- Allostasis
- the biological process whereby the body prepares itself for anticipated needs.
- Anchoring bias
- the tendency to make estimates based on an earlier initial value.
- Availability heuristic
- the tendency to evaluate new information based on the most recent or most easily recalled examples.
- Bandwagon fallacy
- the fallacy that we ought to do something or believe something because many other people do or believe the same thing.
- Cognitive bias
- a systematic pattern of reasoning that deviates from a rationally optimal or logical judgment based on available facts and probabilities.
- Cognitive science
- the study of the brain and the mechanisms underlying thought, perception, memory, emotion, and other functions of the brain.
- Confirmation bias
- the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information that confirms or supports established beliefs.
- Dialectic
- a method of discovering truth that comes from dialogue and uses the exchange of different points of view to arrive at a position that is more likely to be true.
- Dunning-Kruger effect
- the cognitive bias in which people with little expertise in a specific task rate their knowledge too highly relative to others with more knowledge.
- Epistemic humility
- a stance in philosophical and scientific investigation that recognizes the limits of one’s own ability to know truth and reality in a direct or complete way.
- Gambler’s fallacy
- the reasoning that holds that if a chance event has happened less frequently in the recent past, it is more likely to happen in the near future (or vice versa).
- Heuristics
- mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that provide a method of problem-solving that is not necessarily optimal but is efficient.
- Homeostasis
- the biological process whereby the body regulates itself to maintain a state of equilibrium.
- Inference
- the mental process that leads from one set of information (premises, data, or information) to another (a conclusion, construction, or projection).
- Metacognition
- the process of thinking about thinking. Metacognition engages self-awareness and higher-order thinking skills so that an individual can regulate, monitor, and critically analyze their own thought processes.
- Principle of charity
- the interpretative principle that says a reader ought to interpret the author’s statements in the most rational and best possible way.
- Representation
- an information-bearing unit of thought. Representations are the objects that minds consider when they think.
- Steelmanning
- a strategy for making opposing arguments as strong as possible so that it is difficult to knock them down.
- Sunk-cost fallacy
- the fallacy of attaching a greater value to something than is warranted because a person has already invested time, resources, and emotion in that thing (or person).
- Tribalism
- the tendency for human beings to align their beliefs and attitudes with groups of people who have similar attitudes, practices, or beliefs.