Ib Psych - Cognitive Perspective (Terminology Focus)

Front 1

What is a mediator?

Back 1

A process or event within the individual which comes between a stimulus and a response

Front 2

What is a cognitive map?

Back 2

This is Tolman’s term for the mental representation of learned relationships among stimuli

Front 3

What is insight?

Back 3

This is a sudden change in the way one organizes a problem situation; typically this is characterized by a change in behavior from random responding to rule-based responding

Front 4

What is a mental set?

Back 4

In Gestalt theory, this is the cognitive schema an individual uses to organize their perception of a particular situation, such as a problem.

Front 5

What is the availability heuristic?

Back 5

This is the tendency to judge the probability of a type of event by how easy it is to think of examples of instances.

Front 6

What is information processing?

Back 6

This is a term borrowed from computer science by cognitive psychologists to describe the mental functions which occur between stimulus and response.

Hint 6

Associated Concept: PARALLEL DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING [PDP] (T&W, p. 320)

Front 7

What is learning?

Back 7

In cognitive psychology, this is the process of gathering information and organizing it into mental schema

Front 8

What is memory?

Back 8

This is the retention and use of prior learning.

Hint 8

Associated Concepts: Recall, recognition, relearning, priming (G&H, p. 155)

Front 9

What is sensory memory?

Back 9

This is a modality-specific transient form of memory which serves as a buffer between the senses and short-term memory.

Hint 9

Associated Concept: attention (G&H, p. 158)

Front 10

What is short-term memory [STM, working memory]?

Back 10

This is the component of memory which handles retention over relatively brief intervals of up to approximately fifteen seconds.

Hint 10

Associated Concepts: chunk (G&H, p. 158), encoding (G&H, p. 159), maintenance rehearsal (p. 159), serial position effect (T&W, p. 327)

Front 11

What is long-term memory [LTM]?

Back 11

This is the component of memory which is involved with retention over relatively long periods (hours, days, weeks or longer).

Hint 11

Associated Concepts: storage (G&H, p. 159), elaborative rehearsal (G&H, p. 160), procedural memory (G&H, p. 161), semantic memory (G&H, p. 161), episodic memory (G&H, p. 161)

Front 12

What is repression?

Back 12

In Freud’s theory, this is a defense mechanism in which impulses, memories or ideas are forcibly blocked from the conscious mind.

Hint 12

Associated Concept: psychogenic amnesia (T&W, p. 338)

Front 13

What is decay?

Back 13

In memory, this is the spontaneous loss of information with the passage of time.

Front 14

What is displacement?

Back 14

In memory, this is forgetting due to new incoming information pushing out the previous contents.

Hint 14

Associated Concept: source amnesia (T&W, p. 306)

Front 15

What is interference?

Back 15

According to associationism, competition between items with can hamper learning and produce forgetting, a phenomenon known as this.

Hint 15

Associated Concepts: retroactive interference (G&H, p. 165), proactive interference (G&H, p. 165)

Front 16

What is unlearning?

Back 16

This is an alternative interpretation of the interference theory of memory which holds that the build-up of interference can lead to the breaking of associations, and therefore the destruction of memories.

Front 17

What is availability?

Back 17

in memory, this is the principle that remembering is determined by whether the information exists in LTM or not; forgetting implies that the information is destroyed.

Front 18

What is accessibility?

Back 18

in LTM, the principle that remembering and forgetting are dependent on effective retrieval; without the proper cues, information which exists in LTM may not be __________ (the term).

Front 19

What is context-dependent forgetting?

Back 19

This is the failure to retrieve information from LTM due to the absence of appropriate contextual cues.

Front 20

What is state-dependent forgetting?

Back 20

This is forgetting related to changes in context associated with informal cues of physical and mental state, as opposed to the context defined by the external environment.

Front 21

What is false recognition?

Back 21

This is a form of memory error, whereby the presence of familiar cues leads one to believe the stimulus matches a previously experienced stimulus.

Front 22

What is reconstruction?

Back 22

In memory, this is the process of remembering by actively creating a whole out of partial information.

Hint 22

Frederick Bartlet's 1932 study (G&H 169)

Front 23

What are mnemonics?

Back 23

This is the study and use of techniques for improving memory (the term is derived from the Greek word for memory).

Hint 23

Associated Concept: Deep Processing (T&W, p. 331)

Front 24

What is problem solving?

Back 24

This is the process of determining appropriate actions in order to overcome obstacles that interfere with reaching a desired goal.

Front 25

What is a convergent problem?

Back 25

This is a problem which has a single solution, and all elements lead toward that solution; also called closed-end or well-defined problems.

Hint 25

Associated Concept: Divergent Problem (G&H, p. 176)

Front 26

What is cognitive ethology?

Back 26

This is the study of cognitive processes in nonhuman animals.

Front 27

What is persistence of set?

Back 27

This is a phenomenon in problem solving, identified by Gestalt psychologists, in which a mental set developed in a previous problem is maintained even though it is no longer appropriate, and tends to interfere with solving a current problem.

Front 28

What is a think-aloud protocol?

Back 28

This is a transcript of the comments made when an individual is asked to describe their thoughts and behavior while working on a task such as problem solving.

Front 29

What is initial state?

Back 29

In problem solving, this is the situation at the outset of a problem, including any existing constraints such as time limits or restrictions on permitted actions.

Hint 29

Associated Concepts: goal state (G&H, p. 180), operator (G&H, p. 180)

Front 30

What is a heuristic?

Back 30

This is a guide to thinking; in problem solving, these provide information strategies which are usually better than random search, but less effective than algorithms.

Front 31

What is creativity?

Back 31

This is the capacity to produce something which is both unique and useful.

Front 32

What is a learning set?

Back 32

This is a learned strategy or set which enables the individual to deal efficiently with problems of the same type; similar in meaning to the Gestalt concept of mental set, except it emphasizes that the set develops as a result of experience.

Front 33

What is language?

Back 33

This is a system of communication based on symbols or gestures which can vary across individuals and allow for new forms and meanings.

Front 34

What is social cognition?

Back 34

This is the mental processes involved in the way people perceive and react to social situations.

Front 35

What is attitude?

Back 35

This is a personal belief of an evaluative nature, such as good or bad, likeable or not likeable, which influences our reactions towards people or things.

Front 36

What is cognitive dissonance?

Back 36

In Festinger's theory, this is a state of tension created when there are conflicts between an individual’s behavior and beliefs, or between two beliefs.

Front 37

What is attribution theory?

Back 37

This is a theory dealing with the inferences we make about the causes of our own behavior, and that of other people; the interpretations made are called attributions.

Hint 37

Associated Concepts: fundamental attribution error (G&H, p. 193), self-serving bias (G&H, p. 193), confirmation bias (T&W, p. 290)

Front 38

What is the cognitive appraisal bias?

Back 38

This is a theory of emotion which argues that our emotional state is based on our assessment of the situation and its significance to our well-being.

Hint 38

Associated Concept: egocentric thinking (T&W, p. 290)

Front 39

What is a concept?

Back 39

This is a mental category that groups objects, relations, activities, abstractions, or qualities having common properties.

Front 40

What is assimilation?

Back 40

In Piaget’s theory, this is the process of absorbing new information into existing cognitive structures.

Hint 40

Associated Concept: accommodation (T&W, p. 279)

Front 41

What is object permanence?

Back 41

This is the understanding that an object continues to exist even when you cannot see it or touch it.

Hint 41

Associated Concept: sensorimotor (T&W, p. 282)

Front 42

What is explicit memory?

Back 42

This is conscious, intentional recollection of an event or of an item of information.

Hint 42

Associated Concepts: recall (T&W, p. 317), recognition (T&W, p. 317)

Front 43

What is implicit memory?

Back 43

This is unconscious retention in memory, as evidenced by the effect of a previous experience or previously encountered information on current thoughts or actions.

Hint 43

Associated Concept: priming (T&W, p. 318)