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COGNITION: THOUGHT. Introduction. What is Cognitive Psychology? Study of perception, learning, memory, thought, and language in knowledge acquisition. Cognitive Psychology. Assumptions Mental processes exist People are active processors Cognitive processes can be studied.
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Introduction What is Cognitive Psychology? • Study of perception, learning, memory, thought, and language in knowledge acquisition
Cognitive Psychology Assumptions • Mental processes exist • People are active processors • Cognitive processes can be studied
Concept Formation • Concepts: • Mental categories used to classify events and objects according to common properties • Concept Formation: • The way people organize and classify events and objects, usually to solve problems
Classification: Separating dissimilar events, finding commonalities, and then grouping similar items together Concept Formation One of These Things (Is Not Like The Others)
Concept Formation • “fuzzy concepts” • Concepts with unclear boundaries • Defined by using prototypes
Concept Formation and Stereotyping • Our natural tendency to form concepts and categorize leads to stereotyping • Eg. Sexism, racism, ageism • Only solution is to educate
Problem Solving • Problem solving • Confronting and resolving situations that require insight or determination of some unknown elements
How do we solve new Problems? • Learning Theory • Trial-and-error • Gestalt Theory • Insight • Information-Processing Theory • Purposeful registration and retrieval of information.
Approaches to Problem Solving • Algorithm • Strategy involving applying a set of rules until the problem is solved. • Guarantees a correct solution. • Impractical due to lack of rules in most situations and time demands.
Approaches to Problem Solving • Heuristic • Strategy that involves the use of flexible guidelines (rules of thumb) • Does not guarantee a correct solution • Efficient
Group Activity • Each group will be given three items. • Your task is to identify as many uses for each item as possible. • You will have 10 minutes. • Each group will report their results to the class.
Barriers to Problem Solving • Functional Fixedness • Inability to see that an object can have a function other than its stated or intended use. • Mental Set • Limited ways of thinking about possibilities. • Creativity involves breaking out of mental sets.
Creative Problem Solving • Creativity: • generating ideas that are original, novel, and appropriate. • Original responses: • do not copy or imitate another response • Novel responses • are new or have no precedent • Appropriate responses • are reasonable in terms of the situation
Ways of Thinking Convergent Thinking • Narrowing choices and alternatives to arrive at one answer. • Limits creativity • Example: • Where is the Eiffel Tower?
Ways of thinking Divergent thinking • Expanding options. • Facilitates creativity. • Example: • What would you say if you were a Cheerio?
Reasoning = purposeful process Allows us to: (a)generate logical ideas (b)evaluate situations (c)reach conclusions - Formal vs. informal REASONING
REASONING Formal • Information provided • Method available (e.g. algorithm) • One correct answer Informal • Information often missing • No method • Multiple solutions
LOGIC Logic: system of reasoning used to reach valid conclusions or make inferences Tools • Deductive Reasoning • Inductive Reasoning
DECISION MAKING • Decision making: assessing and choosing among alternatives • Trivial or complex
Uncertainty: Estimating Probabilities • Decisions can be based on:(a) formal logic (b) hypothesis, testing (c) an educated guess Educated Guess: making a decision based on knowledge from past experiences
Educated Guess Problems with Estimating Probabilities • Because of their mood or lack of attention, people may act irrationally, ignore key data, and make bad decisions
Barriers to Good Decision Making Gambler’s Fallacy: The belief that an event is more likely to occur if it has not recently occurred.
Barriers to Good Decision Making Belief in small numbers Decision based on a small number of observations
Barriers to Good Decision Making Availability heuristic Judging the probability of an event based on how easy it is to think of examples of it
Overconfidence Being so committed to one’s own ideas that one is often more confident than correct Barriers to Good Decision Making
Barriers to Good Decision Making Confirmation bias People cling to beliefs despite contradictory evidence
Barriers to Good Decision Making Fallacy of Composition: Belief that what is true of the parts is also true of the whole
Artificial Intelligence - definition • Artificial intelligence – a field that draws on concepts from both cognitive psychology and computer science to develop artificial systems that display some aspects of human-like intelligence
Limitations of AI • Well-defined and ill-defined problems • Computers do not define their own problems
Limitations of AI • Lack of common sense • computers do not have a referential context in which to interpret situations • Lack of creativity • Computers are programed by people and can not function independent of their programs
Neural Networks • Various bits of information are stored in different parts of the brain • A convergence zone is needed to mediate and organize the information located in various areas of the brain
Assignment #5 In your view, what are the advantages and disadvantages of a computer that can think like a human. ** Remember to include: Your full name, id, my name, course code (sec 30), date, and assignment #5. HAVE A GOOD WEEK!