ap psychology 2.2 (Thinking, Problem-Solving, Judgments, and Decision-Making)

Cognition

the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating information.

Concept

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

Prototype

a mental image or typical/best example of a concept.

▪ EXAMPLE: dog (four legs, barks,

pants)

Schema

Are cognitive frameworks or mental structures that help individuals organize and interpret information.

Assimilation

Is the process of integrating new information into existing schemas.

Accommodation

Is the process of modifying existing schemas or creating new ones in response to new information that does not fit into existing schemas

Executive Functions

are

high-level cognitive processes that

enable individuals to plan, focus

attention, remember instructions, &

manage multiple tasks successfully.

Creativity

the ability to

produce new and valuable

ideas.

Robert Sternberg identified 5 components

of creativity

1. Expertise

2. Imaginative thinking skills

3. A venturesome personality

4. Intrinsic motivation

5. A creative environment

Divergent Thinking

the ability to consider many in different and creative different options and to think

ways. ▪ Allows you to come up with

creative solutions to problems

Functional fixedness

the tendency to see objects as only working in a particular way.

Convergent Thinking:

Narrowing the available problem

solutions to determine the single best

solution. The ability to give the single correct answer

Algorithm

step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution.

Heuristics

mental shortcuts that allow us to make judgments and solve problems quickly.

• Involves making judgments based on

past experiences

Representativeness

Heuristic

estimating the likelihood of

something based on how well they seem

to represent, or match, particular

prototypes.

▪ May lead us to ignore other relevant

information

Availability Heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory

We fear very rare events because they stand out and seem so vivid

Confirmation Bias

tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Belief Perseverance

tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them

Mental Set

a tendency to approach a problem in one

particular way because it has been successful in the past

Insight

a sudden realization of a problem’s

solution. An “aha!” moment

Priming

When exposure to one stimulus

influences the response to another stimulus. Happens subliminally

Intuition

our fast, automatic, unreasoned

feelings and thoughts. Does not involve

explicit, conscious reasoning

Is usually adaptive

it allows us to

react quickly in dangerous situations

Is born of experience

it comes from

implicit knowledge—what we’ve

learned, but can’t fully explain.

Is flawed

can feed our gut fears and

prejudices

Overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than

correct.

Framing

the way an issue is presented

Gambler’s Fallacy

is a cognitive bias where individuals believe that past random events affect the probability of future random events.

Sunk-Cost Fallacy

a cognitive bias where individuals continue investing in a losing proposition because they have already invested resources (time, money, effort) that cannot be recovered.

Trial and error

experimenting with different methods until you find one that works