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ICW H8

Terms in this set (44)

comparative cognition
An evolutionary perspective where researchers examine the similarities and differences in cognitive ability between different animal species
evolutionary psychology
A field of psychology that studies how evolutionary forces have shaped human mental capacities
behavioral economics
A perspective that focuses on how evolution shaped the way we make decisions involving money
evolved psychological mechanisms
A cognitive process that has evolved to solve a specific adaptive problem
theory of natural selection
The theory proposed by Charles Darwin that accounts for changes in animal species over time. It involves species variability, inheritance of traits through reproduction, and selection due to environmental change
variation
Refers to differences in traits between animals
inheritance
The process by which parents pass on some of their genetic characteristics to their offspring
selection
A change in environmental conditions that results in differential inheritance of traits in a population
adaptation
The process by which an animal species changes in response to its environment through variation, inheritance, and selection
sexual selection
A differential inheritance of traits based on mate selection and competition instead of a change in the environment
ecological niche
The specific environment each animal species has adapted to
object permanence
The ability to understand that an object still continues to exist even though it is no longer perceptually evident
transitive interference
The capacity to understand the set of relations between two pairs of items that differ along a continuum (A->B ^ B->C -> A->C)
artificial life (alife)
The study of human-made systems that behave in ways characteristic of natural living systems
cephalization index
A measure of brain size expressed as a proportion of body size that can be used to compare brain sizes between different animal species
von economo neurons
Neruons in humans and other animal species that allow for the fast transmission of neural signals and that may be an indicator for intelligence
anthropomorphism
The tendency to ascribe humanlike characteristics when explaining animal behavior
anthropodenial
A blindness to the humanlike characteristics of animals or the animal-like characteristics of ourselves
stimulus enhancement
The explanation that one animal can imitate another simply on the basis of being drawn to the location or behavior without any inference of desired goals
environment of evolutionary adaptation
The period of time during which many human psychological mechanisms are believed to have evolved
general-purpose processor
The view that the mind can solve any type of problem equally well. it is based on the notion that a problem is solved by context-independent symbol representation and computation
typicality effect
The phenomenon that human participants are faster to judge stereotypical members as belonging to a category
Wason Selection Task
A task designed to measure a person's logical thinking ability. It involves applying the abstract rules of logic to a specific example
cheater detection
The ability to detect who has undeservedly received a benefit
reciprocal altruism
A characteristic of early human society involving the sharing of hard-won resources between group members
fallacies
A fundamental misunderstanding of a statistical rule that can result from applying a heuristic
representativeness heuristic
The tendency to judge an item based on its perceived similarity to a category label
base rate fallacy
A neglect of the probability that an item belongs to a particular category
conjunction fallacy
A neglect of the conjunction rule, which states that the probability of simultaneously being a member of two categories is always less than the probability of being a member of either category alone
gambler's fallacy
The belief that probability outcomes are not independent, that the probability of an event can be influenced by its past history
ultimatum game
A laboratory scenario in which people are asked to choose the amount of money they can share with someone else
loss aversion
The principle by which people are more sensitive to losses than to equivalent gains
framing effects
In behavioral economices, the heuristic by which people prefer choices that are framed positively rather than negatively
mental accounting
The principle by which we reason differently about money depending on the overall amounts. generally, people are less likely to make efforts to save cash when the relative amount of money they are dealing with is large
endowment effect
The tendency to stay with what we have and to prefer it over other options
sunk-cost fallacy
An explanation for the endowment effect by which we prefer to stay with what we have because of the costs we have already invested
sexual division of labor
A division of labor between the sexes that is believed to have existed in early human societies where males hunted and females gathered
exaptation of neutral drift
Random mutations that produce new genes with little or no consequence for reproduction. They can spread in a population, and at some point may assume a new adaptive function to as subsequent environmental change
molecular drive
Occurs when a copy of a gene mutates and serves an adaptive function even though it was not selected for
spandrel
An architectural feature formed by the triangular space between the exterior curve of an arch and the rectangular frame enclosing it. In evolution, it is used to designate a by-product of an adaptation that may serve a useful purpose
reverse engineering
The process of starting with an end product and analyzing it to determine its intended function
ecological models of cognition
Models of cognitive processes that are acquired through learning
mosaic model of development
A model in which brain mechanisms are almost entirely determined by genes and operate quickly, and the parts of the system develop independently
regulatory model of development
A model in which brain mechanisms are only partially determined by genes and operate more slowly, and the parts of the system develop interdependently
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