Cognition
The mental processes involved in thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
Metacognition
Awareness and understanding of your own thought processes.
Concepts
Mental groupings of similar objects, events, or ideas.
Prototype
The best example or mental image of a category.
Schemas
Frameworks that organize and interpret information.
Assimilate
Interpret new experiences using existing schemas.
Accomadate
Adjust or create schemas to fit new information.
Creativity
The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.
Convergent
Thinking that narrows options to the single best answer.
Divergent
Thinking that generates many possible solutions.
Expertise
Specialized knowledge or skill in a particular area.
Intrinsic Motivation
Desire to perform a behavior for its own sake.
Executive Function
Higher-level cognitive processes like planning, decision-making, and self-control.
Algorithm
A step-by-step method that guarantees a solution.
Heuristic
A mental shortcut that speeds up problem-solving but risks error.
Insight
A sudden realization of a problem’s solution.
Confirmation Bias
Tendency to search for information that supports what we already believe.
Fixation
Inability to see a problem from a new perspective.
Mental Set
Tendency to approach problems using past strategies that worked.
Intuition
Automatic, effortless, immediate feeling or thought.
Representative Heuristic
Judging likelihood based on how closely something matches a prototype.
Availability Heuristic
Estimating likelihood based on how easily examples come to mind.
Overconfidence
Tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our judgments.
Belief Perseverence
Holding onto beliefs even after evidence disproves them.
Framing
The way information is presented, which can influence decisions.
Nudge
A subtle change in presentation or structure that guides behavior without forcing it.