psych 1 - ch 8 cognition, language & intelligence

cognition

mental activities involved in acquiring, retaining, and using knowledge

mental image

mental representation of objects or events that are not physically present

concept

mental category of objects or ideas based on properties they share

formal concept

mental category that is formed by learning the rules or features

ex. burritos & in n out = food

prototype

most typical instance of a particular concept

ex. general understanding of dogs

exemplars

individual instances of a concept or category

ex. specific dog types

problem solving

thinking & behavior directed toward attaining a goal that is not readily available

trial and error

attempting different solutions & eliminating those that do not work

algorithms

following a specific rules, procedure, or method inevitably produces the correct solution

insight

sudden realization of how problems can be solved

intuition

coming to a conclusion or making a judgement w/o conscious awareness of thought processes involved

single feature model

base decision on a single feature

additive model

systematically evaluating the important features of each alternative

elimination by aspects model

evaluating all alternatives one characteristic at a time

heuristic

following a general rule of thumb to reduce the number of possible solutions, mental shortcut

availability heuristic

likelihood of an event is based on the basis of how readily available other instances of the event are in memory

ex. not letting children play outside after seeing abductions

representative heuristic

likelihood of an event is based by comparing how similar it is to the prototype

ex. stereotype

confirmation bias

tendency to seek out evidence that confirms existing belief

ignoring evidence that might contradict belief

requires symbols

sounds, written words, sign language

shared meaning of symbols

foreign language sounds meaningless bc of non shared symbols

syntax

set of rules for combining words

creative or generative

can generate infinite number of new and different phases

displacement

ability to communicate meaningfully about ideas, activities, and objects that are not physically present

behaviorist view

bf skinner

starts with babbling

nativist view

innate language processor that contains basic grammatical structure of all human language

interactionist view

babies are born with some kind of biological preparedness to pay attention to language than any other types of info

holophrases

combo of gestures & single words

ex. child points at park and says “play”

intelligence

capacity to think rationally, act purposefully & deal

standardization

administration of test to a large representative sample of people under uniform conditions for the purpose of establishing norms

reliability

ability of a test to produce consistent results when administered on repeated occasions under similar conditions

validity

ability of a test to measure what it is intended to measure

alfred binet

created series of tests to measure different mental abilities, established mental age

lewis terman

established IQ

david wechsler

responsible for testing adults from different cultures & socioeconomic backgrounds, developed WAIS

charles spearman

people who did poor one on test will do poor another test

g factor

louis l thurstone

believed there were 7 primary mental abilities

howard gardner

expanded on thurstones focus on different mental abilities, stated mental abilities are independent & cant be accurately reflected in a single measure of intelligence

robert sternberg

said some intelligences are more specialized talents, established triarchic theory of intelligence

genetics and environment

generally accepted that both heredity & environment are impactful in determining intelligence level

group intelligence testing

designed to test virtually all ages & types, measures what is “normal” in the US

achievement tests

test designed to measure persons level of knowledge, skill, or accomplishment in certain area

aptitude tests

test designed to assess a persons capacity to benefit from education or training