PSYC UNIT 2 COGNITION

Cognitive psychology

the study of unobservable mental information and processes

Cognition

way in which information is processed and manipulated in remembering, thinking, and knowing

Thinking

The mental manipulation of representations of information we encounter in our environment

Schemas

Mental structures that organize prior knowledge and experiences to help us understand information and guide behavior.

Person schema

Ideas and expectations about a particular person or type of person.

Role schema

Expectations about how someone should behave based on their role.

Event schema

Expectations about how a familiar event usually happens, like eating at a restaurant.

Means-end analysis

compare your current state to the goal state (end state)

• “What means do I have to make my current state more like my goal state?”

Working backwards

Starting with the goal and figuring out the steps needed to get there.

Using an analogy

Solving a problem by applying the solution to a similar problem.

Functional fixedness

Focusing on an object's usual use and failing to see other ways it could be used.

Decision making

evaluating alternatives and choosing among them

• Maximize outcome

heuristics

rule of thumb (or informal guideline) used to reduce the amount of thinking. Not always rational process (costs/benefit analysis)

Availability heuristic

when we make a judgement or decision based on information that comes most easily to mind

• If instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common

Examples:

• Tversky & Kahneman (1973)

• More common: words that start with “r” or have “r” as the 3^rd letter?

• Uncommon events: Plane crashes, shark attacks, slot machine wins

Representativeness heuristic

determining an object, person, event belongs to a category (Judgement of likelihood) based on how similar it is that category

• Compare to prototypes

- place in category if similar to what’s typical of that concept

Can lead to faulty reasoning if we fail to take other information into account (e.g., the base rate).

Base rate

how frequently an event occurs

Affective heuristic

predictions about future emotions may be inaccurate

Affective forecasting

predicting how one will feel in the future after some event or decision

• Tend to correctly predict if we’ll feel positive or negative BUT…

impact bias

overestimate the intensity of future feelings

Durability bias

how long we’ll feel an emotion (duration)

Framing

how information is presented affects how that information is perceived and influences decisions.

• 90% success rate of a surgery VS. presented as 10% fatality rate

• Ground beef: 75% lean VS. 25% fat

Paradox of choice

when too many options are available, especially when all of them are attractive, we experience conflict and indecision

• jam study: Display with more jam samples: attracted more customers, but did not sell more product

Confirmation bias

tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

• E.g someone accepts an article that supports their views, but dismisses evidence that goes against the belief

• People can have better memory for confirming evidence

General intelligence

one general factor underlies intelligence

• Associated with positive life outcomes

fluid intelligence

the ability to process information, particularly in novel or complex circumstances

• Eg. processing speed, reasoning abstractly, novel solution for a difficult problem, “working memory”

crystallized intelligence

the knowledge a person acquires through experience and the ability to use that knowledge

• E.g. answers to trivia questions, vocabulary, “long-term memory”

Multiple intelligences

the idea that people have many different types of intelligences that are independent of each other

• howard gardner’s theory

Analytical intelligence

“school smarts”, traditional academic problem solving

Creative intelligence

the ability to react adaptively to new situations and generate novel ideas

Practical intelligence

“street smarts”, skills at handling everyday tasks

Emotional intelligence (EI)

The ability to recognize, understand, and manage your own emotions and others’ emotions.

Convergent thinking

an ability to spot ways in which seemingly distinct ideas might be interconnected

• Remote associations test:

  • Three words presented- find 4th that connects them

    • ●loser, throat, spot

    • ●hound, pressure, shot

    • Sore, blood

Divergent thinking

Coming up with many different, creative ideas or solutions.

• “How many different uses can you think of for a brick?” (Guilford, 1979)

Stereotype threat

Anxiety about confirming a negative stereotype about your group, which can hurt performance.

Behavioral genetics

The study of how heredity and environment contribute to differences between people.