AP Psychology Language & Cognition Terminology

AP Psychology Language & Cognition Terminology Cognition process whereby we acquire and use knowledge; key elements: reviewing the past, contemplating the future, thinking about possibility; thinking Language a flexible system of communication using sounds, rules, gestures, or symbols to convey information; is semantic (meaningful)-gives detailed information; displacement-allows communication over time; productive-create new words to communicate Visualizing basic building blocks of thought; diagramming a course of action Divergent thinking thinking outside the box; generating as many unique answers as possible Convergent thinking only one answer; answers are narrow in focus; example: math problems Compensatory model a rational decision making model; choices are rated on various criteria (attractive criteria offset or compensate for unattractive features); example: buying a car-1. Higher price, better gas mileage 2. Lower price, lower mpg which do you buy? Noncompensatory model decision making model; where criteria is not so rational; example: car buying-hinges on car color Representativeness heuristic; decision making model; new situation judged on its resemblance to a stereotypical model; example: you buy an expensive clothes and they fall apart, he judged anything inexpensive to be cheap therefore it is representative of the quality Availability decision-making heuristic; judgment or decision is based on information that is most easily retrieved; type of: Subway Effect-law of nature that you are situation seldom occurs and we adjust accordingly (the other line his faster, until you give in it) Confirmation bias decision-making heuristic; tendency to look for evidence in support of a believe and to ignore evidence to disprove the believe; seeing patterns of cause and effect when there is any pattern; example: AIDS, chocolate and acne