Human Cognition Chapter 1

Front 1

Attention:

Back 1

cognitive resources, mental effort, or concentration devoted to a cognitive process

Front 2

Perception:

Back 2

the interpretation of sensory information to yield a meaningful description or understanding

Front 3

Pattern recognition:

Back 3

the classification of stimulus into a category

Front 4

Memory:

Back 4

the cognitive processes underlying the storage, retention, and retrieval of information

Front 5

Recognition:

Back 5

the retrieval of information in which the processor must decide whether the information presented has been previously presented

Front 6

Recall:

Back 6

the retrieval of information in which the processor must generate most of the information without aids

Front 7

Reasoning:

Back 7

cognitive process(es) used in transforming given information, called premises, into conclusions; it is often seen as a special kind of thinking

Front 8

Problem solving:

Back 8

the cognitive process(es) used in transforming starting information into a goal state, using specified means of solution

Front 9

Knowledge representation:

Back 9

the mental depiction, storage, and organization of information

Front 10

Language:

Back 10

a system of communication that is governed by a system of rules (a grammar) and can express an infinite number of propositions

Front 11

Decision-making:

Back 11

the process(es) by which an individual selects one course of action from among alternatives

Front 12

Empiricism:

Back 12

a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the role of experience in the acquisition of knowledge

Front 13

Association:

Back 13

a connection or link between two units or elements

Front 14

Nativism:

Back 14

a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the role of innate factors in the acquisition of knowledge

Front 15

Introspection:

Back 15

a methodical technique in which trained observers are asked to reflect on, and report on, their conscious experience while performing cognitive tasks

Front 16

Structuralism:

Back 16

one of the earliest schools of cognitive psychology; it focused on the search for the simplest possible mental elements and the laws governing the ways in which they could be combined

Front 17

Functionalism:

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a school of psychology emphasizing questions such as why the mind or a particular cognitive process works the way(s) it does

Front 18

Behaviorism:

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a school of psychology that seeks to define psychological research in terms of observable measures, emphasizing the scientific study of behavior

Front 19

Mental representations:

Back 19

an internal depiction of information

Front 20

Gestalt psychology:

Back 20

a school of psychology emphasizing the study of whole entities rather than simple elements; these psychologists concentrate on problems of perception and problem solving and argue that people’s cognitive experience is not reducible to their experience of simple elements (for example, sensations) but, rather, to the overall structure(s) of their experience

Front 21

Genetic epistemology:

Back 21

a Piagetian approach to the study of cognitive development that emphasizes the intellectual structures underlying cognitive experiences at different developmental points and the ways in which the structures adapt to environmental experience

Front 22

Individual differences:

Back 22

stable patterns of performance that differ qualitatively and/or quantitatively across individuals

Front 23

Cognitive revolution:

Back 23

a movement in psychology that culminated after World War II, characterized by a belief in the empirical accessibility of mental states and events

Front 24

Human factors engineering:

Back 24

an applied area of research that focuses on the design of equipment and technology that are well suited to people’s cognitive capabilities

Front 25

Person-machine system:

Back 25

the idea that machinery operated by a person must be designed to interact with the operator’s physical, cognitive, and motivational capacities and limitations

Front 26

Limited-capacity processors:

Back 26

a system that acquires, stores, manipulates, and/or transmits information but has fixed limits on the amount or rate of processing that it can accomplish

Front 27

Linguistics:

Back 27

a field of study focusing on the structure, use, and acquisition of language

Front 28

Localization of function:

Back 28

the “mapping” of brain areas to different cognitive or motor functions; identifying which neural regions control or are active when different activities take place

Front 29

Computer metaphor:

Back 29

the basis for the information-processing view of the brain; different types of psychological processes are thought to be analogous to the workings of a computer processor

Front 30

Artificial intelligence:

Back 30

a branch of computer science concerned with creating computers that mimic human performance on cognitive tasks

Front 31

Cognitive science:

Back 31

an interdisciplinary field drawing on research from cognitive psychology, computer science, philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience, and anthropology; the central issues addressed involve the nature of mind and cognition and how information is acquired, stored, and represented

Front 32

Cognitive neuropsychology:

Back 32

a school of psychology that investigates the cognitive abilities and deficits of people with damaged or otherwise unusual brain structures

Front 33

Naturalistic observation:

Back 33

a research paradigm in which an observer observes participants in familiar, everyday contexts while ideally remaining as unobtrusive as possible

Front 34

Ecological validity:

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a property of research such that the focus of study is something that occurs naturally outside an experimental laboratory

Front 35

Experimental control:

Back 35

a property of research such that the causes of different behaviors or other phenomenon can be isolated and tested; typically, this involves manipulating independent variables and holding constant all factors but the one(s) of interest

Front 36

Controlled observation:

Back 36

a research paradigm in which an observer standardizes the conditions of observation for all participants, often introducing specific manipulations and recording responses

Front 37

Clinical interviews:

Back 37

a research paradigm in which an investigator begins by asking participants a series of open-ended questions but follows up on the responses with specific questions that have been prepared in advance

Front 38

Experiment:

Back 38

a test of a scientific theory in which the researcher manipulates the independent variable

Front 39

Between-subjects design:

Back 39

a research paradigm in which different experimental subjects participate in different experimental conditions

Front 40

Within-subjects design:

Back 40

a research paradigm in which the same experimental subjects participate in different experimental conditions

Front 41

Quasi-experiments:

Back 41

an empirical study that appears to involve some, but incomplete, experimental control—for example, through nonrandom assignment of subjects to conditions

Front 42

Brain imaging:

Back 42

the construction of pictures of the anatomy and functioning of intact brains though such techniques as computerized axial tomography (CAT or CT), positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Front 43

Paradigm:

Back 43

a body of knowledge that selects and highlights certain issues for study; it includes assumptions about how a particular phenomenon ought to be studied and the kinds of experimental methods and measures that are appropriate to use

Front 44

Information-processing approach:

Back 44

an approach to cognition that uses a computer metaphor in its explanations; it equates cognition with the acquisition, storage, and manipulation of information (for example, what we see, hear, read about, think about) through a system consisting of various storage places and systems of exchange

Front 45

Connectionism:

Back 45

an approach to cognition emphasizing parallel processing of information through immense networks of interconnected nodes; models developed in this tradition are sometimes declared to share similarities with the way collections of neurons operate in the brain; hence, some of these models are referred to as neural networks

Front 46

Neural networks:

Back 46

an approach to cognition emphasizing parallel processing of information through immense networks of interconnected nodes; models developed in the connectionist tradition are sometimes declared to share similarities with the way collections of neurons operate in the brain; also known as connectionism

Front 47

Ecological approach:

Back 47

an approach to the study of cognition emphasizing the natural contexts or settings in which cognitive activities occur, and the influences such settings have in the ways in which cognitive activities are acquired, practiced, and executed