Cognitive Psychology

Paradigm

serves as pattern/model

Paradigm shift

radical change in underlying beliefs or theory

Cognition

metal activities with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Meta-cognition

awareness/understanding of one’s own thought processes.

Mental map

remembering relative locations in everyday life/ spacial environment

Mental representation

to acquire, code, store, recall, decode info

Schema

representation, outline, or pattern based on prior experiences

Concepts

mental groupings/categories

Prototype

BEST example of a concept

Insight

when a solution comes to you all of the sudden - “ah-ha!” moment

Framing

how one shapes opinion by presenting select facts/descriptions

Algorithm problem solving

step-by-step approach, takes lots of time but guarantees a solution

Heuristic problem solving

if the past experience worked, its likely to work again in the future

Availability heuristic

how readily it comes to mind is how accurate it must be

Representative heuristic

Stereotypes are how accurate in belief

Means-end analysis problem solving

final goal in mind when setting sub-goals

Working backward problem solving

reverse engineering/start with the goal, work backwards to the present

Confirmation bias

tendency to search for info that confirms a bias

Cognitive dissonance

holding conflicting ideas simultaneously - brain lies to reduce tension

Fixation

inability to adopt a new/different perspective on a problem

Mental set

approaching a situation in the same way because it worked in the past

Functional fixedness

thinking of things only in terms of its usual functions

Convergent thinking

give “correct” answer to standard questions, uncreative and is the same answer for everyone (logic)

Divergent thinking

generate creative ideas with many possible solutions

Self efficacy

thoughts about beliefs in one’s own ability