| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Cognitive Psychology | the study of mental processes by which the information humans receive from their environment is modified, made meaningful, stored, retrieved, used, and communicated to others |
| Information-processing system | system that receives information, represents the information with symbols, and then manipulates those representations |
| thinking | the manipulation of mental representations in order to form new representations |
| Mental Chronometry | Measurement of time required to complete mental processes |
| Reaction time | the time elapsed between the presentation of a stimulus or information and a response |
| Evoked brain potentials | a small, temporary change in EEG voltage that is evoked by some stimulus |
| Neuroimaging | provides non-invasive detailed pictures of various parts of the brain that help determine what occurs during information-processing |
| Concepts | categories of objects, events, or ideas with common properties, such as the way they look or the subjects they contain. |
| Formal Concepts | concepts that can be defined by a set of characteristics that all members have and no nonmembers have |
| Natural concepts | concepts whose members must have at least some of the characteristics that define the concept. |
| Prototype | objects or events that best represent a natural concept |
| Propositions | The smallest units of knowledge that can stand as separate assertions |
| Schema | a generalization about categories of objects, places, events, and people. |
| Scripts | mental representations of sequences of activity |
| Mental Models | Representations of particular situations or arrangements of objects that guide our thinking about them |
| Cognitive maps | mental models of the spatial arrangements in familiar parts of the world |
| Reasoning | the process by which we generate arguments, evaluate them, and reach conclusions |
| Formal Reasoning | mental procedures that yield a valid conclusion are known |
| Algorithms | systematic methods that always reach a correct result |
| Rules of logic | sets of statements that provide a formula for drawing valid conclusions |
| Syllogisms | a method of developing the argument of a paragraph in three steps: if a major premise is true and a minor premise is true then a conclusion or prediction can be made |
| Formal reasoning | reasoning that involves inducing a conclusion on the basis of specific facts or examples |
| Heuristics | mental shortcuts |
| Anchoring Heuristic | a mental shortcut that involves basing judgements on existing information |
| Representativeness heuristic | mental shortcut that involves people deciding whether an example belongs in a certain class on the basis of how similar it is to other items in that class |
| Availability heuristic | mental shortcut that involves making decisions on the basis of information that is available in a person's immediate consciousness. |
| Incubation | strategy that involves involves setting a problem aside for a while and thinking about other things |
| Means-end Analysis | strategy that involves continuously asking where you are in relation to your final goal, and then deciding on the means by which you can get one step closer to it |
| Working Backward | strategy that involves starting with the solution and working backward from it to determine what you need to generate or obtain that solution |
| Analogies | strategy that involves trying to find similarities between the present problem you are trying to solve and other problems you have encountered before |
| Multiple hypotheses | Testing the incorrect hypothesis first when more than one hypothesis exists |
| Mental Set | the tendency for old patterns of problem solving to persist, even when better strategies might be available |
| Functional fixedness | the inability to use objects in new ways |
| Confirmation Bias | a tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions and to avoid "counter-attitudinal" new information |
| Artificial intelligence | computer systems that imitate the products of human perception and thought |
| Utility | the subjective, personal value of each attribute in decision making |
| gambler's fallacy | estimating the probability of a decision incorrectly because people tend to incorrectly estimate the probability of rare or infrequent events |
| Language | a system of words used in a particular discipline; made up of symbols and grammar |
| Phenomes | the smallest unit of sound with meaning |
| Morphemes | are the smallest unit of language with meaning |
| Words | these are made up of morphemes, which in turn consist of phonemes |
| Syntax | the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences |
| Semantics | the rules that govern the meanings of words and sentences |
| Surface structure | the literal meaning of words present in a sentence |
| Deep structure. | an abstract meaning of words in a sentence |
| Babblings | the first sounds infants make that resemble speech |
| One-word stage | Stage in which babies utter their first real words and tend to use only that one word at a time and overextend its use to mean more than one object |
| universal grammar | An innate blueprint that guides the acquisition of grammar |
| Specific Language Impairment | Unusual difficulties learning language despite normal environmental supports and the absence of hearing, vision, motor, or cognitive disorders. |
| balanced bilinguals | Similar mastery of two languages |
Combine with other sets
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