Chapter 8: Thought, Language, and Intelligence

Cognition

All mental activities associated with thinking, including knowing, remembering, solving problems, making judgements and decisions and communicating

Concept

a mental category that groups similar objects, events, ideas or people

Prototype

a best example or average member of a concept that incorporates most of the features commonly associated with it

Algorithm

a step-by-step procedure for solving problems that guarantees a solution

Insight

a sudden conscious change in a person’s understanding of some situation or problem

Mental set

a mental framework for how to solve problems based on prior experience with similar problems

Functional fixedness

an obstacle to problem solving that involves focusing on an object’s typical functions, thus failing to recognize atypical functions that could help solve a problem