1.) 2.2 Thinking, Problem-Solving, Judgments, & Decision Making (#11-17)

(#11-17)

cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

metacognition

• "beyond cognition"; thinking about our cognition

• keeping track of and evaluating our mental processes

• Awareness and understanding of our thought processes

concept

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people; helps simplify our thinking

schemas

A function of concept:

• a mental framework that organizes knowledge about a concept or situation.

• a mental set of expectations about an environment, place, or situation.

• represents our knowledge, beliefs, and expectations about the world through our experiences.

• broad mental framework for understanding situations/events (like a restaurant: sit, order, eat, pay)

• example: Having a “restaurant schema” includes expectations like being seated, looking at a menu, ordering food, and paying the bill.

prototype

a function of concept:

• mental image or best example of a category; provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories.

• the most typical example of a category used to represent it.

example: pigeons are a good example of the category “birds”

assimilation

a form of concept; when new information is fitted into an existing schema without changing the schema.

example: a child who has a schema for dogs by categorizing them as four-legged pets sees a new breed of dog for the first time and calls it a dog. 

accommodation

a function of concept: 
adapting our current schemas or understandings/mental folders to incorporate new information that doesn’t match old information.

• changing or adding new schemas or mental folders to fit information that doesn’t match the old schemas or mental folders
  example: a child who got corrected after calling a zebra a horse will accommodate by incorporating new information about the difference in zebras and horses

creativity

the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas

convergent thinking

the ability to provide a single correct answer

divergent thinking

the ability to consider many different options and to think in creative ways.

creative thinking that diverges in different directions.

insight

a sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions

• leads to the “Aha!” moment

“Aha!” moment

before this moment, the frontal lobes (involved in focusing attention) are active; a burst of activity in the right temporal lobe happens at an instant discovery

Algorithms

step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution

Heuristics

simpler thinking strategies to solve a problem, but they are more error-prone

intuition

how judgement is formed:
our fast autonomic, unreasoned feelings and thoughts, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.

Making a quick judgment or decision without conscious reasoning; “gut feeling.”

representative heuristics

judging the likelihood of events or someone is based on how much it matches a stereotype or prototype; comparing to what is “typical”

example: assuming that a librarian enjoys reading books

availability heuristics

judging the likelihood of events based on availability in memory; if recent instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common.

Estimating the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples come to mind.

Example: Thinking plane crashes are common after seeing news reports, even though they are rare.

planning fallacy

underestimating the time, costs, and effort needed to complete a task 

nudge

a subtle way of influencing people's behavior to choose a certain (better) choice through a small change in environment (WITHOUT restricting options)

mental set

the tendency to approach a problem in one way with the mindset of what has worked for us previously

priming

• the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

• Exposure to one stimulus influences how a person perceives or responds to a related (associated) stimulus later, often without conscious awareness.

Example: Seeing the word “yellow” makes it faster to recognize the word “banana” later.

framing/wording effects

how the presentation or wording of info/issues influence decisions and behavior

example: people would react positively to "a surgery has a 90% success rate" than "a surgery has a 10% fail rate."

Gambler's fallacy

the mistaken belief that past events can influence future outcomes, even if the events are unrelated. 
Example: believing that after a series of losses, you are due a win.

skunk-cost fallacy

the tendency to follow through something that we have already invested heavily in (time, money, effort, or emotional energy), even when giving up is clearly the better idea. 
example: I continue to play the trash game Genshin Impact because I have already spent money on it

confirmation bias

Tendency to search for or notice information that supports an existing belief.

Example: Believing a certain food causes acne and only paying attention when breakouts happen after eating it—while ignoring all the times nothing happened.

overconfidence

• the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge, judgements, and beliefs.

• the tendency to be more confident than correct.

• Overestimating how accurate one’s knowledge or judgments are.

Example: Thinking a test will be easy without studying and then being surprised by the score.

belief perseverence

• our tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face of contrary evidence.

• Holding onto a belief even after being shown strong evidence that it is wrong.

Example: Still believing a rumor about a celebrity even after clear proof shows it was false.

fixation/functional fixedness

(in cognition) the inability to see that an object can be used for something else other than its typical purpose.

example: someone can only see a blanket used for sleeping instead of using it for something creative, like a blanket-fort.

executive functions

• the high-level cognitive abilities that help with planning, decision-making, problem-solving, self-control, and focusing attention

• the high-level cognitive abilities that collectively allow us to solve problems and make decisions effectively.

• cognitive skills that work together, enabling us to generate, organize, plan, and implement goal-directed behavior.

example: planning - making a plan to study for a test over several days