PSYC 100 - Thinking and Intelligence

Week 9

Bounded Rationality

the idea that there are limits on our ability to make rational decisions such as limited time, memory, will-power, etc.

Bounded Willpower

We do not always do what we know is right

Bounded Self-interest

We consider outcomes for others, not just ourselves

Bounded Ethicality

We may not even be aware of the ways we violate our own ethics

Bounded Awareness

we may fail to notice obvious information that is available to us

System 1 Thinking

Automatic, Involuntary, cannot be turned off, can evaluate only one thing at a time, and generates intuitions, feelings, and impulsive responses

System 2 Thinking

Effortful, feels voluntary, involves feelings of choice and agency, requires attention, able to follow rules, switch task sets, compare options on multiple attributes, and make deliberate choices.

Biases

ways our reasoning and decision-making tends to be systematically distorted

Confirmation Bias

the tendency to seek out evidence that supports our beliefs and dismisses evidence that contradicts those beliefs

Overconfidence Bias

People overestimate their ability

Anchoring

When making estimates, an initial anchor is likely to influence the size of our estimate

Framing

95% success rate compared to a 5% failure rate

Heuristics

Shortcuts in reasoning that lead to errors

Representativeness Heuristics

Judging the probability of an event based on how similar it is to a prototype, rather than considering the base rates

Availability Heuristic

When asked to judge how likely something is, instead you judge how easy it is to recall it

Abstract Reasoning

ability to understand hypothetical concepts rather than concepts in the here and now

Spearman G - general intelligence

hypothetical factor that accounts for overall differences in individuals 

Being good at one thing means you can be good at many other things

Garner

one can be good at one thing and still be average at other things

Fluid Intelligence

capacity to learn new ways of solving problems, to think on your feet

May flow into crystallized intelligence over time 

Ex: completing a puzzle, understanding hypotheticals

Crystallized Intelligence

ability to use accumulated knowledge of the world to solve problems

Ex: Vocab Knowledge, General recollection

Standardized Intelligence Test

Administered in the same way

Normed intelligence test

constructed so that results are normally distributed with a mean of 100