AP Psychology Unit 7: Cognition Part 2

cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

phoneme

in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

language

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

prototype

a mental image or best example of a category.

algorithm

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

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.

insight

a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

mental set

a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

two-word stage

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

telegraphic speech

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

grammar

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

representativeness heuristic

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

creativity

the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

concept

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

linguistic determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.

confirmation bias

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

intuition

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.

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

belief perseverance

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

Broca's area

controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.

Wernicke's area

controls language reception - a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe.

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.

divergent thinking

expands the number of possible problem solutions.

aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).

morpheme

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).

convergent thinking

narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution.

framing

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

one-word stage

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