Thinking, Language, Intelligence, Motivation, and Emotion

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering intelligence, problem-solving, cognitive biases, language acquisition, motivation theories, biological regulation of hunger, sexuality, and emotion theories.

Cognition

The processes associated with perception, knowledge, problem solving, judgment, language, and memory; broadly defined as thinking.

Concept

A mental grouping or category of linguistic information, images, ideas, or life experiences informed by semantic memory.

Prototype

The best example or representation of a specific concept.

Natural Concept

A mental grouping created naturally through direct observation or indirect life experience (e.g., an understanding of snow).

Artificial Concept

A concept defined by a specific, consistent set of characteristics or rules, such as mathematical formulas and geometric shapes.

Schema

A mental construct consisting of a cluster or collection of related concepts that organizes information to enable efficient processing.

Role Schema

A set of expectations and automatic assumptions about how individuals occupying specific social or occupational roles will behave.

Event Schema (Cognitive Script)

A set of routine-like behaviors performed the same way each time, such as facing forward in an elevator or checking a ringing phone.

General Intelligence ($g$ factor)

Charles Spearman's concept of a single, core underlying intellectual capacity that drives performance across all cognitive domains.

Specific Factor ($s$ factor)

A factor in Spearman's two-factor theory that accounts for intellectual performance tied to a specific area of functioning, such as verbal or spatial reasoning.

Fluid Intelligence ($G_f$)

The ability to reason speedily and abstractly to solve novel, complex challenges; tends to decrease with age, particularly in late adulthood.

Crystallized Intelligence ($G_c$)

Accumulated knowledge and verbal skills acquired through experience and education; tends to increase across the lifespan.

Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Theory

A comprehensive hierarchical model arranging cognitive abilities into three strata: general intelligence at the top, broad abilities in the middle, and narrow, measurable abilities at the bottom.

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Robert Sternberg's model proposing three distinct facets of intelligence: analytical intelligence, creative intelligence, and practical intelligence.

Multiple Intelligences Theory

Howard Gardner's framework proposing that individuals possess at least eight relatively independent intelligences (and a ninth existential intelligence), each rooted in unique neurological bases.

Emotional Intelligence

The capacity to perceive, understand, manage, and utilize emotions to facilitate social communication, empathy, and adaptive thinking.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

A standardized score derived from a psychometric assessment of intelligence; historically calculated as $\frac{\text{Mental Age}}{\text{Chronological Age}} \times 100$.

Standardization

The method of administering, scoring, and interpreting a psychological test in a uniform, consistent manner using normative scores from a pretested group.

Reliability

The degree to which an assessment tool consistently yields reproducible results on repeated testing, alternative forms, or split halves.

Validity

The extent to which an instrument accurately measures or predicts the construct it was designed to evaluate (including content validity and predictive validity).

Flynn Effect

The worldwide observation that each successive generation performs significantly higher on standardized intelligence tests than the preceding generation.

Range of Reaction

The theory that an individual's genetic endowment sets fixed upper and lower limits on intellectual potential, while environmental factors dictate where in that range the person actually scores.

Stereotype Threat

A self-confirming concern and performance decrement experienced by members of a group when they fear verifying a negative cultural stereotype regarding their abilities.

Algorithm

An exhaustive, systematic step-by-step procedure or formula that guarantees a correct outcome or solution if carried out properly.

Heuristic

A mental shortcut or rule-of-thumb problem-solving framework that saves time and mental effort but does not guarantee an accurate outcome.

Insight

A sudden, spontaneous realization of the solution to a novel problem, often following unconscious processing.

Mental Set

The tendency to persist in approaching a problem using strategies or assumptions that were effective in the past, even when they no longer work.

Functional Fixedness

A cognitive bias and form of mental set where an individual is unable to perceive an object being utilized for a role other than its designed function.

Confirmation Bias

The inclination to seek, interpret, and recall information that substantiates preexisting beliefs while disregarding disconfirming evidence.

Anchoring Bias

A decision-making flaw wherein an individual fixates excessively on an initial piece of information when estimating values or solving problems.

Hindsight Bias

The erroneous post-event belief that an outcome was predictable and obvious all along, despite lacking evidence prior to its occurrence.

Representativeness Heuristic

Estimating the likelihood that an object or person belongs to a category based on their similarity to a prototype, while frequently ignoring base-rate statistics.

Availability Heuristic

Judging the probability or frequency of an event based on how easily matching instances can be retrieved from memory due to recency or vividness.

Framing

The way identical information is phrased or presented, which significantly influences cognitive appraisal and emotional reaction.

Metacognition

Higher-order thinking that involves monitoring, assessing, and regulating one's own cognitive processes (thinking about thinking).

Theory of Mind

The cognitive capacity to infer the thoughts, beliefs, and desires of others and recognize that their mental states differ from one's own.

Lexicon

The complete vocabulary or set of words belonging to a particular language.

Grammar

The system of structural rules that governs how components of a lexicon are arranged to convey meaning.

Phoneme

The smallest distinctive acoustic unit of speech in a spoken language that distinguishes one word from another.

Morpheme

The smallest linguistic unit that conveys meaning, encompassing standalone words or grammatical affixes like prefixes and suffixes.

Semantics

The branch of linguistics and grammar focusing on how meaning is extracted and constructed from morphemes, words, and context.

Syntax

The grammatical rules specifying the sequential arrangement and ordering of words into coherent phrases and sentences.

Pragmatics

The practical, contextual conventions of speech, including timing, intonation, emphasis, and nonverbal gestures.

Overgeneralization

The developmental linguistic error where children extend a general grammatical rule to exceptions (e.g., saying 'mouses' or 'swimmed').

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Noam Chomsky's proposed biological, prewired neurological mechanism that enables humans to acquire universal grammar spontaneously.

Broca's Aphasia

A language deficit caused by damage to the left frontal lobe, characterized by nonfluent, effortful speech production and agrammatism, while comprehension remains relatively intact.

Wernicke's Aphasia

A disorder caused by damage to the left temporal lobe, resulting in severe comprehension deficits and the production of fluent but meaningless speech.

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

The Sapir-Whorf proposal asserting that the specific structure and vocabulary of a language determine or influence the cognitive patterns and thoughts of its speakers.

Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation driven by internal satisfaction, curiosity, autonomy, or personal enjoyment rather than external incentives.

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation stemming from external factors, including tangible compensation, grades, praise, rewards, or avoiding punishment.

Overjustification Effect

The phenomenon whereby providing extrinsic rewards for an inherently enjoyable activity diminishes an individual's intrinsic motivation to perform it.

Instinct (Fixed Action Pattern)

An unlearned, genetically programmed behavioral sequence that follows a fixed pattern across all members of a species in response to specific stimuli.

Drive-Reduction Theory

The theory stating that deviations from biological homeostasis create physiological needs, generating an aroused drive state that directs behavior to restore equilibrium.

Homeostasis

The biological tendency of an organism to regulate and maintain a balanced, optimal physiological equilibrium.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

An empirical principle stating that task performance is optimal at moderate arousal, with simple tasks performed best under high arousal and complex tasks under lower arousal.

Self-Efficacy

Albert Bandura's concept of an individual's belief in their capability to execute the behaviors necessary to achieve specific performance attainments.

Self-Actualization

The pinnacle of Maslow's original hierarchy of needs, representing the realization and fulfillment of an individual's highest personal potential.

Blackfoot Model of Needs

A First Nations framework placing self-actualization at the base as an inherent trait, followed by community actualization, and culminating in cultural perpetuity at the apex.

Cultural Perpetuity

The apex of the Blackfoot model of needs, describing the preservation and eternal continuation of a community's knowledge, culture, and values across generations.

Ghrelin

A peptide hormone synthesized by an empty stomach that travels to the brain to trigger appetite and stimulate eating behavior.

Leptin

A protein hormone secreted by adipose (fat) tissue that signals satiety to the brain and helps regulate long-term energy balance.

Lateral Hypothalamus (LH)

The hypothalamic hunger center that initiates eating when activated; bilateral destruction leads to complete aphagia and starvation.

Ventromedial Hypothalamus (VMH)

The hypothalamic satiety region that signals fullness; bilateral lesions cause severe hyperphagia, elevated insulin production, and obesity.

Set-Point Theory

The hypothesis proposing that each individual has a biologically defended body weight range that the body attempts to maintain through metabolic adjustments.

Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS)

A genetic neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by hypothalamic dysfunction, persistent uncontrollable hunger, low metabolic rate, and childhood morbid obesity.

Anorexia Nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by dangerous self-starvation, distorted body image (body dysmorphia), intense fear of gaining weight, and severe emaciation.

Bulimia Nervosa

An eating disorder marked by recurring cycles of binge eating followed by compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting, laxative misuse, or excessive exercise.

Binge Eating Disorder

A psychological condition characterized by recurrent episodes of consuming excessive food quantities accompanied by severe distress, guilt, and lack of control, without compensatory purging.

Medial Preoptic Area

A hypothalamic region necessary for the physiological ability to execute male sexual behavior, distinct from the motivation to do so.

Sexual Response Cycle

The four-phase physiological sequence of human sexual response identified by William Masters and Virginia Johnson: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.

Refractory Period

A resting recovery interval following orgasm during the resolution phase, during which a male is physiologically unable to experience another orgasm.

Gender Dysphoria

A DSM-5 diagnostic category describing significant psychological distress arising from an incongruence between an individual's experienced gender identity and their assigned biological sex.

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

The theory asserting that emotional feelings result from the conscious perception of bodily autonomic arousal triggered by a stimulus (arousal precedes emotion).

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

The theory asserting that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously and independently triggers physiological arousal and the subjective emotional feeling via subcortical relays.

Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory

The theory asserting that emotional experience requires both non-specific physiological arousal and a cognitive appraisal or label derived from situational context.

Spillover Effect

The phenomenon wherein lingering physiological arousal from one event carries over to intensify the emotional reaction to a subsequent event.

Cognitive-Mediational Theory

Richard Lazarus's theory proposing that an immediate, often unconscious cognitive appraisal of a stimulus occurs first and dictates the emotional and bodily reaction.

LeDoux's High Road and Low Road

The dual-pathway neurological framework wherein sensory emotional information travels either directly from the thalamus to the amygdala (speedy low road) or via the cortex for cognitive processing before reaching the amygdala (thinking high road).

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

The hypothesis asserting that skeletal muscle contractions and expressions on the face can directly induce or modulate subjective emotional feelings.

Cultural Display Rules

Socially learned conventions and standards that dictate the appropriateness, intensity, and public expression of various emotions within a given culture.

Universal Facial Expressions

Paul Ekman's identified set of distinct, culturally independent facial expressions recognized and produced globally: happiness, surprise, sadness, fright (fear), disgust, contempt, and anger.

Polygraph

An apparatus measuring autonomic arousal markers (such as perspiration, pulse, and respiration) under the controversial premise that deception elicits identifiable physiological arousal.