Cognition AP Psych

Concepts Cognition – all mental activities associated with thinking Concepts – mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, and people. Because of concepts, it takes little time to identify each object

Prototypes Prototypes – mental image that incorporates all the features we associate with a category We use prototypes to make concepts The more closely something matches our prototype, the more quickly we identify

Write down the first thing that comes to mind for each category! 1. A bird 2. A color 3. A triangle (Drawing a picture is fine) 4. A motor vehicle 5. A sentence 6. A Hero 7. A heroic action 8. A game 9. A philosopher 10. A writer

I am going to predict most of your answers! 1. A robin, sparrow, or eagle 2. Red or Blue 3. A picture of an equilateral triangle 4. A car 5. A short declarative statement: “the boy ran home” 6. Superman, Batman or a fireman 7. A single act by a male: Rescue by a fireman 8. Monopoly or some other board game 9. Socrates or Aristotle 10. Stephen King or some other white male author.

Prototype Activity Explained We tend to think in terms or the best example of a category or prototype. Within a given culture there tends to be considerable agreement or near consensus on some prototypes.

Problem Solving Algorithms – Step by step procedures that guarantee a solution Step by step algorithms can be time consuming and exasperating Heuristic – a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently Quicker than algorithms but more error-prone than algorithms

Insight Insight – a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem This is the Aha moment! The maker doesn’t want it, the buyer doesn’t use it, and the user doesn’t see it. What is it? By moving only one glass, can you arrange them so that the full and empty glasses alternate?

Creativity Creativity – The ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable Robert Sternberg who researched creativity came up with 5 components of creativity

Components of Creativity 1.Expertise – a well- developed base of knowledge, furnishes the ideas, images, and phrases we use as mental building blocks. 2.Imaginative Thinking Skills – provide the ability to see thing in novel ways, to recognize patterns, and to make connections

Components of Creativity Cont’d 3. A venturesome personality – seeks new experiences, tolerates ambiguity and risk, and perseveres in overcoming obstacles. - Not afraid to sometimes fail 4. Intrinsic motivation – is being driven more by interest, satisfaction, and challenge rather than by external pressures

Components of Creativity Cont’d 5. A creative environment – it sparks, supports, and refines creative ideas. Creativity fostering environments often support contemplation.

Obstacles to problem solving Confirmation bias - We seek evidence verifying our ideas more eagerly than evidence that might refute them. Fixation – the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set How would you arrange six matches to form four equilateral triangles?

Types of Fixation Mental Set – tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past Functional fixedness – our tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; impeding our problem solving Using these materials, how would you mount the candle on a bulletin board?

Decision making and judgment Our minds automatic processing uses heuristics to make quick judgment decisions, but sometimes quick decisions can lead us to make bad decisions Representative heuristic – judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match particular prototypes; this may lead us to ignore other relevant information We may use this to override statistics or logic. The problem is, I can’t tell the difference between a deeply wise, intuitive nudge from the universe and one of my own bone-headed ideas!

Decision making and judgment cont’d The availability 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 Ex. Casinos make a big deal about even small wins so that we are more likely to remember them than the losses which occur more often.

Availability heuristic example

Decision making and judgment cont’d Overconfidence – the tendency to be more confident than correct – to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments We fail to appreciate our potential for error

Belief Perseverance Belief perseverance – clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed have been discredited During jury selection before a trial, they try to eliminate belief perseverance or pre-judgments I’m happy to say my final judgment of a case is always consistent with my prejudgment.

Intuition An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought. Not explicit, conscious reasoning.

Intuition When faced with complex choices the best solution comes after one is distracted and then comes back to the problem – “Sleep on it”

A bat and a ball cost 1.10 in total. The bat cost a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

The answer is 1.05 for the bat and.05 for the ball. Its ok 50% of Princeton students get this question wrong! – They get this question wrong because they usually go with their intuition!

A man bought a horse for $60 and sold it for $70. Then he bought the same horse back for $80 and again sold it, for $90. How much money did he make in the horse business?

Most people say $10. The correct answer is $20.

Framing The way an issue is posed. – 10% of people die while undergoing this surgery – 90% of people survive while undergoing this surgery. Can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Framing examples Aid to the needy not welfare. Stores mark their “regular prices” up to appear to have huge savings.