ACTUAL Exam Questions and CORRECT
Answers
The nature of thought or the processes involved in thinking - CORRECT ANSWER -
"How people think"
Variations among people in thinking ability - CORRECT ANSWER - "How well people
think"
Mental Images - CORRECT ANSWER - Mental representations that stand for objects or
events and have a picture-like quality
- interacted with in similar ways as physical objects
- helpful for memory and learning or maintaining motor skills
Concept - CORRECT ANSWER - ideas that represent a class or group of objects, events,
or activities that share common characteristics or attributes
- contain important features of the objects or events people think about
- allow for the identification of new objects and events that may fit
Formal Concepts - CORRECT ANSWER - concepts formed by learning the specific rules
of features that define it (acquired in school) EX: A square
Natural Concepts - CORRECT ANSWER - concepts formed as a result of people's
experience in the real world (we form these concepts and a general set of features) EX: birds,
fruits
Prototype - CORRECT ANSWER - An example that closely matches the defining
characteristics (or common features) of a concept
,1. the exposure a person has to objects in a category
2. the knowledge a person has about objects in a category
3. the culture of a person - CORRECT ANSWER - Prototypes develop according to..
Decision Making - CORRECT ANSWER - process of evaluating alternatives and choosing
among them
Problem Solving - CORRECT ANSWER - the thoughts and actions required to achieve a
certain goal
Trial and Error - CORRECT ANSWER - - Mechanical Solution
- One possible solution after another is tried until a successful one is found
Algorithms - CORRECT ANSWER - - very specific, step-by-step procedures for solving
problems
- always result in the correct answer (mathematical formulas)
Heuristic - CORRECT ANSWER - an educated guess based on prior experience that helps
narrow down the possible solutions for a problem
- "Rule of Thumb", cognitive "shortcut"
Representativeness Heuristic - CORRECT ANSWER - Tendency to judge an event by the
extent to which it resembles the typical case
- Older lady = perceive them to have granny-like qualities
Availability Heuristic - CORRECT ANSWER - Estimating the frequency or likelihood
based on how easy it is to recall relevant info from memory or how easy it is to think of related
examples ("pop into your head" if you've been recently thinking about it)
Insight - CORRECT ANSWER - a sudden perception of a solution to a problem
, "a-ha!" moment
Functional Fixedness - CORRECT ANSWER - thinking about objects only in terms of
their typical functions
Mental Set - CORRECT ANSWER - the tendency for people to persist in using problem-
solving patterns that have worked for them in the past
Confirmation Bias - CORRECT ANSWER - the tendency to search for evidence that fits
one's beliefs while ignoring any evidence that does not fit those beliefs
- horoscopes
- vaccines and autism
Creativity - CORRECT ANSWER - the ability to produce ideas that are both novel and
valuable
Convergent Thinking - CORRECT ANSWER - type of thinking in which a problem is
seen as having one answer, and all lines of thinking will eventually lead to that single answer by
using pervious knowledge and logic
Divergent Thinking ( a kind of creativity ) - CORRECT ANSWER - type of thinking in
which a person starts from one point and comes up with many different ideas or possibilities
based on that point
Intelligence - CORRECT ANSWER - the ability to learn from experience, acquire
knowledge, and use resources in adapting to new situations or solving problems
- fuzzy concept, reification
Reification - CORRECT ANSWER - viewing an abstract immaterial concept as if it were a
concrete thing (love)