Thought and Learning Processes: A Comprehensive Guide
Posted on Oct 17, 2024 in Psychology and Sociology
Thought
Definitions and Concepts
- Algorithm: A finite, ordered set of operations that allows for the solution to a problem. Algorithms are based on quantifiable reasoning.
- Category: A grouping of different objects or events according to their characteristics.
- Definition: A mental representation used to classify people, objects, or events with common characteristics. Definitions are used to organize experience.
- Creativity: The ability to see things with a new perspective, recognize problems that others do not, and propose original and effective solutions.
- Deduction: Reasoning that, based on assumptions, leads to the truth of a proposition using rules of inference.
- Strategy: A planned set of actions carried out over time for a particular purpose.
- Fallacy: A false argument that appears true, used to mislead or deceive.
- Formal Fallacy: A fallacy that arises from a flaw in the structure of an argument. These fallacies appear to follow a valid rule of inference, but they do not.
- Functional Fixedness: A mindset that prevents a person from using an object for a function other than its usual one.
- Heuristic: A strategy that can lead to a solution, but does not guarantee one.
- Image: A mental representation of an event or object.
- Induction: A method of reasoning that arrives at a general principle based on data or facts about individuals.
- Arbitrary Inference: Incorrect deductions or conclusions.
- Logic: A formal science and branch of philosophy that studies the principles of valid demonstration and inference.
- Metacognition: A way of learning to reason about one’s own reasoning. It is the application of thought to the act of thinking, learning how to learn, and improving intellectual activities by using reflection to guide them and ensure smooth implementation.
- Thought: A complex process unique to human beings. It is always present in response to stimuli and generates and controls behavior. It is the mental capacity to manage, make sense of, and interpret the data available in the brain.
- Dichotomous Thinking: Perceiving things as good or bad, black or white, true or false.
- Problem: A particular issue or matter that requires a solution.
- Reasoning: The mental process of making an inference or drawing a conclusion from a set of premises.
- Deductive Reasoning: Allows us to derive a conclusion from certain facts.
Learning
Definitions and Concepts
- Learning: The process through which we acquire new skills, knowledge, behaviors, or values as a result of study, experience, instruction, reasoning, and observation.
- Cooperative Learning: A teaching approach that seeks to maximize the use of activities in which students help each other, either in pairs or small groups, within a teaching-learning context.
- Meaningful Learning: Learning in which teachers create an instructional environment where students understand what they are learning. Meaningful learning leads to transfer, which is the ability to apply newly learned material in new situations and contexts. It emphasizes understanding over memorization.
- Punishment: The practice of imposing something unpleasant on a person who has done something undesirable.
- Cognitivism: The study of mental processes involved in knowledge. It aims to understand the basic mechanisms by which deep knowledge is drawn from perception, memory, and learning, leading to the formation of concepts and logical reasoning.
- Conduct/Behavior: How individuals or entities proceed in relation to their surroundings or stimuli. Behavior can be conscious or unconscious, voluntary or involuntary, public or private, depending on the circumstances.
- Behaviorism: The philosophy of psychology and behavioral science, understood as the interaction between the individual and their physical, biological, and social environment. It covers a wide range of psychological phenomena.
- Conditioned Stimulus: A stimulus that produces the desired response after training.
- Unconditioned Stimulus: A stimulus that produces the desired response without prior training.
- Extinction: The disappearance of the conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus association.
- Phobia: An irrational and excessive fear of different things or situations.
- Habituation: The phenomenon by which we “get used to something” as a result of repeated stimulation.
- Concept Map: A graphic diagram showing a set of ideas and the relationships between them.
- Reflex: An unintentional and automatic response to a stimulus.
- Reinforcement: Any stimulus that increases the likelihood of a behavior.
- Negative Reinforcement: Occurs when performing a behavior removes an aversive or unpleasant stimulus. There are two processes: escape conditioning (the aversive stimulus is presented continuously but can be stopped by the instrumental response) and avoidance learning (the aversive stimulus is scheduled to be presented in the future, and the response prevents it).
- Conditioned Response: A response that is elicited by a conditioned stimulus after training.
- Awareness: An increase in response to environmental events.
