Chapter 8: Thinking and Problem Solving

Cognition/Thinking

the mental activity that includes thinking and the understandings that result from thinking and/or the mental manipulation of representations of knowledge about the world

Analogical representations

mental representations that have some of the physical characteristics of objects; they are analogous to the objects

ex: Dog → fur, ears, tail

Symbolic representations

abstract mental representations that do not correspond to the physical features of objects or ideas

ex: DOG (the word)

Concept/Category

mental representation of a class of things

Ex: cats, teachers, liberals

→ includes what we know about such things

set of examples that can be united or grouped by a concept

Prototype model

each category there is a best example where the characteristics of this ______ becomes the concept

Schemas (script)

cognitive structures that help us perceive, organize, and process information (usually reserved for humans)

Stereotypes

cognitive schemas that allow for easy, fast processing of information about people based on their membership in certain groups

self-serving bias

stereotyping others may make us feel better about ourselves -> our stereotype is better than those who are not in the same group

Decision making

attempting to select the best alternative among several options

Problem solving

finding a way around an obstacle to reach a goal

Heuristics

shortcuts (rules of thumb or informal guidelines) used to reduce the amount of thinking that is needed to make decisions

• faster, often occurs unconsciously but errors can occur

Anchoring bias

tendency, in making judgments, to rely on the first piece of information encountered or information that comes most quickly to mind

→ ex: show an expensive car first, all cars shown after that are less seem “cheap”

Framing bias

The framing effect is when our decisions are influenced by the way information is presented. Equivalent information can be more or less attractive depending on what features are highlighted

Loss Aversion

For most people, potential losses affect decision making more than potential gains do. So we can make bad decisions in order to avoid losses

Availability heuristic

making a decision based on the answer that most easily comes to mind

Representativeness heuristic

placing a person or an object in a category if that person or object is similar to one’s prototype for that category

Affect-as-information theory

people use current moods to make judgments and appraisals

Base rate

overall, background statistical probability or frequency of an event or characteristic occurring within a given population

Somatic markers

bodily reactions that arise from the emotional evaluation of an action’s consequences

Affective forecasting

the tendency for people to overestimate how events will make them feel in the future