Cognitive Skills: What Are They and How to Improve Them
From memory to problem-solving, cognitive skills drive how we learn and adapt. Here’s a look at these essential skills and how they shape everyday life.
Personal Fable Examples: Meaning and Impact
Discover real-life examples of personal fables and how they influence our perceptions of uniqueness and experiences.
Musical Intelligence: What It Is and How to Use It
Got rhythm? Here’s some of the strengths of a musical mind.
What Is Retrieval Failure?
Retrieval failure is one explanation for forgetting.
What Are Primary and Secondary Emotions?
Learn the difference between primary and secondary emotions, and how they shape your emotional responses.
What It Means to Be a Deep Thinker, According to Psychology
Deep thinkers are considered and creative. Learn more about how to recognize the signs—and boost your own deep thinking skills in the process.
Definition of Fluid Intelligence
Fluid intelligence is your ability to reason quickly and solve problems. Learn why it’s so important—and at what age it tends to peak.
Examples of Confirmation Bias (and How to Overcome It)
Looking for information that confirms what you already believe? That’s the confirmation bias at work. Here’s why it happens and how it affects how we think.
What Is Crystallized Intelligence? Definition and Examples
Crystallized intelligence is all about what you’ve learned. Here’s why the wisdom you’ve picked up along the way is so important.
Motivation Cycle: Definition, Stages, and Effects
The motivational cycle refers to the process where a need motivates a person to take action. This chronological cycle has four stages: need, drive, incentive, and reward. The motivational cycle is a framework that helps us understand how people become motivated and maintain that motivation to achieve their goals. Motivation drives our actions and decisions,…
What Is Functional Fixedness in Psychology?
Functional fixedness is when people can only think of traditional ways of using objects. It is a type of cognitive bias that prevents people from thinking outside of the box and developing creative solutions. When you have a particular tool, you might look at it in terms of how it is traditionally used. A screwdriver,…
What Is the Recency Effect? Definition and Examples
The recency effect shows how our memory is influenced by the most recent information. Discover how this cognitive bias shapes our perceptions and decision-making.
What Is Working Memory?
Working memory is a form of memory that temporarily holds information that a person needs to perform immediate mental tasks. It involves actively processing and manipulating information to perform activities like comprehending information, solving problems, and making decisions. Working memory is an executive function that plays an important role in many cognitive processes. It allows…
What Is Choice Blindness? Definition and Examples
Choice blindness is a psychological phenomenon in which people fail to notice a mismatch between their intended choice and the choice presented to them. In other words, it is a surprising tendency to be unaware that our choices and preferences have been changed or manipulated after we’ve already made a choice. This tendency suggests that…
What Is Self-Determination Theory?
Self-determination theory (SDT) is a framework for understanding human motivation that focuses on the importance of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Self-determination refers to individuals’ ability to control their actions and make choices aligned with their goals, needs, and values. Intrinsic motivation is another important component of self-determination theory. It is a type of motivation that…
What Is the Overjustification Effect?
When rewards backfire: how external incentives can drain natural motivation and alter our relationship with things we once loved doing.
What Is the Primacy Effect in Psychology?
The primacy effect is a cognitive phenomenon in which people tend to remember and give more importance to the initial information presented in a series of items, whether it be a list of words, a sequence of events, or other forms of communication. This effect suggests that information presented at the beginning of a series…
Short-Term Memory: How It Works and How to Improve It
Short-term memory (STM) is a type of memory that can hold a small amount of information for a limited period of time. The duration and capacity of short-term memory is quite limited, holding between five to nine pieces of information for around 20 to 30 seconds. You’ve probably experienced these limitations yourself many times. Consider…
What Is Self-Serving Bias? Examples and Definition
The self-serving bias involves taking credit for our success but blaming others for our failures. It’s why we might boast about our talents and hard work when things go our way but focus on external, situational factors when we don’t live up to expectations. For example, it’s why you might attribute your good score on…
Incentive Theory of Motivation: Definition and Uses
Incentive theory of motivation suggests that people are motivated by a need to obtain rewards or reinforcements. Rooted in behaviorism, this theory suggests that motivation arises from the desire to obtain rewards and avoid punishments. Incentive theory is just one of many theories psychologists have proposed to explain human motivation. Understanding this theory can give…