Thinking
The process of mentally processing information (images, concepts, words, rules, and symbols)
Cognition (Thinking)
the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information; enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events; helping us make sense of the world around us
Perception
A type of barrier to effective problem solving, This is the tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use.
Functional fixedness
focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events
Attention
the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
psychology
a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
Concept
Parallel lines like railroad tracks, appear to converge with distance, the more the lines converge the greater their perceived distance
Linear perspective
This is the mental image or BEST example that incorporates all the features we associate with a category. Ex) when we hear or see the word soda, we think of Pepsi or Coke
Prototype
a gradual change from a coarse, distinct texture to a fine, indistinct texture signals increasing distance.
texture gradient
typically a pill that is used as a control in the experiment; a sugar pill
placebo
a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.
Confirmation bias
failure to see visible objects when our attention in directed elsewhere
inattentional blindness
a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.
Mental set
the use of preexisting knowledge to organize individual features into a unified whole
top-down processing
located in left frontal lobe; controls production of speech
Broca's area
This is a type of creativity and is coming up with multiple solutions and answers
Divergent thinking
principles that describe the brain's organization of sensory information into meaningful unites and patterns
Gestalt principles
This is one of three type of heuristics and it is estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory: if instances come readily to mind we presume such events are common
Availability Heuristic
Concepts or mental frameworks that organize and interpret information.
schemas
large band of white neural fibers that connects to to brain hemispheres and carries messages between them; myelinated; involved in intelligence, consciousness, and self-awareness; does it reach full maturity until 20s
corpus callosum
A type of barrier to effective problem solving, people persist on using problem solving strategies that have worked in the past.
Mental set
To understand how perception is organized illusions provide good example is it is it good to study faulty perception as other particular phenomenon
Visual organization
This is one of three type of heuristics and it involves how we tend to base estimates and decisions on known 'anchors' or familiar positions, with an adjustment relative to this start point
Anchoring Heuristic
Ability to concentrate on one voice amongst a crowd
cocktail party effect
neurotransmitter that inhibits firing of neurons; linked with Huntington's disease
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)