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174 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Attention
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Cognitive resources, mental effort, or concentration devoted to a cognitive process
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Perception
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the interpretation of sensory information to yield a meaningful description or understanding
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Pattern recognition
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the classification of stimulus into a category
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Memory
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the cognitive processes underlying the storage, retention, and retrieval of information
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Recognition
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the retrieval of information in which the processor must decide whether the information presented has been previously presented
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Recall
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the retrieval of information in which the processor must generate most of he information without aids
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Reasoning
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cognitive process(es) used in transforming given information, called premises, into conclusions: it is often seen as a special kind of thinking
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Problem solving
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the cognitive process(es) used in transforming starting information into a goal state, using specified means of solution
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Knowledge representation
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the mental depiction, storage, and organization of information
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Language
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a system of communication that is governed by a system of rules (a grammar) and can express an infinite number of propositions
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Decision-making
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the process(es) by which an individual selects one course of action from among alternatives
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Empiricism
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a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the role of experience in the acquisition of knowledge
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Association
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a connection or link between two units or elements
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Nativism
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a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the role of innate factors in the acquisition of knowledge
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Introspection
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a methodical technique in which trained observers are asked to reflect on, and report on, their conscious experience while performing cognitive tasks
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Structuralism
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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
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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
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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
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Mental representations
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an internal depiction of information
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Gestalt psychology
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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 totheir experience of simple elements (for example, sensations) but, rather, to the overall structure(s) of their experience (Please say G. can come play)
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Genetic epistemology
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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
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Individual differences
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stable patterns of performance that differ qualitatively and/or quantitatively across individuals
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Cognitive revolution
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a movement in psychology that culminated after World War II, characterized by a belief in the empirical accessibility of mental states and events
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Human factors engineering
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an applied area of research that focuses on the design of equipment and technology that are well suited to people’s cognitive capabilities
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Person-machine system
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the idea that machinery operated by a person must be designed to interact with the operator’s physical, cognitive, and motivational capacities and limitations
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Limited-capacity processors
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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
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Linguistics
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a field of study focusing on the structure, use, and acquisition of language
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Localization of function
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the “mapping” of brain areas to different cognitive or motor functions: identifying which neural regions control or are active when different activities take place
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Computer metaphor
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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
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Artificial intelligence
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a branch of computer science concerned with creating computers that mimic human performance on cognitive tasks
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Cognitive science
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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
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Cognitive neuropsychology
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a school of psychology that investigates the cognitive abilities and deficits of people with damaged or otherwise unusual brain structures
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Naturalistic observation
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a research paradigm in which an observer observes participants in familiar, everyday contexts while ideally remaining as unobtrusive as possible
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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
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Experimental control
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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
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Controlled observation
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a research paradigm in which an observer standardizes the conditions of observation for all participants, often introducing specific manipulations and recording responses
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Clinical interviews
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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
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Experiment
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a test of a scientific theory in which the researcher manipulates the independent variable
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Between-subjects design
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a research paradigm in which different experimental subjects participate in different experimental conditions
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Within-subjects design
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a research paradigm in which the same experimental subjects participate in different experimental conditions
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Quasi-experiments
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an empirical study that appears to involve some, but incomplete, experimental control—for example, through nonrandom assignment of subjects to conditions
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Brain imaging
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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)
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Paradigm
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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
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Information-processing approach
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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
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Connectionism
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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 connectionist models are referred to as neural networks
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Neural networks
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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
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Ecological approach
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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
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Hindbrain
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the part of the brain, containing some of the most evolutionary primitive structures, that is responsible for transmitting information from the spinal cord to the brain, regulating life support functions, and helping to maintain balance
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Medulla oblongata
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a structure in the hindbrain that transmits information from the spinal cord to the brain and regulates life support functions such as respiration, blood pressure, coughing, sneezing, vomiting, and heart rate
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Pons
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a structure in the hindbrain that acts as a neural relay center, facilitating the “crossover” of information between the left side of the body and the right side of the brain and vice versa. It is also involved in balance and in the processing of both visual and auditory information
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Cerebellum
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part of the brain that controls balance and muscular coordination; also involved in language and thinking
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Midbrain
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the part of the brain containing structures that are involved in relaying information between other brain regions, or in regulating levels of alertness
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Forebrain
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the part of the brain containing the thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and the cerebral cortex
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Thalamus
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a structure in the forebrain, involved in relaying information, especially to the cerebral cortex; switching station for sensory information; also involved in memory
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Hypothalamus
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a structure in the forebrain that controls the pituitary gland and so-called homeostatic behaviors, such as eating, drinking, temperature control, sleeping, sexual behaviors, and emotional reactions
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Hippocampus
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a structure of the brain in the medial temporal lobe, involved in learning, memory, and emotion; damage or removal can result in amnesia
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Amygdala
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an area of brain tissue with extensive connections to the olfactory system and hypothalamus, though to be involved in mood, feeling, instinct, aggression, and short-term memory
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Cerebral cortex
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the surface of the cerebrum, the largest structure of the brain, containing both sensory and motor nerve cell bodies
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Frontal lobe
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a division of the cerebral cortex located just beneath the forehead containing the motor cortex, premotor cortex, and the prefrontal cortex
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Parietal lobe
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a division of the cerebral cortex located at the top rear part of the head, contains the primary somatosensory cortex
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Occipital lobe
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a division of the cerebral cortex located at the back of the head that is involved in the processing of visual information
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Temporal lobe
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a division of the cerebral cortex located on the side of the head, involved in the processing of auditory information and in some aspects of memory
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Motor cortex
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a structure of the frontal lobe that controls fine motor movement in the body
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Prefrontal cortex
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a region in the frontal lobe that is involved with executive functioning
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Executive functioning
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cognitive processes including planning, making decisions, implementing strategies, inhibiting inappropriate behaviors, and using working memory to process information
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Faculty psychology
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the theory that different mental abilities, such as reading or computation, are independent and autonomous functions, carried out in different parts of the brain
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Phrenology
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the idea (now discredited) that psychological strengths and weaknesses could be precisely correlated to the relative sizes of different brain areas
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Aphasia
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a disorder of language, thought to have neurological causes, in which either language production, language reception, or both are disrupted
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Primary somatosensory cortex
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a region in the parietal lobe involved in the processing of sensory information from the body—for example, sensations of pain, pressure, touch, or temperature
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Ablation
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removal of cells or tissues, often through surgical means
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Plasticity
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the ability of some brain regions to “take over” functions of damaged regions
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Lateralization
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specialization of function of the two cerebral hemispheres
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Corpus callosum
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the large neural structure containing fibers that connect the right and left cerebral hemispheres
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Computerized axial tomography (CAT)
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an imaging technique in which a highly focused beam of X-rays is passed through the body from many different angles, different density of the organs of the body result in different deflections of the X-rays, which allows visualization of the organ
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Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
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a body-imaging technique in which a person is surrounded with a strong magnetic field, radios waves are directed at a particular part of the body, causing the centers of hydrogen atoms in those structures to align themselves in predictable ways, computers collate information about how the atoms are aligning an produce a composite three-dimensional image
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Positron emission tomography (PET)
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a brain-imaging technique that shows which areas of the brain are most active at a given point in time
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Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
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an imaging technique that uses MRI equipment to examine blood flow in a noninvasive, non-radioactive manner
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Electoencephalography (EEG)
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a technique to measure brain activity, specifically, to detect different states of consciousness, mental electrodes are positioned all over the scalp, the waveforms that are recorded change in predictable ways when the person being recorded is awake and alert, drowsy, asleep, or in a coma
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Event-related potential (ERP)
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an electrical recording technique to measure the response of the brain to various stimulus events
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Distal stimulus:
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an object, event, or pattern as it exists in the world
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Proximal stimulus:
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reception of information and its registration by a sense organ—for example, retinal images in the case of vision
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Retina:
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a layer of visual receptor cells at the rear of the eyeball
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Retinal image:
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a proximal stimulus for visions, consisting of the projection of light waves reflected from stimuli and projected to a surface at the back of the eye
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Percept:
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the outcome of a perceptual process; the meaningful interpretation of incoming information
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Size constancy:
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the phenomenon that one’s perception of an object remains constant even as the retinal image of the object changes size (for example, because the object has moved closer or farther away from the perceiver)
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Form perception:
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the processes by which the brain differentiates objects from their background
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Subjective contours:
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illusory outline created by certain visual cues that lead to erroneous form perception; the existence of this phenomenon suggests that perception is an active constructive process
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Gestalt principles of perceptual organization:
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Laws that explain the regularities in the way people come to the perceptual interpretations of stimuli; the emphasis is on the apprehension of whole structures rather than the detection and assembly of parts of structures; principles of proximity, principle of similarity, principle of good continuation, principle of closure, principle of common fate
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Bottom-up process:
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cognitive (usually perceptual) process guided by environmental input; also called “data-driven” process
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Top-down process:
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cognitive (usually perceptual) process directed by expectations (derived from context, past learning, or both)to form a larger percept, concept, or interpretation; also called conceptually driven or theory-driven process
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Template:
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a stored pattern or model to which coming information is matched in order to be recognized and classified
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Features:
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a component, or part, of an object, event or representation
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Geons:
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a simple geometric component hypothesized to be used in the recognition of objects
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Phonemes:
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the smallest unit of sound that makes a meaningful difference in any given language
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Visual search task:
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a task in which subjects are asked to detect the presence of a particular target against an array of similar stimuli
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Pandemonium model:
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a model of letter perception based on a bottom-up hierarchy of feature detectors; screaming demons
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Prototype:
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an abstract representation of an idealized member of a class of objects or events
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Context effects:
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the effect on a cognitive process (for example, perception) of the information surrounding the target object or event; sometimes called “expectation effect” because the context is thought to set up certain expectations in the mind of the cognitive processor
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Perceptual learning:
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the changes in perception that occur as a function of practice or experience with the stimuli
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Change blindness:
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the inability to detect changes to an object or a scene, especially when given different views of that object or scene
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Word superiority effect:
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the phenomenon that single letters are more quickly identified in the context of words then they are when presented alone or in the context of random letters
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Constructionist approach to perception:
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an understanding of perception as a process requiring the active construction of subjective mental representations not only from perceptual information, but from long-term memory as well
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Direct perception:
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a theory of perception, proposed by James J. Gibson, holding that information in the world is “picked up on” by the cognitive processor without much construction of internal representations or interferences; the emphasis on direct acquisition of information
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Affordances:
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a perceptual property of objects, places, and events that make clear what actions or behaviors on the part of the perceiver are permitted in interaction with the object, place, or event
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Schema:
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an organized framework for representing knowledge that typically includes characters, plots, and settings, and incorporates both general knowledge about the world and information about particular events
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Visual agnosia:
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an impairment in the ability to interpret (but not see) visual information
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Prosopagnosia:
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a specific inability to recognize faces, even very familiar ones, with intact recognition of other objects
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Divided attention:
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the ways in which a cognitive processor allocates cognitive resources to two or more tasks that are carried out simultaneously
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Selective attention:
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the focusing of cognitive resources on one or a small number of tasks to the exclusion of others
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Dichotic listening task:
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A task in which a person hears two or more different, specially recorded messages over earphones and is asked to attend to one of them
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Filter theory:
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a theory of attention proposing that information that exceeds the capacity of a processor to process at any given time is blocked from further processing
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Attenuation theory:
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a model of attention in which unattended perceptual events are transmitted in weakened form but not blocked completely before being processed for meaning
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Priming:
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the facilitation in responding to one stimulus as a function or prior exposure to another stimulus
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Late-selection theory:
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a model of attention in which all perceptual messages, whether attended or not, are processed for some meaning
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Schema theory:
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a theory of attention that claims unattended information is never perceived
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Inattentional blindness:
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the phenomenon of not perceiving a stimulus that might be literally right in front of you, unless you are paying attention to it
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Attention hypothesis of automatization:
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the proposal that attention is needed during a learning phase of a new task
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Psychological refractory period (PRP):
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an interval of time following presentation of a first stimulus during which a person cannot respond to a second stimulus, presumably because of a central bottleneck in attentional processing
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Dual-task performance:
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an experimental paradigm involving presentation of two tasks for a person to work on simultaneously
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Retrieval
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the process by which stored information is brought back to conscious awareness
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Encoding
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the cognitive process(es) by which information is translated into mental or internal representation and stored
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Storage
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the mental “holding on” to information between the time it is encoded and the time it is retrieved
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Forgetting
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the processes that prevent information from being retrieved from a memory store
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Modal model of memory
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a theoretical approach to the study of memory that emphasizes the existence of different memory stores (for example sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory)
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Sensory memory
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a memory store thought to hold onto incoming sensory information for very brief periods of time: a different sensory memory store is hypothesized for each sensory system
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Short-term memory (STM)
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A memory store thought to hold onto incoming information for up to 20-30 seconds: it is thought to have a small capacity of up to 7 plus or minus to slots: aka primary memory
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Long-term memory (LTM)
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a memory store thought to have a large, possibly infinite capacity that holds onto oncoming information for long periods of time, perhaps permanently: also called secondary memory
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Serial position effect
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the phenomenon that items at the beginning or the end of a list of items are more easily recalled then are items from the middle of the list
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Primary effect
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the improvement in retention of information learned at the beginning of a task
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Recency effect
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the improvement in retention of information learned at the end of the task
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Rehearsal
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a mnemonic strategy of repeating information (either aloud or silently) to facilitate retention and later retrieval
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Icon
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a sensory memory for visual stimuli
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Echo
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a sensory memory for auditory stimuli
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Capacity
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the sum total of cognitive resources available at any given time
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Chunking
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the formation of individual units of information into larger units: this is often used as a means of overcoming short-term memory limitation
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Coding
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the form in which information is mentally or internally represented
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Retention duration
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the amount of time a memory trace remains available for retrieval
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Memory trace
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the mental representation of stored information
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Decay
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a hypothesized process of forgetting in which material is thought to erode, break apart, or otherwise disintegrate or fade
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Interference
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a hypothesized process of forgetting in which material is thought to be buried or otherwise displaced by other information but still exists somewhere in a memory store
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Proactive interference
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a phenomenon in which earlier learned material disrupts the learning of subsequent material
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Parallel search
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a search for information in which several stores or slots of information are simultaneously examined to match to the target
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Serial search
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a search for information in which several stores or slots of information are sequentially examined to match a target
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Self-terminating search
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a search for information that stops when a target is found
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Exhaustive search
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a search for information in which each item in a set is examined, even after the target is found
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Working memory (WM)
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a memory structure proposed by Baddeley, described as consisting of a limited-capacity work space that can be allocated, somewhat flexibly, into storage space and control processing: it is thought to consists of three components- a central executive, a phonological loop, and a visuospatial sketchpad
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Central executive
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the proposed component of working memory responsible for directing the flow of information and selecting what information to work with
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Phonological loop
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the proposed component of working memory responsible for subvocally rehearsing auditory information
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Visuospatial sketchpad
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the proposed component of working memory that maintains visual or spatial information
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Anterograde amnesia
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lack of memory for events that occur after a brain injury
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Retrograde amnesia
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amnesia concerning old events
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Long-term potentiation
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a process hypothesized to be a mechanism for long-term learning, in which neural circuits in the hippocampus are subjected to repeated and intense electrical stimulation, resulting in hippocampal cells that are more sensitive to stimuli than they were previously
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Grammar:
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a system of rules that produces well-formed, or “legal”, entities, such as sentences of a language
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Morphemes:
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the smallest meaningful unit of language
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Syntax:
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the arrangement of words within sentences; the structure of sentences
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Semantics:
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the study of meaning
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Pragmatics:
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the rules governing the social aspects of language
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Linguistic competence:
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underlying knowledge that allows a cognitive processor to engage in a particular cognitive activity involving language, independent of behavior expressing the knowledge
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Linguistic performance:
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the behavior or responses actually produced by a cognitive processor engaged in a particular cognitive activity involving language
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Phonetics:
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the study of speech sounds
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Phonology:
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the study of the ways in which speech sounds are combined and altered in language
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Lexical ambiguity:
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the idea that some words have different meaning; for example. Bank can refer to the side of a river or to a financial institution
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Propositional complexity:
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the number of underlying distinct ideas in a sentence
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Story grammar:
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a structure people are thought to use to comprehend large, integrated pieces of text
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Gricean maxims of cooperative conversation:
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pragmatic rules of conversation, including moderation of quantity, quality, relevance, and clarity
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Informationally encapsulated process:
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a process with the property of informational encapsulation
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Modularity hypothesis:
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Fodor’s proposal that some cognitive processes, in particular language and perception, operate on only certain kinds of inputs and operate independent of the beliefs and other information available to the cognitive processor or other cognitive processes
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Whorfian hypothesis of linguistic relativity:
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the idea that language constrains thought and perception. So that cultural differences in cognition could be explained at least partially by differences in language
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Aphasia:
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a disorder of language, thought to have neurological causes, in which either language production, language reception, or both are disrupted
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Broca’s aphasia:
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also called expressive or motor aphasia; symptoms of this organic disorder include difficulty speaking, using grammar, and finding appropriate words
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Wernicke’s aphasia:
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also called receptive or sensory aphasia; symptoms of this organic disorder include difficulty in understanding speech and producing intelligible speech, although speech remains fluent and articulate
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Culture:
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the attitudes, traditions, artifacts, and behaviors that characterize a group of people
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Cultural universality:
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a belief that cognitive practices, beliefs, competences, and capacities do not differ from culture to culture but are common to all humankind
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Cultural relativism:
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A belief that cognitive practices, beliefs, competences, and capacities differ from culture to culture, depending on the tasks and contexts specific to the culture
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