Review for AP Exam - Unit 5 Cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

a mental image or best example of a category.

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier—but also more error-prone—use of heuristics.

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.

a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.

a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.

judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common.

the tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.