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• Thinking (cognition)


  Mental activity that goes on in the brain when a person is organizing and attempting to understand information and communicating information to others
• Mental images


  Mental representations that stand for objects or events and have a picture-like quality
• Concepts


  Ideas that represent a class or category of objects, events, or activities
• Types of concepts

  • Superordinate concept
  • Basic level type
  • Subordinate concept
• Formal concepts


  Concepts that are defined by specific rules or features
• Natural concepts


  Concepts people form as a result of their experiences in the real world
• Prototype


  An example of a concept that closely matches the defining characteristics of a concept
• Problem solving


  Process of cognition that occurs when a goal must be reached by thinking and behaving in certain ways
• Trial and error (mechanical solution)


  Problem-solving method in which one possible solution after another is tried until a successful one is found
• Algorithms


  Very specific, step-by-step procedures for solving certain types of problems
• Heuristic


  An educated guess based on prior experiences that helps narrow down the possible solutions for a problem; also known as a "rule of thumb"
• Representative heuristic


  Assumption that any object (or person) sharing characteristics with the members of a particular category is also a member of that category
• Availability heuristic


  Estimating the frequency or likelihood of an event based on how easy it is to recall relevant information from memory or how easy it is for us to think of related examples
• Means-end analysis


  Heuristic in which the difference between the starting situation and the goal is determined and then steps are taken to reduce that difference
• Insight


  Sudden perception of a solution to a problem
• Functional fixedness


  A block to problem solving that comes from thinking about objects in terms of only their typical functions
• Mental set


  The tendency for people to persist in using problem-solving patterns that have worked for them in the past
• Confirmation bias


  The tendency to search for evidence that fits one's beliefs while ignoring any evidence that does not fit those beliefs
• Creativity


  The process of solving problems by combining ideas or behavior in new ways
• Convergent thinking


  Type of thinking in which a problem is seen as having only one answer, and all lines of thinking will eventually lead to that single answer, using previous knowledge and logic
• Divergent thinking


  Type of thinking in which a person starts from one point and comes up with many different ideas or possibilities based on that point (kind of creativity)
• Brainstorming


  Generate as many ideas as possible in a short period of time, without judging each idea's merits until all ideas are recorded
• Freewriting


  Write down or record everything that comes to mind about a topic without revising or proofreading until all of the information is written or recorded in some way. Organize it later.
• Mind or subject mapping


  Start with a central idea and draw a "map" with lines from the center to other related ideas, forming a visual representation of the concepts and their connections.
• Intelligence


  The ability to learn from one's experiences, acquire knowledge, and use resources effectively in adapting to new situations or solving problems
• g factor


  The ability to reason and solve problems, or general intelligence
• s factor


  The ability to excel in certain areas, or specific intelligence
• Multiple intelligences


  Gardner's theory of different types of intelligence
• Analytical intelligence


  The ability to break problems down into component parts, or analysis, for problem solving
• Creative intelligence


  The ability to deal with new and different concepts and to come up with new ways of solving problems
• Practical intelligence


  The ability to use information to get along in life and become successful
• Intelligence quotient (IQ)


  A number representing a measure of intelligence, resulting from the division of one's mental age by one's chronological age and then multiplying that quotient by 100
• Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test


  Yields an IQ score

  
• Wechsler Intelligence Tests


  Yield a verbal score and a performance score, as well as an overall score of intelligence

  
• Standardization


  The process of giving the test to a large group of people that represents the kind of people for whom the test is designed
• Validity


  The degree to which a test actually measures what it's supposed to measure
• Reliability


  The tendency of a test to produce the same scores again and again each time it is given to the same people
• Deviation IQ scores


  A type of intelligence measure that assumes that IQ is normally distributed around a mean of 100 with a standard deviation of about 15
• Developmentally delayed


  Condition in which a person's behavioral and cognitive skills exist at an earlier developmental stage than the skills of others who are the same chronological age; a more acceptable term for intellectual disability
• Levels of intellectual disability


  • Mild: 55 — 70 IQ
  • Moderate: 20 — 55 IQ
  • Severe: 25 — 40 IQ
  • Profound: Below 25 IQ