Thinking and Problem Solving

Cognition Cognition – the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating How do we logically, or illogically, use all of our memories and experiences to solve problems, and make decisions and judgments?

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, and all of our memories and experiences of “dogs” into another…..therefore, 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”

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

Methods of Problem Solving Algorithm – a step-by-step, 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.

Methods of Problem Solving Heuristics –solve problems 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 !!”

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 –to think of things only in terms of their usual functions McGyver didn’t have this problem!! Not only can that old paint can hold paint, but it could also be a candle holder, or the base of a light stand? Can’t get that screw loose with that screwdriver, then use a coin?

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

IE. You have a mental prototype of college professors and short, slim, and intellectual. If someone tells you a story about a friend of theirs who is short, slim, and likes poetry, then asks you if you think they are a professor or a truck driver, which do you say? Statistically, the friend would 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 IE. Bells and whistles accompany even small winnings at the casino, and the more often we hear them, the more we play. We judge our ability to win based on our most recent experiences and memories alone. If you’ve been attacked recently in a dark alley, now all dark ally’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 IE. You would decide that 75% lean meat was good, but decide that 25% fatty meat was bad. Birth control is great when presented as 95% effective, but not so great when presented as 5% failure rate. You have a 1 in 20 chance of dying is horrible, but a 10 in 200 chance is pretty slim.

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

Belief Perseverance – clinging to one’s initial conceptions, even after the bias has been discredited Capital Punishment – right or wrong Nixon – good or bad Global Warming – true or false The best cure is to CONSIDER THE OPPOSITE!