Post on 28-Dec-2015
Thinking IS Cognition
• Primarily a frontal lobe activity– Drawing info from throughout the brain
(memory) and then working with it– Process, understand, and communicate info
Concepts Redux
• Mental groupings of similar objects, events, people/animals can be organized using a ___________________ to simplify
• Concepts: mental category that groups things– Superordinate – PRODUCE– Basic – APPLES– Subordinate – GRANNY SMITH APPLES
• Prototypes: best example of a concept– Apples (basic) – prototype (_____?_____)– Bird (basic) – prototype (______?_____)
• Schema – mental framework, paradigm, model
Concept vs. Prototype vs. Schema
• Concepts may be formed by definitions– Four legged, furry things that bark are dogs
• The more complex our schema about a concept, the more complex our thinking is about it– Cats may first be thought of as dogs, but later
we debate whether a wolf is a dog or if there is a bigger concept group, including both - canine
Solving Problems
• Algorithms– Systematically try every possibility– Slow but extremely accurate– Ex: locker combinations– More suited to computers than humans
• Examples from stations?
• Heuristics:– Mental shortcuts that arrive at a solution using
past experience– Short cut that may not offer a solution– Ex: looking both ways before crossing the
street, what you do when the power goes out
• Functional fixation:– Seeing a tool as only have one function– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09UlB17cg
Kw
• Mental set:– Repeating problem solving techniques that
have worked in the past, but don’t work now
• Breaking set– Looking at the problem differently or trying
unique solutions
Heuristics
• Representative heuristic:– Prototype to make decisions about things,
people, or animals– Who was a cheerleader, Cameron Diaz or
Janet Reno?
Heuristics
• Availability heuristic:– Using most vivid memory to make judgments– We may be afraid to go to certain parts of DC,
yet we eat at McDonalds. Which is more likely to hurt you?
Overconfidence Effect
• Because of our tendency for confirmation bias, belief bias, and use of heuristics, we often are more sure of our decisions than we are correct
Overconfidence: Which death is more likely?
• Deaths: All accidents combined vs. Strokes
• 35,900,000 vs. 61,400,000• Deaths: Homicide vs. Diabetes
• 5,700,000 vs. 23,600,000• Crime rates: Detroit vs. San Juan
• 572 vs. 665• Manhattan vs. Gary, Indiana
• 184 vs. 556
Framing
• The way a question is asked will affect our decisions and judgments (how is this like memory?)
• In which case would you buy a ticket for a concert for a band you’re dying to see?– Go to the venue and find you’ve lost $150 dollar ticket– Go to the venue and find you lost $150 dollars from
your wallet
Belief Bias
• We more easily see as logical support for currently held belief and see illogic of arguments that contradict our belief– Gun control debates, much?
• Believe perseverance: it takes OVERWHELMING evidence to “break” us of a belief – can be very damaging– Have teachers slotted you based on non-academic
criteria before? How about based on your performance in 1st and 2nd grade that determined the rest of your schooling experience?
Creativity
• Novel and useful
• Divergent and convergent thinking– Which one explains answering a multiple
choice question using process of elimination?
• IQ and creativity?– Weak positive correlation
Are right brained people going to rule the world?
• Reese’s Peanut Butter – Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJLDF6qZUX0
River Crossing Problem
• http://www.smart-kit.com/s888/river-crossing-puzzle-hard/