1. Cognition
mental activities associated with thinking, reasoning, knowing, remembering, and communicating

2. Thinking Occurs on three levels: conscious processes
thinking we are consciously aware of
sub-conscious processes
thinking which lies just outside of our consciousness
helps prevent overload
non-conscious processes
thinking which occurs outside and is not available to our conscious awareness
why things “pop into our head”

3. Elements of Thinking Concept Prototype
mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people (category)
Prototype
mental image or best example of a concept (category)

4. Types of Thinking Reasoning
Purposeful mental activity that involves operating on information in order to reach conclusions or problem-solve.

5. Types of Reasoning Formal Reasoning Informal Reasoning
based on specific knowledge and information with one single best answer
algorithm: step by step procedures that guarantee a solution
Informal Reasoning
possible solutions based on personal experience and things familiar with
heuristic: a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements
I before e except after C
dialectical reasoning: pros and cons of a situation

6. Types of Reasoning Insight (Intuition)
sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem
Critical Thinking

7. Barriers to Reasoning Confirmation Bias
tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions
Fixation
inability to see a problem from a new perspective
Functional Fixedness
tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions

8. Barriers to Reasoning Exaggerating the Improbable
inclination to exaggerate the probability of very rare events
Hindsight Bias
“I knew it all the time”

9. Barriers to Reasoning Representativeness Heuristic
judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes

10. Barriers to Reasoning Availability Heuristic
estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory

11. Barriers to Reasoning Framing Overconfidence
tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments
Framing
how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments

12. Barriers to Reasoning Belief Perseverance
clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited