Chapter 8

Question 1

cognition

Answer 1

how we use and store information in memory

Question 2

thinking

Answer 2

the use of knowledge to accomplish some sort of goal

Question 3

knowledge

Answer 3

information stored in our long-term memory about the world and how it works

Question 4

mental representations

Answer 4

memory traces that represent objects, events, people, and so on that are not present at the time

Question 5

concepts

Answer 5

mental categories that contain related bits of information

Question 6

superordinate category

Answer 6

the highest, most general level of a concept

Question 7

basic level category

Answer 7

the intermediate level of categorization that seems to be the level that we use most to think about our world

Question 8

subordinate category

Answer 8

the lowest level of categorization, which contains concepts that are less general and more specific than those at the basic level

Question 9

formal concepts

Answer 9

concepts that are based on learned, rigid rules that define certain categories of things

Question 10

natural concepts

Answer 10

concepts that develop naturally as we live our lives and experience the world

Question 11

prototypes

Answer 11

our concepts of the most typical members of categories

Question 12

exemplars

Answer 12

a mental representation of an actual instance of a member of a category.

Question 13

well-structured problems

Answer 13

problems for which there are clear pathways to the solutions

Question 14

ill-structured problems

Answer 14

problems for which the algorithms are not known

Question 15

algorithm

Answer 15

a method of solving a particular problem that always leads to the correct solution

Question 16

heuristic

Answer 16

a shortcut or rule of thumb that may or may not lead to a correct solution to the problem

Question 17

intuition

Answer 17

believing that something is true independent of any reasoning process

Question 18

insight

Answer 18

a new way of looking at a problem that leads to a sudden understanding of how to solve it

Question 19

functional fixedness

Answer 19

being able to see objects only in their familiar roles

Question 20

mental set

Answer 20

the tendency to habitually use methods of problem-solving that have worked for you in the past

Question 21

incubation

Answer 21

a period of not thinking of a problem that helps one solve the problem

Question 22

reasoning

Answer 22

drawing conclusions about the world based on certain assumptions

Question 23

deductive reasoning

Answer 23

reasoning from the general to the specific

Question 24

inductive reasoning

Answer 24

reasoning to the specific to the general

Question 25

dialectal reasoning/thinking

Answer 25

an advanced type of reasoning that comes from cultural influences. When examining opposing/contradictory statements, this type of reasoning doesn't assume that one statement is true therefore the other is false. It assumes that both statements have at least partial truth, and that logic reason and discourse are used to try to fully understand the opposing views

Question 26

decision-making

Answer 26

making a choice from among a series of alternatives

Question 27

judgement

Answer 27

the act of estimating the probability of an event

Question 28

availability heuristic

Answer 28

a heuristic in which we use the ease with which we can recall instances of an event to help us estimate the frequency of an event

Question 29

representativeness heuristic

Answer 29

a heuristic in which we rely on the degree to which something is representative of a category, rather than the base rate, to help us judge whether or not it belongs in the category

Question 30

affective heuristic

Answer 30

a heuristic in which we make quick judgements about people and things based on whether or not we have an immediate positive or negative reaction to them

Question 31

language

Answer 31

a well-developed syntactical verbal system for representing the world

Question 32

cooing

Answer 32

the vowel sounds made by infants beginning at 2 months

Question 33

babbling

Answer 33

the combinations of vowel and consonant sounds uttered by infants beginning at around 4 months

Question 34

phonemes

Answer 34

the smallest units of sound in a language

Question 35

morphemes

Answer 35

the smallest units of sound in a language that have meaning

Question 36

overextension

Answer 36

when a child uses one word to symbolize all manner of similar instances (e.g., calling all birds parakeet)

Question 37

underextension

Answer 37

when a child inappropriately restricts the use of a word to a particular case (e.g., using the word cat to describe only the family pet)

Question 38

telegraphic speech

Answer 38

two-word sentences that children begin to utter at 20 to 26 months

Question 39

grammar

Answer 39

the rules that govern the sentence structure in a particular language

Question 40

pragmatics

Answer 40

the rules of conversation in a particular cuulture

Question 41

Whorfian (linguistic relativity) hypothesis

Answer 41

the theory that ones language can directly determine/influence ones thoughts

Question 42

sociocultural theory

Answer 42

Vygotskys theory that older and more knowledgeable members of a society pass on the values, beliefs, and customs of their culture to children by telling the children stories and by engaging in conversations with them

Question 43

intelligence

Answer 43

abilities that enable you to adapt to your environment and behave in a goal-directed way

Question 44

mental age

Answer 44

the age that reflects the child's mental abilities in comparison to the average child of the same age

Question 45

standardized test

Answer 45

a test that uses a standard set of questions, procedures, and scoring methods for all test takers

Question 46

intelligence quotient (IQ)

Answer 46

one's mental age divided by ones chronological age times 100

Question 47

reliability

Answer 47

the degree to which a test yields consistent measurements over time

Question 48

validity

Answer 48

the degree to which a test measures what it claims to measure

Question 49

culture bias

Answer 49

the degree to which a test puts people from other cultures at an unfair disadvantage because of the culturally specific nature of the test items

Question 50

general intelligence

Answer 50

a general level of intelligence that underlies our separate abilities

Question 51

crystallized intelligence

Answer 51

our accumulation of knowlegde

Question 52

fluid intelligence

Answer 52

the speed and efficiency with which we learn new info and solve problems

Question 53

multiple intelligences

Answer 53

the idea that we posses different types of intelligence rather than a single, overall level of intelligence

Question 54

triarchic level of intelligence

Answer 54

proposes that intelligence is composed of analytical, practical, and creative abilities that help us adapt to our environment

Question 55

nature-nurture debate

Answer 55

the age-old debate over whether we are mostly a product of our genes or of environmental influences

Question 56

genes

Answer 56

strands of DNA found in the nuclei of all living cells

Question 57

natural selection

Answer 57

the cornerstone of Darwin’s theory of evolution, which states that genes for traits that allow an organism to be reproductively successful will be selected or retained in a species and genes for traits that hinder reproductive success will not be selected and therefore will die out in a species

Question 58

genotype

Answer 58

inherited genetic pattern for a given trait

Question 59

phenotype

Answer 59

an actual characteristic that results from interaction of the genotype and environmental influences

Question 60

interactionism

Answer 60

the perspective that our genes and environmental influences work together to determine our characteristics