AP Psychology (2024-2025) - Unit 2 - Thinking and Intelligence

Metacognition

awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.

Executive Functions

higher-order thinking processes that include planning, organizing, inhibition, and decision-making tat encourage critical thinking

Prototypes

A mental image or best example that incorporates all the features we associate with a category

Schemas

Concepts or mental frameworks that organize and interpret information.

Assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

Accommodation

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

Convergent Thinking

a type of critical thinking in which one evaluates existing possible solutions to a problem to choose the best one

Functional Fixedness

the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving

Algorithms

very specific, step-by-step procedures for solving certain types of problems with a gaurenteed correct solution

Divergent Thinking

expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that ______ in different directions

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts or "rules of thumb" that often lead to a solution (but not always).

representativeness heuristic

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

avaliability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

Mental Set

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

Priming

An enhanced ability to think of a stimulus, such as a word or object, as a result of a recent exposure to the stimulus

Framing

the way an issue is posed

Gambler's Fallacy

the belief that the odds of a chance event increase if the event hasn't occurred recently

Sunk-Cost Fallacy

a framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested in the situation

Intelligence

mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

g (General Intelligence)

Overarching mental ability that influences various cognitive tasks

Multiple Intelligences

idea that people vary in their ability levels across different domains of intellectual skill: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic

Growth Mindset

the idea that our abilities are malleable qualities that we can cultivate and grow

Fixed Mindset

the idea that we have a set amount of an ability that cannot change

intelligence quotient (IQ)

The numerical value of a person's cognitive abilities in comparison to others in age group.

Standardization

defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group

Achievement Tests

tests that measure a person's existing knowledge and skills

Aptitude Tests

tests designed to predict a person's future performance; ____ is the capacity to learn

Validity

the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to

Construct Validity

the degree to which a test measures what it claims, or purports, to be measuring

Predictive Validity

The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior.

Reliability

the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting

test-retest reliability

a method for determining the reliability of a test by comparing a test taker's scores on the same test taken on separate occasions

split-half reliability

A measure of reliability in which a test is split into two parts and an individual's scores on both halves are compared.

Flynn effect

observation that each generation has a significantly higher IQ than the previous generation

Stereotype Threat

a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype

stereotype lift

awareness of positive expectations can actually improve performance on tasks