Psych 105 – Midterm Exam Review | A+
Guaranteed Pass Study Guide 2025
Thinking Definition
- CORRECT ANSWER -any mental activity or processing of information, including learning,
remembering, perceiving, communicating, believing, and deciding
What is cognitive economy?
- CORRECT ANSWER -The use of heuristics to reduce mental effort while still getting things
right most of the time
What are heuristics?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Mental shortcuts, drawn from inferences, to increase thinking efficiency
Can fast and frugal thinking be better than exhaustive analysis?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Yes
What is cognitive bias?
- CORRECT ANSWER -systematic error in thinking
What is a representative heuristic?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Judging the probability of an event based on how prevalent the event
,has been in past experience, takes into account base rate information (how common a
characteristic is in general society)
What is an example of a representative heuristic?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Stereotyping
What is an availability heuristic?
- CORRECT ANSWER -heuristic that involves estimating the likelihood of an occurrence based
on the ease with which it comes to our mind
What is hindsight bias?
- CORRECT ANSWER -the tendency to overestimate one's ability to have predicted an event
once the outcome is known
What is confirmation bias?
- CORRECT ANSWER -a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions
and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence
What is top-down processing?
- CORRECT ANSWER -filling in gaps of missing information by using our experiences and
background knowledge to create a whole picture
What are concepts?
- CORRECT ANSWER -knowledge and ideas about objects, actions, and characteristics that
share core properties
,What are schemas?
- CORRECT ANSWER -concepts stored in memory about how objects, actions, and
characteristics relate to each other, helps to mentally organize events that share core features
like going to a restaurant
Decision making Definition
- CORRECT ANSWER -the process of a making choice among a set of alternatives
What does "paralysis by analysis" refer to?
- CORRECT ANSWER -when it comes to making decisions based on emotional preferences (ex.
artistic choices) or complex emotionally laden decisions, too much thinking can be bad, can be
overwhelmed by too much information
What is framing?
- CORRECT ANSWER -The way a question is formulated can influence a person's decision
What is neuroeconomics?
- CORRECT ANSWER -the study of brain mechanisms at work during economic decision
making
Problem solving definition
- CORRECT ANSWER -generating a cognitive strategy to accomplish a goal
, what are four approaches to problem solving?
- CORRECT ANSWER -1. Heuristics
2. Algorithms
3. Breaking the problem into manageable subproblems
4. Reasoning using related examples
What are algorithms?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Set-by-step, learned procedure
What is the salience of surface similarities, how is it an obstacle to effective problem-solving?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Refers to how attention grabbing something is, it focuses attention
solely on the superficial properties of a problem
What are mental sets? Is it a problem solving hinderance or advantage?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Being stuck in a specific problem solving strategy which results in trouble
generating alternatives (ex. picking an essay topic that wasn't already suggested)
What is functional fixedness?
- CORRECT ANSWER -difficulty conceptualizing that an object typically used for one purpose
can be used for another
Explain the computer analogy as a model of the mind, why is it inaccurate?
- CORRECT ANSWER -thinking is like running data through a computer program, the brain's
algorithms are like preprogrammed abilities
Guaranteed Pass Study Guide 2025
Thinking Definition
- CORRECT ANSWER -any mental activity or processing of information, including learning,
remembering, perceiving, communicating, believing, and deciding
What is cognitive economy?
- CORRECT ANSWER -The use of heuristics to reduce mental effort while still getting things
right most of the time
What are heuristics?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Mental shortcuts, drawn from inferences, to increase thinking efficiency
Can fast and frugal thinking be better than exhaustive analysis?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Yes
What is cognitive bias?
- CORRECT ANSWER -systematic error in thinking
What is a representative heuristic?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Judging the probability of an event based on how prevalent the event
,has been in past experience, takes into account base rate information (how common a
characteristic is in general society)
What is an example of a representative heuristic?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Stereotyping
What is an availability heuristic?
- CORRECT ANSWER -heuristic that involves estimating the likelihood of an occurrence based
on the ease with which it comes to our mind
What is hindsight bias?
- CORRECT ANSWER -the tendency to overestimate one's ability to have predicted an event
once the outcome is known
What is confirmation bias?
- CORRECT ANSWER -a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions
and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence
What is top-down processing?
- CORRECT ANSWER -filling in gaps of missing information by using our experiences and
background knowledge to create a whole picture
What are concepts?
- CORRECT ANSWER -knowledge and ideas about objects, actions, and characteristics that
share core properties
,What are schemas?
- CORRECT ANSWER -concepts stored in memory about how objects, actions, and
characteristics relate to each other, helps to mentally organize events that share core features
like going to a restaurant
Decision making Definition
- CORRECT ANSWER -the process of a making choice among a set of alternatives
What does "paralysis by analysis" refer to?
- CORRECT ANSWER -when it comes to making decisions based on emotional preferences (ex.
artistic choices) or complex emotionally laden decisions, too much thinking can be bad, can be
overwhelmed by too much information
What is framing?
- CORRECT ANSWER -The way a question is formulated can influence a person's decision
What is neuroeconomics?
- CORRECT ANSWER -the study of brain mechanisms at work during economic decision
making
Problem solving definition
- CORRECT ANSWER -generating a cognitive strategy to accomplish a goal
, what are four approaches to problem solving?
- CORRECT ANSWER -1. Heuristics
2. Algorithms
3. Breaking the problem into manageable subproblems
4. Reasoning using related examples
What are algorithms?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Set-by-step, learned procedure
What is the salience of surface similarities, how is it an obstacle to effective problem-solving?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Refers to how attention grabbing something is, it focuses attention
solely on the superficial properties of a problem
What are mental sets? Is it a problem solving hinderance or advantage?
- CORRECT ANSWER -Being stuck in a specific problem solving strategy which results in trouble
generating alternatives (ex. picking an essay topic that wasn't already suggested)
What is functional fixedness?
- CORRECT ANSWER -difficulty conceptualizing that an object typically used for one purpose
can be used for another
Explain the computer analogy as a model of the mind, why is it inaccurate?
- CORRECT ANSWER -thinking is like running data through a computer program, the brain's
algorithms are like preprogrammed abilities
