Thinking

Question 0

What are ideas used to test relationships and then to form concepts?

Answer 0

Hypotheses.

“Animals with wings are the ones that fly.”

Question 1

What is the definition of a concept?

Answer 1

Concepts are how one represents the relationship between 2 things.

We organize out world through concepts. “A bird is an animal that had wings and flies.”

Question 2

What is a mental set?

Answer 2

A preconceived notion of how we look at a problem. This may help future problem solving.

Question 3

What is an organized bunch of knowledge gathered from prior experiences that includes ideas about specific events or objects and the attributes that accompany them called?

Answer 3

A schema.

New events and objects are categorized based on how well they match the existing attributes of schemas.

Question 4

What are scripts?

Answer 4

Ideas about the way events typically unfold.

“When people go to the movies, they sit in their seats and are quiet.”

Question 5

What is the representative or “usual” type of an event or object called?

Answer 5

Prototype

Question 6

What is it called when one has a new insight to an old problem? Also called the “ah-ha! experience.”

Answer 6

Insight

“…a sudden insight…”

Question 7

What type of thinking are you using when you are solving simple math equations?

Answer 7

Convergent thinking. This is the type of thinking used to find one solution to a problem.

Question 8

What type of thinking is used web you play chess or think creatively?

Answer 8

Divergent thinking. This is used when more than one possibility exists in a situation.

Question 9

What is functional fixedness?

Answer 9

The idea that people develop closed minds about the function of certain objects. From this, they cannot think of creative uses or think divergently.

“A bird cage is only good for housing birds.”

Question 10

What is the sum total of possible moves that one might make in order to solve a problem?

Answer 10

Problem space

Question 11

What are algorithms?

Answer 11

Problem-solving strategies that consider every possible solution and eventually hit on the correct solution.

This may take a great deal of time.

Question 12

What are heuristics?

Answer 12

Problem solving strategies that use rules of thumb or short-cuts based on what has worked in the past.

A heuristic cannot guarantee a solution, but is faster than an algorithm.

Question 13

What is the process of thinking about your own thinking called?

Answer 13

Metacognition

Question 14

What is mediation?

Answer 14

Mediation is the intervening mental process that occurs between stimulus and response.

Question 15

What is deductive reasoning?

Answer 15

Reasoning that follows from information given to a specific conclusion.

“All coats are blue. She wears a coat. Therefore, her coat must be blue.”

Question 16

What is inductive reasoning?

Answer 16

Reasoning that leads to general rules from specifics.

Starts with one fact or idea and expands and generalizes in a way.

Question 17

What is semantic effect?

Answer 17

It’s a logical reasoning error. It is believing in conclusions because of what you know or think to be correct rather than what logically follows from the info given.

Question 18

What is a confirmation bias?

Answer 18

Remembering and using information that confirms what you already think.

Question 19

What is a decent definition of intelligence?

Answer 19

Intelligence is the capacity to use knowledge to improve achievement in an environment.

Question 20

What is most frequently used to measure cognitive processing?

Answer 20

Reaction time.

Also called latency.

Question 21

Who suggested that people have hierarchical semantic networks in their memory that group together related items?

Answer 21

Elizabeth Loftus and Allen Collins.

The more closely related the two items are, the more closely they are located in the hierarchy, and the more quickly the subject can link them.

Question 22

True or False:

It takes longer to make associations between pictures than between words.

Answer 22

True.

This is probably because pictures must mentally be put into words before associations can be made.

Question 23

What is semantic priming?

Answer 23

The presentation of a related item (such as “test”) before the next item (such as “GRE”) in a word- recognition task.

Question 24

What explains the decreased speed in naming the color of ink when used to print words when the color of the ink and the word itself are of different colors?

Answer 24

Stroop effect

Question 25

What type of processing occurs when an item or pattern is recognized from data or details?

Answer 25

Bottom-up or data driven processing.

Question 26

What type of processing occurs when one uses information and concepts already obtained?

Such as using the knowledge of what your friend looks like and sounds like to identify them.

Answer 26

Top-down Processing

Question 27

What does the James-Lange Theory of Emotion state?

Answer 27

Bodily reactions to situations cause emotion. We are scared BECAUSE we are trembling, not the other way around.

Question 28

What does the Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion state?

Answer 28

Also known as emergency theory, the Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion states that emotions and bodily reactions occur simultaneously.

We tremble and feel scared in response to danger.

Question 29

The Schachter-Singer theory of emotion is what type of theory of emotion?

Answer 29

It’s a cognitive theory of emotion. It states that physiological reaction comes first (like the James-Lange theory), but the cognition we attach to the situation determines which emotion we feel in response to physiological arousal.