Myers Chapter 9

Front 1

algorithm

Back 1

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.

Front 2

availability heuristic

Back 2

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.

Front 3

belief perseverance

Back 3

clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

Front 4

cognition

Back 4

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Front 5

concept

Back 5

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Front 6

confirmation bias

Back 6

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Front 7

framing

Back 7

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Front 8

heuristic

Back 8

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.

Front 9

insight

Back 9

a sudden realization of a problem's solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

Front 10

intuition

Back 10

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.

Front 11

mental set

Back 11

a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

Front 12

overconfidence

Back 12

the tendency to be more confident than correct-to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

Front 13

prototype

Back 13

a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin).

Front 14

aphasia

Back 14

impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).

Front 15

babbling stage

Back 15

beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.

Front 16

Broca's area

Back 16

controls language expression-an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.

Front 17

grammar

Back 17

in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. In a given language, semantics is the set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is the set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

Front 18

language

Back 18

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

Front 19

morpheme

Back 19

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).

Front 20

one-word stage

Back 20

the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.

Front 21

phoneme

Back 21

in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

Front 22

telegraphic speech

Back 22

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram-"go car"-using mostly nouns and verbs.

Front 23

two-word stage

Back 23

beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements.

Front 24

Wernicke's area

Back 24

controls language reception-a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe.