AP Psychology - Thinking Vocab

belief perseverance

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

one-word stage

the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speeches consists of single words

linguistic determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think

concept

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

prototype

a mental image or best example of category

algorithm

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem; constraints with the usually speedier use of heuristics

heuristic

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

insight

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

mental set

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

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions

babbling stage

beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the intact spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

two-word stage

beginning at age 2, stage in speech development during which a child's speech is mostly two-word elements

telegraphic speech

early speech stage in which a child speech is like a telegram "go car" - using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting auxiliary words

availability heuristic

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

language

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

grammar

in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others

phoneme

in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

morpheme

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning

representativeness heuristic

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

fixation

the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an impediment to problem solving

cognition

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

syntax

the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language

semantics

the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language, also the study of meaning

belief bias

the tendency for one's preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seen invalid

overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs and judgements

functional fixedness

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

framing

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements