Thinking, Intelligence, and Lanugage Flashcards
Cognition
the mental activity that includes thinking and the understanding that results from thinking
Analogical Representations
mental representations that have some of the physical characteristics of what they represent, usually images (a picture of a violin represents a violin)
Symbolic Representations
abstract mental representations that do not physically correlate to the object or idea (the word violin doesn’t look like a violin)
Categorizing
grouping things because they have shared properties
A prototype model
when thinking about a category you look for the best example of that category and base all new info around it similarity to the prototype
Exemplar Model
all members of a category are examples, together they form the concept and determine category membership
Take dogs for example. In my mind I don’t have a picture of the ideal dog, instead I’ve made a mental representation of what dogs are. Long noses, furry, tails. This mental representation is what I base new incoming information off of and most likely came from my encountering many different shapes and sizes and types of dogs throughout my lifetime.
Script
a schema that directs behavior over time within a situation (going to the movies, we know what comes first, what kinds of things you usually buy at the movies and when)
Heuristics
mental shortcuts used in decision making, they are fast and efficient strategies that people use to make decisions
Anchoring
in making judgements, people rely on the first piece of information they encounter or on info that comes most quickly to mind. The initial piece of info serves as an anchor for decision making
Framing
you frame a choice by emphasizing the potential losses or the potential gains
Loss Aversion
people are generally more concerned with costs that with benefits
Availability Heuristic
the general tendency to make a decision based on the answer that comes most easily to mind
Representativeness Heuristic
placing a person or an object in a category if that person or object is similar to one’s prototype for that category (who is more highly educated, senator or wresting champ)
Ignoring Base Rates
when you put someone in an unlikely category because they seem to fit, ignoring how rare category membership is (you meet someone smart, fit, adventurous, and interested in space and assume they’re an astronaut)
Somatic Markers
bodily reactions that arise from the emotional evaluation of an action’s consequences ( the gut feeling)
Affective Forecasting
predicting how one will feel about things in the future
- people overestimate how happy they will be to experience positive events
- overestimate the extent to which negative events will affect them
Endowment Effect
the tendency to value things we own more than we would pay to buy them
Restructing
a new way of thinking about a problem that aids its solution
Mental sets
problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past. we tend to persist with previous strategies
