REA CLEP INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 7 Cognition 2023/2024

Cognition --can be thought of as the mental activities involved in solving problems: thinking, language, memory, and intelligence Heuristics --people often use shortcuts or mental rules-of-thumb as a way to solve problems--especially those involving estimates of likelihood with minimal effort Representativeness Heuristic --asking yourself how similar or representative an event (the course you might want to take) is of a class of events (course you like) the closer the fit the more likely you would expect the course to be interesting Availability Heuristic --judging the likelihood that an event will happen in terms of how readily you can bring an instance of it to mind. events that are more vivid or that have happened more recently would be judged as being more likely to happen than those that are less vivid or recent Confirmation Bias --this refers to people's tendency to look for information that will support their beliefs Grammar --This allows everyone using the language to make sense out of it in the same way. semantics --the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. Rules for mapping morphemes onto the ideas they represent Morphemes --Words or parts of words that convey meaning Syntax --Rules for combining morphemes in meaningful ways Babbling Stage --About four to six months of age at this stage which they apprear to be practicing the sounds used in their language One-Word Stage --At about a year of age this stage lasts until about 18 months Telegraphic Speech --Saying a word in gestures or using two to three words Two-Word Stage --Usually a noun combined with a verb a few months later an adjective followed by a noun B.F. Skinner --believed language was learned through classical and operant conditioning Noam Chomsky --Claimed that children have a language aquisition device Language Acquisition Device --A universal built in mental system that steers us toward interpreting and using language in particular ways Memory --the ability to store information and retrieve it again Sensory Memory --This type of memory is a fleeting awareness of whatever the senses have detected Short Term Memory (also called working memory) --It is the information that can be kept in the mind long enough to solve problems Long Term Memory --An unlimited and perhaps a permanent storehouse of memories