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Thinking and Intelligence
Modules 29-32
37
Psychology
Undergraduate 1
03/01/2009

Additional Psychology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
Cognition
Definition
The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Term
Concept
Definition
A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
Term
Prototype
Definition
A mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to the prototype provides a quick and easy method for including items in a category ( as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin).
Term
Algorithm
Definition
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.
Term
Heuristic
Definition
A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error prone than algorithms.
Term
Insight
Definition
A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy based solutions.
Term
Confirmation Bias
Definition
A tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions.
Term
Fixation
Definition
The inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an impediment to problem solving.
Term
Mental Set
Definition
A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.
Term
Functional Fixedness
Definition
The tendency to think of things only in terms of the usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.
Term
Representativeness Heuristic
Definition
Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead one to ignore other relevant information.
Term
Availability Heuristic
Definition
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.
Term
Overconfidence
Definition
The tendency  to be more confident than correct- to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments.
Term
Framing
Definition
The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments. 
Term
Belief Bias
Definition
The tendency for one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid.
Term
Belief Perseverance
Definition
Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
Term
Intelligence
Definition
Mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
Term
Factor Analysis
Definition
A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie ones total score.
Term
General Intelligence
Definition
A general intelligence factor that according to spearman and others underlies specific metal abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.
Term
Savant Syndrome   
Definition
A condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computing or drawing.
Term
Creativity
Definition
The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.
Term
Intelligence Test
Definition
A method for assessing an individual’s mental amplitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.
Term
Mental Age
Definition
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 who does as well as the average 8 year old is said to have a mental age of 8.
Term
Stanford-Binet
Definition
The widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet’s original intelligence test.
Term
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
Definition
Defined originally as the ratio of mental age to chronological age multiplied by 100.  On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.
Term
Aptitude Test
Definition
A test designed to predict a person’s future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn.
Term
Achievement Test
Definition
A test designed to assess what a person has learned.
Term
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
Definition
The WAIS is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests.
Term
Standardization
Definition
Defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested standardization group.
Term
Normal Curve
Definition
The symmetrical 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.
Term
Reliability
Definition
The extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on the two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting.
Term
Validity
Definition
The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to.
Term
Content Validity
Definition
The extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest (such as a driving test that samples driving tasks).
Term
Criterion
Definition
The behavior (such as future college grades) that a test (such as the ACT) is designed to predict; thus, the measure used in defining whether the test has predictive validity. 
Term
Predictive Validity
Definition
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.)
Term
Mental Retardation
Definition
A condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life; varies from mild to profound.
Term
Down Syndrome
Definition
A condition of retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one’s genetic makeup.
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