AP Psychology Unit 2: Thinking, problem-solving, judgments, and decision making

concepts

a mental organization/grouping of similar objects, people, events and ideas

cognition

mental activities with thinking, remembering, knowing and communicating

meta

referring to itself

metacognition

thinking about our thinking (planning, problem-solving, making decisions)

prototype

mental image or the best example of a concept or category (quick and easy for sorting but not always accurate)

what was jean piaget known for?

studying the cognitive development of children

schema

the framework of our knowledge and understanding

assimilate

getting new info and putting it INTO your schema

accommodation

getting new info and CHANGING our schema

creativity

ability to make new and valuable ideas

divergent thinking

expanding your thinking for more options

convergent thinking

narrows your thinking

functional fixedness

prior experiences block new ideas (paper clip can only hold paper, not open a door)

algorithms

logical, step by step procedure to solve a problem (very accurate but slow)

heuristic

mental shortcut that helps narrow down possible solutions based on prior experiences

insight

sudden, new realization of the solution and problem (Aha! moment)

confirmation bias

tendency to look for and favor evidence that confirms our ideas (avoid evidence that goes against)

fixation/functionally fixed

unable to view a problem from a new perspective

mental set

a type of fixed thinking to only see previously successful solutions

representative heuristics

comparing the present situation to the most representative mental prototype

availability heuristics

shortcut that thinks of quick examples, not based on actual odds (more willing to believe connections rather than data)

gamblers fallacy

belief that a random event is more or less likely to occur based on the outcomes of previous events

overconfidence

to be confident over being correct, overestimating the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements

belief perseverance

the persistence of one take even if proved wrong or was contradicted

motivated reasoning

using your personal conclusion to assess evidence, not using the evidence for reasoning and conclusions

framing

how an issue is thought of