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What is cognition?
all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
What is a concept?
a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people
What are prototypes?
a mental image or best example of a category (a golden retriever for a dog)
What are schemas?
concepts or frameworks that organize information
What is creativity?
the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas
What is convergent thinking?
thinking that narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution
What is divergent thinking?
thinking that expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions)
What is an algorithm?
a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem
What is the heuristic way of thinking?
a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently
What is confirmation bias?
a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence (social media algorithm)
What is mental set?
a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past
What is the representative heuristic way of thinking?
a way of thinking in which we judge the likelihood based on the prototypes
What is the availability heuristic way of thinking?
a way of thinking in which we judge the likelihood based on availability in memory
What is intuition?
an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought
What is belief perseverance?
clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited
What is framing?
the way an issue is presented (organ donor-automatic or need to sign up)
What is memory?
the persistence of learning over time through encoding, storage, and retrieval of information
What are the three measures of retention?
Recall, recognition, and relearning
What is recall?
a measure of memory in which a person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test
What is recognition?
a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple choice test
What is relearning?
a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning again
What is the information-processing model of memory?
encoding-processing
storage-retrieving information
retrieval-getting information out of storage
What is connectivism in relation to memory?
creating interconnected neural networks-parallel processing
What is the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory?
sensory input-attention-rehearsal-storage-retrieval
What is working memory?
connecting new information to old information
What is a phonological loop?
a memory component that briefly holds auditory information
What is the visuospatial sketchpad?
a memory component that briefly holds information about objects’ appearance and location
What is long-term potentiation (LTP)?
an increase in a cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; believed to be the neural basis for learning and memory
What are explicit memories and what are they encoded through?
things that you can declare/declarative memories; encoded through effortful processing
What are examples of explicit memories?
sensory memory, working memory, and anything that you put effort into remembering
What are implicit memories and what are they encoded through?
remembering things without conscious awareness; encoded through automatic processing
What are examples of implicit memories?
procedural memory (riding a bike), classically conditioned associations, and space/time/frequency of events in your day
What is iconic memory?
image of a scene, lasts less than a second
What is echoic memory?
auditory stimuli, lasts about 3 seconds
What are effortful processing strategies?
chunking, mnemonics, and hierarchies
What is the spacing effect?
distributed study or practice is better for long-term retention than studying all at once
What is the testing effect?
your memory is better after needing to retrieve the information
What is shallow processing?
encoding words, letters or sounds
What is deep processing?
encoding semantically based on meaning
What does the hippocampus process?
explicit memories, verbal/spatial information, and associating names with faces (memory consolidation)
What do the frontal lobes process?
explicit memories
What does the cerebellum process?
implicit memories from classical conditioning
What does the basal ganglia process?
motor/procedural memories
What is a flashbulb memory?
a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event
What are examples of retrieval cues?
priming, context, state, serial position effect, and interleaving
What is priming?
the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory
What is context?
dependent (encoding specificity principle)
What is state?
dependent memory, mood-congruent memory
What is the serial position effect?
our tendency to recall best the last (recency effect) and first items (primacy effect) in a list
What is interleaving?
mixing your studying between different subjects
What is anterograde amnesia?
an inability to form new memories
What is retrograde amnesia?
an inability to retrieve from one’s past
What is proactive interference?
the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of new information
What is positive transfer?
when old information helps us learn the new stuff
What is repression?
the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety- arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories (in psychoanalytic theory aka Freud)
What is the misinformation effect?
incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event (Lotfus study on asking leading questions)
What is source amnesia?
attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, or imagined
What is deja vu?
cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience
How can memory be improved?
rehearsal
make the material meaningful
activate retrieval cues
use mnemonic devices
minimize interference
sleep more
test your own knowledge to rehearse it and find out what you don’t know
What is intelligence?
mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations
What is Spearman’s general intelligence (g)?
a general intelligence factor that underlies specific mental abilities and therefore is measured by every task on an intelligence test
What is factor analysis?
a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underly a person’s score
What is the Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory of intelligence?
intelligence is based on g as well as specific abilities, connected to fluid intelligence (Gf) and crystallized intelligence (Gc)
What did Gardner believe?
we have multiple intelligences (8)*
What are the three intelligences that Sternberg believed we have?
analytical/academic, problem solving, creative, and practical
What is emotional intelligence?
the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions
What is an intelligence test?
a method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores
How do you determine someone’s intelligence quotient (IQ)?
mental age divided by chronological age x100
What is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)?
most popular test currently; shows a general score as well as scores for verbal comprehension, perceptual organization, working memory, and processing speed
What is standardization?
defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group
What is reliability?
the extent to which a test yields consistent results
What is validity?
the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to
What is content validity?
the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest
What is construct validity?
how much of a test measures a concept or trait
What is predictive validity?
the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict
What is crystallized intelligence?
our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age
What is fluid intelligence?
our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood
What is heritability?
the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes
What did Hunt discover in his 1982 experiment in a poor Iranian orphanage?
the children were behind developmentally and had developed learned helplessness
extreme deprivation was smothering intelligence
when he taught caregivers language activities, the children quickly started developing language
What are girls better at?
they are more verbally fluent, better spellers, locating objects, detecting emotions, and more sensitive to touch, taste, and color
What are boys better at?
spatial ability and complex math
What is the evolutionary perspective on why men have better spatial ability?
they needed it for hunting and knowing how to get back home
What is the evolutionary perspective on why women have better recognition of objects and location?
they needed it for gathering plants for food
What is the first meaning of bias?
do intelligence tests also measure performance based on cultural experience/education/etc.?
What is the second meaning of bias?
if it predicts the future behavior of one group and not the other (predictive validity)
What is a stereotype threat?
a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype
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