AP Psychology - Cognition

Cognition

The process of thinking, knowing & remembering

Cognitive Psychology

The study of how people think, learn, and remember

Convergent thinking

One way of thinking, one way of solving a problem

Divergent Thinking

Thinking creatively; more than one way to think/solve a problem

Concept

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, & people.

Prototype

A mental image that BEST represents something- similar to Piaget’s schemas

5 components of creativity

Expertise, imagination/imaginative thinking skills, a venturesome personality, intrinsic motivation, & a creative environment

Algorithm

A step-by-step rule that __guarantees__ the right solution to a problem, but may be __extremely__ time consuming (ex. trying every key to unlock a door)

Availability Heuristic

A quick solution to a problem that may be prone to errors & uses what is most available in memory (ex. plane crashes are very rare, but they are reported often and remembered most)

Representative Heuristic

A quick, error-prone way of thinking that uses prototypes to solve a problem.

Insight

An “aha” or “eureka” moment. Does not use ‘normal’ problem-solving skills.

Framing

The way an issue, idea, or question is presented. (Ex. Would you rather go to a hospital where 90% live or 10% die?)

Belief Perseverance

The likelihood our ideas will persevere-even after being shown solid evidence, people are unlikely to consider the other side.

Language

Spoken, written, or signed words used to communicate

Phoneme

The smallest distinctive unit of sound in a language- English has around 40

Morpheme

Smallest distinctive unit of sound that carries meaning

Semantics

The study of meaning in a language

Syntax

A set of rules for combining and sequencing words in a sentence

Operant Learning

B.F Skinner’s belief that we all learn language like everything else, through association, imitation, and reinforcement/punishment

Inborn Universal Grammar

Chomsky’s belief that language is learned too quickly for it to be through operant conditioning. Believed humans have a “language acquisition device” - we are prewired to learn language.

Critical Period

Period in a child’s life when it is important to learn a language. If this period is missed, they will have a harder time learning a language, or possibly no ability to learn it at all.

Linguistic Determinism

Benjamin Whorf’s idea that language dictates the way we think (if we don’t have a word for a color, does it exist?)

Telegraphic Speech

An early speech state in which a child speaks in phrases like “go car” – uses mostly nouns and verbs.

Savant Syndrome

Type of intelligence where a person is very intelligent in one area and does not possess (g).

(g)

Charles Spearman created the idea that intelligence should be measured in all areas and compared it to athleticism (athletes are usually good multiple areas/sports, so Spearman believed that’s how intelligence should work.

Howard Gardner

Psychologist that came up with the idea of 8 different intelligences - linguistic, logical, musical, spatial, bodily, intrapersonal (self), interpersonal (others), naturalist

Triarchic Theory

Robert Sternberg’s take on intelligence. Believed one is too little and 8 is too many.

EQ

Goleman believed the ability to understand, perceive, manage, and use emotions was also important in intelligence. What is this type of intelligence called?

IQ

Defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ=ma/ca X 100).  On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.

Achievement Tests

Tests designed to assess what a person __has__ learned.

Aptitude Tests

Tests designed to assess how well people will do in the future.

Down Syndrome

A condition of intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21.

Intellectual Disability

A condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life; varies from mild to profound.

Standardization

Defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group

Reliability

The extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, or on retesting.

Validity

The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it’s supposed to - how well does the test work?

Content Validity

The extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest

Stereotype Threat

A self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct – to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

Babbling Stage

Beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.

One-Word Stage

The stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.

Two-Word Stage

Beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements.

Grammar

In a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.

Fixation

The inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.

Mental Set

A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

Functional Fixedness

The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving (ex. trying to find a screwdriver when you could use a penny)

Predictive Validity

The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior (also called criterion-related validity).

Mental Age

A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does as well as the average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8.

Intelligence Test

A method of assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.