Psych Ch 10

Concept

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people Ex: chair sums up a variety of items- a baby's high chair, a reclining chair, a dentist chair Related Concept/Term: Prototype is a best example of a category, which helps a Concept as it can help mentally group similar things together

Prototype

A mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to the prototype provides a quick and easy method for including items in a category Ex: a Robin and a goose help concept the image of a bird- a 2 footed animal that has wings and feathers Related Concept/Term: related to Concept, because Prototypes are mental images and can help mentally group things together (Concept)

Algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Ex: SPLOYOCHYG -generate and examine all 907,208 combinations Related Concept/Term: Heuristic is a simple, speedier thinking strategy while an Algorithm is much more complicated and slower

Heuristic

A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently (speedier than algorithms) Ex: SPLOYOCHYG - you can exclude combinations with two Y's together. Related Term/Concept: applies trial and error

Insight

A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem Ex: I went to my room to get my phone, but when I entered my room I forgot what I needed to get. When I left the room I remembered what I needed to get from my room; my phone. Related Concept/Term: Related to Heuristic; a simple thinking strategy to solve a problem fast. While as Insight contrasts with Heuristic as its a sudden realization to solve the problem

Mental Set

A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, especially in the past but may or may not be helpful in solving a new problem Ex: When I see a problem on a test, I immediately try it out on my calculator to find the solution Related Concept/Term: as a Perceptual Set predisposes what we perceive, a Mental Set predisposes how we think

Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for information that confirms ones preconceptions Ex: Watson (1960) demonstrated this reluctance to seek information that might disprove's beliefs Related Concept/Term: Fixation is the inability to see a new perspective while Confirmation Bias is the immediate solving to confirm our ideas

Two-word Stage

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

Babbling Stage

Beginning at 3 to 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

Fixation

The inability to see a problem from a new perspective. Ex: *ignorant person* "Trump is a great guy!" *not-ignorant person* "But he told Muslims they should have special ID's? As if he was Hitler?" *ignorant person* "He's still great nonetheless!" Related Concept/Term: a mental set is a type of fixation

Cognition

The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating Ex: thinking Related Concept/Term: Concept is a mental grouping of similar things which helps our Cognition

Belief Perseverance

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

Computer Neural Networks

Computer circuits that mimic the brain's interconnected neural cells performing tasks such as learning to recognize visual patterns and smells

Telegraphic Speech

Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram- "go car"- using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting "auxiliary" words

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 Ex: When we are asked what's more common, Asthma attacks or drownings, we say drownings. That's because drownings are more common in the media, but aren't as common as you think. Asthma attacks are more common. Related Concept/Term: related to the Representativeness Heuristic, as they both judge and estimate the likelihood of how an event will be presented or if it will ever happen.

Grammar

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

Morpheme

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

Phoneme

In a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

Representativeness Heuristic

Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead one to ignore other relevant information Ex: a stranger tell you about a person who is short, slim, and likes to read poetry l, and then asks you to guess whether this person is more likely to be a professor of classics at an Ivy League university, or a truck driver. This question influences the likelihood of something that gives us a mental representation. Related Concept/Term: related to Availability Heuristic as it both judges and judges the likelihood of an event happening or how it will be represented

Lamguage

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

Syntax

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

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The science of designing and programming computer systems to do intelligent things and to simulate human thought processes, such as intuitive reasoning, learning and understanding language

Semantics

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

One-word Stage

The stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words

Belief Bias

The tendency for one's pre existing beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct- to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs and judgements Ex: when a couple went to the park for a picnic, they were OVERLYconfident that it wasn't going to rain (even though there was a 50% chance) and didn't bring an umbrella, but instead got drenched. Related Concept/Term: Availability Heuristic is related to Overconfidence because we have the idea that something is more common or that we feel confident that it will/will not happen.

Functional Fixedness

The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving Ex: a person may ransack a house for a screwdriver, when a dime could have been turned into a screw Related Concept/Term: related to Mental Set because a Mental Set is the tendency to approach a problem a certain way, which was successful in the past. While Functional Fixedness is only approaching a problem with a certain way because of the items usual function.

Framing

The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements Ex: Merchants mark up their "regular prices" to appear to offer huge savings on "sale prices" Related Concept/Term: Fixation is related to Framing because when someone looks at something, they only see it one particular way, which also works for Framing, it distorts all previous knowledge

Linguistic determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we thing