MENTAL IMAGES - mental representations that stand for objects or events

SYSTEM 1 - involves making quick decisions and using cognitive short- cuts, is guided by our innate abilities and personal experiences.

SYSTEM 2 - relatively slow, analytical, and rule based, is dependent more on our formal educational experiences.

Natural Concepts - form as a result of experiences in the real world

Prototypes - a concept that closely matches the defining characteristics of that concept

Formal Concepts - defined by specific rules or features

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.

Confirmation Bias - the tendency to search for evidence that fits one’s beliefs while ignoring any evidence that does not fit those beliefs.

Functional Fixedness - a block to problem solving that comes from thinking about objects in terms of only their typical functions.

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.

Insight - When the solution to a problem seems to come suddenly to mind, it is called insight.

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.

Working Backwards - A useful heuristic that does work much of the time is to work backward from the goal.

Representativeness Heuristic - assumption that any object (or person) sharing characteristics with the mem- bers of a particular category is also a member of that category.

Subgoaling - Sometimes it’s better to break a goal down into subgoals so that as each sub- goal is achieved, the final solution is that much closer.

Morphemes - smallest units of meaning within a language

Semantics - rules for determining the meaning of words and sentences

Grammar - system of rules governing structure and use of language

Pragmatics - social “niceties” or practical aspects of communicating with others

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis - the theory that thought processes and concepts are controlled by language.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - This hypothesis assumes that the thought processes and concepts within any culture are determined by the words of the culture

One-Word Speech - Somewhere just before or around age 1, most children begin to say actual words. These words are typically nouns and may seem to represent an entire phrase of meaning.

Telegraphic Speech - At around a year and a half, toddlers begin to string words together to form short, simple sentences using nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Babbling - At about 6 months, infants add consonant sounds to the vowels to make a babbling sound, which at times can almost sound like real speech.

Whole Sentences - As children move through the preschool years, they learn to use grammatical terms and increase the number of words in their sentences, until by age 6 or so they are nearly as fluent as an adult, although the number of words they know is still limited when compared to adult vocabulary.

Cooing - At about 2 months, babies begin to make vowel-like sounds.

Intellectual Disability - condition in which a person’s behav- ioral and cognitive skills exist at an earlier developmental stage than the skills of others who are the same chronological age; may also be referred to as developmentally delayed. This condition was formerly known as mental retardation.

Giftedness - The term applied to these individuals is gifted, and if their IQ falls above 140 to 145

Gardner's Multiple Intelligence - overall intelligence comprises nine different types.

Creative Intelligence - the ability to deal with new and differ- ent 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.

Analytical Intelligence - the ability to break problems down into component parts, or analysis, for problem solving.

G Factor (General Intelligence) - the ability to reason and solve problems, or general intelligence.

S Factor (Specific Intelligence) - the ability to excel in certain areas, or specific intelligence.

Crystalized Intelligence - represents acquired knowledge and skills.

Fluid Intelligence - problem solving and adaptability in unfamiliar situations.

Validity - the degree to which a test actually measures what it’s supposed to measure.

Standardization - refers to the process of giving the test to a large group of people that represents the kind of people for whom the test is designed.

Reliability - the tendency of a test to produce the same scores again and again each time it is given to the same people.

Stanford Binet Test - Lewis Terman, a researcher at Stanford University, adopted German psychologist William Stern’s method for comparing mental age and chronological age for use with the translated and revised Binet test. Stern’s formula was to divide the mental age by the chronologi- cal age and multiply the result by 100 to get rid of any decimal points. The result- ing score is called an intelligence quotient, or IQ.

WISC - Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

WPPSI Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence

Hindsight Bias - the tendency to falsely believe, through revision of older memories to include newer information, that one could have correctly predicted the out- come of an event.