Unit 2.2: Thinking, Problem-Solving, Judgments, and Decision-Making

Vocabulary flashcards covering key cognitive psychology concepts, problem-solving techniques, heuristics, biases, and fallacies from AP Psychology Unit 2.2.

Cognition

A mental process that involves knowing, understanding, remembering, and communicating.

Metacognition

Thinking about thinking, which involves keeping track of and evaluating our own mental processes.

Concept

The mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people defined by common features.

Prototype

A mental image or best, most typical example of a category that provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories.

Schema

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information, encompassing the prototype and connecting it to behavior, context, and memory.

Assimilation

The process of interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemas.

Accommodation

The process of adapting current schemas or understandings to incorporate new information.

Creativity

The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

Convergent Thinking

Narrowing down available problem solutions to determine the single best solution; arriving at a common idea or consensus from a variety of starting points.

Divergent Thinking

Starting with an element or idea and expanding upon it to generate new ideas and a number of possible solutions.

Fixation

An inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective, which impedes problem solving.

Mental Set

A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, especially if that specific way was successful in the past.

Functional Fixedness

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

Executive Functions

Cognitive skills that work together to help plan, organize, generate, and implement goal-directed behavior.

Algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem by exhausting all possibilities.

Heuristic

A simple thinking strategy or mental shortcut that allows people to make judgments and solve problems efficiently, though more error-prone than an algorithm.

Representativeness Heuristic

Judging the likelihood of things or objects in terms of how well they seem to match, or represent, a particular prototype, often leading to stereotypes or ignoring base rate information.

Availability Heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory and how easily vivid or dramatic examples come to mind.

Priming

A phenomenon where exposure to one stimulus or idea influences a person's response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious awareness of the connection.

Framing

A cognitive bias where people react differently to a choice depending on how the information is presented.

Fallacy

A flaw in reasoning that makes an argument invalid, weak, or misleading, even though it may look or sound convincing.

Sunk-Cost Fallacy

A cognitive bias where one continues investing time, money, or energy into something simply because they have already invested heavily in it.

Gambler's Fallacy

The mistaken belief that if something happens more frequently than normal during a given period, it will happen less frequently in the future (or vice versa).