Because intelligence can take many forms, defining it is challenging. Once commonly accepted view is that intelligence is the capacity to understand the world, think rationally, and use resources effectively when faced with challenges. The earliest psychologists assumed that there is a general factor for mental ability called g. However, later psychologists disputed the view ...
Language is the communication of information through symbols arranged according to systematic rules. All languages have grammar–a system of rules that determines how our thoughts can be expressed–that encompasses the three major components of language: phonology, syntax, and semantics. Language production, which follows language comprehension, develops out of babbling, which then leads to the production ...
Problem solving typically involves three major stages: preparation, production of solutions, and evaluations of solutions that have been generated. Preparation involves placing the problem in one of three categories. In arrangement problems, a group of elements must be rearranged or recombined in a way that will satisfy a certain criterion. In problems of inducing structure, ...
Cognitive psychology encompasses the higher mental processes, including the way people know and understand the world, process information, make decisions and judgments, and describe their knowledge and understanding to others. Thinking is the manipulation of mental representations of information. Thinking transforms such representations into novel and different forms, permitting people to answer questions, solve problems, ...
Several processes account for memory failure, including decay, interference (both proactive and retroactive), and cue-dependent forgetting. Among the memory dysfunctions are Alzheimer’s disease, which leads to a progressive lost of memory and amnesia, a memory loss that occurs without other mental difficulties and that can take two forms: retroactive amnesia and anterogade amnesia. Korsakoff’s syndrome is a disease that ...