Chapter 7
What is the main difference between Allocentric and Egocentric perspectives?
An allocentric perspective is where the frame of reference is external to the individual. Meaning the individual perceives or represents the world based on external cues, independent of their own position or orientation.
An egocentric perspective is where the frame of reference is based on the individual's own position or orientation. In this case, spatial information is processed with respect to the individual's viewpoint or body.
What is Aphasia?
Aphasia is a language disorder that results from damage to specific areas of the brain responsible for language processing. It affects a person's ability to communicate, though it does not affect intelligence. The severity and type of aphasia depend on the location and extent of brain damage, and it can impact speaking, understanding language, reading, and writing.
Describe Availability heuristic
The availability heuristic is a cognitive bias that occurs when people assess the probability or frequency of an event based on how easily examples of that event come to mind. In other words, if something is more memorable or recent, people are more likely to overestimate how common or likely it is. This bias can lead to faulty judgments and decisions because our minds tend to rely on the most readily available information, rather than a more thorough or representative sample.
Describe confirmation bias
A cognitive bias that causes individuals to favor, search for, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms their preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. In other words, people tend to seek out or give more weight to evidence that supports what they already think, while discounting or ignoring evidence that contradicts their views. This bias can affect decision-making, perception, memory, and critical thinking across a wide variety of situations.
What is the difference between Modus Ponens vs Modus Tollens?
Modus Ponens (Affirming the Antecedent)
If it rains, the ground will be wet. (If it rains → ground is wet), It is raining. (It is raining), Therefore, the ground is wet. (Therefore, the ground is wet)
Modus Tollens (Denying the Consequent)
If it rains, the ground will be wet. (If it rains → ground is wet), The ground is not wet. (The ground is not wet), Therefore, it did not rain. (Therefore, it did not rain)
What is contextual cuing?
When Individuals are faster and more accurate at detecting target stimuli in an environment, when they are repeatedly exposed to a particular spatial configuration of distractors (background elements) or contextual cues. Essentially, when a person becomes familiar with the layout of a scene or environment, they can more efficiently detect new or relevant items, even without consciously focusing on the cues.
Describe Conceptual Act Theory
Conceptual Act Theory (CAT) suggests that emotions are constructed experiences that arise from the brain's interpretation and categorization of sensory input, context, and past experiences. In other words, emotions are not predefined, universal, hard-wired reactions, but rather mental constructions that result from the brain’s interpretation of physiological sensations and cognitive processes.
What is gamblers fallacy?
Gambler's fallacy is a cognitive bias that occurs when people mistakenly believe that the outcome of a random event is influenced by previous outcomes. Essentially, it’s the false belief that if an event has occurred repeatedly in one way, it is "due" to change, or that the opposite outcome is more likely. This fallacy arises from a misunderstanding of the laws of probability, specifically with independent events.
What is affirmation of the consequent?
The affirmation of the consequent is a logical fallacy in which a person incorrectly infers the converse of a conditional statement. Specifically, it involves assuming that because the consequent (the "then" part of the statement) is true, the antecedent (the "if" part) must also be true. This reasoning is flawed because the consequent can be true for reasons other than the antecedent being true.
Describe prior probability and posterior probability
Where are place cells and grid cells located?
Place cells are primarily located in the hippocampus, which is a region of the brain involved in memory formation and spatial navigation.
Grid cells are located in the entorhinal cortex, a brain region that connects to the hippocampus and plays a key role in spatial cognition.
What is the difference between Pidgin and Creole languages?
A pidgin is a simplified, makeshift language that arises when speakers of different languages need to communicate but don't have a shared language. It is typically used as a second language and is not passed down through generations.
A creole is a fully developed, stable language that evolves from a pidgin when it is passed down to children as a first language. Creoles have fully developed grammatical systems and vocabularies, and they play an important role in the cultural identity of their speakers.
What does RTC stand for and what is it?
Rational Choice Theory (RCT) is a framework used to understand and explain human decision-making, particularly in economics, political science, sociology, and other social sciences. According to RCT, individuals make decisions by weighing the costs and benefits of available options in order to maximize their personal utility or benefit. This means that people are presumed to act in a way that is logically consistent and in pursuit of their self-interest, given the information available to them.
Describe an illusory correlation
It is a cognitive bias that occurs when people perceive a relationship between two variables, even when no such relationship exists or when the relationship is weaker than perceived.
Describe the difference between Premise Monotonicity and Premise Diversity
Monotonicity focuses on the logical stability of an argument. Adding premises does not change the validity of the conclusion, as long as the new premises are true and relevant.
Diversity, on the other hand, focuses on the variety of perspectives or sources of information. Premise diversity can strengthen or weaken a conclusion depending on how complementary or contradictory the premises are.
Describe the Lexical decision task
It is a widely used experimental method in psychology and cognitive science to study word recognition, processing speed, and the mental lexicon (the mental store of words and their meanings). In this task, participants are presented with a string of letters and must decide whether the string forms a valid word or a non-word (a string of letters that doesn’t correspond to any word in their language).
What is The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, (also known as linguistic relativity) is a theory in linguistics and anthropology that suggests that the language a person speaks shapes or influences the way they perceive and think about the world. Suggests that language is not just a tool for expressing thoughts but plays a central role in determining the way individuals conceptualize reality.
What is the Deliberation-without-Attention Effect?
The Deliberation-without-Attention effect is a cognitive phenomenon where people make better decisions when they don’t actively focus on the decision at hand. In other words, people can sometimes arrive at more optimal or effective choices when they take a step back and allow their subconscious mind to process the information, rather than consciously deliberating over it. This effect suggests that the unconscious mind can sometimes make better decisions than the conscious mind, particularly when the decision is complex.
What is the difference between Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation?
Intrinsic motivation is fueled by personal satisfaction and interest in the activity itself, while Extrinsic motivation is driven by external rewards or pressures.
Describe Prisoners Dilemma
Prisoner's Dilemma is a classic example from game theory that demonstrates the conflict between individual rationality and collective rationality. It highlights how two individuals, acting in their own self-interest, can end up with a worse outcome than if they had cooperated.
What are three traits or results of the serial position curve?
Describe Williams syndrome and how it affects language/ verbal skills.
a rare genetic disorder caused by a deletion of genetic material on chromosome 7, specifically involving the elastin gene (ELN), which plays a crucial role in the formation of connective tissues. This genetic deletion leads to a range of physical, cognitive, and social characteristics, including both strengths and weaknesses in various domains.
People with Williams syndrome often have advanced verbal skills, especially in social communication. They may have large vocabularies for their age, and they often have a strong interest in words, songs, and stories. However, their understanding of social cues and context in communication might be less developed
Describe anchoring and how it is applied in the Tversky and Kahneman experiment.
Anchoring is a cognitive bias that occurs when people rely too heavily on an initial piece of information (the "anchor") when making subsequent judgments or decisions, even if that anchor is irrelevant or arbitrary. This initial information serves as a reference point, and people's subsequent estimates or decisions are "anchored" around it.
In one of their experiments, participants were asked to estimate the percentage of African nations in the United Nations, but before providing their estimate, they were shown a spinning wheel of fortune with a random number on it (a "wheel of fortune" experiment). The participants who saw a high number on the wheel tended to guess higher percentages, while those who saw a lower number guessed lower percentages. Importantly, the number on the wheel had no actual relevance to the question, yet it influenced people's estimates.
Describe Insight vs Routine problems
What is anticipation error?
Anticipation error refers to a mistake made when predicting or anticipating the outcome of an event or action, often due to incorrect assumptions or misjudgments about the future. It occurs when someone expects something to happen that doesn't, or when their expectation about a sequence of events leads them to take incorrect actions based on flawed predictions.