Human Cognition Reason without Rationality?

1. Human CognitionReason without Rationality?

3. Hermit Crab • An arthropod in a mollusk shell. • The shell evolved for a different organism than the crab carrying it down the beach. • Similarly, our brains have evolved to serve the needs of our ancestors over the last half billion years, not just the last six million.

4. Satisfycing • Find solutions that are “good-enough”, not necessarily the best possible. • Sign of evolution – organisms often show poor design. • Panda’s thumb.

7. Fast and frugal heuristics • ecologically rational (exploit information from the environment) • use evolved capacities such as memory and the perceptual system • fast, frugal, and simple • work when time & knowledge are limited • model both good and poor reasoning

8. Which is larger? • München or Aachen? • 1,353,186 vs. 258,664 • Köln or Freiburg? • 1,007,119 vs. 224,191 • Nürnbergor Dortmund? • 505,664 vs. 588,735 • Dresden or Bremen? • 523,058 vs. 547,340

9. Which is larger? • Houston or Philadelphia? • 2,160,821 vs. 1,547,607 • Phoenix or San Diego? • 1,488,750 vs. 1,338,348 • San Jose or San Francisco? • 982,765 vs. 825,863 • Saint Louis or Wichita? • 318,172 vs. 385,577

10. Have you ever? • Shaken Barack Obama’s hand? • Passed Erin Anderson on campus?

11. Aunt Martha & Alzheimer’s

12. Heuristics and Biases. • Is the symptom associated with the disease?

13. Heuristics and Biases. • Expected = (row_total * col_total)/overall total

14. Heuristics and Biases. Someone drawn at random from a population of 30% lawyers and 70% engineers. Which is he?

15. Heuristics and Biases. • A fair coin is tossed six times. • Which sequence is most likely? • H-T-H-T-T-H • H-H-H-T-T-T • H-H-H-H-T-H

16. Heuristics and Biases. • Praise for an exceptionally smooth landing is usually followed by a poorer landing on the next try, while criticism for a rough landing is usually followed by improvement on the next try. • Therefore praise is detrimental to learning while criticism is beneficial.

17. Empirical bias. • Rejection of problem information: • All people who live in Monrovia are married. • Kemu is not married. • Does she live in Monrovia? • Yes. Monrovia is not for any one kind of people, so Kemu came to live there.

18. Empirical bias. • Importing new evidence: • All who own houses pay house tax. • Boimadoesn’t pay house tax. • Does he own a house? • Boima has a house but he’s exempted from paying house tax. The government appointed Boimatax collector so they exempted him from paying the tax.

19. Empirical bias. • Evaluating own knowledge: • In the far north, all bears are white. • Bolshevik Island is in the far north. • What color are the bears there? • You should ask the people who have been there and seen them, we always speak of only what we see.

20. Empirical bias. • The unschooled resist, the schooled acquiesce: • question premises, • add new ones, • test conclusions against knowledge, • qualify own judgment.

21. Empirical bias. • Absurd premises invite resistance. • Here, being illogical is sensible. • Passively accepting premises may work at school, but not in the real world.

22. Puzzler from Car Talk • There are three switches in one room that control three light bulbs in another room. • Each switch controls one bulb. • Can’t see from switch room to bulb room. • How do you figure out which switch controls which bulb in one trip from the switch room to the bulb room? 

24. Insight into a Reasoning Task • Set of cards with letter on one side and number on the other. • Rule: If there is a vowel on one side, there is an even number on the other. • What cards do you turn over to test the rule?

27. Insight into a Reasoning Task • You are from the liquor control board enforcing the ban on underage drinking. • You have to enforce the rule If someone is drinking a beer, s/he is over 21. • Who do you have to ask for an id or check to see what they are drinking?