what i've learned from my summer psych class pt. 1

Thinking is how we use knowledge to analyze situations, solve problems, and make decisions. It is involved in all conscious mental activity, whether it is acquiring new knowledge, remembering, planning ahead, or daydreaming. It also involves manipulating mental representations of information in order to draw conclusions and inferences. Lastly, thinking involves active mental processes and is often directed toward some goal, purpose, or conclusion.

Cognition refers to the mental activities involved in acquiring, retaining, and using knowledge. (ex: perception, learning, memory)

A mental image is a mental representation of objects or events that are not physically present. You can create mental images involving other senses apart from vision.

A concept is a mental category formed to group objects, events, or situations that share similar features or characteristics. Concepts help people think in a more organized way

A formal concept is a concept formed by learning the rules or features that define it. Examples include geometric shapes or classifying something to be solid, liquid, or gas. The rules of defining it are very logical but very specific. A natural concept is a concept formed through everyday experience rather than logic. Examples include vehicles and fruits. Although these concepts seem simple, they are really much harder to define than formal concepts.

A prototype is the most typical or familiar instance of a concept. Examples include an apple for a fruit and a car for a vehicle. The closer an item in a concept matches to the prototype, the faster we determine that it is a part of that concept. An exemplar is an individual experience of a concept held in memory. When we need to put something in a concept, we compare it to an exemplar to determine if it belongs in that concept.