Unit 5 - Cognitive Psychology

cognition

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

memory

the persistence of learning over time

concept

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

encoding

the processing of information into the memory system

prototype

A mental image or best example of a category.

storage

the retention of encoded information over time

algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier—but also more error-prone—use of heuristics.

retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage

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.

sensory memory

the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

insight

A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

short-term (working) memory

activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is stored or forgotten

creativity

The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

long-term memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system

automatic processing

unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time and frequency, and of well-learned information

confirmation bias

A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

fixation

(1) The inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set. (2) according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved.

effortful processing

encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

mental set

A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

rehearsal

the conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage

functional fixedness

The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.

spacing effect

the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice

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

serial position effect

tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

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.

visual encoding

the encoding of picture images

overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

acoustic encoding

the encoding of sound

belief perseverance

Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

semantic encoding

the encoding of meaning

mnemonics

memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

intuition

An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.

framing

The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

language

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

iconic memory

momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli

phoneme

In language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

echoic memory

momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

morpheme

In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).

long-term potentiation

an increase in a synapse's firing potential after a brief, rapid stimulation

grammar

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

flashbulb memory

a vivid memory of an emotionally significant event

semantics

The set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.

amnesia

the loss of memory

syntax

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

implicit memory

retention independent of conscious recollection

explicit memory

memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare"

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.

hippocampus

a neural center that helps process explicit memories for storage

two-word stage

Beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements.

recall

a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier

telegraphic speech

Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.

recognition

a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned

linguistic determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.

relearning

a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time

priming

the activation (often unconsciously) of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response

mood-congruent memory

the tendency to recall experiences that are congruent with one's current mood

proactive interference

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

retroactive interference

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

repression

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

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

intelligence

mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 607)

intelligence test

a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 607)

general intelligence (g )

a general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 608)

factor analysis

a 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 (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 608)

savant syndrome

a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 609)

grit

in psychology, grit is passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals (Myers Psychology for AP 2e pp. 610, 834)

emotional intelligence

the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 612)

mental age

a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance; thus, a child who does as well as the average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8 (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 618)

Stanford-Binet

the widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet's original intelligence test (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 618)

intelligence quotient (IQ)

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, with scores assigned to relative performance above or below average (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 618)

achievement test

a test designed to assess what a person has learned (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 619)

aptitude test

a test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 619)

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

the WAIS is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 620)

standardization

defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 621)

normal curve (normal distribution)

a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the mean (about 68 percent fall within one standard deviation of it) and fewer and fewer near the extremes (Myers Psychology for AP 2e pp. 59, 621)

reliability

the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 622)

validity

the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to (see also content validity and predictive validity) (Myers Psychology for AP 2e pp. 53, 622)

content validity

the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 622)

predictive 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 and the criterion behavior (also called criterion-related validity) (Myers Psychology for AP 2e pp. 345, 622)

cohort

a group of people from a given time period (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 625)

crystallized intelligence

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 626)

fluid intelligence

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 626)

intellectual disability

a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life (formerly referred to as mental retardation) (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 629)

Down syndrome

a condition of mild to severe intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21 (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 629)

heritability

the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes; the heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied (Myers Psychology for AP 2e pp. 129, 632)

stereotype threat

a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype (Myers Psychology for AP 2e p. 642)