L1: Introduction to Thinking

algorithm

ways of solving problems that are complete and correct, but often time consuming and resource intensive

availability heuristic

a common, cognitive short-cut where people tend to make decisions based on information they have immediately available in consciousness or that is immediately retrievable from memory, which can lead to correct judgements or errors that favour information that is recent and/or highly salient

cognitive resources

an umbrella term for basic cognitive and brain processes like working

memory and attention

• thinking tasks are said to rely heavily on cognitive resources might be one that involves a lot of concentration, effort, and memory

cognitive revolution

a period in the middle of the 20th century when experimental psychology transitioned quickly from a scientific approach emphasizing behaviourism and the laws of learning, to a scientific approach emphasizing cognition, mental representations, and information-processing

dual process account

a high level theory that assumes we use two broadly-defined systems of thinking:

• System 1: fast intuitive, and relies on brain areas found in many animals

• System 2: slower, more deliberate, language-based, and relies on brain areas highly developed in humans

Gestalt approach

one of the primary approaches to the study of thinking in the early part of the 20th century that emphasized the idea that humans are biased to perceive whole objects, rather than parts

heuristic

a cognitive shortcut and a way to use one’s knowledge and familiarity with something to solve a problem or make a judgement

• compared to algorithms, usually, but not always, correct and result in a faster outcome

law of proximity (Gestalt)

an assumption that states that features or figures near each other (proximal) will tend to be perceived as belonging to the same object

law of similarity (Gestalt)

an assumption that states that elements or features in a group of objects are perceived as belonging together if the objects are similar to each other

mental representation

a stable state of activation within a cognitive/neural system that corresponds to an event, object, or idea

multitasking

the ability to carry out more than one behaviour or cognitive task at the same time usually involving switching between tasks

• easier if the tasks are cognitively unrelated and do not share many cognitive resources

• more challenging when tasks share many cognitive resources

productive thinking

thinking that generates new ideas, behaviours, or conclusions about the world

• i.e. solving problems by insight

reproductive thinking

emphasizes the recall of information from memory

satisficing

a problem solving or decision-making heuristic where the decision maker seeks to satisfy threshold criteria rather than continue to search for the optimal decision

symbolic processing

the idea that thinking involves manipulating and processing symbols (words, numbers, concepts) that correspond to things and ideas in the world

theory of mind

the idea that a person can attribute their own mental states (thoughts, beliefs, intentions, and desires) to their own independent mind; can also attribute the behaviour of others to their own thoughts motivations, and goals that arise from their own independent mind

• crucial for social interaction and is typically present in healthy children and adults

• could be lacking in infants or impaired in certain mental illnesses and psychoses

switch-cost effect

the cognitive penalty—slower performance, more errors, reduced focus—when shifting attention between different tasks

brain rot

useless information is proximal while the useful information is distal

cognitive offloading

the phenomenon of using technology to take on some of the functions of human cognition

• i.e. Googling something you already know

The Pen is Mightier Than the Keyboard (Oppenheimer & Mueller)

Intended to examine the impacts of digital vs paper notetaking and attention

• IV: Method of Notetaking (Pen-Paper or Laptop)

• Subjects instructed to take conventional notes on a TedTalk

• Laptop notetakers: more notes written (higher word count since faster) and more verbatim overlap when typing (rather than summarizing)

• Pen-Paper: better performance scores on conceptual questions, as writing creates a unique sensorimotor experience

Media Multitasking (Ophir, Nass, & Wagner)

• Quasi-experimental design, as a questionnaire formed two groups: heavy and light media multitaskers

• Two groups were compared against cognitive control dimensions, using a filter task (memory array, test array)

• Results: heavy media multitaskers are more susceptible to interference from irrelevant environmental stimuli and from irrelevant representations in memory; they performed worse on task-switching tests, likely due to a reduced ability to filter out information

Brain Drain: Phones on Cognitive Capacity (Ward, Duke, Gneezy, & Bos)

• Participants: undergraduate students

• IV: phone locations (“other room”, “desk”, “pocket/bag”), done through random assignment; all phones were silent

  • typically behaviour, participants were roughly split between keeping phones in their pocket or in their bags

• Methods: cognitive capacity tests (OSpan for domain-general attentional resources in the WM system, RSPM for fluid intelligence)

• LATER, however, was not replicated and found no significant differences

criticisms of the dual process account

• offered multiple and vague definitions: sometimes implicit/explicit, intuitive/reflective, conscious/unconscious

• groupings are not well-aligned: things belonging to one system might not be observed together

• what might be seen as evidence for two systems might actually be compatible with the view that thinking operates on a single continuum (two ends of a continuum)