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