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Page 1: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Unit 7BThinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language

Monday, November 18, 2013

Page 2: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Concepts Cognition: the mental activities

associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating Studied by cognitive psychologists

Concepts: mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, or people helps simplify things Give us a lot of information with little

cognitive effort

Page 3: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Concepts Example: Chair

Many different types—high chair, reclining chair, dentist chair—but it’s their common features—meant for sitting—that define the concept of chair

What would life be without concepts?

Page 4: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Concepts To further simplify things, we organize

concepts into category hierarchies

Once we perceive something, we also identify it’s category

Page 5: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Concepts Ways to form concepts:

By definition Example: told that a triangle has 3 sides =

classify all 3-sided geometric forms as triangles Developing prototypes (a mental image or

best example) Most common way of forming a concept The more closely something matches our

prototype of a concept, the more readily we recognize it as an example of the concept

Example: Picture a bird.

Page 6: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Which matches your prototype more?

Page 7: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Concepts Once we place an item in a category,

our memory of it later shifts toward the category prototype Example: Shown an ethnically mixed face

(70% Asian, 30% Caucasian), people categorized the face as Asian but later recalled it being a more prototypically Asian face then it was (90% Asian rather than 70%)

Page 8: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Concepts Concepts speed and guide thinking, but

don’t always make us wise Example:

Prototype of prejudice = white against black, male against female Prejudice that goes the other way is often

overlooked

Page 9: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Solving Problems Strategies

1. Trial and error2. Algorithms—methodical, logical rules

or procedures that guarantee solving a particular problem

3. Heuristics—simple thinking strategies that often allow us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently

Page 10: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Solving Problems Insight—a sudden and often novel

realization of the solution to a problem Contrasts with strategy-based solutions Some animals also use insight

Example: Sultan the chimpanzee http

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPz6uvIbWZE

Page 11: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Solving Problems Brain Teasers

The maker doesn’t want it, the buyer doesn’t use it, and the user doesn’t see it. What is it?

A man left home one morning. He turned right and ran straight ahead. Then he turned left. after a while, He turned left again, running faster then ever. Then he turned left once more and decided to go home. In the distance he could see two masked men waiting for him. Who were they?

Page 12: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Solving Problems Activity:

You have two minutes to come up with as many uses of a paper clip as you can.

Page 13: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Solving Problems Activity results

You just took a creativity test Add up the total # of uses and divide by

two 4 is average, 8 is high

Page 14: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Solving Problems Creativity—the ability to produce novel

and valuable ideas Not related to IQ

IQ tests measure convergent thinking Creativity tests measure divergent thinking

Page 15: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Solving Problems Components of Creativity:

1. Expertise2. Imaginative thinking skills3. Venturesome personality4. Intrinsic motivation5. Creative environment

Page 16: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Solving Problems Obstacles to Problem Solving

Confirmation bias—a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence Example: WMD in Iraq

Fixation—the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set

Page 17: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Solving Problems Examples of Fixation:

Mental set: a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past

Funcitonal fixedness—the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions

Page 18: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Solving Problems What are the final three letters in the

following sequence? O-T-T-F-?-?-?

Page 19: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Solving Problems What are the last three letters in the

following sequence? J-F-M-A-?-?-?

Page 20: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Making Decisions and Forming Judges Representaiveness heuristic—judging the

likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes May lead us to ignore other relevant information

Availabilty heuristic—estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory If instances come readily to mind, we presume

such events to be common

Page 21: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Making Decisions and Forming Judges Which are you more afraid of: car

accident, being murdered, terrorist attack, or choking?

Page 22: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Making Decisions and Forming Judges Overconfidence—the tendency to be

more confident than correct—to over-estimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments

Belief perserverance—clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

Page 23: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Making Decisions and Forming Judges Intuition—an effortless, immediate,

automatic feeling or thought Usually enables us to react quickly and

adaptively

Page 24: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Thinking: Making Decisions and Forming Judges Framing—the way an issue is posed

Example: Which sounds more dangerous? 10% of people die while undergoing a

particular surgery 90% of people survive a particular surgery

Page 25: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Review http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKTA

UcoKCLo

Page 26: Unit 7B Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language Monday, November 18, 2013

Exit Slip Answer the following questions. Put answers on

front table before you leave.1. Give an example of a concept.2. People are more concerned about a medical

procedure when told it has a 10% death rate than they are when told it has a 90% survival rate. What is this an example of?

3. What is the inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective called?

4. Why do people often underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete a project?


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