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84 terms

final cognition test

a deductive reasoning task consisting of two statements that are assumed to be true, plus a conclusion (use venn diagrams)
conditional reasoning
a kind of deductive reasoning that concerns the relationship between conditions, using an "if, than" format
the proposition or statement that comes first
the proposition that follows the antecedent
a cohesive group may be so concerned about reaching a unanimous decision that members ignore potential problems, and they are overconfident that their decision is correct
conjunction fallacy
the erroneous judgement that the probability of the conjunction of two events is greater than the probability of either constituent event occurring alone
small sample fallacy
the incorrect assumption that small samples will be representative of the population from which they were selected
hindsight bias
the tendency for people to falsely report that they would have accurately predicted an outcome, even if they had not known the outcome in advance. people report that they had "known it all along"
base rate
the frequency of occurrence of an item in the population
representative heuristic
a decision making heuristic by which a sample is judged to be likely if it is similar to the population from which it was selected
confirmation bias
the phenomenon that people would rather try to confirm a hypothesis than disprove it
illusory correlation
a situation in which people believe that two variables are statistically related, even though there is no real evidence for this relationship
framing effect
a phenomenon in which the outcome of a decision is influenced by either of two factors 1) the background context of the choice or 2) the way in which a question is worded
availability heuristic
a decision making heuristic in which frequency or probability is estimated in terms of how easy it is to think of relevant examples of something
anchoring heuristic
a decision making heuristic in which people begin with a first approximation and then make final adjustments to that number on the basis of additional information.
top down
cognitive system adds to imcomplete sensory stimulation to make sense of the world (based on knowledge)
bottom up
perception is driven by the sensory input with little need to add or interpret, except in cases of limited information (more objective)
gestalt principle
-organizing principles of perceptual system
-biases in the way things are perceived
-the whole is greater than the sum of the parts
lateral inhibition
-activation of photoreceptive fields
-inhibits nearby neurons
-emphasizes contrasts
a structure in the array of perceptual information that specifies the state of the world
a relationship of the self tot he environment that enables action
top down and bottom up
language and writing
-evolved to perceive certain things in the natural
-top down and bottom up processes are at work
-do not recreate the world inside our heads
theories of pattern recognition
-template matching
-feature analysis
-structural theory
face recognition
special mechanism or general ability
template matching
-compare retina image to template
-have stored templates for known objects
-closest match template is what object is
problems for template matching
-different shaped objects
-objects in different orientations
-partial objects
feature analysis
-objects are defined as: a set of features; features put together in an organization
-people see features of objects
-object perceived is one that shares critical features
-consistent with neurological research
structural theory
-various systems for noting the components of objects
-combine volumes in orientations for objects
-object centered approach
face recognition
developmental research: newborns prefer faces; track faces more than other objects
-recognition in normal adults: more orientation dependent than other objects; for well-known faces; for recently viewed faces
dichotic listening
two tracks of information; one to each ear
tracking and repeating one
unattended information
nothing gets in for further processing; no pattern recognition for unattended information
capacity theories
-arousal limits attention
-explains divided attention tasks
-practice makes automatic
tasks become automatic with practice: requires less attention and occur independent of intention
inattentional blindness
failure to notice information and objects that pass through perceptual focus
change blindness
difficulty noticing a change in the environment
iconic memory
visual sensory memory
echoic memory
auditory sensory memory
modality effect
-short term seems to track sounds
-long term tracks semantics
varied encoding
-shallow encoding
-moderate depth encoding
-deep encoding
encoding specificity
-information encoded with a context
-match of retrieval context with encoding context
-more match, better retrieval cues, more memory displayed
free recall
given topic and asked to list items
-given items, asked to discriminate old
-amount remembered is higher
-numerb of false alarms is higher (intrusions)
strength of item gradually diminishes over time
connection to cue is battled among several items
proactive interference
previously learned material make it hard to learn new material
retroactive interference
new material makes it hard to remember previously learned material
an organized mass of past experiences
each experience leaves independent memory trace
add material; rationalize, fill in gaps, fit with culture, based on schemas
misinformation effect
post-event misleading information leads to memory errors
forget and then later remember
easterbrook hypothesis
relationship between arousal and attention: based on capacity theories of attention
simple category
defined by the presence or absence of 1 feature
conjunctive category
combination of features
disjunctive category
presence of either feature gets you in the category
complex categories
complex combination of features
prototype theory
-center of category
-abstraction of the typical features
-ideal instance of the category
-members defined by how similar to prototype
-categories have graded structure
-categories have fuzzy boundaries
-change over time
perceptual prototype
categories in which membership is based on similarity of perceptual features
semantic categories
categories in which membership is based on similarity of perceptual and other features
exemplar theory
-no general knowledge about categories: no rules or prototypes
-categories are defined by specific instances
-during retrieval all similar episodes are retrieved
spreading activation
-underlying assumption
-thinking of one concept, activation spreads to related concepts
-distance between concepts
-strength of connections varies among concepts
-time for activation to spread is predicted from distance and strength of connections
hierarchical structure
-knowledge is structured in memory
-structure reflects the organization of information in the world
connection strength
-connections vary
-some strong, some weak
-vary in direction
connection spread
-number of other concepts
-more to spread to, means diffuse activation
analogue representation
-pictorial information
-depicts the original form of the object
-same as perception
propositional representation
-abstract representation, not pictorial
-describes the object
- differs from perception
a rule of thumb
shape heuristics
simplify the design
rotation heuristic
remember things as more vertical or horizontal
alignment heuristic
line up different sets
operant conditioning
reinforced behaviors get repeated in the same or similar contexts
behaviorist approach
no evidence for thinking: random behavior gets reinforced
functional fixedness
seeing objects as having one function and failing to see other possible uses
mental set
continuing to use a successful solution/continuing to structure a problem in the same way
using a rule-based approach to solving a problem
normative model
people are rational; use logic
additive model
effective for rational decision making: make a list of what you want to see (in an apartment) $, color, utilities
wason card task
two sided card with letter on one side and number on the other
rule: if a card has a vowel on one side, then it has an even number on the other side
matching law
rate of responding matches the value of the reinforcement
delayed gratification
one factor influencing the matching law is the delay to reinforcement
longer wait= less value
fewer responses to behaviors with delays
problem of the commons
-shared grazing space
-each member of the community can graze their cow there
-large community
-personal gain vs. long-term risk
assumption of rationality
greenspan's assumption that system would assess risk and police itself