Cognitive Processes: Concepts, Problem Solving

• Cognitive refers to the process of thinking.
• Concepts or categories are mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, or people, which help us understand the world.
• Prototypes are mental images or the best example of a concept.
• Accommodation means adapting current concepts to incorporate new information.

Problem Solving

• Trial and error involves trying different solutions until the correct one is found.
• Algorithms use step-by-step processes that guarantee a solution but can be time-consuming and impractical.
• Heuristics are thinking strategies that allow quick judgments and problem-solving, but they may lead to errors due to being shortcuts.
• Insight is the sudden realization of a problem's solution, often referred to as the "aha moment."

Cognitive Thinking

• Convergent thinking involves having one clear solution to a problem.
• Divergent thinking involves generating many solutions to a problem, characteristic of a creative thinker.

Cognitive Bias

• Confirmation bias involves seeking information that confirms pre-existing ideas and avoiding opposing information.
• Belief perseverance is clinging to initial beliefs even after they have been discredited.
• Fixation is the inability to see a problem from a new perspective.
• Functional fixedness involves only seeing objects for their traditional uses.
• A mental set is using previously successful problem-solving strategies, which may not always work.

Heuristics

• Representativeness heuristic involves judging a situation based on its similarity to a mental prototype or stereotype.
• Availability heuristic involves judging a situation based on readily available examples that come to mind.
• Heuristics can lead to overconfidence, resulting in people being more confident than correct in their judgments.