plaud psyc beginning ch 7

Cognition

Encompasses thinking, intelligence, language, memory, and learning; involves all mental activities in the brain while processing information.

Mental Images

Mental representations with picture-like qualities that stand for objects or bits.

Concepts

Mental categories used to group objects, events, and characteristics, simplifying the world.

Formal Concepts

Defined by specific rules and features, with clearly defined boundaries for precise categorization.

Natural Concepts

Form as a result of real-world experience, characterized by fuzziness and requiring more information to define.

Prototypes

Examples of concepts that closely match defining characteristics and are influenced by cultural perspectives.

Algorithms

Step-by-step procedures that guarantee a correct solution but may not be efficient.

Heuristics

Educated guesses based on prior experience that help narrow down possible solutions.

Functional Fixedness

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

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions.

Divergent Thinking

A type of thinking that generates many different ideas or possibilities from a single starting point.

Convergent Thinking

A type of thinking where all lines of problem-solving lead to one single answer.

Creativity

The process of generating multiple solutions to a problem by combining ideas in new ways.

Problem Solving Barriers

Issues that hinder effective problem-solving, including confirmation bias and functional fixedness.

Problem Solving Strategies

Different approaches to solving problems, including trial and error and systematic algorithms.