Summary Psychological Science
By: Stijn Huizinga
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,Chapter eight
Thinking: The mental manipulation of representations of knowledge about the world
● Analogical representation: Mental representations that have some of the physical
characteristics of what they represent
● Symbolic representation: Abstract mental representations that do not correspond to the
physical features of objects or ideas
Categorization: grouping things based in shared properties
Concept: A category, or class, of related items consisting of mental representations of those
items
Prototype model: A way of thinking about concepts: Within each category, there is a best
example—a prototype—for that category
Script: A schema that directs behavior over time within a situation
Stereotypes: Cognitive schemas that allow for easy, fast processing of information about people
based on their membership in certain groups
● Gender roles are a schema that operates at the unconscious level.
Decision making: A cognitive process that results in the selection of a course of action or belief
from several options
Problem solving: Finding a way around an obstacle to reach a goal
Heuristics: Shortcuts (rules of thumb or informal guidelines) used to reduce the amount of
thinking that is needed to make decisions
● Availability heuristic: Making a decision based on the answer that most easily comes to
mind
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, ● Representativeness heuristic: Placing a person or an object in a category if that person
or object is similar to one’s prototype for that category
● Confirmation bias: only looking at info that supports a claim
● Hindsight bias: creating reasons after the fact, claiming they knew all along
Anchoring: The tendency, in making judgments, to rely on the first piece of information
encountered or information that comes most quickly to mind
Framing: In decision making, an emphasis on the potential losses or potential gains from at
least one alternative
Affective forecasting: The tendency for people to overestimate how events will make them feel
in the future
Endowment effect: The tendency to value things we own more than we would pay to buy them
People sell stocks when the stock market goes down even though many finance experts advise
investors to retain or increase their holdings at such times. Loss aversion explains this behavior,
because people may weigh potential losses more than gains, and as a result they are more
concerned with losing additional money if the stock market goes down further than with making
money if the stock market goes up.
A positive mood can make people more optimistic about their chance of winning the lottery for
instance
Solving problems requires breaking the tasks into subgoals
Restructuring: A new way of thinking about a problem that aids its solution
Mental sets: Problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past
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, Functional fixedness: In problem solving, having fixed ideas about the typical functions of
objects
● Algorithm: a guideline that if follows correctly, will always yield the correct answer
● Working backwards: proceeding from the goal state to the initial state can help yield a
solution
● Finding a appropriate analogy (aka analogical problem solving): using knowledge you
might have that could be useful in a situation even if there is not a direct connection
Insight: The sudden realization of a solution to a problem
The more choices the harder it gets to choose, especially for maximizers, people who always try
to find the perfect choice among a set of options
Intelligence: The ability to use knowledge to reason, make decisions, make sense of events,
solve problems, understand complex ideas, learn quickly, and adapt to environmental
challenges
● Achievement tests assess people's current levels of skill and of knowledge
● Aptitude tests seek to predict what tasks and perhaps even what jobs people will be
good at in the future
Mental age: An assessment of a child’s intellectual standing compared with that of same-age
peers; determined by comparing the child’s test score with the average score for children of
each chronological age
Intelligence quotient (IQ): An index of intelligence computed by dividing a child’s estimated
mental age by the child’s chronological age, then multiplying this number by 100.
General intelligence (g): The idea that one general factor underlies intelligence
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