PSYC 1010 Chapter Module 30: Thinking

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1010
• Professor: Rebecca Jubis

Document Summary

Cognition: all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. Concept: a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people. Prototype: a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories. Algorithm: a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contracts with the usually speedier but also more error-prone- use of heuristics. Heuristic: a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also error-prone than algorithm. Insight: a sudden realization of a problem"s solution; contracts with strategy based solutions (ahaaaa effect). Confirmation bias: a tendency to search for information that supports our pre-conceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence. Mental set- a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.