cognition exam 3

Visual Imagery

Seeing in the absence of a visual stimulus

Mental Imagery

imagining other sensory experiences

Imagery vs. Perception

Mental images are not as vivid as perceptual experiences, but do they rely on the same mechanisms?

mental scanning

A process of mental imagery in which a person scans a mental image in his or her mind.

spatial representations

parts of an image correspond to specific locations in space

propositional representations

relationships are respresented by abstract symbols (e.g., statements or equations)

size in the visual field

imagine the rabbit next to an elephant and next to a fly; the size changes

topographic maps

when you see a stimulus, the activity in the visual cortex is organized in a way that corresponds to the physical structure of the stimulus

spatial neglect

condition produced by damage to the association areas of the right hemisphere resulting in an inability to recognize objects or body parts in the left visual field

patient CK

Inability to name pictures of objects, even his own drawings, in front of him

Could draw objects in great detail from memory (using imagery)

method of loci

placing things to be remembered at different locations in a mental image of a spatial layout

pegword technique

use of familiar words or names as cues to recall items that have been associated with them

individual differences

variations among people in their thinking, emotion, personality, and behavior

spatial imagery

the ability to image spatial relations

object imagery

The ability to image visual details, features, or objects.

language as communicative

language is communicative, but not all communication is language

language as referential

every piece of language refers to something in the world

mental lexicon

our library of words and what they refer to in the world

language as structured

words need to be structured in a certain way in order to have meaning

language as creative

we can produce an infinite number of ideas

recursion

we can embed structures inside other structures (e.g., sentences within sentences)

prescriptive grammar

man-made rules about how language "should" be expressed

descriptive grammar

rules that arise spontaneously and naturally in native speakers

animal language

Animals communicate with sound and physical movement

Attempts made to teach sign language

Linguists debate if animals are truly learning language if they are not also learning how to use syntax

syntax

rules about how to structure sentences

poverty of the stimulus

children get very little information and feedback on how to correctly use language

universal grammar

every human language has certain rules about how sentences can be structured

language acquisition device

an innate mechanism that triggers the learning of language, according to universal grammar

critical period

children are optimally equipped to learn the rules of their language until puberty, then this ability declines

Genie

A girl who was locked up for 14 years and when she was found, she had missed the critical period where she could have learned language so she could not speak and was extremely socially slow.

second language acquisition

The acquisition of a second language while retaining the knowledge of the native language.

pidgin language

combined vocabulary with no grammatical structure

creole language

combined vocabulary with grammatical structure

deep structure

the meaning of a sentence

surface structure

the way a sentence is structured linguistically

parsing

grouping words into phrases

ambiguous sentences

two sentences that have identical surface structures but very different deep structures

constraints and parsing

information from the sentence is used to constrain predictions about how the sentence should be parsed

phonemes

basic units of sound

phonology

rules that govern how sounds can be combined in a given language

statistical learning

certain sounds (making words) are more likely to occur together and babies are sensitive to those probabilities

morphemes

basic units of meaningful sound

morphology

rules that govern how to combine morphemes into words

lexical access

retrieving words and their meanings

word frequency effect

we respond faster to high-frequency words than low-frequency words

speech segmentation

figuring out where one word ends and another begins

lexical ambiguity

words can have more than one meaning

pragmatics

using language as communication depends on what the speaker and listener know about each other's knowledge

common ground

when the speaker and listener share the same knowledge or perception

referential communication task

A task in which two people are exchanging information in a conversation, when this information involves reference—identifying something by naming or describing it.

curse of knowledge

people sometimes have trouble realizing that others don't share their knowledge

syntactic coordination

when people exchange statements, it is common for them to use similar grammatical construction

syntactic priming

Hearing a statement with a particular syntactic construction increases the chances that a statement that follows will be produced with the same construction.

implicature

we imply things with our speech that go beyond the words we say

prosody

we imply things with our speech that go beyond the words we say

color perception

ability of the brain to interpret differences in wavelengths as differences in color

music and language

Language that flows; repeated tones, patterns, cadence. Varied sentence lengths appeal to ears. sequences

a problem

a situation where you need to accomplish a goal and the solution is not obvious

restructuring

changing how you represent a problem

insight

a sudden understanding or realization that leads you to solve a problem in a way that wasn't initially obvious

functional fixedness

when you can't restructure because you're focusing on familiar functions of a an object

the candle problem

A problem, first described by Duncker, in which a person is given a number of objects and is given the task of mounting a candle on a wall so it can burn without dripping wax on the floor. This problem was used to study functional fixedness.

mental set

a preconceived notion about how to approach a problem

analogical transfer

noticing connections between similar problems and applying the solution from one problem to the other

the radiation problem

A problem posed by Duncker that involves finding a way to destroy a tumor by radiation without damaging other organs in the body. This problem has been widely used to study the role of analogy in problem solving.

problem space

The set of possible pathways to a solution considered by the problem solver.

means-end analysis

trying to reduce the difference between the initial and goal states, by creating subgoals

subgoals

intermediate, more manageable goals used in one heuristic strategy to make it easier to reach the final goal

experts

people who, through learning and practice, are extremely knowledgeable or skilled in a particular field

divergent thinking

thinking that explores many possible solutions to a problem

practical purpose

a creative response to a problem must have some practical purpose

process of creativity

idea generation, idea evaluation and selection, idea implementation

inductive reasoning

drawing general conclusions based on specific observations

property induction

generalizing properties or features from one category member to another

heuristics

mental shortcuts that usually lead to the correct answer to a problem (or a good enough answer)

availability heuristic

events that are more available in memory are judged as being more likely than events that are less available in memory

illusory correlations

there appears to be a relationship between two events, but the relationship doesn't really exist

representativeness heuristic

events that more closely match related examples are judged as more likely than events that don't match related examples

base rates

how often events actually occur in the world

conjunction rule

the probability of two events happening together can never be higher than the probability of either one happening alone

law of large numbers

larger samples are more normal than smaller samples

confirmation bias

favoring evidence that supports your beliefs, expectations, or hypotheses

Wason 2-4-6 task

set of three numbers that conform to a simple rule that I have in mind, etc

false evidence

Accusing someone of a crime by lying or giving not true information

backfire effect

a viewpoint can become stronger when faced with corrective facts that oppose it

deductive reasoning

figuring out specific information from general principles

categorical syllogisms

A syllogism in which the premises and conclusion describe the relationship between two categories by using statements that begin with all, no, or some.

Validity vs. Truth

Validity = the form of the syllogism indicates that its conclusion follows logically from its premises. Truth = if one or both premises is not true, the conclusion may not be true (even if it is valid).

conditional syllogisms

Syllogism with two premises and a conclusion, like a categorical syllogism, but whose first premise is an "If . . . then . . ." statement.

Wason four-card problem

A conditional reasoning task developed by Wason that involves four cards. Various versions of this problem have been used to study the mechanisms that determine the outcomes of conditional reasoning tasks.

expected utility theory

people make decisions that are rational. rational decisions maximize utility

expected value

value x probability

acting irrationally

value is subjective; we do not always know the probabilities

prospect theory

people choose to take on risk when evaluating potential losses and avoid risks when evaluating potential gains; curves leveling off and such

loss aversion

people dislike losses more than they like equivalent gains

framing

the way we say stuff matters

status quo bias

people prefer to maintain the status quo (the current state of affairs)