Chapter 7:Cognition, Language, and Intelligence: How do we think? Flashcards
Cognition
The way in which we use and store information in memory.
Thinking
The use of knowledge to accomplish some sort of goal.
Knowledge
Information stored in our long-term memory about the world and how it works.
Superordinate Category
The highest, most general level of a concept.
Basic Level Category
The intermediate level of categorization that seems to be the level that we use most to think about our world.
Subordinate Category
The lowest level of categorization, which contains concepts that are less general and more specific that those at the basic level.
Formal Concept
A concept that is based on learned, rigid rules that define certain categories of things.
Natural Concept
A concept that develops naturally as we live our lives and experience the world.
Prototype
Our concept of the most typical member of the category.
Exemplar
A mental representation of an actual instance of a member of a category.
Well-Structured Problem
A problem for which there is a clear pathway to the solution.
Algorithm
A method of solving a particular problem that always leads to the correct solution.
Heuristic
A shortcut or rule of thumb that may or may not lead to a correct solution to the problem.
Ill-Structured Problem
A problem for which an algorithm is not known.
Intuition
Believing that something is true independent of any reasoning process
Insight
A new way of looking at a problem that leads to a sudden understanding of how to solve it.
Creativity
The ability to combine mental elements in new and useful ways.
Functional Fixedness
Being able to see objects only in their familiar roles.
Mental Set
The tendency to habitually use methods of problem solving that have worked for you in the past.
Incubation
A period of not thinking about a problem that helps one solve the problem.
Reasoning
Drawing conclusions about the world based on certain assumptions.
Deductive Reasoning
Reasoning from the general to the specific
Inductive Reasoning
Reasoning for the specific to the general.
Decision Making
Making a choice from among a series of alternatives.
Judgement
The act of estimating the probability of an event
Availability Heuristic
A heuristic in which we use the ease with which we can recall instances of an event to help us estimate the frequency of the event.
Representativeness Heuristic
A heuristic in which we rely on the degree to which something is representative of a category, rather than the base rate, to help us judge whether or not it belongs in the category.
