Unit 5 Part 2 Vocab

proactive interference

the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new inofrmation

retroactive interference

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.

misinformation effect

incorporating misleading
information into one's memory of an event.

source amnesia

attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined. (Also called source misattribution.)
Source amnesia, along with the misinformation effect, is at the heart of many false memories.

deja vu

that eerie sense that "I've
experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.

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 feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin).

creativity

the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas

convergent thinking

narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

divergent thinking

expands 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; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms

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

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

judging the likelihood of things 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 preserverance

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 framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

language

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

phoneme

in 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 (such as a prefix)

grammar

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

babbling stage

beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the 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 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 (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).

broca's area

Controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.

wernicke's area

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

linguistic determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think

intelligence

Mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

General intelligence

according to Spearman and others,

underlies specific mental abilities

and is therefore measured by every

task on an intelligence test

factor analysis

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.

fluid intelligence

our ability to

reason speedily and abstractly; tends

to decrease during late adulthood

crystalized intelligence

our

accumulated knowledge and verbal

skills; tends to increase with age.

Cattell-Horn-Carroll Theory

theory of intelligence that combines crystallized and fluid intelligence

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

passion

and perseverance in the pursuit of

long-term goals.

emotional intelligence

the

ability to perceive, understand,

manage, and use emotions.