Chapter 8- Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

Question 1

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

Answer 1

cognition

Question 2

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

Answer 2

concept

Question 3

a mental image or BEST EXAMPLE OF A CATEGORY. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin)

Answer 3

prototype

Question 4

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

Answer 4

algorithm

Question 5

a simple thinking strategy that often allows you to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error prone than algorithm

Answer 5

heuristic

Question 6

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

Answer 6

insight

Question 7

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

Answer 7

confirmation bias

Question 8

the inability to see a problem form a new perspective; an obstacle to problem solving

Answer 8

fixation

Question 9

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

Answer 9

intuition

Question 10

judging the likelihood of an event based on its availability in memory; if an event comes readily to mind (perhaps because it was vivid), we assume it must be common

Answer 10

availability heuristic

Question 11

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

Answer 11

overconfidence

Question 12

clinging to beliefs and ignoring evidence that proves they are wrong

Answer 12

belief perseverance

Question 13

the way an issue is posed; framing can significantly affect decisions and judgments

Answer 13

framing

Question 14

the ability to produce new and valuable ideas

Answer 14

creativity

Question 15

narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

Answer 15

convergent thinking

Question 16

expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions).

Answer 16

divergent thinking

Question 17

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

Answer 17

language

Question 18

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

Answer 18

babbling stage

Question 19

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

Answer 19

one- word stage

Question 20

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

Answer 20

two word stage

Question 21

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram- “go car”- using mostly nouns and verbs

Answer 21

telegraphic speech

Question 22

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

Answer 22

grammar

Question 23

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

Answer 23

Broca’s area

Question 24

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

Answer 24

Wernicke’s area

Question 25

mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

Answer 25

intelligence

Question 26

a general intelligence factor that, according to Spearmen and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test

Answer 26

general intelligence (G-factor)

Question 27

a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptionally specific skill, such as in computation or drawing

Answer 27

savant syndrome

Question 28

the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions

Answer 28

emotional intelligence

Question 29

a method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores

Answer 29

intelligence test

Question 30

a test designed to predict a person’s future performance; aptitude is a capacity to learn

Answer 30

aptitude test

Question 31

a test designed to assess what a person has learned

Answer 31

achievement test

Question 32

a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Benet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. thus, a child who does as well as an average 8 year old is said to have a mental age of 8

Answer 32

mental age

Question 33

the widely used American revision (by Terman at Standford University) of Binet’s orginal intelligence test

Answer 33

Standford- Binet

Question 34

defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ= ma/ca X 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.

Answer 34

intelligence quotient (IQ)

Question 35

the most widely use intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests

Answer 35

Wechsler Adult intelligence Scale (WAIS)

Question 36

defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group

Answer 36

standardization

Question 37

the bell-shape curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes

Answer 37

normal curve

Question 38

the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternative forms of the test, or on retesting

Answer 38

reliability

Question 39

the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to

Answer 39

validity

Question 40

the portion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. the heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the population and the environment

Answer 40

heritability

Question 41

a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another

Answer 41

cross-sectional study

Question 42

research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period

Answer 42

longitudinal study

Question 43

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age

Answer 43

crystallized intelligence

Question 44

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood

Answer 44

fluid intelligence

Question 45

a self-confirming concern that we will be judged based on a negative stereotype

Answer 45

stereotype threat