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GRE Psy > Thinking > Flashcards

Thinking Flashcards

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1
Q

What type of thinking is used to figure out the solution to a math problem?

A

convergent thinking

Convergent thinking is used when there is one solution to a particular problem.

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2
Q

What type of thinking is used when figuring out alternate sources of energy?

A

divergent thinking

Divergent thinking is used if there are multiple solutions to a problem or if there is a dissenter to a particular way of thinking.

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3
Q

What is a term used for the understanding of how things generally go?

A

scripts

For a birthday party, a script might include decorations, attendees, cake, etc.

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4
Q

________ are the way we represent the connectedness of two or more items or ideas.

A

Concepts

ex: a coat is an item of clothing with long sleeves that opens in the front and keeps us warm

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5
Q

Why would psychologists be interested in algorithms?

A
  • Algorithms are one way of solving problems, which is a way to study how the brain works.
  • Exhaustive problem-solving searches that go through every possible answer in order to find the correct one.
  • The harder the problem, the more impractical it is for our brains to use algorithms.
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6
Q

What is a heuristic? What are its benefits and drawbacks?

A
  • a way of solving a problem that uses common sense, rules of thumb, or educated guesses.
  • Not always accurate, but it is faster than an algorithm.
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7
Q

What is an availability heuristic?

A

First things that come to mind as the most important because they are more salient.

For example, people may think air travel is more dangerous than car travel because they see more news stories about plane crashes than car accidents.

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8
Q

How can a representativeness heuristic lead to stereotyping?

A
  • Conceptualize information already taken in with prototypes
  • Apply prototypes to all situations to make judgments
  • If the prototype of a group is negative -> incorrectly stereotyping the whole group
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9
Q

How might the idea of functional fixedness hinder innovation?

A
  • Tendency to see objects or concepts as they were learned.

- Concepts cemented in our minds -> unable to find alternative, innovative uses of them

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10
Q

Describe the James-Lange theory of emotion.

A

This theory asserts that changes in physiological states occur before and result in emotion.

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11
Q

Which theory of emotion, as a response to the James-Lange theory, asserts that the physiological response to emotion and the experience of emotion occur simultaneously in response to emotion-provoking stimuli?

A

the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion (or emergency theory)

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12
Q

What are the two factors of Schachter and Singer’s two factor theory of emotion?

A

physiological arousal

how we cognitively label the experience of arousal

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13
Q

What is top-down processing?

A
  • The uses of information and larger concepts we already have in our brains to fill in gaps in the things we sense.
  • Frequently overrule the more primitive areas of our brains
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14
Q

Building a perception of an object by mentally compiling all of its features is called what?

A

bottom-up processing or feature analysis

  • Slower than top-down processing
  • But more thorough and less prone to mistakes
  • Data-driven.
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15
Q

Why does it take longer to name the color of these words than if the colors and the words were congruent?

A
  • Stroop effect

- a semantic interference between the color we see and the word we read

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16
Q

What is “thinking about thinking” known as?

A

metacognition

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17
Q

What kind of thought is this:

John was the only one in the room when the lamp got broken. Therefore, John must have broken the lamp.

A

This is an example of deductive reasoning. There is a specific conclusion to be gleaned from the information available.

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18
Q

How does deductive reasoning differ from inductive reasoning?

A

With deductive reasoning, information leads to a single conclusion. With inductive reasoning, the specificity of information leads to larger, more general rules.

19
Q

What are some logical reasoning errors?

A

confirmation bias
semantic effect
atmosphere effect

20
Q

If your mother accuses you of something and then uses every aspect of your arguments and body language to prove that you did it, what logical reasoning error is she using?

A

She is employing confirmation bias, which looks for any piece of evidence (even if it’s wrong) to confirm a belief or solution to a problem.

21
Q

How might the atmosphere effect prevent you from proper reasoning?

A

The atmosphere effect is a logical reasoning error in which the phrasing of information affects how a conclusion is made.

Ex. “how fast was the car going when it bumped into the pole?” vs. “how fast was the car going when it slammed into the pole?”

22
Q

In psychological terms, what is the “eureka!” moment called, when a new perspective comes from the information available?

A

Insight

23
Q

How is cognitive processing often measured?

A

It is measured by reaction time, which is also called latency.

24
Q

Who suggested that people can say two similar items or concepts are related more quickly than they can say two dissimilar items or concepts are unrelated?

A

Elizabeth Loftus and Allan Collins

They suggest that semantically similar items or concepts are grouped together in memory.

25
Q

Why is it that Allan Collins and Ross Quinlan suggest it takes longer to find a link between loosely associated stimuli than closely associated stimuli?

A
  • We have cognitive semantic hierarchies
  • We search the hierarchies when finding connections
  • The farther apart stimuli are, the longer it takes to determine the relatedness of the stimuli
26
Q

What is the term for the search of cognitive semantic hierarchies?

A

parallel distributive processing or connectionism

27
Q

How does semantic priming reduce latency in word-recognition tasks?

A

Semantic priming

  • Exposes a participant to a particular word without their awareness
  • Recalled more quickly the way later because it has been activated in the semantic hierarchy.
28
Q

What is the term for processing that is contained within a larger organizational process, thus happening without additional cognitive effort?

A

automatic processing

29
Q

How can information processing be measured while a participant is reading?

A

eye movements and gaze durations

30
Q

What are saccades?

A

movements of the eye between fixation points

31
Q

How do hypotheses inform our ideas of concepts?

A

Test our existing ideas of relatedness,

  • helping us to form new concepts
  • strengthen the concepts we already have.
32
Q

How can a mental set help or hinder the attempt to solve a problem?

A
  • a good framework for solving future problems because it uses existing notions, but it
  • can hinder problem solving by introducing rigidity and refusal to look at other possible ways to reach an outcome.
33
Q

What is an organized pattern of ideas, framing the way we see the world called?

A
  • Schemas (or schemata)
  • formed by existing understandings of how the world works
  • New information either fits into the existing shema or changes it.
34
Q

In psychology, what are prototypes?

A

most representative characteristics of an item or concept.

35
Q

When solving a problem, what is the name given to the entirety of solutions possible?

A

problem space

36
Q

Who created the “logical theorist” and the “general problem solver” and what did they do?

A

Allen Newell and Herbert Simon

Computer simulation models designed to solve problems the way a human would.

37
Q

Though hotly contested, what is a simple definition for intelligence?

A

the capacity to perform better in an environment by applying knowledge

38
Q

What is base-rate fallacy?

A

using personal beliefs or stereotypical attitudes instead of numerical data to form a conclusion

39
Q

Robert Sternberg believed there were three different aspects to intelligence. Name them.

A

componential: test performance
experimental: creativity
contextual: street smarts

40
Q

What are the seven defined intelligences in Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences?

A 
linguistic ability
logical-mathematical ability
spatial ability
musical ability
bodily-kinesthetic ability
interpersonal ability
intrapersonal ability
Western IQ tests only test linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities.
41
Q

What was the name given to Louis Thurstone’s seven abilities of intelligence?

A

primary mental abilities

42
Q

What were the two types of mental abilities Raymond Cattell theorized?

A

fluid intelligence

crystallized intelligence

43
Q

In our youth, ______ intelligence increases as we learn to solve new problems. As we age, we have more ______ intelligence, stemming from schooling or experience.

A

fluid; crystallized

GRE Psy (7 decks)

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