1. AP Review Session 6: Cognition and Language:

2. I. Cognitive Psychology:
DEF: The study of the mental processes by which information from the environment is modified, made meaningful, stored, retrieved, used, and communicated to others. EX: I just saw my daughter graduate. Where do I put that information???

3. II. Information Processing System:
DEF: Mechanisms for receiving information, representing it with symbols, and manipulating it.
EX: I see something, but I am not sure what it is???
Thinking: The manipulation of mental representations.

4. III. Evoked Brain Potential:
DEF: A small, temporary change in EEG voltage that is evoked by some stimulus. -Unfortunately, this does not tell us what part of the brain is active. -We need an fMRI for that

5. IV. Concepts:
DEF: A category of objects, events, or ideas that have common properties. EX: A Person??? -Formal Concept: A concept that can be clearly defined by a set of rules or properties -Natural Concept: A concept that has no fixed set of defining features, but has a set of characteristic features

6. V. Prototypes, Propositions, and Schemas
Prototypes: A member of a natural concept that possesses all or most of its characteristic features
EX: What is a telephone???
Propositions: A mental representation of the relationships between concepts
EX: Is an Iphone a phone???
Schemas: A generalization about categories of objects, places, events, and people
EX: Are all smart phones Iphones???

7. VI. Scripts, Mental Models, and Images
Scripts: A mental representation of familiar sequences of activities.
EX: How I get ready in the morning
Mental Models: A cluster of propositions representing our understanding of objects and processes that guide our interactions with those things.
EX: How do I use my phone to be more efficient at work???
Images: A mental representation of visual information
EX: I see a car. What is it???
Cognitive Map: A mental representation of familiar parts of the environment.
EX: My route to work.

8. VII. Reasoning:
DEF: The process by which people generate and evaluate arguments and reach conclusions about them. EX: I have $5.00. My daughter is hungry. Where can I go to get food for my daughter and me? Costco!!!

9. VIII. Syllogism:
DEF: An argument made up of two propositions, called premises, can conclusions based on those premises. EX: I am a white. White men can’t jump. Therefore, I can’t jump.

10. IX. Conformation Bias:
DEF: The tendency to pay more attention to evidence in support of one’s hypothesis than to evidence that refutes that hypothesis. EX: Even though there are faster, more luxurious cars, my Mazdarati is the best.

11. X. Heuristics: DEF: Time saving mental short-cuts used in reasoning.
Anchoring Heuristic: A heuristic that involves basing judgements on existing information.
EX: I don’t like rap. This is rap…
Availability Heuristic: A heuristic through which judgements are based on information that is most easily brought to mind
EX:I read about successful businesses…
Representativeness Heuristic: A heuristic that involves judging whether something belong in a given class on the basis of similarity to other members of that class..
EX: It is furry, barks, and has four legs. It must be a…

12. XI. Mental Sets:
DEF: The tendency for old patterns of problem solving to persist, even when they may not always be the most efficient alternative. EX: If I study for a test the same way for 13 years, I might need to change things up when I get to college.

13. XII. Functional Fixedness:
DEF: The tendency to think about familiar objects in familiar ways that may prevent using them in other ways. EX: If I am given a pencil, a paper, and a rubber band, how can I used them to disarm a bomb?

14. XIII. Artificial Intelligence:
DEF: The field that studies how to program computers to imitate the products of human perception, understanding, and thought. EX: Some jobs are dangerous, so if we could program robots to do those jobs, it could save lives.

15. XIV. Utility and Expected Value:
Utility: A subjective measure of value
Expected Value: The total benefit to be expected if a decision were to be repeated several times
EX: If I enter the lottery every time and pick the same numbers every time, I might feel that my odds of winning are improved.

16. XV. Language:
DEF: Symbols and a set of rules for combining them that provides a vehicle for communication -To communicate, one must understand, not only the words, but also the conventions.

17. XVI. Grammar:
DEF: A set of rules for combining the words used in a given language. EX1: Mr. Creech is a tall, blonde man in his early forties. EX2: Blonde Creech forties man is is a tall early his in.

18. XVII. Phonetics
Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound that affects the meaning of speech.
EX: Bet vs. Beg
Morpheme: The smallest unit of language that has meaning.
EX: un, ed, I, a, but
Word: Unit of language composed of one or more morphemes.
EX: word

19. XVIII. Syntax:
DEF: The set of rules that govern the formation of phrases and sentences in a language.
Ex1: (English) The little horse ran.
Ex2: (Spanish) El caballo pequeno corre.

20. XIX. Semantics:
DEF: Rules regulating the meaning of words and sentences
-Surface Structure: The order in which words are arranged in sentences
-Deep Structure: An abstract representation of the underlying meanings of a given sentence.
EX: Joe is on fire today.

21. XX. Language Development:
Babblings: The first sounds that infants make that resemble language.
One Word Stage: A stage of language development during which children tend to use one word at a time.