chapter 9 psych exam 2

convergent thinking:

narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

prototypes:

A mental image or best example that incorporates all the features we associate with a category

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.

cognition:

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

intuition:

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

telegraphic speech:

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

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 (creative thinking that diverges in different directions)

belief perserverance:

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

Wernicke's area:

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

aphasia:

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

grammar:

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

phonemes:

in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

heuristics:

shortcut strategies or guidelines that suggest a solution to a problem but do not guarantee an answer

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

algorithms:

Problem-solving procedures or formulas that guarantee a correct outcome, if correctly applied.

concept:

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

insight:

a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem

mental set:

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

confirmation bias:

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

fixation:

according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved

creativity:

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

linguistic determinism:

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think

According to the principle of belief perseverance, when faced with evidence supporting one's point of view on a controversial issue, one would MOST likely:

assume it is correct.

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

Makayla is taking a child development class and has been assigned a class project of her choice. She has chosen to analyze children's drawings. She collected children's drawings from a nearby elementary school from a total of 50 children in the third grade. Now she is in the process of analyzing the drawings and preparing her presentation. She has completely lost track of time. She meant to work on this for only an hour but when she looks at the clock three hours have passed. She is completely interested in the project and finds it challenging to analyze the drawings. Makayla is demonstrating _____.

intrinsic motivation

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

overconfidence:

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

morphemes:

the smallest meaningful units of language