Unit 2.2: Cognitive Psychology (Part 2)

cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

concept

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

prototype

a mental image or best example of a category

creativity

the ability to produce new and valuable ideas

convergent thinking

narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

divergent thinking

expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions

algorithm

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

heuristic

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently

insight

a sudden realization of a problem's solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

fixation

(1) in cognition, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an obstacle to problem solving. (2) in personality theory, according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved

mental set

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

intuition

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

representativeness heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information

availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments

belief perseverance

clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

framing

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is worded can significantly affect decisions and judgments

language

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

phoneme

in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

morpheme

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word

grammar

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

babbling stage

beginning around 4 months, the stage of speech development in which an 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 in two-word statements

telegraphic speech

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs

aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area or to Wernicke's area

Broca's area

helps control language expression—an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech

Wernicke's area

a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe

linguistic determinism

the strong form of Whorf's hypothesis—that language controls the way we think and interpret the world around us

linguistic influence

the idea that language affects thought

intelligence

the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

general intelligence

according to Spearman and others, underlies all mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test

factor analysis

a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score

savant syndrome

a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing

grit

in psychology, passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goal

emotional intelligence

the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions

intelligence test

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

achievement test

a test designed to assess what a person has learned

aptitude test

a test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn

mental age

a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the level of performance typically associated with children of a certain chronological age. Thus, a child who does as well as an average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8

Stanford-Binet

the widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet's original intelligence test

intelligence quotient

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

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

the WAIS and its companion versions for children are the most widely used intelligence tests; they contain verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests

standardization

defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group

normal curve

(normal distribution) a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the mean (about 68 percent fall within one standard deviation of it) and fewer and fewer near the extremes

reliability

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

validity

the extent to which a test or experiment measures or predicts what it is supposed to

content validity

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

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

cohort

a group of people sharing a common characteristic, such as from a given time period

crystallized intelligence

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age

fluid intelligence

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease with age, especially during late adulthood

cross-sectional study

research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time

longitudinal study

research that follows and retests the same people over time

intellectual disability

a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence test score of 70 or below and difficulty adapting to the demands of life

Down syndrome

a condition of mild to severe intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21

heritability

the proportion of variation among individuals in a group that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied

stereotype threat

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