| cognition | The way in which information is processed and manipulated in remembering, thinking, and knowing.
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| artificial intelligence (AI) | A scientific field that focuses on creating machines capable of performing activities that require intelligence when they are done by people.
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| thinking | The mental process of manipulating information mentally by forming concepts, solving problems, making decisions, and reflecting critically or creatively.
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| concept | A mental category that is used to group objects, events, and characteristics.
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| prototype model | A model emphasizing that when people evaluate whether a given item reflects a certain concept, they compare the item with the most typical item(s) in that category and look for a “family resemblance” with that item's properties.
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| problem solving | The mental process of finding an appropriate way to attain a goal when the goal is not readily available.
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| subgoals | Intermediate goals or intermediate problems that put us in a better position for reaching the final goal or solution.
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| algorithms | Strategies—including formulas, instructions, and the testing of all possible solutions—that guarantee a solution to a problem.
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| heuristics | Shortcut strategies or guidelines that suggest a solution to a problem but do not guarantee an answer.
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| fixation | Using a prior strategy and failing to look at a problem from a fresh, new perspective.
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| functional fixedness | Failing to solve a problem as a result of fixation on a thing's usual functions.
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| reasoning | The mental activity of transforming information to reach conclusions.
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| inductive reasoning | Reasoning from specific observations to make generalizations.
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| deductive reasoning | Reasoning from a general case that is known to be true to a specific instance.
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| decision making | The mental activity of evaluating alternatives and choosing among them.
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| confirmation bias | The tendency to search for and use information that supports our ideas rather than refutes them.
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| hindsight bias | The tendency to report falsely, after the fact, that we accurately predicted an outcome.
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| availability heuristic | A prediction about the probability of an event based on the ease of recalling or imagining similar events.
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| base rate fallacy | The tendency to ignore information about general principles in favor of very specific but vivid information.
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| representative heuristic | The tendency to make judgments about group membership based on physical appearances or the match between a person and one's stereotype of a group rather than on available base rate information.
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| mindfulness | The state of being alert and mentally present for one's everyday activities.
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| open-mindedness | The state of being receptive to other ways of looking at things.
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| creativity | The ability to think about something in novel and unusual ways and to devise unconventional solutions to problems.
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| divergent thinking | Thinking that produces many solutions to the same problem.
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| convergent thinking | Thinking that produces the single best solution to a problem.
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| intelligence | All-purpose ability to do well on cognitive tasks, to solve problems, and to learn from experience.
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| validity | The extent to which a test measures what it is intended to measure.
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| reliability | The extent to which a test yields a consistent, reproducible measure of performance.
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| standardization | The development of uniform procedures for administering and scoring a test and the creation of norms (performance standards) for the test.
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| mental age (MA) | An individual's level of mental development relative to that of others.
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| intelligence quotient (IQ) | An individual's mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by 100.
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| normal distribution | A symmetrical, bell-shaped curve, with a majority of the scores falling in the middle of the possible range and few scores appearing toward the extremes of the range.
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| culture-fair tests | Intelligence tests that are intended to be culturally unbiased.
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| heritability | The proportion of observable differences in a group that can be explained by differences in the genes of the group's members.
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| gifted | Possessing high intelligence (an IQ of 130 or higher) and/or superior talent in a particular area.
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| intellectual disability | A condition of limited mental ability in which an individual has a low IQ, usually below 70 on a traditional intelligence test, and has difficulty adapting to everyday life.
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| triarchic theory of intelligence | Sternberg's theory that intelligence comes in three forms: analytical, creative, and practical.
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| language | A form of communication—whether spoken, written, or signed—that is based on a system of symbols.
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| infinite generativity | The ability of language to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences.
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| phonology | A language's sound system.
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| morphology | A language's rules for word formation.
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| syntax | A language's rules for combining words o form acceptable phrases and sentences.
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| semantics | The meaning of words and sentences in a particular language.
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| pragmatics | The useful character of language and the ability of language to communicate even more meaning than is said.
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| cognitive appraisal | Individuals' interpretation of the events in their lives as harmful, threatening, or challenging and their determination of whether they have the resources to cope effectively with the events.
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| coping | Managing taxing circumstances, expending effort to solve life's problems, and seeking to master or reduce stress.
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| cognitive reappraisal | Regulating one's feelings about an experience by reinterpreting that experience or thinking about it in a different way or from a different angle.
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