01:830:101 Chapter 7: Psychology Notes Chapter 7

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: 01:830:101
• Professor: Foels

Document Summary

Cognition - the mental activity associated with obtaining, converting, and using knowledge. Thinking - involves transforming information to make a decision, reach a solution, or form a belief. Cognition is a broad term that describes mental activity, while thinking is a subset of cognition. Concepts - mental representations of categories of objects, situations, and ideas that belong together based on their central features or characteristics. Ex: the concept of a superhero is associated with a variety of recognizable characteristics, including supernatural powers, battles villains. Personal experiences and culture shape the construction of abstract concepts, and we don"t always agree on their most important characteristics. Superordinate concepts - broadest category encompassing all the objects belonging to a concept. Subordinate level concepts - narrow, refer to specific types of concepts. Formal concepts - the mental representations of categories that are created through rigid and logical rules or features.