THINKING

Cognition

Mental activity involved in understanding, processing, and communicating information.

Thinking

Paying attention to information, mentally representing it, reasoning about it, and making decisions about it.

Concept

A mental category used to class together objects, relations, events, abstractions, ideas, or qualities that have common properties.

Prototype

A concept of a category of objects or events that serves as a good example of the category.

Exemplar

A specific example.

Algorithm

A systematic procedure for solving a problem that works invariably when it is correctly applied.

Systematic Random Search

An algorithm for solving problems in which each possible solution is tested according to a particular set of rules.

Heuristics

Rules of thumb that help us simplify and solve problems.

Mental Set

The tendency to respond to a new problem with an approach that was successfully used with similar problems.

Insight

A sudden perception of relationships among elements of a problem that permits its solution.

Incubation

A process that may sometimes occur when we stand back from a frustrating problem for a while, and the solution ‘suddenly’ appears.

Functional Fixedness

The tendency to view an object in terms of its name or familiar usage.

Representativeness Heuristic

A decision-making heuristic in which people make judgments about samples according to the populations they appear to represent.

Availability Heuristic

A decision-making heuristic in which our estimates of frequency or probability of events are based on how easy it is to find examples.

Motivated Reasoning

Making decisions and judgments on the basis of emotion rather than careful evaluation of all the available evidence.

Language

The communication of information by means of symbols arranged according to rules of grammar.

Holophrase

A single word used to express complex meanings.

Overregularization

The application of regular grammatical rules for forming inflections to irregular verbs and nouns.

Intelligence

A general mental capability that involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience.

g

Spearman’s symbol for general intelligence, which he believed underlay more specific abilities.

s

Spearman’s symbol for specific factors, or s factors, which he believed accounted for individual abilities.

Primary Mental Abilities

Basic abilities that make up intelligence, including word fluency and numerical ability.

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Robert Sternberg's theory that divides intelligence into analytical, creative, and practical intelligence.

Analytical Intelligence

Abilities to solve problems, compare and contrast, judge, evaluate, and criticize.

Creative Intelligence

Abilities to invent, discover, suppose, or theorize.

Practical Intelligence

Abilities to adapt to the demands of one’s environment and apply knowledge in practical situations.

IQ Formula

Mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by 100.

Heritability

The degree to which the variations in a trait from one person to another can be attributed to genetic factors.

Reliability

The consistency of scores from testing to testing.

Validity

Scores correlate moderately to highly with the variables they are supposed to predict.

Nature vs Nurture

Nature refers to genetic influences, while nurture refers to environmental influences.