Thinking and Intelligence: Key Terms

Key Terms: Thinking and Intelligence

• Algorithm: A problem-solving strategy involving a specific set of instructions.
• Analytical Intelligence: Problem-solving and computation skills often associated with academic settings.
• Anchoring Bias: A flawed heuristic where one fixates on a single aspect of a problem, hindering the ability to find a solution.
• Artificial Concept: A concept defined by a specific set of characteristics.
• Availability Heuristic: A decision-making shortcut based on readily available information.
• Cognition: Thinking processes, including perception, learning, problem-solving, judgment, and memory.
• Cognitive Psychology: The field of psychology dedicated to studying all aspects of how humans think.
• Cognitive Script: A set of behaviors performed the same way each time, also known as an event schema.
• Concept: A category or grouping of linguistic information, ideas, objects, or experiences.
• Confirmation Bias: A flawed heuristic where one focuses on information confirming pre-existing beliefs.
• Convergent Thinking: Providing correct or established answers to problems.
• Creative Intelligence: The ability to produce new ideas, products, or novel solutions.
• Creativity: The ability to generate or discover new ideas, solutions, and possibilities.
• Crystallized Intelligence: Intelligence characterized by acquired knowledge and the ability to retrieve it.
• Cultural Intelligence: The ability to understand and relate to people from different cultures.
• Divergent Thinking: Thinking "outside the box" to find novel solutions to problems.
• Dyscalculia: A learning disability causing difficulty in comprehending mathematics
• Dysgraphia: A learning disability marked by extreme difficulty in writing legibly.
• Dyslexia: A common learning disability where letters are not processed correctly by the brain.
• Emotional Intelligence: The ability to understand emotions and motivations in oneself and others.
• Event Schema: A cognitive script.
• Fluid Intelligence: The ability to see complex relationships and solve problems.
• Flynn Effect: The observation that each generation has a significantly higher IQ than the previous generation.
• Functional Fixedness: The inability to see an object's potential uses beyond its intended purpose.
• Grammar: A set of rules used to convey meaning through a lexicon.
• Heuristic: A mental shortcut used to save time when solving problems.
• Hindsight Bias: The belief that an experienced event was predictable, even if it was not.
• Intelligence Quotient (IQ): A score from a test designed to measure intelligence.
• Language: A communication system using words to transmit information.
• Lexicon: The words of a given language.
• Mental Set: Persistently using an old solution to a problem, even if it is ineffective.
• Morpheme: The smallest unit of language that carries meaning.
• Multiple Intelligences Theory: Gardner’s theory that individuals possess at least eight types of intelligence.
• Natural Concept: Mental groupings created "naturally" through experiences.
• Norming: Administering a test to a large population to establish normal scores for reference.
• Overgeneralization: Applying a rule from a given language to an exception of that rule.
• Phoneme: The basic sound unit of a language.
• Practical Intelligence: Street smarts.
• Problem-Solving Strategy: A specific method for solving problems.
• Prototype: The best representation of a concept.
• Range of Reaction: The unique response of each individual to the environment, based on their genetic makeup.
• Representative Bias: A flawed heuristic involving stereotyping without a valid basis.
• Representative Sample: A subset of the population that accurately reflects the general population.
• Role Schema: Expectations defining the behaviors of a person in a particular role.
• Schema: A mental construct consisting of a cluster of related concepts.
• Semantics: Deriving meaning from morphemes and words.
• Standard Deviation: Measures the variability describing the difference between scores and their mean.
• Standardization: Consistent methods for test administration, scoring, and interpretation.
• Syntax: The organization of words into sentences.
• Trial and Error: A problem-solving strategy involving multiple attempts until the correct solution is found.
• Triarchic Theory of Intelligence: Sternberg’s theory: practical, creative, and analytical intelligence.
• Working Backwards: A heuristic that focuses on the end result to solve a problem.