Cognitive Psychology Vocabulary

Cognitive Psychology

  • Cognition is thinking, encompassing perception, knowledge, problem-solving, judgment, language, and memory.
  • Sensations and information are received, filtered through emotions and memories, and processed into thoughts.

Concepts & Prototypes

  • Concepts are categories of linguistic information, images, ideas, or memories used to see relationships among different elements of experience.
    • Can be complex/abstract (e.g., justice) or concrete (e.g., types of birds).
  • A prototype is the best example or representation of a concept (e.g., Mahatma Gandhi for civil disobedience).

Natural & Artificial Concepts

  • Natural concepts:
    • Created "naturally" through direct or indirect experience (e.g., the concept of snow).
  • Artificial concepts:
    • Defined by a specific set of characteristics (e.g., geometric shapes' properties).

Schemata

  • Schema: A mental construct of related concepts.
    • When activated, assumptions are automatically made about a person/object/situation.
  • Role schema: Assumptions about how individuals in certain roles behave (e.g., a librarian).
  • Event schema (cognitive script): Routine or automatic behaviors.
    • Vary among cultures.
    • Dictate behavior and make habits difficult to break.
    • Example: Facing the door in an elevator.

Event Schema Difficulties

  • Event schemas are automatic and hard to change.
  • Example: The urge to reply to a text message, even when it's unsafe (like while driving).
  • Regularly checking phones reinforces this event schema, making it harder to resist while driving.

Language

  • Language: A communication system using words and rules to transmit information.
  • Components:
    • Lexicon: The words of a language.
    • Grammar: Rules to convey meaning.
    • Phoneme: A basic sound unit (e.g., ah, eh).
    • Morphemes: Smallest units of language with meaning.
    • Semantics: Meaning derived from morphemes and words.
    • Syntax: Word organization into sentences.

Language Development

  • Noam Chomsky: Language acquisition is biologically determined.
    • Develops without formal instruction.
    • Follows similar patterns across cultures.
  • Critical period: Optimal language acquisition early in life.
    • Deprivation impedes language ability.
  • Case of Genie: Language deprivation case study.
    • Found at 13 after neglect/abuse; couldn't speak.
    • Acquired vocabulary but not grammar.

Problem Solving Strategies

  • Trial and error: Trying different solutions until solved.
  • Algorithm: Step-by-step problem-solving formula.
  • Heuristic: General problem-solving framework.
    • Shortcuts/"rule of thumb".
    • Working-backwards: Focus on the end result.
    • Breaking large tasks into smaller steps.
  • When to use heuristics:
    • Too much information, limited time, unimportant decision, little information, or when an appropriate heuristic comes to mind.

Pitfalls to Problem Solving

  • Mental sets: Persistence in approaching a problem in a way that has worked in the past, even if it is no longer effective.
  • Functional fixedness: Inability to see an object used for something other than its design (e.g., using a matchbox as a candle holder).

Biases

  • Anchoring bias: Focus on one piece of information when deciding/solving.
  • Confirmation bias: Focus on information confirming existing beliefs.
  • Hindsight bias: Believing an event was predictable after it occurred.
  • Representative bias: Unintentionally stereotyping.
  • Availability heuristic: Decision based on readily available examples, even if not the best.

Classifying Intelligence

  • Charles Spearman: Intelligence consists of one general factor, gg, focusing on commonalities among abilities.
  • Raymond Cattell: Divided intelligence into:
    • Crystallized intelligence: Acquired knowledge and retrieval (knowing facts).
    • Fluid intelligence: Seeing complex relationships and problem-solving (knowing how).

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

  • Robert Sternberg's theory:
    • Analytical intelligence: Academic problem-solving.
    • Creative intelligence: Imaginative problem-solving.
    • Practical intelligence: Street smarts.

Multiple Intelligences Theory

  • Howard Gardner: At least 8 intelligences:
    1. Linguistic
    2. Logical-mathematical
    3. Musical
    4. Bodily kinesthetic
    5. Spatial
    6. Interpersonal
    7. Intrapersonal
    8. Naturalist
  • Inter/Intrapersonal combined are called emotional intelligence: Understanding emotions, empathy, social cues, and regulating emotions appropriately.

Creativity

  • Creativity: Generating new ideas, solutions, possibilities.
  • Creative people:
    • Have intense knowledge, work on it for years, look at novel solutions, seek advice, and take risks.
  • Divergent thinking: "Outside the box" thinking, used when multiple possibilities exist.
  • Convergent thinking: Providing a correct or well-established answer or solution.

Measures of Intelligence

  • Intelligence quotient (IQ): Score on an intelligence test.
  • Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale:
    • Alfred Binet (early 1900s): Developed a test for children with potential school difficulties.
    • Louis Terman: Standardized administration and established norms.
  • Standardization: Consistent administration, scoring, and interpretation.
  • Norming: Giving a test to a large population to compare groups and interpret scores.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

  • David Wechsler's definition of intelligence: Capacity to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with the environment.
  • Developed IQ test in 1939, combining subtests.
    • Tapped into verbal and nonverbal skills.
  • Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V): Tests verbal comprehension, visual-spatial, fluid reasoning, working memory, and processing speed.
  • Flynn Effect: Each generation has a significantly higher IQ than the last, observed after years of WAIS use and recalibration.

The Bell Curve

  • Intelligence tests follow the bell curve (normal distribution).
  • Representative sample: Accurately represents the general population; requires a large sample size.

IQ Bell Curve

  • Average IQ: 100.
  • Standard deviations: Describe data dispersion; 15 points in IQ testing.
    • Score of 85: One standard deviation below the mean.
    • 82% of the population have an IQ between 85 and 115 (considered average).

Intellectual Disability

  • 2. 2% of the population has an IQ below 70; considered intellectually disabled.
  • Deficits in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior.
  • Formerly known as mental retardation.
  • Four subtypes: mild, moderate, severe, and profound.

The Source of Intelligence: Nature vs. Nurture

  • Nature: intelligence is inherited.
    • Twin studies: Identical twins (together or apart) have a higher IQ correlation than siblings or fraternal twins.
  • Nurture: Intelligence is shaped by the environment.
    • Intellectual stimuli reflect in a child's intelligence level.
  • Most psychologists: Intelligence is a combination of both.
  • Range of reaction: Each person responds uniquely based on genetics.
    • Genetic makeup is fixed; environmental factors determine intellectual potential.

Genetics and IQ

  • IQs of unrelated vs. related persons reared apart or together suggest a genetic component.

Learning Disabilities

  • Learning disabilities: Cognitive disorders affecting cognition, particularly language/reading.
    • Specific neurological impairments, not intellectual/developmental.
    • Often affect children with average to above-average intelligence.
    • Exhibit comorbidity with other disorders.
  • Dysgraphia: Struggle to write legibly; difficulty putting thoughts on paper.
  • Dyslexia: Inability to process letters correctly.
    • Most common learning disability; may mix up letters (letter reversals).