AP Psych: Language, Cognition, and intelligence

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. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories ( as when comparing feather creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin)

algorithm

A methodical, logical role or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrast with the usually speedier, but also more error prone, use of heuristics. For example, trying to find a needle in a haystack by picking up one piece of hay at a time. It’s time consuming but it guarantees that you find it.

trial and error

experimenting until a solution is found (try try again)

heuristic

A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithm.

insight

a sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrast with strategy based solutions.

True or false: does your brain know you have a solution because you’re conscious of it?

True, in an EEG, your brain will light up 0.3 seconds before you know you have the answer

confirmation bias

A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions, and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence. For example, political parties.

fixation

in thinking, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an obstacle to problem solving

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 prototype; may lead us to ignore other relevant information. Consider the reaction of some non-Arab travelers soon after 9/11, when a young male of Arab descent boarded their plane. The young man fit (represented) their "terrorist" prototype, and the representativeness heuristic kicked in.

Availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of event space on their availability in memory; if instances become readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common. For example, climate change leaves people unconcerned.

why do we fear riding a plane more than driving a car, even though cars kill more people than planes?

Because of our ancestral history. we fear heights and confinement, we fear what we cannot control, we fear the dangers of takeoff and landing.

Why can news be described as "something that hardly ever happens"? How does knowing this help us assess our fears?

If a tragic event such as a plane crash makes the news, it is noteworthy and unusual, unlike much more common bad events, such as traffic accidents. Knowing this, we can worry less about unlikely events and think more about improving the safety of our everyday activities. (For example, we can wear a seat belt when in a vehicle and use the crosswalk when walking.)

overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct- to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements. This drives stockbrokers and investment managers

belief perseverance

clinging to one’s initial conceptions, after the bias on which they were formed has been discredited. “Rather than using evidence to draw conclusions, they used their conclusions to assess evidence-a phenomenon also known as motivated reasoning.”

framing

The way an issue was posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments, (more people chose 75% lean beamed rather than 25% fat beef even though they are the same)

creativity

The ability to produce new and valuable ideas.

convergent thinking

narrowing the available problem solutions to determine a single best solution. For example, aptitude tests like the SATs

divergent thinking

expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions. (Creative tests- “How many uses can you think of for a brick?”

what did Robert Sternberg and his colleagues believe were the five components of creativity

expertise (well developed knowledge), imaginative thinking skills, a venturesome personality, intrinsic motivation(driving my interest rather than external pressures), and a creative environment.

match this sentence with the cognitive process/strategy: “Inability to view problems from a new angle; focuses thinking but hinders creative problem solving.”

fixation

match this sentence with the cognitive process/strategy: “Methodological rule or procedure that guarantees a solution but requires time and effort.”

algorithm

match this sentence with the cognitive process/strategy: “Your fast, automatic, effortless feelings and thoughts based on your experience; huge and adaptive but can lead you to overfeel and underthink.”

intuition

match this sentence with the cognitive process/strategy: “Simple thinking shortcut that enables quick and efficient decisions but puts us at risk for errors.”

heuristic

match this sentence with the cognitive process/strategy: “Sudden Aha! reaction that instantly reveals the solution.

insight

match this sentence with the cognitive process/strategy: “Tendency to search for support for your own views and to ignore contradictory evidence.”

conformation bias

match this sentence with the cognitive process/strategy: “Holding on to your beliefs even after they are proven wrong; closing your mind to new ideas.”

belief perseverance

match this sentence with the cognitive process/strategy: “Overestimating the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments; allows you to be happier and to make decisions more easily, but puts you at risk for errors.”

overconfidence

match this sentence with the cognitive process/strategy: “Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response; can mislead people and influence their decisions.”

framing

match this sentence with the cognitive process/strategy: “The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.”

creativity

A mental grouping of similar things is called a _________.

concept

The most systematic procedure for solving a problem is a(n) ________.

Algorithm

Oscar describes his political beliefs as "strongly liberal," and he is not interested in exploring opposing viewpoints. How might he be affected by confirmation bias and belief perseverance?

Oscar will need to guard against confirmation bias (searching for support for his own views and ignoring contradictory evidence) as he seeks out opposing viewpoints. Even if Oscar encounters new information that disproves his beliefs, belief perseverance may lead him to cling to these views anyway. It will take more compelling evidence to change his political beliefs than it took to create them.

Terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino made Americans, in the words of one senator, "really scared and worried"-and more fearful of being victimized by terrorism than of other greater threats. Such exaggerated fears after dramatic events illustrates the _______ heuristic.

availability

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a creative person?
a. Expertise
b. Extrinsic motivation
c. A venturesome personality
d. Imaginative thinking skills

b. extrinsic motivation

language

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

phoneme

in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit. (the word bat has three phonemes and the word that has three as well)

morphemes

in language, the smallest unit that carries meaning, maybe a word, or a part of a word, such as a prefix. (Ex: unforgettable = un•forget•able)

grammar

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

semantics

rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language

syntax

The rules for a combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language

The sentence “rapid bouquets after sudden neighbors” is _______ (syntactically/semantically) correct but not (syntactically/semantically) correct.

syntactically; semantically

fluency affect

if the form of information is difficult to assimilate, that affects our judgments about the substance of that information.

function fixedness

A tendency to think about familiar objects in familiar ways, which may prevent more creative use of those objects to solve the problem

What was the premise of researcher Noam Chomsky's work in language development?

Chomsky maintain that all languages share a universal grammar, and humans are biologically predisposed to learn the grammar rules of language.

babbling stage

beginning around four months, the stage of speech development in which an infant spontaneously others various sounds at first unrelated to the household language ( Ex: ma-ma ,da-da, and ta-ta. )

one word stage

the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words. (Ex: “Doggy!” instead of “Look at that dog!”)

two-word stage

beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements. (Ex: “Want juice” instead of “I want juice”)

telegraphic speech

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram- “go car” - using mostly nouns and verbs.

what will happen if a child over 7 hasn’t been exposed to language?

They lose the ability to master any language

What is the difference between receptive and productive language, and when do children normally hit these milestones in language development?

infants normally start developing receptive language skills( ability to understand what is said to and about them) around four months of age. Then, starting with babbling at four months and beyond, infants, normally start building, productive language skills (ability to produce sounds, and eventually words)

why is it so difficult to learn a new language in adulthood?

Our brain's critical period for language learning is in childhood, when we can absorb language structure almost effortlessly. As we move past that stage in our brain's development, our ability to learn a new language diminishes dramatically.

aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by a left hemisphere of damage either to Broca’s area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area(impairment of understanding)

broca’s area

helps control language expression, in the 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

__________ __________ is one part of the brain that, if damaged, might
impair your ability to speak words. Damage to _________ __________ might impair your ability to understand language.

Broca’s area; Wernicke’s area

If your dog barks at a stranger at the door, does this qualify as language? What if the dog yips in a telltale way to let you know she needs to go out?

These are definitely communications. But if language consists of words and the grammatical rules we use to combine them to communicate meaning, few scientists would label a dog's barking and yipping as language.

linguistic determinism (whorfs hypothesis)

language determines the way we think.( Ex: the Hopi tribe does not have a past tense for words, therefore, the hopi cannot think about the past)

linguistic relativism

a weaker version of linguistic determinism. Emphasizes that our words influence our thinking.

What is mental practice, and how can it help you to prepare for an upcoming event?

Mental practice uses visual imagery to mentally rehearse future behaviors, activating some of the same brain areas used during the actual behaviors. Visualizing the details of the process is more effective than visualizing only your end goal.

Most researchers agree that apes can
a. communicate through symbols.
b. reproduce most human speech sounds.
c. master language in adulthood.
d. surpass a human 3-year-old in language skills.

A. communicate through symbols

intelligence

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

general intelligence (g)

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

what are spearman’s 7 clusters of primary mental abilities?

Word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, and memory.

What are Gardeners multiple intelligences?

intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalist, linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic. Gardener views, these intelligence domains as multiple abilities that come in different packages.

savant syndrome

A condition by which a person, otherwise emitted in mental ability, has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing. 4/5 people with savant syndrome are male, and may also have ASD

What are Sternburgs three intelligences?

•Analytical(academic problem-solving) intelligence: “Book smart”
• creative intelligence: the ability to adapt to new situations and generate novel ideas
• practical intelligence, required for every day tasks that may be poorly defined, and may have multiple solutions

How does the existence of savant syndrome support Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences?

People with savant syndrome have limited mental ability overall but possess one or more exceptional skills. According to Howard Gardner, this suggests that our abilities come in separate packages rather than being fully expressed by one general intelligence that encompasses all our talents.

emotional intelligence

The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotion

Charles Spearman suggested we have one _________ _________ underlying success across a variety of intellectual abilities.

general intelligence

Sternberg's three types of intelligence are_________, ________, and _________

academic; practical; creative

Emotionally intelligent people tend to
a. seek immediate gratification.
b. understand their own emotions but not those of others.
c. understand others' emotions but not their own.
d. succeed in their careers.

d. succeed in their careers

Intelligence test

A method for assessing an individual’s mental attitudes 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 protect a persons 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 eight year old is said to have a mental age of eight.

What did Binet hope to achieve by establishing a child's mental age?

Binet hoped that determining the child's mental age (the age that typically corresponds to a certain level of performance) would help identify appropriate school placements.

stanford-binet

The widely used American revision (by Terman at Standford 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.

what does a high IQ say for your mental age?

Higher IQ means higher mental age

A 12 year old functions at a mental level of a 12 year old, what is her IQ?

100

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
(WAIS)

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

An employer with a pool of applicants for a single available position is interested in testing each applicant's potential. To determine that, she should use an ________
(achievement/aptitude) test. That same employer wishing to test the effectiveness of a new, on-the-job training program would be wise to use an ____________ (achievement/aptitude) test.

aptitude; achievement

standardization

defining uniform, testing procedures, and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pre-tested group

normal curve

The bell shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores found near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes

What would Flynn say about your intelligence compared to the intelligence of your great great, great grandmother?

James Flynn observed that the average person’s intelligence score in 1920 was-by todays standard- only 76.

reliability

that extends by which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on 2 halves of the test, on alternative forms of the test, or on retesting

Validity

The extent to which a test 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 (also called criterion-related 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 in the criterion behavior.

What are the three criteria that a psychological test must meet in order to be widely accepted? Explain.

A psychological test must be standardized (pretested on a representative sample of people), reliable (yielding consistent results), and valid (measuring and predicting what it is supposed to).

Correlation coefficients were used in this section. Here's a quick review: Correlations do not indicate cause-effect, but they do tell us whether two things are associated in some way. A correlation of -1.00 represents perfect _______________ (agreement/disagreement) between two sets of scores: As one score goes up, the other score goes ______________ (up/down). A correlation of __________
represents no association. The highest correlation, +1.00, represents perfect ____________ (agreement/disagreement): As the first score goes up, the other
score goes ___________ (up/down).

disagreement; down; zero; agreement; up

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is best able to tell us
a. what part of an individual's intelligence is determined by genetic inheritance.
b. whether the test-taker will succeed in a job.
c. how the test-taker compares with other adults in vocabulary and arithmetic reasoning.
d. whether the test-taker has specific skills for music and the performing arts.

c. how the test-taker compares with other adults in vocabulary and arithmetic reasoning.

The Stanford-Binet, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children yield consistent results, for example on retesting. In other words, these tests have high ___________

reliability

cross-sectional study

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

Longitudinal study

research that follows and retest the same people overtime

cohort

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