PSY–111 General Psychology II Lecture 06 Cognition and Language

Flashcards about Cognition and Language

What are mental images?

Representations in the mind of an object or event, not just visual, but involving every sensory modality.

How do athletes use mental imagery?

To improve skills by visualizing detailed images of the environment and actions, enhancing performance.

What are concepts?

Mental groupings of similar objects, events, or people that enable us to organize complex phenomena into understandable categories.

How do concepts influence behavior?

By shaping our understanding and responses to the world, such as how we interact with animals based on their classification.

What are prototypes?

Typical, highly representative examples of a concept that correspond to our mental image or best example of the concept.

How do concepts help us understand the world?

By enabling us to make suppositions about behaviors and classify information efficiently.

What is deductive reasoning?

Reasoning from the general to the specific, often used by psychologists starting with a broad theory and testing hypotheses.

What is inductive reasoning?

Reasoning from the specific to the general, accumulating data to form a conclusion about a broader population.

What are algorithms?

Rules that, if applied appropriately, guarantee a solution to a problem, even without understanding why they work.

What are heuristics?

Thinking strategies that may lead to a solution to a problem or decision but may sometimes lead to errors.

What is the availability heuristic?

Judging the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples come to mind, potentially leading to inaccurate conclusions.

What is the familiarity heuristic?

Preferring familiar objects, people, and things to those that are unfamiliar, saving time but potentially leading to missed opportunities.

What is present bias?

The tendency to more heavily weight options that are closer to the present than ones further away.

What is a well-defined problem?

A problem where both the nature of the problem and the information needed to solve it are available and clear.

What are arrangement problems?

Problems that require rearranging or recombining elements in a way that satisfies specific criteria, such as anagrams.

What are inducing structure problems?

Problems where a person must identify existing relationships among elements and construct a new relationship among them.

What are transformation problems?

Problems consisting of an initial state, a goal state, and a method for changing the initial state into the goal state.

What is the importance of the preparation stage in problem solving?

It allows us to develop our own cognitive representation of the problem and to place it within a personal framework.

What is means-end analysis?

A problem-solving heuristic where one starts by considering the ultimate goal and determining the best strategy for attaining it.

How does working backward help in problem solving?

By focusing on the goal rather than the starting point, which can be effective for certain problems like the water lily problem.

What is insight in problem solving?

A sudden awareness of the relationships among various elements that had previously appeared to be unrelated.

What is divergent thinking?

Generates multiple and novel, although potentially appropriate, responses to problems or questions.

How does divergent thinking contrast with convergent thinking?

Divergent thinking involves generating multiple novel ideas, whereas convergent thinking focuses on a single, logical answer.

What is cognitive complexity?

The preference for elaborate, intricate, and complex thoughts and solutions to problems.

What is grammar?

The system of rules that determine how our thoughts can be expressed through language, dealing with phonology, syntax, and semantics.

What is phonology?

The study of phonemes, the smallest basic units of speech that affect meaning.

What is syntax?

The rules that indicate how words and phrases can be combined to form sentences.

What is semantics?

The meaning of words and sentences, allowing us to convey subtle nuances in meaning.

What is telegraphic speech?

Sentences in which only essential words are used, usually nouns and verbs only.

What is overgeneralization in language development?

Employing language rules they have learned, even when doing so results in an error.

What does the learning-theory approach suggest about language acquisition?

follows the principles of reinforcement and conditioning.

What is the nativist approach to language development?

Humans are born with an innate linguistic capability that emerges primarily as a function of maturation.

What is universal grammar?

An inherited neural system that lets us understand the structure language provides.

What is the interactionist approach to language development?

Language development is determined by both genetic and social factors, produced through a combination of genetically determined predisposition and social interaction.