2.1, 2.2a, 2.2b and 3.5 vocab

Selective attention

Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Inattentional blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Change blindness

Failing to notice changes in environment; a form of inattentional blindness

Perceptual set

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Cognition

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

Metacognition

Cognition about our cognition; keeping track of and evaluating our mental processes

Concept

A mental grouping of similar objects

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 crow)

Schema

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

Assimilation

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

Accommodation

Adapting our current schemas (understandings) to incorporate new information

Creativity

The ability to produce new and valuable ideas

Convergent thinking

Narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

Divergent thinking

Expanding the number of possible problem solutions'; creative thinking that diverges in different dirrections

Executive functions

Cognitive skills that work together, enabling us to generate organize, plan, and implement goal-directed behavior

Algorithm

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

Heuristic

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

Insight

A sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrasts with strategy-based solution

Conformation bias

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

Fixation

In cognition, 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 constructed with explicit, conscious reasoning

Representativeness heuristic

Judging the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information

Availability heuristic

Judging the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come 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 judgements

Belief perseverance

The persistence of one’s initial conceptions even after the bass 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 judgement

Nudge

Framing choices in a way that encourages people to make beneficial decisions

Language

Our agreed-upon systems of spoken, written, or signed words, and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Phoneme

In a 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 enable us to communicate with and understand others. Semantics is the language’s set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is its set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences

Universal grammar

Humans’ innate predisposition to understand the principles and rules that govern grammar in all languages

Babbling stage

The stage in speech development, beginning around 4 months, during which an infant spontaneously utters sounds that are not at all related to 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

The stage in speech development, beginning about age 2, during which a child speaks mostly two word sentences

Telegraphic speech

The early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—”go car”—using mostly nouns and verbs

Broca’s area

A frontal lobe brain area, usually in the left hemisphere, that helps control language expression by directing the muscle movements involved in speech

Wernicke’s area

A brain area, usually in the left temporal lobe, involved in language comprehension and expression

Linguistic determinism

Wharf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think

Linguistic relavistism

The idea that language influences the way we think