PSYCH 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 27: Availability Heuristic, Confirmation Bias, Belief Perseverance
13 Mar 2017
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Cognition: all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating. Concept: a mental grouping of similar objects, ideas, events, or people. Prototype: a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method of sorting and categorizing ( bird = robin in my head, but a penguin is also a bird) Algorithm: a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier method of heuristics. Heuristic: a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error prone than algorithms. Insight: a sudden realization of a problem"s solution; contrasts with strategy based solutions. Confirmation bias: a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence. Once we incorrectly present something it is hard to change our thinking.
