Thinking & Creativity & Memory

How to describe thought?

-cannot fully describe it/different ways to

Concept

Cognitive rules we apply to stimuli from environment—> allowed to categorize/think about objects/people/ideas encountered based on prototypes.

Prototypes

What we think most typical example of a specific example.

Images

Types of thought

Definition: Mental pictures created our minds of outside world

can be: visual/auditory/tactile or olfactory or taste

olfactory: smell

tactile: touch

auditory: hear

vision: see

Two ways people solve problems

Algorithms/Heuristics

Algorithms: utilize formula or other foolproof methods —> gets you the right answer (ex) solving math problems with formula)

Heuristics: quick not always accurate judgment of situation (ex) random guess and check)

Availability Heuristics

Judging a situation based on examples of similar situations come to mind at first

lead wrong conclusions b/c variability in personal experience.

ex) Believe you are not intelligent by just comparing your grades to someone else —> they could be cheating though

Representative Heurisitcs

Judge a situation based on how similar aspects are to prototypes people hold his/her mind

ex) Young people suicide b/c prototype depressed adolescent —> not true

Overconfidence

overestimation how accurate our judgements are

ex) people are overconfident with their judgement

Impact on overconfidence?

Belief Bias: People make illogical conclusions to confirm our pre existing beliefs

Belief perseverance: People maintain a belief even after evidence utilized form belief is contradicted

Both: Tendency not change peoples belief in the face of contradictory evidence

Show: People generally more confident with their beliefs vs. should be —> they are strict with their beliefs even when evidence disapproves it.

Gambler fallacy

People believe certain event or outcome is more or less likely to happen because how often recently occurred.(another type of heuristic limitation)

Sunk-cost fallacy

Unwillingness to change course of action because spent lot of effort/time trying to make solution work —> even if based on action unlikely to solve the problem

Mental Set (aka rigidity)

Tendency to fall into established thought patterns —> impacts problem solving

most people utilize experience to try to solve novel problems —> cannot find novel solution

Functional fixedness

Types of rigidity —> inability to see new use for the object

A good way to solve problems

Break them down into smaller parts

ex) problem —> break into subgoals

subgoals: smaller/more manageable problems needed to solve so can solve whole problem

Confirmation bias

Look at evidence supports our beliefs/ignore evidence against beliefs —> miss evidence needed to find solution (correct one) —> impact problem solving bad

Framing

Idea of the same information presented in different ways/methods presented —> change view of the problem or issue —> impact problem solving (bad)

What are the things that impede problem solving?

Mental set/functional fixedness/not breaking up the problem/confirmation bias/framing

“Aha experience”

Wolfgang Kohler (1887-1967) —>chimpanzees found way to get bananas out of people reach (finally understand how to do something)

Correlation between intelligence/creativity

Little correlation —> people criteria varies a lot —> most people include the originality/appropriateness of solution

Judge creativity by

Look at creativity whether it Original or novel/somehow fits with the situation

Convergent thinking

Pointed toward one solution (ur thinking)

Divergent thinking

Searches for many possible ans to question —> much more related to creativity b/c think new ways to utilize familiar w/ or new ways to express emotions or ideas we share

Creativity

ability to produce new, diverse/OG ideas also valuable or solve a problem