Ap Psych Cognition

Cognition

The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Concepts

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

Prototype

• a mental image or best example of a concept

Heuristics

• A rule of thumb that generally, but not always, can be used to make a judgment to solve a problem.

• Fast, but prone to error

• Two major types of _____…

  • Representative

  • Availability

Algorithms

• A rule that guarantees the right solution to a problem.

• Uses a formula or systematic method to try all possible solutions.

• They work, but sometimes impractical.

Representative Heuristic

• We judge on how people fit our representation of groups we feel they belong

Availability Heuristic

• Judging a situation based on the availability of information in memory.

Confirmation Bias

Looking for evidence to confirm our beliefs and ignoring evidence that contradicts them.

Fixation

• The inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective

Functional Fixedness

• The inability to see a new use for an object.

• tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions

• impediment to problem solving

Mental Sets

The tendency to fall into established thought patterns or to use similar solutions to solve future problems.

Overconfidence

Tendency to be more confident than correct. Tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgements.

Belief Perseverance

maintaining a belief even after it has been proven wrong

Framing

• The way a problem or question is presented can drastically affect the way we view it (and its solution).

divergent thinkin

Expanding the number of possible problem solutions.

•  used to solve problems that have multiple solutions

• its use requires creativity or thinking “outside the box”

Convergent thinking

which narrows down the solutions to the single best option. used to solve problems that have one solution. its use  requires a narrow focus; the ability to correctly interpret the problem/question

Executive functions

mental skills that help us learn, work, and manage daily life, including working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control.

Sunk cost fallacy

a cognitive bias that makes you stay in a situation despite losing resources or benefits

Gambler’s fallacy

• a cognitive bias that adheres to the ideas that if something hasn’t happened recently it soon will