Exam 2 - Thinking/Language/Intelligence, Emotion, Consciousness, Personality

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering cognitive psychology, intelligence, theories of emotion, consciousness, sleep architecture, psychoactive substances, and Freudian personality theory.

Thinking (Cognition)

A mental process that involves knowing, understanding, remembering, and communicating.

Concepts

The mental groupings of similar objects, events, or people (such as fruit, a birthday party, or a mother) that serve as building blocks of mental activity.

Prototypes

The best example that incorporates all the features we associate with a specific category.

Algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that is very time-consuming and exhausts all possibilities before arriving at a solution (such as testing all $907{,}200$ arrangements of a 10-letter word).

Heuristic

A simple, efficient thinking strategy that allows us to make judgments and solve problems quickly; it is less time-consuming than an algorithm but more error-prone.

Representativeness Heuristic

A mental shortcut used to decide whether a person or event belongs to a certain category by comparing them directly to the prototypical members of that category.

Availability Heuristic

A mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision, rather than evaluating the complete data set.

Insight

A sudden novel realization of a solution to a problem without prior warning—the 'ah-ha' moment experienced by both humans and animals.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, and recall information that confirms personal preconceptions and biases while ignoring contradictory evidence.

Functional Fixedness

A specific type of fixation where an individual has an inability to see an object being used for anything other than its customary purpose, exemplified by the candle-mounting problem.

Effects of Framing

The way an issue or problem is posed, which can significantly alter decisions and judgments when logically equivalent presentations are framed differently (e.g., $75\%$ lean vs. $25\%$ fat).

Phonemes

The smallest distinctive sound units in a spoken language, such as the three phonemes in 'chat' ($ch \cdot a \cdot t$), drawn from about 40 basic human speech sounds.

Morpheme

The smallest unit of language that carries meaning, which can be an entire word or a meaningful component of a word such as a prefix or suffix.

Semantics

The system of language rules used to derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences, such as adding the suffix '-ed' to signify the past tense.

Syntax

The grammatical rules governing the order and arrangement of words into sensible, meaningful sentences within a given language.

Aphasia

An impairment of language abilities occurring while other cognitive and mental faculties remain fully intact.

Broca's Area

A region situated in the frontal lobe of the left cerebral hemisphere that controls speech production.

Wernicke's Area

A region situated in the temporal lobe of the left cerebral hemisphere necessary for language comprehension and generating meaningful sentences.

Telegraphic Speech

An early speech stage occurring before age two in which a child communicates using two-word phrases containing mostly nouns and verbs, like a telegram (e.g., 'Go car').

Linguistic Determinism

Benjamin Lee Whorf's hypothesis stating that language determines the exact way we think and conceptualize the world.

General Intelligence ($g$)

A general intelligence factor proposed by Charles Spearman that underlies all mental abilities and can be measured through statistical factor analysis.

Savant Syndrome

A condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability possesses an exceptional, highly specific skill unrelated to general intelligence.

Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner's model proposing that intelligence is not a single ability, but consists of eight distinct dimensions: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist.

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions to adapt, solve problems, or be creative.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

A numerical measure of intelligence originally formulated by William Stern using the formula $\text{IQ} = \frac{\text{mental age}}{\text{chronological age}} \times 100$.

Stanford-Binet Test

Lewis Terman's American adaptation of Alfred Binet's original French intelligence test used to evaluate schoolchildren's mental aptitudes.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

An individual intelligence test developed by David Wechsler designed to assess overall intelligence alongside 11 specific clinical and educational dimensions.

Flynn Effect

The documented historical trend showing that general intelligence scores have risen steadily worldwide by an average of 27 points over the past 60 years.

Emotion

A complex psychological state combining conscious feelings, cognitive thoughts, and physiological arousal.

Mood

A prolonged, consistent positive or negative feeling state that is more transient than emotion, lacks a specific cognitive thought pattern, and is not strongly linked to facial expressions.

James-Lange Theory

The theory of emotion stating that our physiological arousal and bodily activity precede and directly trigger the conscious experience of emotion.

Cannon-Bard Theory

The theory of emotion asserting that an emotional stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological arousal and the subjective experience of emotion.

Two-Factor Theory

Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer's theory stating that the experience of emotion requires both physiological arousal and a conscious cognitive label.

Spillover Effect

The process by which physiological arousal generated by one event carries over and intensifies our emotional response to a subsequent event.

Embodied Cognition (Facial Feedback Effect)

The psychological effect whereby manipulating facial muscles to mimic an expression (e.g., holding a pen to force a smile or furrowing brows) triggers the corresponding emotional feeling.

Consciousness

The subjective awareness of our own internal states and the surrounding external environment.

Mirror Self-Recognition Test

An experimental technique assessing an animal's capacity for self-awareness by testing whether it uses a mirror to investigate a mark covertly placed on its body.

Circadian Rhythm

A biological clock operating on a roughly 24-hour cycle of sleep and wakefulness, responsive to sunlight via the pineal gland's secretion of melatonin.

Alpha Waves

Slow, regular brain waves of large amplitude with frequencies between $9\text{ cps}$ and $14\text{ cps}$ that characterize an awake, relaxed, or meditating state.

Theta Waves

High-amplitude, slow brain waves of $5\text{ cps}$ to $8\text{ cps}$ seen during light sleep (stages 1–2) and daydreaming.

Delta Waves

The large-amplitude, slow brain waves of $1.5\text{ cps}$ to $4\text{ cps}$ associated with deep, restorative slow-wave sleep in stages 3 and 4.

REM Sleep

A recurring sleep stage marked by rapid eye movements, fast beta waves ($15\text{--}40\text{ cps}$), vivid dreaming, and brainstem-induced motor paralysis.

Insomnia

A sleep disorder characterized by persistent difficulty falling or staying asleep, affecting approximately 1 in 10 adults and 1 in 4 older adults.

Narcolepsy

A sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable, overpowering urges to fall asleep suddenly during everyday activities, affecting approximately 1 in 2,000 individuals.

Sleep Apnea

A sleep disorder involving repeated cessations of breathing hundreds of times per night, strongly linked to snoring and obesity.

Activation-Synthesis Theory

J. Allan Hobson's dream theory proposing that dreams are the cerebral cortex's attempt to synthesize and make sense of random neural signals originating from the pons.

Meditation

Any intentional mental practice where an individual focuses their attention for an extended period to cultivate concentration and clarity of mind.

Hypnosis

An altered state of consciousness characterized by heightened suggestibility and focused relaxation guided by a hypnotist.

Psychoactive Drug

Any chemical substance that alters perception, mood, or consciousness by modifying neurotransmission between neurons.

Depressants

A broad class of psychoactive drugs (including alcohol, barbiturates, and opioids) that reduce neural activity and slow down bodily functions.

Barbiturates

Tranquilizer drugs that depress central nervous system activity, reduce anxiety, impair short-term memory, and carry high addiction and fatal overdose risks.

Opioids

Natural or synthetic chemical substances that bind to opioid receptors in the brain to depress neural activity, temporarily relieving pain and anxiety.

Endorphins

Endogenous opioid hormones naturally synthesized in the body that reduce pain perception and induce feelings of pleasure (such as the 'runner's high').

Stimulants

A category of psychoactive drugs (including caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, and amphetamines) that excite neural activity and accelerate bodily processes.

Ecstasy (MDMA)

A synthetic drug acting as both a stimulant and mild hallucinogen that produces euphoria and emotional elevation while risking permanent damage to serotonin-producing neurons.

Amphetamines

Potent central nervous system stimulants that enhance alertness, cognitive control, and muscle strength, commonly prescribed for ADHD, narcolepsy, and obesity.

Hallucinogens

Psychedelic drugs (such as LSD and THC) that distort sensory perceptions and generate vivid sensory images in the absence of external sensory input.

Drug Tolerance

The physiological adaptation to repeated exposure to a drug that causes its effect to diminish, requiring larger doses to achieve the desired response.

Personality

An individual's characteristic, enduring pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Freudian Iceberg Model

Sigmund Freud's structural metaphor depicting the mind: conscious awareness floats above the surface, preconscious lies just below, and the vast unconscious, holding the id, lurks invisibly deep underneath.

Id

The unconscious Freudian personality structure operating on basic aggressive and sexual instincts to satisfy immediate bodily needs ('the animal self').

Ego

The largely conscious executive system in Freudian theory that balances the demands of the id, the constraints of reality, and the ideals of the superego ('the societal self').

Superego

The Freudian personality component representing internalized societal, moral, and ethical rules ('the moral self').

Psychosexual Stages

Freud's five childhood developmental periods (oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital) where the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct bodily erogenous zones.

Defense Mechanism

An unconscious mental strategy devised by the ego to protect against anxiety by blocking or distorting threatening impulses.

Repression

The fundamental defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from conscious awareness.

Reaction Formation

A defense mechanism in which the ego transforms unacceptable impulses into their exact opposites, causing the person to behave contrarily to their true motives.

Sublimation

A defense mechanism wherein socially unacceptable drives and aggressive energies are channeled into socially approved, productive outlets.

Displacement

A defense mechanism that redirects sexual or aggressive energy away from a threatening target toward a safer, less threatening object or person.

Free Association

A psychoanalytic method in which the client is encouraged to speak freely about whatever comes to mind without censorship to uncover unconscious thoughts.

Projective Test

A personality assessment tool (such as the Rorschach inkblot test) presenting ambiguous stimuli designed to provoke projection of a person's unconscious dynamics.