thinking, problem solving, decision making

the stroop effect

a delay in reaction time when the name of a color is printed in a mismatched ink color (incongruent) opposed to same color (congruent)

incongruent stimuli

conflict between two level of processing

congruent

both levels of processing yield same response

orthographic processing

brain's ability to recognize, store, and recall written letter patterns, spelling sequences, and printed words

categories

(type of representation)

classification

communication

conserve

representation

symbol or thing represents something else (rats forming internal representation of maze to navigate)

hierarchies of categories

superordinate level (broad, furniture), preferred level (basic level, chair), subordinate level (specific, Windsor)

analogous

structurally similar but converge separately (separate origin)

prior knowledge

can aide problem solving in analogous problems

dual process theories

controlled processing system(conscious, effortful, slower, more accurate)

automatic processing system (often unconscious, little effort, faster, error prone)

heuristic

process of interface by intelligent guesswork, relying on general knowledge gained by experience

availability heuristic

idea that we tend to make inferences and estimates on what comes to mind easily

representativeness heuristic

people think something is more likely if it reflects their belief (representation) about a situation

the framing effect

the loss (people are risk seeking) vs gain (people are risk averse) framing of identical situations

choice overload

too much info make people unwilling to decide, and less satisfied with their chosen samples

Shoppers with more choices were

more likely to taste a jam

less likely to buy a jam

regret

negative psychological state that involves blaming ourselves, feeling a sense of loss at what might have been, or wishing we could “undo” a previous choice that we made (helpful for decision making)

Actions tend to generate more regret in the short term

Inaction tends to generate more regret in the long run

Regret of actions could diminish, over time, by the identification of “silver linings” that offset the pain they cause

status quo bias

preference for maintaining ones current situation (and opposing actions that may change the state of affairs (why: regret avoidance - greater regret for actions than for inaction)

regret avoidance

greater regret for actions than for inaction

confirmation bias

tendency to search for, interpret, favor and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs

crystallized intelligence

accumulated knowledge over lifetime

fluid intelligence

ability to solve new problems and reason abstractly (inference and patterns)

intelligence test

a useful intelligence test satisfies 3:

standardization

reliability

validity

standardization

A score should be interpreted in relation to some pre-tested group of people

reliability

Does a test produce consistent results when administered to the same person?

test retest reliability: Does giving a person the same test twice should result in very similar scores?

Split-half Reliability: Does splitting the test into two parts result in similar scores between the two halves?

validity

Predictive validity: What real-life outcomes does an intelligence test predict?

Content Validity: what relevant real-life behavior does a test measure?