thinking and intelligence (7) Flashcards
cognition
thinking
encompasses how we integrate, organize, and use our conscious cognitive experiences
cognitive psychology
field dedicated to examining how people think
explains how and why we think the way we do
how we organize thoughts and information
how people think
the nature of thought or the processes involved in thinking
how well people think
variations among people in thinking ability
how does the brain organize information?
senses pull information from environment
brain synthesizes info to create thoughts
thoughts are filtered through
emotions and memories
thoughts are expressed through
language or are stored as memories
concepts
sorting of information
categories of information, ideas, images, experiences that share common characteristics or attributes
grouping of similar information
compares relationships among different experiences
prototypes
a strong example or representation of a concept
influenced by culture, experience, and knowledge
natural concept
Formed through direct & indirect experiences
Most concepts we form
Defined by a general set of features, not all of which must be present for an object to be considered part of the concept
Ex.) Snow, birds, fruit
artificial concept
Formed by learning specific rules that define it
Many acquire in school
Defined by a specific set of features; the concept must meet a set of rules/have certain defining properties
Crucial to complex thought
Ex.) Geometry
schema
mental collection of related concepts that organizes information and allows brain to work more efficiently
(brain makes assumptions of known information)
role schema
mental collection of information about how individuals in certain roles behave (he’s a firefighter so he must be brave)
event schema
mental collection about a set of behaviors (how to greet someone)
language
communication system between 2 or more people using words and systematic rules to organize those words to transmit information
lexicon
words of a given language (vocabulary)
grammar
set of rules for organizing words to convey meaning
linguistic determinism
theory that the language a person speaks largely determines the nature of that person’s thoughts
phonology
words created by combining various phonemes
phonemes
basic sound unit
building block of speech sounds
combine to create morphemes
chat has 3 phonemes (ch-a-t)
morphemes
smallest unit of language that convey some type if meaning
semantics
process by which we derive meaning from words/morphemes
(adding -ed to a word means it happened in the past)
syntax
the way words are organized into a sentence
pragmatics
practical aspects of communicating with others, or social “niceties” or “norms” of language
(talking to a friend vs. parent)
knowing what rhythm to use when communicating (oh… or oh!)
noam chomsky
proposed that we are born with a biological predisposition to acquire language
what is the critical period for language acquisition?
early in life
being deprived of learning it in early life will impede ability to fully acquire and use language