Thinking, Intelligence, and Lanugage Flashcards
Cognition
the mental activity that includes thinking and the understanding that results from thinking
Analogical Representations
mental representations that have some of the physical characteristics of what they represent, usually images (a picture of a violin represents a violin)
Symbolic Representations
abstract mental representations that do not physically correlate to the object or idea (the word violin doesn’t look like a violin)
Categorizing
grouping things because they have shared properties
A prototype model
when thinking about a category you look for the best example of that category and base all new info around it similarity to the prototype
Exemplar Model
all members of a category are examples, together they form the concept and determine category membership
Take dogs for example. In my mind I don’t have a picture of the ideal dog, instead I’ve made a mental representation of what dogs are. Long noses, furry, tails. This mental representation is what I base new incoming information off of and most likely came from my encountering many different shapes and sizes and types of dogs throughout my lifetime.
Script
a schema that directs behavior over time within a situation (going to the movies, we know what comes first, what kinds of things you usually buy at the movies and when)
Heuristics
mental shortcuts used in decision making, they are fast and efficient strategies that people use to make decisions
Anchoring
in making judgements, people rely on the first piece of information they encounter or on info that comes most quickly to mind. The initial piece of info serves as an anchor for decision making
Framing
you frame a choice by emphasizing the potential losses or the potential gains
Loss Aversion
people are generally more concerned with costs that with benefits
Availability Heuristic
the general tendency to make a decision based on the answer that comes most easily to mind
Representativeness Heuristic
placing a person or an object in a category if that person or object is similar to one’s prototype for that category (who is more highly educated, senator or wresting champ)
Ignoring Base Rates
when you put someone in an unlikely category because they seem to fit, ignoring how rare category membership is (you meet someone smart, fit, adventurous, and interested in space and assume they’re an astronaut)
Somatic Markers
bodily reactions that arise from the emotional evaluation of an action’s consequences ( the gut feeling)
Affective Forecasting
predicting how one will feel about things in the future
- people overestimate how happy they will be to experience positive events
- overestimate the extent to which negative events will affect them
Endowment Effect
the tendency to value things we own more than we would pay to buy them
Restructing
a new way of thinking about a problem that aids its solution
Mental sets
problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past. we tend to persist with previous strategies
Functional Fixedness
having fixed ideas about the typical functions of objects
Problem solving through analogy
relating problems to other problems with creative/clever solutions
Achievement Tests
assess people’s current levels of skill and knowledge
Aptitude Tests
seek to predict what tasks, and even what jobs, people will be good at in the future
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
a really good IQ test
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
dividing the child’s estimated mental age by the child’s chronological age and multiplying the result by 100
Savants
minimal intellectual capacities in most domains, but very exceptional ability in some intellectual skills process
General Intelligence (g)
the idea that one general factor underlies intelligence
Fluid Intelligence
the ability to process new information, think logically, etc (decreases with age)
Crystallized Intelligence
the knowledge acquired through experience and the ability to use that knowledge (increases with age)
Multiple Intelligences
a theory by Robert Sternberg
Simple reaction time
press a computer key as soon as they see the letter x
Choice reaction time
press the a as soon as they see a and the x as soon as they see x
Inspection time
if a stimulus is presented and then covered up, how much viewing time does a particular person need to answer a question about the stimulus
Morpheme
the smallest unit of language
Phoneme
the basic sounds of speech
Syntax
the rules that govern how words and phrases are combined
Semantics
the meaning behind the words
Aphasia
a language disorder that results in deficits in language comprehension and production
Global Aphasia
where the person cannot produce or comprehend language
Broca’s Aphasia
difficulties producing language
Wernicke’s Aphasia
Difficulty comprehending language
Linguistic Relativity Theory
Whorf’s theory that language determines thought
Language Development
First months - cries, gurgles, grunts
3-5 months - coo, laugh
5-7 - babbling, using consonants and vowels
7-8 - babble in syllables
1 year - first words
18- 25 - putting words together
Telegraphic Speech
the way toddlers speak, using rudimentary sentences that are mission words and grammatical markings
Surface structure
in language the sounds and order of words
Deep structure
in language the implicit meaning of sentences
Creole
a language that evolves over time from the mixing of existing languages
Pidgin
an informal creole that lacks consistent grammatical rules
Phonics
focuses on the association between letters and their phonemes
