2.2 - Thinking, Problem- Solving, Judgements & Decision-Making Flashcards
Concept
a mental grouping of similar objects, events, states, ideas, and/or people, etc - can be represented and communicated by an image, or by a word such as “chair,” “party,” or “democracy.” ANYTHING
Prototypes
mental images of the best example of a concept (our way of defining a concept - if someone says bird i thought of crow)
Assimilation
Incorporate new experiences into our existing framework/schema (toddler sees a poodle bark calls it doggie, sees a boxer calls it doggie)
Accomodation
Adjust our schema to fit our experiences (Toddler sees a 4 leg animal doesn’t bark it howls its a wolf, you cant call doggie you have make new ¨file¨ in schema)
Algorithm
step by step strategy for solving a problem, methodically leading to a specific solution.
Heuristics
short-cut, step-saving thinking strategy or principle which generates a solution quickly (but possibly in error). Judging a situation based on experience that is usually, but not always, true, like trial and error. “A rule of thumb”.
Executive functions
Use prefrontal cortext/front of brain for for working memory, planning, organizing, decisions, problem solving
Divergent Thinking
The ability to come up with a variety of solutions, different ideas, being creative
Mental Sets
(a type of fixation) is our tendency to approach problems with a system that has worked in the past
ex: getting up in morning with same routine but your alarm didn’t go off so now your routine is off.
Priming
triggers a thread of associations that bring us to a concept, just as a spider feels movement in a web and follows it to find the bug.
Our minds work by having one idea trigger another; this maintains a flow of thought.
Framing
is the focus, emphasis, or perspective that affects our judgments and decisions; positive framing = more likely, negative = less likely.
Availability Heuristic
when we estimate the likelihood of an event based on how much it stands out in our mind, decision making using quick, available, information as a mental reference,
Representativeness Heuristic (stereotypes)
when we judge a situation based on how similar the aspects are to prototypes, decisions on how well it matches a stereotypical model ex: deciding a asian man teaches math but actually teaches pscyh
Gambler’s Fallacy
past “chance” events are often independent of future events (gambling, investments, accidents, etc.)
Sunk-Cost Fallacy
people/business often continue to invest time/money into investments/ideas even if it’s “sunk”
Functional Fixedness
a cognitive bias that limits a person to use an object only in the way it is traditionally used
