PSYC 9

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 solving 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 us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error prone than algorithms.

Answer 5

Heuristic

Question 6

A sudden realization of a problem’s solution; 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 contradictory evidence.

Answer 7

Confirmation Bias

Question 8

A tendency to approach problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

Answer 8

Mental Set

Question 9

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

Answer 9

Intuition

Question 10

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are 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 one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

Answer 12

Belief Perseverance

Question 13

The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Answer 13

Framing

Question 14

The ability to produce novel 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

In a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

Answer 18

Phoneme

Question 19

In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).

Answer 19

Morpheme

Question 20

In a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. In a given language, semantics is the set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is the set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

Answer 20

Grammar

Question 21

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 21

Babbling Stage

Question 22

The stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.

Answer 22

One-Word Stage

Question 23

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

Answer 23

Two-Word Stage

Question 24

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

Answer 24

Telegraphic Speech

Question 25

Impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or toe Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).

Answer 25

Aphasia

Question 26

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

Answer 26

Broca's Area

Question 27

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

Answer 27

Wernicke's Area

Question 28

Whorl's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.

Answer 28

Linguistic Determinism

Question 29

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

Answer 29

Intelligence

Question 30

A general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence task.

Answer 30

General Intelligence (g.)

Question 31

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

Answer 31

Savant Syndrome

Question 32

The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.

Answer 32

Emotional Intelligence

Question 33

A method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.

Answer 33

Intelligence Test

Question 34

A test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn.

Answer 34

Aptitude Test

Question 35

A test designed to assess what a person has learned.

Answer 35

Achievement Test

Question 36

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

Answer 36

Mental Age

Question 37

The widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet's original intelligence test.

Answer 37

Stanford-Binet

Question 38

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 38

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

Question 39

The WAIS is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests.

Answer 39

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

Question 40

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

Answer 40

Standardization

Question 41

The bell-shaped 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 41

Normal Curve

Question 42

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

Answer 42

Reliability

Question 43

The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to. (See also content validity and predictive validity.)

Answer 43

Validity

Question 44

The extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest

Answer 44

Content Validity

Question 45

The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior. (Also called criterion-related validity.)

Answer 45

Predictive Validity

Question 46

Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.

Answer 46

Crystallized Intelligence

Question 47

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

Answer 47

Fluid Intelligence

Question 48

A condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence test score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life. (Formerly referred to as mental retardation.)

Answer 48

Intellectual Disability

Question 49

A condition of mild to severe intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21.

Answer 49

Down Syndrome

Question 50

The proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied.

Answer 50

Heritability

Question 51

A self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on negative stereotype.

Answer 51

Stereotype Threat