AP Psychology-Thinking, problem solving, judgement, and decision making: concepts and creativity

cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating

metacognition

cognition about your cognition; keeping track of and evaluating our mental processes; thinking about thinking

concepts

mental representation of a group or category that shares similar characteristics

formal concept

a category defined by specific, rigid rules or properties; you either have it or you dont

natural concepts

a mental grouping of objects, events, or ideas that develop intuitively from personal experiences rather than formal instruction; things that have similar features

prototypes

a mental image or best example of a category

Jean Piaget

the guru of cognitive development

schema

concepts or framework that organizes and interprets information, mental filing cabinet

assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of existing schemas; fitting a new file into a folder that already exists

accommodation

adapting our current schemas to incorporate new information; making a new folder

creativity

the ability to produce valued outcomes in a novel way; out of the box thinking

aptitude

creativity is supported by a certain level of _____, which is the ability to learn

divergent thinking

thinking that produces many alternatives or ideas from a single starting point; this type of thinking measures creativity

convergent thinkng

narrowing down a list of alternatives to converge on a single correct answer

expertise

Robert Sternberg’s component of creativity: well-developed knowledge; furnished ideas, images, and phrases we use as mental building blocks

imaginative thinking skills

Robert Sternberg’s component of creativity: provides the ability to see things in novel ways, to recognize patterns, and to make connections

venturesome personality

Robert Sternberg’s component of creativity: seeks new experiences, tolerate ambiguity and risk, and preserves in overcoming obstacles

intrinsic motivation

Robert Sternberg’s component of creativity: the quality of being driven more by interest, satisfaction, and challenges than by external factors; self-satisfaction

extrinsic motivation

Robert Sternberg’s component of creativity: focusing on meeting deadlines, impressing people, or making money rather than on the pleasure and stimulation of the work itself; creative people focus less on this

over-justification effect

intrinsic motivation decreases once you receive extrinsic motivations; connected to motivation and rewards

investment theory

creative people are willing to”buy low, sell high” in the realm of ideas

executive functions

cognitive skills that work together, enabling us to generate, organize, plan, and implement goal-directed behavior

algorithm

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem; a step-by-step approach

heuristics

a simple thinking strategy- a mental shortcut- that often lows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but more error prone

insight

a sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrasts with strategy-bases solutions

confirmation bias

preferring information that confirms preexisting positions or beliefs, while ignoring or discounting contradictory evidence

fixation/functional fixedness

the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an obstacle to solving a problem

mental sets

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

intuition

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasting with explicit, conscious reasoning

anchoring heuristics

a mental shortcut that involves basing judgements on existing information; first impressions stay forever

availability heuristics

judging the likelihood or probability of an event based on how readily available other instances of an event are in memory

representative heuristics

a mental shortcut that involves judging whether something belongs in a given class on the basis of its similarly to other members of that class

biological-preparedness

built in fear factor inside of us that was passed down from ancestors

overconfidence

the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge and judgement

planning fallacy

overestimating our future leisure time and income

sunk-cost fallacy

we stick to our original plan because we’ve invested our time, even when a new approach is better

belief perserverance

the persistence of one’s initial conceptions even after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

framing

the way an issue is posed

gamblers fallacy

belief that past events influence the likelihood of future outcomes in a sequence of chance-based scenarios