Licht Chapter 7 Psychology

Behaviourism

focus on observable behaviours

Cognition

mental activity associated with obtaining, converting, and using knowledge

Thinking

mental activity associated with coming to a conclusion, solution, or belief

Concepts

mental representations of categories for objects, situations and ideas that share central features

Superordinate

broadest concept; encompasses all objects in a group

Midlevel

basic concept; general grouping used for everyday life

Subordinate

most detailed concept; very specific and narrow grouping with a concept

Natural concepts

categories that form as a result of daily life and everyday encounters

Formal concepts

categories that form through learning of rules and logical intricacies

Problem solving

the approaches used to achieve our goals

Step 1 of problem solving

Understanding; trial & error, algorithms, heuristics (shrinking possibility size)

Step 2 of problem solving

Insight; unique neural activity associated with deciphering a problem

Functional fixedness

problem-solving barrier when objects can only be imagined to function in one specific manner

Mental set

tendency to fall back on strategies that were always used in the past, even they didn’t work well

Decision making

cognitive process of choosing approaches to reach a certain goal

Availability heuristic

decision-making strategy that predicts likelihood of event based on similarities between past events

Representative heuristic

decision-making strategy that evaluates the degree of similarity between the situation happening compared to an imagined/representative situation

Confirmation bias

tendency to look for evidence that upholds personal beliefs, while overlooking evidence that counters these beliefs

Fake news

false info that mimics the form of news content, but not in organization or intent of info presented

Hindsight bias

tendency to believe that an outcome could have been easily predicted in the past

Framing effect

how presentation or context of a problem can influence the outcome

Language

system of symbols used to think and communicate

Phonemes

basic “building blocks” of spoken language

Morphemes

fundamental units that bring meaning to language

Grammar

rules associated with sentence structure and words in language

Syntax

portion of grammar that is concerned with where words or phrases are placed

Semantics

portion of grammar that is concerned with rules that bring meaning to words or phrases

Pragmatics

social rules that help formation of organized language

Learning theorists believe that:

language is learned like other behaviours

Chomsky’s position believes that:

language learning is an inherent capability we are born with

Displacement

talking about things that are not present

Linguistic relativity hypothesis

languages have different effects on thinking and perceptions based on sociocultural norms

Intelligence

innate ability to solve problems, adapt, and learn from experiences

General intelligence (g-factor)

speculation by Spearman, humans have an underlying aptitude/intelligence capability

Multiple intelligences

speculation by Gardner, eight types of intelligence or “frames or intelligence” exist and partial evidence found in individuals with brain damage

Analytic intelligence

capacity to solve problems

Creative intelligence

knowledge and skills used to handle new situations

Practical intelligence

ability to adjust to new environments

Aptitude tests

assessments for a person’s potential future learning

Achievement tests

assessments for how much knowledge a person acquired

Creation of intelligence testing for children who have trouble in classroom settings

Binet & Simon

Creation of the IQ tests to compare intelligence across age ranges

Stern

Validity

degree to which an assessment measures what it intends to measure

Reliability

ability of a test to provide consistent, reproduceable results

Standardization

test administered to a large sample, then finding an average score that is published for specific groups

Normal curve

a bell-shaped symmetrical curve with the highest point being the average score

Intellectual disability

delay in thinking/practical skills before age 18, IQ <70 and adaptive functioning deficits

Emotional intelligence

the capacity to perceive, understand, and regulate emotions to adapt in social settings

Creativity

ability to construct valuable results in innovative ways

Divergent thinking

ability to devise multiple solutions to a single problem

Convergent thinking

using past experience and knowledge to arrive at a single, best conclusion for a problem

It’s the first day of the semester, but you forgot to write down where your psychology class is being held. You decide to stick your head in a random number of rooms until you see the assigned psychology textbook on someone's desk. This problem-solving approach is called:

trial and error.

We often predict the probability of an event happening in the future based on how easily we can recall a similar type of event from the past. This is known as the:

availability heuristic.

According to the linguistic relativity hypothesis, language has distinct effects on:

thinking and perception.

Sternberg believed that intelligence is made up of three types of competencies, including:

analytic, creative, practical.

_________ is a mental activity associated with obtaining, converting, and using knowledge, and ___________ means coming to a decision, reaching a solution, or forming a belief.

Cognition; thinking

_________ are the mental representations of categories of objects, situations, and ideas that share central features or characteristics.

Concepts

The boundaries of ______ are imprecise and hard to define; they do not have rigid rules for identification.

natural concepts

After eating at a restaurant, you try to calculate a 20% tip for the server. Your friend suggests that you take the amount of the bill, move the decimal to the left one space, and multiply by 2. Your friend is using ________ to solve the problem.

an algorithm

The _________ suggests that language can affect thinking and perception.

linguistic relativity hypothesis

A(n) ____________ is a problem-solving strategy that employs a “rule of thumb,’ such as using 2 cups of water for every cup of rice.

heuristic

Sometimes we do not gather important information when making decisions because we are only looking for evidence that upholds our beliefs. This is known as the:

confirmation bias.

The wording of a question can influence the outcome of a decision. People are more likely to prefer ground beef if it is described as 80% lean as opposed to 20% fat. This is an example of:

the framing effect.

Infants can recognize and distinguish among all ________ from all languages until about 10 months of age. This is why older children and adults have more difficulty learning to speak a foreign language without the accent of their birth language.

phonemes

To determine the _________ of an intelligence test, you could give the assessment to a sample of participants and then compare the results with another assessment of intelligence to make sure the test is measuring what it intends to measure.

validity

What is the tri-arch of Analytic intelligence?

capacity to solve problems

What is the tri-arch of Creative intelligence?

capacity to use skills & knowledge in new situations

What is the tri-arch of Practical intelligence?

capacity to adjust to new environments/situations