Psychology Key Terms: Heuristics, Biases, and Thinking Styles

Prototypes

Mental representations that serve as typical examples of a category.

Algorithm

A step-by-step procedure or formula for solving a problem.

Heuristic

A mental shortcut that allows people to make decisions quickly and efficiently.

Availability heuristic

A cognitive bias that relies on immediate examples that come to a person's mind when evaluating a specific topic or decision.

Representativeness heuristic

A mental shortcut that involves judging the likelihood of things based on how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes.

Gambler's fallacy

The belief that past random events can influence the probability of future random events.

Sunk-cost fallacy

The tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made, regardless of future outcomes.

Mental set

A tendency to approach problems in a particular way, often based on past experiences.

Functional fixedness

A cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used.

Framing

The way information is presented, which can significantly affect decision-making and judgment.

Creativity

The ability to produce original and valuable ideas or solutions.

Convergent thinking

A cognitive process that involves bringing together different ideas to find a single, best solution to a problem.

Divergent thinking

A thought process used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions.