Thinking and Thinking and Problem Problem SolvingSolving

CognitionCognition

Cognition – the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

How do we logically, or illogically, use all of our memories and experiences to solve problems, and make decisions and judgments?

Questions?Questions?What are concepts?How do we form new concepts?What strategies do we use to

solve problems?What obstacles hinder our

problem solving?How do we make judgments?

What Are Concepts?What Are Concepts?

Concepts – mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

IE. We’ve grouped all of memories and experiences of “chairs” into one group, and all of our memories and experiences of “dogs” into another…..therefore, when we come across a new object, we can easily define it by our pre-determined concepts and act accordingly

Forming New ConceptsForming New Concepts

Prototypes – a mental image or best example of each concept we have developedWe match new items to our mental prototypes

in order to allow or disallow items into our concept groupsOur concept of “dog” is defined by our

Golden Retriever. A new object we meet has four legs, a tail, barks, etc……compared to our mental image of a “dog”, it must also be a “dog”

Methods of Problem SolvingMethods of Problem Solving

Trial and Error – No organization, no preparation – try everything and anything until something works Thomas Edison tried thousands of light bulb

filaments before stumbling upon the one that worked

Methods of Problem SolvingMethods of Problem Solving

Algorithm – a step-by-step, procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

IE. Find another word using all the letters in SPLOYOCHYG. Try each letter in each position, resulting in 907,200 combinations, and then pick out the words that make sense. Step-by-step.

Methods of Problem SolvingMethods of Problem Solving

Heuristics –solve problems by adding common sense shortcuts to step-by-step procedures; speedier, but more error-prone than algorithms

Find another word using all the letters in SPLOYOCHYG. You know that no words start with YY, so eliminate all of those combinations, as well as all of the YG, YH, etc. You may miss some real words, but you get an approximation.

Methods of Problem SolvingMethods of Problem Solving

Insight – a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem.You’re stuck on a problem for a long time, then suddenly the pieces just fall together and you perceive a solution – “AHA !!”

Obstacles to Problem Obstacles to Problem SolvingSolving

Confirmation Bias – a tendency to search for answers and information that confirms one’s own preconceptions The defendant must be guilty because they are

of a certain race, gender, age, etc. Since all men are _______, then he must have done _________. You will look at all of the evidence with this in mind, and you will conclude guilt because it fits with what already “know”.

Obstacles to Problem Obstacles to Problem SolvingSolving

Fixation – the inability to see a problem from a new perspective

The solutions that worked in the past (mental set) often work on new problems, and if they don’t, we get frustrated and give up. So, “think outside of the box” (use a new approach).

Obstacles to Problem Obstacles to Problem SolvingSolving

Functional Fixedness –to think of things only in terms of their usual functionsMcGyver didn’t have this problem!!Not only can that old paint can hold paint,

but it could also be a candle holder, or the base of a light stand? Can’t get that screw loose with that screwdriver, then use a coin?

Making Decisions and Making Decisions and Forming JudgmentsForming Judgments

Representative Heuristics – judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes

IE. You have a mental prototype of college professors and short, slim, and intellectual. If someone tells you a story about a friend of theirs who is short, slim, and likes poetry, then asks you if you think they are a professor or a truck driver, which do you say?

Statistically, the friend would be a truck driver, but the description fits your prototype for a professor.

Making Decisions and Making Decisions and Forming JudgmentsForming Judgments

Availability Heuristic – making our judgments by estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory

IE. Bells and whistles accompany even small winnings at the casino, and the more often we hear them, the more we play. We judge our ability to win based on our most recent experiences and memories alone. If you’ve been attacked recently in a dark alley, now all dark ally’s are dangerous.

Making Decisions and Making Decisions and Forming JudgmentsForming Judgments

Overconfidence – the tendency to be more confident than correct – to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments

Making Decisions and Making Decisions and Forming JudgmentsForming Judgments

Framing – depending on the way an issue is posed can significantly affect our decisions and judgments

IE. You would decide that 75% lean meat was good, but decide that 25% fatty meat was bad. Birth control is great when presented as 95% effective, but not so great when presented as 5% failure rate. You have a 1 in 20 chance of dying is horrible, but a 10 in 200 chance is pretty slim.

Making Decisions and Making Decisions and Forming JudgmentsForming Judgments

Belief Bias – the tendency for one’s pre-existing beliefs to distort logical reasoning

Democrats support free speechDictators are not democratsConclusion - Dictators do not support

free speech

Belief Perseverance – clinging to one’s initial conceptions, even after the bias has been discreditedCapital Punishment – right or wrongNixon – good or badGlobal Warming – true or false

The best cure is to CONSIDER THE OPPOSITE!