, they sit in their seats and are quiet.”

Question 7

What are prototypes?

Answer 7

The representative or “usual” type of an event or object. “A scientist is someone who is good at math and does not write poetry.”

Question 8

What is insight?

Answer 8

Having a new perspective on an old problem: the a-ha! experience.

Question 9

What is convergent thinking?

Answer 9

The type of thinking used to find the one solution to the problem. Math is an example.

Question 10

What is divergent thinking?

Answer 10

Used when one more possibility exists in a situation. Playing chess or creative thinking. In a group, the appearance of a dissenter leads to divergent thinking.

Question 11

Who defined convergent and divergent thinking?

Answer 11

J.P. Guilford.

Question 12

What is functional fixedness?

Answer 12

The idea that people develop closed minds about the functions of certain objects.

Question 13

What is problem space?

Answer 13

The sum total of possible moves that one might make in order to solve a problem.

Question 14

What are algorithms?

Answer 14

Problem-solving strategies that consider every possible solution and eventually hit on the correct solution. This takes time.

Question 15

What are heuristics?

Answer 15

Problem-solving strategies that use rules of thumb or shortcuts based on what has worked in the past. Does not guarantee a solution but is faster.

Question 16

What is metacognition?

Answer 16

The process of thinking about your own thinking. Knowing what solving strategies to apply and when to apply them or knowing how to adapt your thinking to new situations.

Question 17

What is mediation?

Answer 17

Intervening mental process that occurs between stimulus and response. Reminds us what to do or how to respond based on ideas or past learning.

Question 18

Who came up with computer simulation models?

Answer 18

Allen Newell and Herbert Simon.

Question 19

What is deductive reasoning?

Answer 19

Leads to a specific conclusion that must follow from the information given. “All coats are blue. She wears a coat. Therefore her coat must be blue.”

Question 20

What is inductive reasoning?

Answer 20

Leads to general rules that are inferred from specifics. “Most of the Ph.D. students I know studied hard for the GRE. Therefore, studying hard probably helps one do well on the test and then get into school.”

Question 21

What is the atmosphere effect?

Answer 21

When a conclusion is influenced by the way information is phrased.

Question 22

What is the semantic effect?

Answer 22

Believing in conclusions because of what you know or think to be correct rather that what logically follows from the information given.

Question 23

What is the conformation bias?

Answer 23

Remembering and using information that confirms what you already think.

Question 24

What is decision making?

Answer 24

Working on solving a problem until an acceptable solution is found, The process is usually based on an assumption and the solution is found by relying or reasoning and/or emotion.

Question 25

What is intelligence?

Answer 25

Capacity to use knowledge to improve achievement in an environment.

Question 26

What is reaction time or latency?

Answer 26

Used to measure cognitive processing. Response speed for all types of tasks declines with age.

Question 27

What did Elizabeth Loftus and Allan Collins suggest?

Answer 27

People have hierarchical semantic networks that group together related items. The closer in relation the two items are, the quicker a person can link them.

Question 28

What did Allan Collins and Ross Quillian suggest?

Answer 28

People make decisions about the relationship between items by searching their cognitive semantic hierarchies. The farther apart, the longer it will take to see a connection. Has been termed parallel distributive processing.

Question 29

What does it take longer to make associations between pictures than between words?

Answer 29

Pictures must be mentally put into words before association.

Question 30

What is semantic priming?

Answer 30

Presentation of a related item (“test”) before the next item (“GRE”). It decreases reaction time.

Question 31

What is the stroop effect?

Answer 31

Explains the decreased speed of naming the color of ink used to print words when the color of ink and the word itself are of different colors.

Question 32

What is bottom-up processing?

Answer 32

Recognizing an item of pattern from data or details (data driven).

Question 33

What is top-down processing?

Answer 33

Guided by larger concepts.

Question 34

What is automatic processing?

Answer 34

When a task is effortlessly done because the task is subsumed under a higher organization process.

Question 35

What are saccades?

Answer 35

Eye movements from one fixation point to another.

Question 36

What are the two indicators of information processing while reading?

Answer 36

Eye movements and gaze duration.

Question 37

What is the James-Lange theory of emotion?

Answer 37

Bodily reactions to stimulation cause emotion. First, physiological responses are present in situations (crying, fleeing, trembling); then we feel the emotion that comes with these bodily reactions. We feel scared because we are trembling.

Question 38

What is the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion?

Answer 38

Asserted that emotions and bodily reactions occur simultaneously. In emotional situations, our body is cued to react in the brain (emotion) and in the body (biological response). We tremble and feel scared in response to danger.

Question 39

What is the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion also called?

Answer 39

Emergency theory.

Question 40

What is the Schachter-Singer theory of emotion?

Answer 40

Emotions are the product of physiological reactions. Cognitions are the missing link in the chain. A bodily state is felt. Since many different situations produce similar bodily reactions, how we interpret the state is key. The cognition we attach to a situation determines which emotion we feel in response to physiological arousal.