Chapter 10 Thinking and Language: Cognition, Problem Solving, and Causes of Irrationality

1. Chapter 10 Thinking and Language: Cognition, Problem Solving, and Causes of Irrationality

2. The Cognitive Perspective • Cognition refers to mental activities associated with processing, interpreting, understanding, and communicating information. • Cognitive Psychologystudies: • Concept Formation • Problem Solving • Decision Making • Judgment Formation

3. How We Think For Classification/Efficiency Purposes Humans Create: • Symbols: object or an act that stands for something else • Think about things that are not present

4. How We Think For Classification /Efficiency Purposes Humans Create: • Concepts: mental grouping of similar objects , events, ideas, or people. • Concepts are often organized into hierarchies.

5. Types of Concepts

6. Prototype Activity (Myers)

7. How We Think Humans usually form concepts by creating a: • Prototype: mental image or best example of a category. Allows us to incorporate items easily. To most people, a robin is “birdier” than a Penguin

8. An Item’s Failure To Match A Prototype Leads to Trouble Classifying It.

9. Methods of Problem Solving 2. Algorithm: methodical, logical pattern or procedure that guarantees a solution to a particular problem. • Looks at all possible combinations or has a SPECIFIC FORMULA to solve the problem.

10. Methods of Problem Solving 3. Heuristics: mental shortcut, rule of thumb strategies which allow us to solve problems efficiently and usually quickly. • Short-cuts that involve our preconceptions. Who would you rather have baby sit your child? Answer is based on your heuristic for appearance.

11. Algorithms vs. Heuristics • Unscramble S P L O Y O C H Y G -Algorithms go through all 907,208 combinations -Heuristics would take out YY, etc. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0xgjUhEG3U

12. Algorithms vs. Heuristics • Advantages and Disadvantages?

13. Methods of Problem Solving 1. Trial and Error: guess and check

14. Methods of Problem Solving • Insight: sudden realization of how to solve a problem without a real strategy involved. • The Light-Bulb going off when you get an idea. • “A-ha moment”

15. Kohler’s Chimpanzee Study Illustrates Insight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPz6uvIbWZE

16. Kohler and Chimp Insight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPz6uvIbWZE

17. Kohler and Chimp Insight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcMI1NAew3o

18. Insight Problems PowerPoint

19. Obstacles to Problem Solving • Confirmation Bias: human tendency to search for information that confirms your preconceptions (we don’t search out information that refutes them) • Saddam Hussein & WMDs • Your own examples?

20. Child Custody Handout (Myers)

21. Obstacles to Problem Solving • Fixation: refers to the inability to see a problem from a new perspective. How would you arrange six matches to form 4 equal lateral triangles?

22. Solution to Matchstick Problem

23. Obstacles to Problem Solving • Mental Set: tendency to approach a particular problem in a particular way. • You usually use strategies that have been successful in the past at solving problems even though it may not be most efficient strategy for the new problem.

25. The Three Jugs Problem

26. Solution to the Jugs Problem • B-A-2C=desired amount of water. • Problem 6 & 7 had easier solutions though which were probably blocked by mental set.

27. 6 & 7 Solution

28. Candle Mounting Problem Using these materials, how would you mount the candle on a bulletin board?

29. Candle Mounting Solution Inability to solve this problem may result from functional fixedness. Have to recognize that a box need not always serve as a container

30. Obstacles to Problem Solving • Functional Fixedness:tendency to think of objects only in terms of their usual functions. CAN EQUAL

31. Overconfidence We tend to overconfident in our thinking and our decision making because we: • do not realize how flimsy our evidence is • ignore examples that conflict with our opinions. • tend to bring about things they believe in.

32. Overconfidence Can you think of a time you were overconfident in a decision/answer? Examples from history…

33. Possible Obstacles to Problem Solving • Representative Heuristic: is a MENTAL SHORTCUT for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to match our prototypes. • May lead us to make incorrect assumptions.

34. Possible Obstacles to Problem Solving • A stranger tells you about a person who is short, slim, and likes to read poetry. Is this person more likely to be a professor or a truck driver?

35. Example of Representative Heuristic Errors • Below is Fred. He is muscle-bound, uses steroids, and enjoys getting into fights. Is he more likely to be a high school teacher or a wrestler from the WWE.

36. Possible Obstacles to Problem Solving • Availability Heuristic: is a MENTAL SHORTCUT where we judge the likelihood of an event based on how readily the event comes to mind. • What types of things can effect the availability of things in our memory? • Is the letter k more likely to occur as the first or third letter in a word?

37. Availability Heuristic Can Lead Us to Irrationally Fear Things Which Are Unlikely. • EX: People tend to be more fearful of the dangers of airplane travel than of traveling in an automobile. • EX: People tend to be more fearful of being raped by a stranger even though it is more likely they will be raped by someone they know.

38. Discovering Psychology Movie on Decision Making and Judgment(15 min.)