CP Psych Unit 4 Test

Cognition

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

Creativity

The ability to make or bring a new concept or idea into existence; marked by the ability or power to create.

Convergent Thinking

a type of critical thinking in which one evaluates existing possible solutions to a problem to choose the best one

Divergent Thinking

a type of creative thinking in which one generates new solutions to problems

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

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

a mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case

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 Perseverance

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.

BF Skinner's View on Language Acquisition

He believed that language was acquired purely through reinforcement from parents or other people in a person's life

Noam Chomsky

Psychologist focused on language development; disagreed with Skinner about language acquisition, humans have an inborn native ability to develop language

Robert Sternberg

Psychologist focused on intelligence; devised the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence (academic problem-solving, practical, and creative)

Memory

the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information

Encoding

the processing of information into the memory system

Storage

the retention of encoded information over time

Retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage

Sensory Memory

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

Short-Term Memory

activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten

Long-Term Memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Working Memory

a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory

Explicit Memory

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

Effortful Processing

encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

Automatic Processing

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

Rehearsal

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

maintenance rehearsal

repeating stimuli in their original form to retain them in short-term memory

Implicit Memory

Memories we don't deliberately remember or reflect on consciously

Iconic Memory

visual sensory memory

Echoic Memory

auditory sensory memory

Chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

Mnemonics

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

Method of Loci

A mnemonic technique that involves associating items on a list with a sequence of familiar physical locations

Peg Words Strategy

A mnemonic device that creates a list using words that rhyme with numbers and then creates a visual between the word and what you need to remember

Spacing Effect

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

Testing Effect

enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information

Shallow Processing

encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words

Deep Processing

encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention

Flashbulb Memory

A clear and vivid long-term memory of an especially meaningful and emotional event.

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.

Recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.

Recognition

a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test

Relearning

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

Context Dependent Memory

the tendency to recover information more easily when the retrieval occurs in the same setting as the original learning of the information

State Dependent Memory

The theory that information learned in a particular state of mind (e.g., depressed, happy, somber) or biological state (e.g. chewing gum, same caffeine level) is more easily recalled when in that same state of mind.

Mood-Congruent Memory

the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood

Serial Position Effect

our tendency to recall best the last (a recency effect) and first items (a primacy effect) in a list

Anterograde Amnesia

an inability to form new memories

Retrograde Amnesia

an inability to retrieve information from one's past

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

Misinformation Effect

incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

Alan Baddeley

Psychologist who proposed the concept of a working memory that underlies human thought processes

Hermann Ebbinghaus

the first person to study memory scientifically and systematically; used nonsense syllables and recorded how many times he had to study a list to remember it well
Studied retention and forgetting

Elizabeth Loftus

Psychologist whose research on memory construction and the misinformation effect created doubts about the accuracy of eye-witness testimony

elaborative rehearsal

a method of transferring information from STM into LTM by making that information meaningful in some way

L.L. Thurstone

Psychologist who challenged Spearman and proposed that intelligence consisted of 7 different primary mental abilities

Crystallized Intelligence

one's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age

Emotional intelligence

the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions

Fluid Intelligence

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood

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

Intelligence

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

Intelligence Test

a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores

Savant syndrome

a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing

Triarchic Theory of Intelligences

Robert Sternberg's theory that describes intelligence as having analytic, creative and practical dimensions

Howard Gardner

theory of 8 multiple intelligences
Studied savant syndrome