Unit 2: Cognition (Thinking, Problem-Solving, Judgments...)

Thinking, Problem-Solving, Judgments Vocab

Prototypes

The mental representation of a concept

Schema

A mental framework that helps organize and interpret info

What’s an example of a schema?

A child’s schema of a dog includes a furry body, four legs and barks

Assimilation 

When you put new information into an existing schema

Accommodation

Modifying an existing schema to make integrating new info easier

Algorithms

A step-by-step procedure

Heuristics 

Mental shortcuts where we put things into categories that are more familiar and comfortable to us 

Representativeness Heuristics

A mental shortcut where you judge the probability of an event by how fitting it is to a mental prototype or stereotype

What is an example of Representativeness Heuristics?

Assuming one is a librarian just because they wear glasses and are quiet

Availability Heuristic 

A mental shortcut where people estimate the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples come to mind

What’s an example of availability heuristic? 

The disproportionate amount of people that fear flying rather than driving, although statistics demonstrate that driving is more dangerous than flying 

Mental set

A cognitive bias where you are leaning towards using same ways to approach different situations

Priming

Unconscious influence of a stimuli on someone’s following thoughts, feelings or behaviors

Framing 

The way in which information is presented to somebody 

What’s an example of framing?

Calling a hamburger “75% fat free” instead of “25% fat”

Gambler’s fallacy

The belief that if something happens more frequently compared to another independent event, it’s less likely to happen to “balance out” 

What’s an example of Gambler’s fallacy?

Incorrectly choosing heads when flipping a fair coin if it’s not tails, despite the coin having a 50/50 chance for every flip

Sunk-cost fallacy

When you are continuing on something even if it’s not beneficial because of past investments

Executive functions 

Daily mental processes that are executed to solve problems, planning for the future and emotional management 

Creativity

Using info in a new and original way

Divergent thinking

An expansive process that generates a range of ideas and potential solutions to a problem

Convergent thinking 

Logical and systematic process that is used to narrow all possible choices to the best one 

Functional fixedness

A cognitive bias that impulsively resricts someone from looking at an object a different way, leading to a restriction in creativity