AP Psychology Unit 7 Vocabulary

Cognition

Mental activity that involves organizing and understanding information and communicating it to others.

Mental images

Mental representations that stand for objects or events and have a picture-like quality.

Concepts

Ideas that represent a class or category of objects, events, or activities.

Prototype

An example of a concept that closely matches the defining characteristics of the concept.

Problem solving

Process of cognition that occurs when a goal must be reached by thinking and behaving in certain ways.

Decision making

Process of cognition that involves identifying, evaluating, and choosing among several alternatives.

Trial and error

A problem-solving method in which one possible solution after another is tried until a successful one is found.

Functional fixedness

A block to problem solving that comes from thinking about objects in terms of only their typical functions.

Mental set

The tendency for people to persist in using problem-solving patterns that have worked for them in the past.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for evidence that fits one's beliefs while ignoring any evidence that does not fit those beliefs.

Creativity

The process of solving problems by combining ideas or behavior in new ways.

Convergent thinking

Type of thinking in which a problem is seen as having only one answer, using previous knowledge and logic.

Divergent thinking

Type of thinking in which a person starts from one point and comes up with many different ideas or possibilities based on that point.

Intelligence

The ability to learn from experiences, acquire knowledge, and use resources effectively in adapting to new situations.

g factor

The ability to reason and solve problems, also known as general intelligence.

s factor

The ability to excel in certain areas, or specific intelligence.

Triarchic theory of intelligence

Sternberg's theory that there are three kinds of intelligence: analytical, creative, and practical.

Analytical intelligence

The ability to break problems down into component parts for problem solving.

Creative intelligence

The ability to deal with new concepts and come up with new ways of solving problems.

Practical intelligence

The ability to use information to succeed in everyday life.

Intelligence quotient (IQ)

A number representing a measure of intelligence, calculated from mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100.

Reliability

The tendency of a test to produce the same scores when given to the same people multiple times.

Validity

The degree to which a test measures what it is designed to measure.

Deviation IQ scores

Intelligence measures assuming IQ is normally distributed around a mean of 100 with a standard deviation of about 15.

Intellectual disability

Condition where a person's cognitive skills are at an earlier developmental stage than their chronological age.

Gifted

Individuals falling on the upper end of the normal curve with an IQ of 130 or above.

Emotional intelligence

The awareness of and ability to manage one's own emotions as well as understanding emotions in others.

Heritability

The degree to which changes in some trait within a population are due to genetic influences.

Stereotype threat

Condition where awareness of a negative performance stereotype interferes with one's performance.

Language

A system for combining symbols to create meaningful statements for communication.

Grammar

The system of rules governing the structure and use of a language.

Phonemes

The basic units of sound in language.

Morphemes

The smallest units of meaning within a language.

Syntax

The system of rules for combining words and phrases to form grammatically correct sentences.

Semantics

The rules for determining the meaning of words and sentences.

Pragmatics

Aspects of language involving practical methods of communicating with others.

Linguistic relativity hypothesis

The theory that thought processes and concepts are controlled by language.