The Cognitive Perspective

1. The Cognitive Perspective Unpacking the “Black Box” of the mind! http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_gilbert_researches_happiness.html

2. Cognitive Approach • Cognitive psychology is concerned with how people acquire, store, transform, use and communicate information. Cognitive psychologists rejected the behaviorist assumption that mental events or states were unsuitable for scientific research • Feature mental processing • Behavioral difficulties usually stem from a false perception of reality. • People develop ideas of the world and base their judgments on these perceptions. • Some view intellectual growth as stage related.

3. Cognitive • Cognitive psychology is concerned with how people acquire, store, transform, use and communicate information. Cognitive psychologists rejected the behaviorist assumption that mental events or states were unsuitable for scientific research • Feature mental processing • Behavioral difficulties usually stem from a false perception of reality. • People develop ideas of the world and base their judgments on these perceptions. • Some view intellectual growth as stage related.

4. Cognitive Theorists http://fates.cns.muskingum.edu/%7Epsych/psycweb/history/loftus.htm http://www.beckinstitute.org/Library/InfoManage/Guide.asp?FolderID=200&SessionID={2719AC5A-1B90-4789-8FF6-8FEA2636C029} Elizabeth Loftus Memory Aaron Beck CBT Judith Beck Cognitive Behavior Therapy http://www.rebt.ws/ Albert Ellis REBT Cognitive Therapy Edward Tolman Cognitive Mapping George A. Miller The Magic Number 7 +or- 2 http://fates.cns.muskingum.edu/%7Epsych/psycweb/history/tolman.htm#Theory http://www.musanim.com/miller1956/

5. Cognitive Structure • Thinking - How we form Concepts through the development of basic concepts, prototypes, schemas, and protocols. How we Problem Solve, using three steps. How we use the Three elements of Creative Thinking to produce valued outcomes in a novel way.

6. Thinking and Reasoning

7. The Elements of Cognition • Think about what thinking does for you… Concept - a mental category that groups objects, relations, activities, abstractions, or qualities having common properties. Pizza, Enchilada, Double Double… are instances of the concept FOOD. Basicconcepts have a moderate number of instances thus making them easier to grasp than those with numerous instances. Apple is more BASIC than the concept Fruit. It is also more basic than Macintosh Apple which is more specific.

8. How do we use concepts • Concepts cannot simply be layered one on another. We must see their relationship to one another. • Propositions - one way of storing and using concepts. They express a unitary idea based on the concept. They are connected through complicated networks of knowledge, association, belief and expectations.

9. The Elements of Cognition • Prototype - is a representative example of a concept. Which fruit is Fruitier? Apple / Pineapple Which dog is doggier? Golden Retriever / Chihaua Which is more sportier? Football / Weight Lifting • Propositions - units of meaning that are made up of concepts and that express a single idea. Knowledge: Sami raises horses. Belief: palominos are beautiful

10. Developing Concepts • Hierarchies: when an object fits into more than one category. We organize the object, bird as a basic level between animal and parakeet and chicken.

11. Mental Images • Visual Images - What Shakespeare called ‘the minds eye’ • How do we measure it? One way is to see how long it takes a subject to mentally rotate an image. Small ones contains less detail than larger ones. They occur in a mental “space” of a fixed size.

12. Sound can be an image too. • A song • Slogan • Poem You can hear them in your minds ear… BZZZZZZzzzzzzz *What about other sensory modalities: Touch, Taste, Smell, or Pain.

13. Mental ImageryKinesthetic images (feelings in the muscles and joints) • When an athlete imagines herself diving or sprinting, performance seems to be improved (Druckman & Swets, 1988). • Brain scans show that mental practice of this sort activates most of the brain circuits involved in the activity itself (Stephan et al.,1995)

14. Problem Solving,Three Steps to a Goal

15. Creative Thinking You must use no more than 4 lines to connect all the dots without removing your pencil from the paper. Copy the diagram on a piece of paper.

16. Step 1: Preparation • Identifying given facts • Separating relevant from irrelevant facts • Defining the ultimate goal

17. Production • Algorithm (Formal) Step by Step procedure that always produces the solution. Math problems and Computer. Inductive: based on premise that has a probable conclusion… P. all cows are mamals and have lungs. P. All whales are mammals and have lungs. P. All humans are mammals and have lungs. Conclusion: therefore, probably all mammals have lungs. *good rest. Deductive: based on drawing conclusions from set propositions (premise)… P. All humans are mortal. P. I am a human. Conclusion: therefore I am mortal. *syllogism never work sat. • Heuristic (Informal) Rule of thumb, shortcut, usually lead to a solution. MEANS – END ANALYSIS, WORKING BACKWARD AND CREATING SUBGOALS

18. Evaluation • If one or more hypotheses meet the criteria, defined in step 1, the problem is solved. • Action must follow the solution. DONALD +GERALD ROBERT

19. HEURISTICS • Means-end: What reduces the difference between given state and goal. (Get A) • Working backward: Start with a solution to a known condition and develop a plan. (Set standard) • Creating subgoals: Large, complex problems broke down to smaller goals. Stepping stones… (Writing Process)

20. Solution 5 2 6 4 8 5 +1 9 7 4 8 5 7 2 3 9 7 0 Algorithm or heuristic?

21. Confirmation Bias - the tendency to notice and accept evidence that confirms what we already believe and ignore or reject information that disconfirms our ideas. If a card has a vowel on one side, then it has an even number on the other side. Which two cards do you need to turn over to find out? E J 6 7

22. Barriers to Problem Solving • Mental Sets: Applying methods that have worked in the past rather than trying innovative ones. • Functional Fixedness: Inability to recognize novel uses for an object because they are so familiar with its common use. • Confirmation Bias: The tendency to seek out and pay attention to information that confirms existing positions or beliefs while at the same time ignoring contradictory information.

23. Cognitive Dissonance • Need to justify choice: buyer’s remorse, Marian Keech • Actions Violate your self – concept: honesty / lie cultural, Obama • A lot of effort (passion) into a decision (SCHEMA), only to find results are less than you hoped for or disprove your belief: hazing, job choice or big life decisions, the priest said…

25. Incubation • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_(ape) • Kohler, Wilhelm

26. Creative Thinking,The Three Elements • Originality Seeing unique different solutions to problems • Fluency Generating a large number of possible solutions • Flexibility Shifting with ease from one type of problem-solving strategy to another *Divergent thinking is generally related to Creativity. Convergent thinking is considered more conventional.

27. Measuring Creativity * Divergent thinking is generally related to Creativity. Convergent thinking is considered more conventional. Divergent thinking is when many possibilities are developed from a single starting point. Convergent thinkingor Conventional thinking is the opposite of Divergent. In this case lines of thinking converge on the answer and we select a single correct solution from several alternatives.

28. Three General Qualities of Creativity • Nonconformity • Curiosity • Persistence

29. Creative People • Intellectual Ability: Just enough intelligence to see problems in new light. • Knowledge: Basic knowledge of the problem to effectively evaluate solutions. • Thinking Style: Pursue own novel ideas and distinguish between the worthy and worthless. • Personality: Willing to grow and change, take risks, and work to overcome obstacles. • Motivation: Sufficient motivation to accomplish the task; internal rather than external motivation is best (internal locus). • Environment: Work in an environment that supports creativity.

30. Test your Creativity • In five minutes, see how many words you can make out of the following word. HIPPOPOTAMUS

31. By moving only two coins, form two rows that each contain 6 Coins.