What Is Your Problem?
These are the building blocks of thought; they are mental groupings of objects, ideas, or people that have something in common
What are concepts?
A simple "rule-of-thumb" strategy that allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently, though it is prone to errors.
What is a heuristic?
The initial, split-second holding tank for all incoming sensory information before it is passed to short-term memory.
What is sensory memory?
The process of organizing items into familiar, manageable units to increase the capacity of our short-term memory.
What is chunking?
Proposed by Charles Spearman, this is a single, underlying factor that contributes to performance on all mental tasks.
What is general intelligence (or "g")?
A type of test, such as the AP Psychology exam, designed to measure what a person has already learned.
What is an achievement test?
This is the "best example" or quintessential instance of a concept, such as thinking of a robin when someone says "bird."
What is a prototype?
The tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.
What is confirmation bias?
In the Three Box Model, this stage holds approximately 7 (plus or minus 2) items for about 20 seconds.
What is short-term memory?
Our tendency to recall the first and last items in a list more easily than the items in the middle.
What is the serial position effect?
This type of intelligence involves the ability to reason speedily and abstractly; it tends to decrease during late adulthood.
What is fluid intelligence?
The extent to which a test yields consistent results, whether measured by taking the test again or comparing two halves of the test.
What is reliability?
A methodical, logical rule or step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution to a particular problem.
What is an algorithm?
Estimating the likelihood of events based on how easily they come to mind, often because they are vivid or recently seen in the news.
What is the availability heuristic?
This type of encoding focuses on the meaning of words and typically leads to the best long-term retention.
What is semantic encoding?
This occurs when new information blocks the retrieval of older information, such as forgetting your old bus number after getting a new one.
What is retroactive interference?
Howard Gardner's theory that we have eight or nine independent abilities, such as musical, spatial, or kinesthetic, rather than just one general factor.
What is the theory of multiple intelligences?
The extent to which a test actually measures or predicts what it is supposed to measure.
What is validity?
This cognitive obstacle involves the inability to see a problem from a new perspective or thinking of objects only in terms of their usual uses.
What is fixation (or functional fixedness)?
Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to match a particular prototype, which may lead us to ignore other relevant information.
What is the representativeness heuristic?
These are implicit memories of "how to do things," such as riding a bike, and are often stored in the cerebellum and brainstem.
What is procedural memory?
A condition where an individual is unable to form new memories after the event that caused the amnesia.
What is anterograde amnesia?
A rare condition where an individual with significant mental disabilities possesses an exceptional, specific skill, supporting the idea of multiple intelligences.
What is savant syndrome?
The observation that average IQ scores have been rising steadily over the past century due to factors like better nutrition and education.
What is the Flynn effect?
A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem that occurs without a specific strategy or trial-and-error process.
What is insight?
This refers to the way an issue is posed; how an options is presented can significantly affect our decisions and judgments.
What is framing?
This biological process involves a long-lasting enhancement in signal transmission between neurons that fire together, forming the basis of memory.
What is long-term potentiation (LTP)?
This concept describes how the ability of the brain to retain information decreases rapidly at first and then levels off over time.
What is Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve?
The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions effectively to achieve success in relationships and work.
What is emotional intelligence (EQ)?
Carol Dweckâs term for the belief that intelligence and abilities can be developed through effort and learning, rather than being fixed at birth.
What is a growth mindset?