Chapter 9 Module (Thinking and Language) Flashcards
Cognition
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
Metacognition
Cognition about our cognition.
Keeping track of and evaluating our mental processes.
Concept
A group of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
Gives information with very little cognitive effort.
Prototype
A mental image, or bet example of what is in the concept.
The closer something is to the prototype, the faster we recognize it as the concept.
Cognitive Strategies for Problem Solving
Trial + Error
Algorithms
Heuristics
Insight
Algorithms
Step by step procedures that garuntee a solution.
ex. searching every single aisle at the grocery store
Heuristics
Mental shortcuts, simpler thinking strategies that are less time consuming.
ex. Searching in the produce section at the grocery store.
Insight
Abrupt true-seeming and satisfying solution.
Sudden burst in the right temporal lobe.
Cognitive Blocks to Problem Solving
Confirmation Bias
Fixation
Mental Set
Confirmation Bias
Eagerly seeking evidence for our ideas and against others.
Fixation
The inability to come to a fresh perspective; getting stuck in one way of thinking.
Mental Set
A type of fixation.
Using the mindset of what has worked for us in the past.
Intuition
An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought.
The opposite of explicit, conscious reasoning.
Representativeness Heuristic
Judging the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent or match particular prototypes.
Leads us to ignore other relevant information.
Availability Heuristic
Judging the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory.
If instances come readily to mind (vividness), we presume such events are common.
Overconfidence
The tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.
Belief Perseverence
Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
Mixed evidence will be interpreted as belief proving - motivated reasoning.
Framing
The way an issue is posed.
Significantly affects decisions and judgments.
Using Intuition
1) Recognition born of experience (implicit knowledge)
2) Usually adaptive
3) Widely used
Creativity
The ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable.
Convergent Thinking
Narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution.
Single correct answer.
5 Components of Creativity (Sternberg)
1) Expertise
2) Imaginative thinking skills
3) A venturesome, determined personality
4) Intrinsic motivation
5) A creative environment
6) Develop your expertise
7) Allow time for incubation
8) Set aside time for the mind to roam freely
9) Experience other cultures and ways of thinking
Divergent Thinking
Ability to consider many different options and to think in novel ways.
Language
Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.