394 • GlossaryCognitive interview A procedure used for interviewing crime scene witnesses that involves
letting witnesses talk with a minimum of interruption, and also uses techniques that help
witnesses recreate the situation present at the crime scene by having them place themselves
back in the scene and recreate things like emotions they were feeling, where they were
looking, and how the scene may have appeared when viewed from different perspectives. (8)
Cognitive load The amount of a person’s cognitive resources needed to carry out a particular
cognitive task. (4)
Cognitive map Mental conception of a spatial layout. (1)
Cognitive neuroscience Field involved in studying the neural basis of cognition. (2)
Cognitive psychology The branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of
the mental processes involved in perception, attention, memory, language, problem solv-
ing, reasoning, and decision making. In short, cognitive psychology is concerned with the
scientific study of the mind and mental processes. (1)
Cognitive resources The idea that a person has a certain cognitive capacity, or resources, that
can be used for carrying out various tasks. (4)
Cognitive revolution A shift in psychology, beginning in the 1950s, from the behavior-
ist approach to an approach in which the main thrust was to explain behavior in terms
of the mind. One of the outcomes of the cognitive revolution was the introduction of the
information- processing approach to studying the mind. (1)
Coherence The representation of a text or story in a reader’s mind so that information in one
part of the text or story is related to information in another part. (11)
Compatible flanker A stimulus in the display for a flanker compatibility task that is associ-
ated with a response that is the same as or compatible with the response that the participant
is supposed to make to a target stimulus. See Incompatible flanker. (4)
Componential recovery, principle of The principle associated with recognition-by-components
theory that states that if we can recover (see) an object’s geons, we can identify the object. (3)
Concept A mental representation used for a variety of cognitive functions, including memory,
reasoning, and using and understanding language. An example of a concept would be the
way a person mentally represents “cat” or “house.” (9)
Conceptual peg hypothesis A hypothesis, associated with Paivio’s dual coding theory, that
states that concrete nouns create images that other words can hang onto, which enhances
memory for these words. (10)
Conceptual priming Priming that occurs when the enhancement caused by a priming stimulus
is based on the meaning of the stimulus. For example, presentation of the word furniture
causing a faster response to later presentation of the word chair. (6)
Conclusion The final statement in a syllogism, which follows from the two premises. (13)
Conditional syllogism Syllogism with two premises and a conclusion, like a categorical
syllogism, but whose first premise is an “If... then.. .” statement. (13)
Confirmation bias The tendency to selectively look for information that conforms to our
hypothesis and to overlook information that argues against it. (13)
Conjunction rule The probability of the conjunction of two events (such as feminist and bank
teller) cannot be higher than the probability of the single constituents (feminist alone or
bank teller alone). (13)
Connection weight In connectionist models, a connection weight determines the degree to
which signals sent from one unit either increase or decrease the activity of the next unit. (9)
Connectionism A network model of mental operation that proposes that concepts are rep-
resented in networks that are modeled after neural networks. This approach to describing
the mental representation of concepts is also called the parallel distributed processing (PDP)
approach. See also Connectionist network. (9)
Connectionist network The type of network proposed by the connectionist approach to the
representation of concepts. Connectionist networks are based on neural networks, but are
not necessarily identical to them. One of the key properties of a connectionist network is
that a specific category is represented by activity that is distributed over many units in the
network. This contrasts with semantic networks, in which specific categories are represented
at individual nodes. (9)
Consequent In a conditional syllogism, the term q in the conditional premise “If p, then q.”
See also Antecedent. (13)
Consolidation The process that transforms new memories into a state in which they are more
resistant to disruption. See also Standard model of consolidation. (7)33559_14_glossary_p391-410.indd 39433559_14_glossary_p391-410.indd 394 13/04/10 5:47 PM13/04/10 5:47 PM
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