Exam 1 Flashcards
(167 cards)
1
Q
Cognition
A
This is all the mental activities associated with thinking,
knowing, remembering, and communicating
2
Q
Conceptual Knowledge
A
knowledge that enables us to recognize
objects and events and to make inferences about their properties
3
Q
Concept
A
a mental grouping of
similar objects, events, ideas, and
people that is used for a variety of
cognitive functions (e.g., memory,
reasoning etc.)
4
Q
Categorization
A
is the process by which things are placed into groups
called categories (etc. when you see cars and you group them into Ford, Honda, Toyota)
5
Q
Why are categories useful?
A
Categories help us understand individual
cases not previously encountered
6
Q
What is prototype theory??
A
Membership of a category is
determined by comparing the
object to a prototype that
represents a category. (i.e every person has a prototype idea of what a bird looks like)
7
Q
Prototype
A
“typical” An abstract representation of the “typical” member of a category.
Usually the most typical features (beak, wings, feathers)
8
Q
Typicality Ratings
A
Category members rated as most typical are also
those that share features with many other members of the category
i.e high typicality for “bird” is a robin because it has many common features of a typical bird. a penguin would be low typicality
9
Q
Normative Accounts of Judgement
A
certain rules must be followed for drawing conclusions based on known facts.
i.e rules based on logic, mathematics, statistics and scientific method
10
Q
Descriptive Accounts of Judgement
A
the way that people
actually draw conclusions based on
what they know.
(if humans were rational, both of these accounts of judgement would be the same)
11
Q
Critcher and Gilovich (2007) study about mentioning a larger number affects peoples perception. What did they find?
A
found that people are willing to
pay more at a restaurant named
“Studio 97” than “Studio 17”. Meaning this idea is true.
12
Q
What’s anchoring?
A
When provided
with a potential answer to a
question, people use that
answer as a reference point in
selecting their answer. (This happens even when potential answer has nothing to do with the question)
13
Q
In the study where people were asked “what is the percentage of African Nations in the US?” and then a wheel was spun (and rigged to either land on 10 or 65). What were the results?
A
When the wheel stopped at “10”,
people estimated 25% on average.
When the wheel stopped at “65”,
people estimated 45% on average
Meaning, whatever number was spun effected peoples answers even though the wheel had nothing to do with the number of African Nations.
14
Q
The study about playing dice with criminal sentences. What happened? and what were the results?
A
German judges with 15 or more years of experience were given a description of a woman who had been caught shoplifting. Then they rolled a loaded dice (every roll got a 3 or a 9).
When the judges rolled a 9 they averaged 8 months of prison, when they rolled a 3 they were more likely to give roughly 4 months.
15
Q
The study about music as persuasion. What happened? and what were the results?
A
In a wine shop they played either French or German music. Whatever music was playing when people entered the store were more likely to buy that kind of wine (French music=bought French wine).
16
Q
Heuristics
A
are fast, simple rules
people use that often lead to
accurate conclusions
17
Q
Availability Heuristic
A
Tendency to make judgments about
the frequency or likelihood of an
event based on the ease with which
evidence or examples come to mind
18
Q
When do we commonly use availability heuristic?
A
When judging how likely an event is to happen.
when judging how frequent an event occurs.
19
Q
What are the pitfalls of relying on availability heuristic?
A
People often overestimate the frequency of a case of…
* A salient event
* A case that is easily brought to mind
*something that captures attention will be more easily retrieved
20
Q
How does the availability heuristic affect our thoughts on death?
A
-people overestimate the probability of dying from causes that are prevalent in the media (i.e. homicides, flood, tornados, fire, lung cancer)
-People underestimate the probability of dying from causes that are less prevalent in the media (i.e. diabetes, asthma, stomach cancer)
21
Q
How do we see the availability heuristic play in with Covid 19?
A
Asked how many people died from Covid 19
-on average american people thought that 9% of the population had died from the virus
-that means 29, 800, 000 people would have died when only 155,000 died actually
-This is because covid deaths were expressed so highly during the pandemic
22
Q
What is salience when it comes to the availability heuristic?
A
Salience is when something is more prominent. So in the availability heuristic, it is when media is more noticeable we tend to remember it better, describing why we sometimes think situations are more common then they are. I.e why we are afraid of plane crashes
23
Q
Availability Cascade
A
A self-perpetuating process where News coverage of a danger creates public fear, inspiring further coverage and more fear
24
Q
What’s the Crisis Crisis?
A
The never-ending series of hyped threats leading to actions that leave everyone worse off
25
Representativeness Heuristic
related to the idea that people often
make judgments based on how
much one event resembles another
event
26
Consequences of the
Representativeness Heuristic
People often rely on the
assumption that members of a
category share attributes in
common at the expense of other
valuable forms of information
27
Diagnostic Information
Attributes
that often distinguish members of
a category from members of
another category (Sally is quiet, loves math and hates talking in front of people--is sally an engineer or a lawyer?)
28
Base Rates
Actually frequency of category member (lawyers outnumber engineers by a rate of 3:1)
29
What is the issue with diagnostic information and base rates?
When diagnostic information is available, people often completely ignore base rates
30
Kahneman and Tversky (1973) experiment 1
*People asked, “if someone is chosen,
at random, from a group of 75
lawyers and 25 engineers, what is
their profession likely to be?”
*All people say “lawyer” because of
the base rate provided
31
Kahneman and Tversky (1973) experiment 2
*People told, “Sarah was chosen, at random,
from a group of 75 lawyers and 25 engineers”
*AND
*Sarah is excellent at math, but is
uncomfortable speaking in front of a crowd
*OR
*Sarah is outgoing socially and loves to argue
*(What is Sarah’s profession likely to be?)
People were likely to completely ignore the base rate and listen only to the diagnostic information.
32
Cognitive Illusions
even when
people know the correct answer,
they may be drawn to an incorrect
conclusion based on the structure of
the problem
33
Dilution Effects
Including Non-Diagnostic
Information along with Diagnostic
Information, leads people to rely
less on diagnostic information in
making judgements
34
How do you explain the dilution effect? think of the study with Frank and the movies..
*With only diagnostic information
people treat Frank in a stereotypical
way, leading to more extreme
estimates
*Adding irrelevant details makes people
treat Frank like an individual, leading to
more conservative estimates
35
Conjunction rule
probability of two events cannot be higher than the
probability of the single constituents (i.e it is more common that someone is a bank teller, than a feminist bank teller)
36
Conjunction Fallacy
The probability of a co-occurrence of two outcomes
cannot be greater than the probability of each outcome alone (there must be fewer feminist bank tellers than just regular bank tellers)
37
Conjunction Fallacy
The probability of a co-occurrence of two outcomes
cannot be greater than the probability of each outcome alone (there must be fewer feminist bank tellers than just regular bank tellers)
38
Consequences of the representativeness heuristic?
people are more likely to stereotype based on one member of a category/group.
39
Covariation detection
Perceiving relations between variables (If two variables “covary” that means they rise and fall together)
40
What is the problem with Covariation Detection?
Covariation Detection can lead you to falsely conclude: In this example, the same amount of celebrities had problems, regardless if they were childhood stars or not.
41
Positive Test Strategy (Confirmation Bias)
Testing a hypothesis by seeking cases that
match it (the tendency to only look at things that confirm your hypothesis)
42
What is the problem with confirmation bias?
If only look for things that confirm hypothesis, there will be an overrepresentation of confirmations
43
Positive Test Strategy---Biased memory search
more likely to recall facts from memory that confirm your hypothesis (i.e. more likely to think of child celebrities that have problems when asked if being a child star creates life problems)
44
Positive Test Strategy---Biased Evidence Seeking
We observe the world looking for information that confirms our hypotheses OR, we only pay attention to
information that confirms our hypotheses
45
Are you happy with your social life study
People who were asked "are you happy with your social life?" were more likely to think of situations where they were happy meaning they reported being happier.
The people that were asked "Are you unhappy with your social life?" were more likely to think of times that they were unhappy.
46
Implications of Positive Test Strategy
The positive test strategy tends to lead to biased conclusions when stimuli are complex such that cases exist that fit the hypothesis, regardless of whether the hypothesis is actually true (one sided questions can bias our perceptions and perspectives)
47
Implications definition
Single-chute survey questions can produce misleading
results (leading you to misstate and mistake your position)
48
Bolken and Anderson (2009) Positive Test Strategy Study
approached people and asked them to complete a survey (29% volunteered)
approached people and asked "do you consider yourself a helpful person?" people mostly said yes and 77.3% volunteered
49
Implications for Persuasion (in relation to positive test strategy)
asking questions in a certain way renders
people vulnerable to aligned requests
50
One tenant
Losses loom larger than equivalent gains (e.g., it hurts more to lose $100 than it feels good to win $100)
51
Loss aversion
Not willing to take small risk to gain an extra $100,
but are willing to take large risk of losing $100 for small chance of avoiding a loss
52
Why is prospect theory important for psychology?
The specific wording can affect what features we focus our attention on when making decisions
53
rational perspective
expected costs should be treated as equal to expected benefits.
54
Thaler (1980) Loss aversion study
people were given two options:
-$1.25/gallon of gas with an extra $0.05/gallon for using credit card
-$1.30/gallon of gas with a $0.05/gallon less if you paid with cash
Even though they are the exact same people chose the second option because they don't want to "lose money"
55
prospect theory
risk differs
when we face gains versus
losses
56
Intuition
An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling
or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning
57
Conscious thought in decision making
most people think that it's better to sit and think hard about tough decisions (i.e. pro and cons chart). But our conscious thinking has a low processing capacity, meaning that it is limited when making complex decisions because it can't take all the relevant info into account simultaneously
58
Unconscious thought in decision making
Unconscious thought has a very large processing capacity. This makes it more effective when making decisions because it can process all the relevant information into account simultaneously
59
Dijksterhuis (2004) study on unconscious vs conscious decision making
Dependent Variable: “If you had to
choose one of the apartments, which
one would you choose?”
*Conscious thought condition: could think about the decision for 3 minutes
*Unconscious thought condition:
participants were distracted for a few
minutes and then indicated their decision
*Control condition: make a decision
immediately after being presented with
the options
Unconscious thinkers choose the best apartment compared to the other 2
60
Language
involves our spoken,
written, or signed words and the
ways we combine them to
communicate meaning
61
Symbolic in language
people use spoken sounds and written words to
represent objects, actions, events, and ideas
62
Semantic in language
The meaning of words and word combinations
63
Generative in language
a limited number of symbols can be combined
in an infinite number of ways to generate novel messages
64
structured in language
there are rules that govern arrangement of
words into phrases and sentences
65
The basic structure of language
Basic sounds are combined into units with meaning, which are combined into words, which are combined into phrases, which are combined into sentences
66
Phonemes
The smallest units of speech that can be distinguished perceptually.
(Most languages use between 20-80, English uses about 40)
67
Morphemes
are the smallest units of meaning in a language,
consisting of root words, prefixes, and suffixes
ex. cat = two morphemes
68
Grammar
The system of rules that enables humans to communicate with one another (e.g., semantics and syntax)
69
Syntax
Ordering words into sentences. The system of rules for arranging words into sentences.
ex. different languages have different rules. English is subject-verb-object
70
What are the signs that show that newborns prefer speech sounds?
*Naturally attend to speech
*Prefer to hear human speech vs. other sounds
*Prefer native language vs. other languages
*Prefer stories and sounds heard prenatally
71
Receptive Language
What babies can understand
-exceeds their productive language
-ex. by 4.5 months babies can attend to their own names and not the names of others
72
Productive Language
What babies can produce themselves
73
Prelinguistic Communication
newborn babies communicate their thoughts and needs with their body posture (being relaxed or still), gestures, cries and facial expressions
74
Prelinguistic Communication--cooing
Intentional Vocalizations: Infants
begin to vocalize and repeat
vocalizations within the first
couple of months of life
75
Prelinguistic Communication--Babbling
(around 4 months of age)
*Repeating strings of consonants and vowels
*E.g., Ba-ba-ba-ba and ma-ma-ma
*Universal: but with exposure to speech, babbling sounds more like the infant’s native language
76
Boysson-Bardies et al. (1984) study on babies prelinguistic communication?
-French adults listened to the babbling of 8 months olds
-infant from either French, Arabic or Cantonese speaking family
Results: correctly chose French speaking baby 75% of the time
77
When do first words occur for most infants?
about one year of age
78
Holophrases
One-word expressions to express a complete thought
ex. baby might say "food" instead of "'I'm really hungry"
79
Fast Mapping
A process of quickly acquiring and retaining a word after
hearing it applied a few times
(Improves with age)
80
Naming Explosion (vocabulary burst)
A period of rapid vocabulary learning that occurs
between 16 and 24 months of age
81
What are the two kinds of mistakes when learning words?
1. Underextension: Applying a word more narrowly than it is usually applied so that the word’s use is restricted to a single object ("ball" might only refer to a soccer ball but not to the general class of balls)
2. Overextension: Applying a word too broadly ("cow" might refer to all farm animals)
82
When do two word utterances occur?
begin around 24 months of age
83
Telegraphic speech
Speaking like a telegram, only including a few essential words
ex. "give baby ball" might be used instead of "give the baby the ball"
84
How is language learned--learning theory and language aquisition (NURTURE)
B.F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through operant conditioning: reinforcement and punishment
*Children imitate speech they hear
*Correct speech is rewarded
85
How is language learned--Noam Chomsky (1957) (NATURE)
*Argued children do not only learn language through imitation and reinforcement
*E.g., Children say things they have never heard and can not be imitating (e.g., “I hate vegetables”)
*suggested that the mechanisms underlying language
acquisition are biologically determined
*Human language coded in the genes
*Underlying basis of all language is
similar
86
What are over-generalization errors?
children say things that are incorrect and have not been rewarded for.
ex. i gooed, i runned, i swimmed, i hitted the ball
87
Whats the universality of language?
the use of language develops in the absence of formal instruction
e.g deaf children invent sign language
Language follows a very similar pattern in children from vastly different cultures and backgrounds
88
Universal grammar?
rules that apply to all human language
89
Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
an innate facilitator of language and storehouse of rules
that apply to all human languages (universal grammar)
90
Nativist Theory and Language Acquisition
language develops as long as an infant is exposed to it.
No teaching, training or reinforcement is required to develop it
91
Social Pragmatics Theory
Tomasello & Herrmann (2010) argue that all human infants seek to master words and grammar in order to join the social world
the idea that we learn language quicker because humans are social beings and we need to communicate for survival
92
Which is True about the 3 language acquisition theories?
Many would argue that all three of these theories (Chomsky’s argument for nativism, conditioning, and social pragmatics) are important for fostering the acquisition of language
93
Interactionist perspective on language acquisition
Language development is a complex
process that is influenced by both
biological capacities and social
context (Nature AND Nurture)
94
Biological Contributions to Language Acquisition
*Brain (left hemisphere):
*Broca’s area –controls the ability to use language for expression (speaking words)
*Wernicke’s area –responsible for language comprehension (hearing words)
95
Infant-Directed speech
*The use of shorter words and sentences
*Higher and more varied pitch
*Repetitions
*A slower rate
*Longer pauses
Baby Talk
96
Is infant directed speech bad for babies?
No, it's actually good for babies because they can more easily pick up language cues
97
Canonical babbling
a certain type of babbling with well formed syllables that sounds like language
98
Canonical babbling
a certain type of babbling with well formed syllables that sounds like language
99
Contextual Contributions--Expansions
Parents enrich versions of the child’s statement
*Child: “Bottle Fall”
*Parent: “Yes, the bottle fell off the table”
100
Contextual Contributions--Recast
Children’s sentences are restated into new grammatical
forms
*Child: “Kitty go”
*Parent: “Where is the kitty going?”
101
g
Charles Spearman proposed that performance in tasks of mental ability was dependent on a general
intelligence factor that he called g
102
General Intelligence
Spearman believed that there is a general intelligence that is at the heart of everything they do
103
Factor Analysis
according to the process of g, people that are good at one component of intelligence are probably good at another component
104
Louis Thurstone (1938)
used factor analysis and found seven different clusters of what he termed primary mental abilities
105
Savant
Rare condition in which an individual has extremely high ability in one domain despite overall limitations in mental and social ability
106
Prodigy
A young person who is extremely gifted and precocious in one area and at least average intelligence
107
Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence
Sternberg suggested that there
are three types of intelligence:
* Analytic--verbal, mathematical, problem solving type
* Practical--the ability to solve real world problems
* Creative--the ability to create new ideas to solve problems
108
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
*Intelligence consists of multiple abilities that come
in different packages
*Eight relatively independent intelligences exist
109
Whats the problem with Gardner's Theory of multiple intelligences?
This theory is unfalsifiable. You can always think
up a new type of intelligence to account for the data
110
Learning Styles
The idea that everyone has a “best” way of
taking in and retaining information
But study after study have proved this is fake/myth
111
Why does the idea of learning styles persist?
when learning via what we think is
our preferred style, it feels as though we have learned more effectively, even though we haven’t
112
The hierarchical model
The general consensus is that
intelligence can be traced to a single
common construct called “g”, and
within it, we can separate out facets
such as verbal and mathematical
intelligence
113
Aptitude testing
testing people to find where they best match for specific roles
114
Sire Francis Galton
*Interested in genius and greatness
*Believed nature was dominant force for intelligence
*Believed in “Eugenics”
115
Eugenetics
the movement that encouraged people with certain traits to breed and discouraged people with other traits to breed
116
Alfred Binet
French researcher who assumed that intelligence
should include more complex abilities such as attention,
memory, and comprehension
117
Intelligence
The ability to think, understand, reason, and adapt to
or overcome obstacles
118
What was Alfred Binets belief about intelligence?
He believed intelligence was malleable and included many different abilities
119
What did Alfred Binet do to try to help with increasing intelligence?
Worked to
identify children in the French
School system who may need
extra help
120
What's the Binet-Simon test?
Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon developed the first intelligence test to identify students who needed special education.
Based on mental age: the average intellectual ability score for children of a specific age
121
What''s the Standford-Binet Test?
An intelligence test intended to measure innate levels of
intelligence (nature). Still based on age.
122
What was Terman's influence on intelligence tests?
*IQ score removed from age (i.e., based on 100 as average score)
*Conceptualized as innate intelligence instead of being
ahead/behind one’s age
*i.e., when you score “100” it implies you’ll always be 100
123
David Welsher
Created the most widely used intelligence test today
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and Wechsler’s
tests for children
shifted IQ test to include more non-verbal material
124
Why is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) so effective?
Yields an overall intelligence score and separate scores for verbal comprehension, perceptual organization, working memory, and processing speed
Provides a full scale IQ score as well as 2 subscales:
General Ability Index (GAI)
Cognitive Proficiency Index (CPI)
125
General Ability Index (GAI)
This subscale examines comprehension and reasoning
without examining processing speed (e.g., what do words have in common)
126
Cognitive Proficiency Index (CPI)
Working memory and processing speed tasks (e.g., keeping numbers in head and repeating backwards and forwards)
These abilities allow more cognitive resources to be directed toward reasoning
127
Intelligence Test
Method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others using numerical scores
128
Aptitude Test
Designed to predict a persons future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn a new skill
129
Achievement Tests
designed to assess what a person has learned
130
What are some common examples of aptitude tests for career screening?
*Law School Admission Test (LSAT)
*Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)
*Myers-Beiggs- workplaces to determine suitability
131
what are the 3 criteria of a “good” test?
1. was the test standardized?
2. is the test reliable?
3. is the test valid?
132
Standardization
defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group (form a bell curve)
133
What does it mean to say that results are normally distributed?
this means it forms a bell curve.
The average IQ is 100 with a standard deviation of 15. 68% of people have IQ between 85-115.
134
Reliability
Extent to which a test yields consistent results.
i.e. if you take the same test twice, you should get the same results
135
Random Error
is anything that changes each time (e.g. a bad night sleep)
136
Systematic Error
is error that appear over and over (i.e. a scale that is consistently 10 pounds too light)
137
If the test is reliable does that automatically mean it’s a good test?
no. a test can be reliable but that does not mean that it’s valid.
138
Validity
extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to measure or predict
139
Content Validity
extent to which a test samples the behaviour of interest
i.e. if an intelligence only assessed math ability it may lack content validity
140
Predictive Validity
success with which a test predicts what it is designed to predict
141
Why is having a good test important?
It’s important to get a proper measurement.
look at Leilani Muir who took an IQ test and was diagnosed as a “Mental Defective Moron” and was sterilized without her consent. Later in life she took the another IQ test and scored close to average.
142
Fluid Intelligence
learning new information and solving new problems not based on knowledge the person already possesses.
143
Crystallized Intelligence
a type of intelligence that draws upon past learning and experience.
i.e. vocabulary and general knowledge
144
When do Fluid and Crystallized intelligence peak?
Fluid intelligence peaks before age 20, remains steady and then decreases
Crystallized intelligence continues to increase with age as long as you are active and alert
145
At what age do intelligence test performance begin to predict adolescent and adult scores?
by age 4
146
Ian Deary and colleagues study about IQ score correlation over 70 years
after nearly 70 years of varied life experiences, the test takers two sets of scores shows a striking correlation of +.66
147
Is intelligence the most important factor for life success?
No. Persistence or Grit was the key to life success.
148
Terman’s Study of the gifted
-took a bunch of children scoring in the top 1% for IQ
-after 45 years some succeeded and some did not
-after looking at 100 successful and 100 who’s careers foundered, they found that the group that was more successful (A’s) were more motivated and went further in their education than those who’s career foundered (C’s)
-persistence was the key
149
Grit
the perseverance and passion for long term goals
150
Do people who share the same genes also share mental abilities?
As genetic relatedness increases, so does similarity in IQ scores
this suggested that there are strong genetic influences on intelligence
151
Does Heritability account for all intelligence?
Estimated of heritability of intelligence (the extent to which intelligence test score variation cab be attributed to genetic variation) range from 50-80%
So the other percentage comes from environment
152
Environment factors on intelligence-socioeconomic status
show that children in homes with lower socioeconomic status parents typically have lower IQ.
153
Why would socioeconomic status affect a child’s IQ?
-nutrition
-education
-stressful environments
154
What’s the Flynn Effect?
refers to the steady population level increases in intelligence test scores over time
155
Why are we getting smarter? (Flynn Effect)
suggests that performance has increased because people have developed new mental skills to cope with modern environments
abstract thinking, scientific reasoning, classification, and logical analysis
156
Entity Theory on intelligence
the belief that intelligence is a fixed characteristic and relatively difficult (or impossible) to change
157
Incremental theory on intelligence
the belief that intelligence can be shaped by experiences, practice, and effort (growth mindset)
158
what’s an important finding about our views about intelligence?
our performance can also be influenced by our beliefs about performance and intelligence
159
Is it a good idea to tell kids that they are very smart?
no because it will encourage them to be content with what they have and hold them back. They want to stay smart so they won’t challenge themselves out of fear that they will be labelled as stupid.
results in less effort, less persistence, dropping out of hard classes etc
160
what’s the key to instilling a growth mindset in kids?
teach kids that their brains are like muscles that can be strengthened through hard work and persistence
161
What are the 3 hypotheses about racial differences in intelligence?
1. there are genetically disposed racial differences in intelligence
2. there are socially influenced racial differences in intelligence
3. there are racial differences in test scores, but the tests are inappropriate or biased
162
What is the example of plants representing group differences and environmental impact?
Even if the variation between members within a group reflects genetic differences, the large difference between groups might be entirely due to the environment.
Poor soil—seeds may grow to be different heights which is genetic
but if the same seeds are planted in fertile soil and grow much larger it’s because of the environment
163
the scientific meaning of bias
if a test does not accurately predict future behaviour for all groups of test takers, it is biased
164
Stereotype threat
doubt one feels about his/her performance due to negative stereotypes about his/her group’s abilities
165
What are the 3 major affects of stereotype threat?
-increase arousal/anxiety
-increases self focused thoughts (leaving fewer cognitive resources for the test itself)
-increases inhibition (actively try to inhibit negative thoughts they may have, this reduces the cognitive resources available for the test)
166
Affect of affirmations on testing?
doing some sort of self affirmation before doing a test increases tests scores substantially. especially for women
167
Men Vs women on IQ scores
males and females have the same average IQ score (100)
but their could be greater variability in male scores. this means that there are more men who are geniuses but also more men with substance liam intellectual challenges
