Pscl 101: Thinking

mental concepts

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

algorithms

a systematic, step-by-step problem solving procedure that inevitably produces a solution; works if there is a well defined solution

heuristics

a mental shortcut or general rule of thumb that usually produces the correct answer with the minimum of cognitive resources being expended

insight

a leap in logic, in which one can see a connection between a problem and its solution; types include selective encoding, selective combination, and selective comparison

selective encoding

a leap of logic involving separating the relevant information from the irrelevant

selective combination

a leap of logic involving combining the relevant information in the right way to get the correct answer

selective comparison

a leap of logic in seeing a non-obvious relationship between old and new information; usually this involves using analogies

problems with insight

functional fixedness - the tendency to ignore other possible uses of an object when one already has a use in mind; confirmation bias - the tendency to seek information that supports the hypothesis and not to seek information that might disprove the hypothesis

representativeness heuristic

a shortcut in which people judge things by how closely they resemble a prototype or a generic example; people do not process how statistically likely the match is

availability heuristic

a shortcut in which judgments or frequency or probability are based on the ease with which pertinent instances are recalled; items that are more easily recalled are assumed to occur more often

anchoring and adjustment

a shortcut in which people make an estimate by choosing a starting point (anchor) and then compensating for the perceived difference between the starting point and the most likely answer (adjustment)

order effects

people can be affected by the ordering in which options occur; especially likely is a recency effect

framing effect

people tend to be influenced by the way the question is posed/worded

risk analysis

people avoid risk when trying to gain, but are risk-seeking when trying to avoid sure loss