1. Unit 3: Learning, Memory, Thinking, and Language
Thinking (Cognition) definitions

2. Cognition Definition
Cognition, or thinking, refers to a process that involves knowing, understanding, remembering, problem solving and communicating.
OBJECTIVE 1| Define cognition.

3. Cognitive Psychology
Cognition involves a number of mental activities, which are listed below.
Concepts
Problem solving
Decision making
Judgment formation
Language
Memory

4. Schema or Concept
The mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people. There are a variety of chairs but their common features make up your CHAIR schema
OBJECTIVE 2| Describe the roles of categories, hierarchies, definitions, and prototypes in concept formation.

5. We organize concepts into category hierarchies.
Courtesy of Christine Brune

6. Schemata can get fuzzy Is a whale a mammal?
Are penguins and kiwis birds?
Are 17 year old people children or adults
People more easily detect male prejudice against females than female against males or female against female

7. Can I read your mind? State a color. Name or draw a triangle.
List the first type of vehicle that comes to mind.
Write a sentence
Describe a hero.
Describe a heroic act.
Name a game.
Name a philosopher.
Name an author.
Name a singer.

8. I gave schemata and tried to predict prototypes.
red or blue
a picture of an equilateral triangle
a car
a short declarative statement, e.g., “The boy ran home.”
Superman, Batman, or possibly a fireman
a single act by a male, e.g. a rescue by a fireman
monopoly or some other board game
Socrates or Aristotle
Stephen King, or some other white male author
Taylor Swift or Beyonce

9. Prototypes
A prototype is the BEST example or cognitive representation of something within a certain schema or concept.
Schema
List characteristics that make a place a college or university.
Prototype
Now list a specific college that BEST represents or embodies those characteristics.

10. Categories
Once we place an item in a category, our memory shifts toward the category prototype.
Courtesy of Oliver Corneille
A computer generated face that was 70 percent
Caucasian led people to classify it as Caucasian.

11. Schema
Developmental Psychologist Jean Piaget believed that children develop and modify schema by two processes:
Assimilation
Accommodation

12. Assimilation
Assimilation incorporates new experiences into existing mental structures and behaviors
Example: a toddler who has a chocolate lab at home would also incorporate Dalmatians into her schema of dog.
Assimilation lays the foundation for accomodation

13. Accommodation
Accommodation occurs when a child’s theories are modified based on an experience
Example- The baby with a theory of dogs is surprised the first time she sees a cat- it resembles a dog, but meows instead of barks and rubs up against her rather thank licking
The baby must REVISE her previous theory to include this new kind of animal

14. Why is this process important?
As adaptation continues, the child organizes his/her schemata into more complex mental representations, linking one schema with another.

15. Unit 3: Learning, Memory, Thinking, and Language
Problem-solving techniques

16. 4 Problem Solving Steps Define the Problem
Use that definition to decide what category a problem belongs to and then based on that
Select a solution strategy that would solve a problem in that category
Always evaluate progress toward goal

17. Possible Solution Strategies
Trial and error
Works best with limited number of choices
Information retrieval
Retrieve from memory information about how such a problem has been solved in the past
Algorithms
Step-by-step methods that guarantees a solution
Methodical, logical rules or procedures that guarantee solving a particular problem.
Math problems are an example of the type best solved using an algorithm
Heuristics
Rules of thumb that may help simplify a problem, but do not guarantee a solution.
They are quicker than algorithms

18. S P L O Y O C H Y G Algorithms
Algorithms, which are very time consuming, exhaust all possibilities before arriving at a solution. Computers use algorithms.
S P L O Y O C H Y G
If we were to unscramble these letters to form a word
using an algorithmic approach, we would face
907,208 possibilities.

19. Heuristics
In psychology, heuristics are simple, efficient rules, learned from experience, that people use to make decisions, come to judgments, and solve problems typically when facing complex problems or incomplete information.

20. Heuristic at work: Y’s usually go at the end of a word.
Heuristics
Heuristics make it easier for us to use simple principles to arrive at solutions to problems.
S P L O Y O C H Y G
P S L O Y O C H G Y
S P L O Y O C H G Y
P S Y C H O L O G Y
Heuristic at work: Y’s usually go at the end of a word.

21. Hill Climbing Heuristic
Move progressively closer to goal without moving backward

22. Sub-goals
Break large problem into smaller, more manageable ones, each of which is easier to solve than the whole problem

23. Means-end analysis
Aims to reduce the discrepancy between the current situation and the desired goal – subgoals not immediately in the solution direction are considered

24. Working backward
Work backward from the desired goal to the existing condition

25. Obstacles to Solving Problems
Motivation
Desire to solve a problem
Mental sets
Tendency to perceive and approach problems in certain ways
Functional fixedness
Tendency to see only a limited number of uses for an object

26. Motivation
If you don’t attempt to solve a problem you won’t.

27. Mental Set
“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”  Albert Einstein

28. Functional Fixedness
“I can only use it for this one thing!”