Thinking and Problem Solving

Cognition – the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Questions? What are concepts? How do we form new concepts? What strategies do we use to solve problems? What obstacles hinder our problem solving? How do we make judgments?

What Are Concepts? Concepts – mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, or people IE. We’ve grouped all of memories and experiences of “chairs” into one group, when we come across a new object, we can easily define it by our pre-determined concepts and act accordingly

Forming New Concepts Prototypes – a mental image or best example of each concept we have developed We match new items to our mental prototypes in order to allow or disallow items into our concept groups Our concept of “dog” is defined by our Golden Retriever. A new object we meet has four legs, a tail, barks, etc……compared to our mental image of a “dog”, it must also be a “dog”

Problem Solving The Tower of Hanoi…what’s your strategy?

http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/hanoi.swf

Methods of Problem Solving Trial and Error – Thomas Edison tried thousands of light bulb filaments before stumbling upon the one that worked No organization, no preparation – try everything and anything until something works

Methods of Problem Solving Algorithm – a methodical, step-by-step, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem IE. Find another word using all the letters in SPLOYOCHYG. Try each letter in each position, resulting in 907,200 combinations, and then pick out the words that make sense. Step-by-step…eventually, you’ll get it!

…it might take a while, but you’ll eventually solve the problem…

Methods of Problem Solving Heuristics – a simple, thinking-strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently by adding common sense shortcuts to step-by-step procedures; speedier, but more error-prone than algorithms Find another word using all the letters in SPLOYOCHYG. You know that no words start with YY, so eliminate all of those combinations, as well as all of the YG, YH, etc. You may miss some real words, but you get an approximation.

Methods of Problem Solving Insight – a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem. You’re stuck on a problem for a long time, then suddenly the pieces just fall together and you perceive a solution – “AHA !!”

Two “Na” Fish = Tuna Fish! Rebus …great for Aha! Moments. Sudden insight triggers release of Dopamine in your brain’s reward pathways! Two “Na” Fish = Tuna Fish! Click for a few more!

Obstacles to Problem Solving Confirmation Bias – a tendency to search for answers and information that confirms one’s own preconceptions The defendant must be guilty because they are of a certain race, gender, age, etc. Since all men are _______, then he must have done _________. You will look at all of the evidence with this in mind, and you will conclude guilt because it fits with what already “know”.

Obstacles to Problem Solving Fixation – the inability to see a problem from a new perspective The solutions that worked in the past (mental set) often work on new problems, and if they don’t, we get frustrated and give up. So, “think outside of the box” (use a new approach).

Obstacles to Problem Solving Functional Fixedness – the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions McGyver didn’t have this problem!! Click Him!

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments Representative Heuristics – judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes short, slim, and likes poetry College professor or Truck Driver??

You have a mental prototype of college professors and short, slim, and intellectual. Statistically, the man would probably be a truck driver, but the description fits your prototype for a professor.

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments Availability Heuristic – making our judgments by estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory Which is more dangerous –flying in an airplane or walking across the street? Odds of dying in airplane – 1 in 110,000 Walking across the street – 1 in 625 If you’ve been attacked recently in a dark alley, now all dark alley’s are dangerous…

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments Overconfidence – the tendency to be more confident than correct – to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments Framing – depending on the way an issue is posed can significantly affect our decisions and judgments Which would you buy? 80% Lean! 20% Fat! 5% Failure Rate! 95% Success Rate!

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments Belief Bias – the tendency for one’s pre-existing beliefs to distort logical reasoning Democrats support free speech Dictators are not democrats Conclusion - Dictators do not support free speech Our beliefs sometimes cloud our logical thinking

Belief Perseverance – clinging to one’s initial conceptions, even after the bias has been discredited Columbus KNEW he found a passage to the Indies even though he returned without any spices or gold! …he never knew he actually found a new continent!