Cognition & Strategies and Obstacles

cognition

all mental activities that associate with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

metacognition

thinking about thinking

concepts

a mental grouping of similar objects, events ideas, people

formed by Prototype

a mental image or best example of a category. provides a quick and easy method for sorting things into categorizes (helps in understanding and identifying items within that category).

schema

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

think file cabinet

2 ways we use it

assimilate

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

accommodate

adapting our current schemas understanding to incorporate new information

creativity

the ability to produce new and valuable ideas

convergent thinking

ability to produce a single correct answer

divergent thinking

the ability to consider many different options and think in novel ways

functional fixdness

tendency to view problems only in their customary manner

ex: sock for clothing

executive functioning

cognitive skills that work together enabling us to generate, organize, plan and implement goal-directed behavior

the action and decision making based on schemas

algorithms

step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution

heuristics

a simple thinking strategy, mental shortcut, allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently, usually speedier but more error-prone

insight

a sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrast with strategy-based solutions happens suddenly-give sense of happiness

confirmation bias

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

fixation

inability to see a problem from a new perspective, an obstacle to a problem solving

mental set

a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past

intuition

a effortless immediate feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

representativeness heuristic

judging the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes, may lead us to ignore other relevant information

judges the likelihood of something based on how closely it resembles a known stereotype or prototype

availability heuristic

judging the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory, if instance come readily in mind we presume such events as common

bases decisions on how easily information comes to mind (based on recent memories)

overconfidence

to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements

framing

the way an issue is posed, how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements

nudge

framing choices in a way that encourages people to make beneficial decisions

belief perseverance

the persistence of ones initial conception even after the bias on which they were formed has been discredited