Kap. 10 - Reasoning and Problem Solving

Only part 10.1, 10.2, 10.5! pages 253-260; 265-271

Explain delay discounting and its connection to self-control.

Delay descounting

• Aka “temporal discounting”

• People diminish the value of future gains the longer they have to wait for them

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Self-control

• An executive function of the self that involves initiating, sustaining, and inhibiting behavior

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Connection to each other

• Bad self-control —> increased delay discounting

  • Immediate pleasure is chosen over future health and well-being

    • e.g. Ego depletion leads to more delay discounting

    • e.g. Patience as a form of self control - linked to addiction (lack of patience)

How does age affect self-control and decision-making?

Self-control vary with age:

• Children and people over age 65 are worse at self-control

  • Although older adults are more patient

What is the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning?

Deductive reasoning

• Moving from general knowledge and principles to more specific knowledge and examples

• Syllogisms

  • (from Aristoteles!)

  • A logical system in which conclusion is drawn from two given positions (premises)

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Inductive reasoning

• Moving from specific to general

• Use specific observations and real examples to infer general theories about the world

What is the common error in the Wason selection task?

• What role do pragmatic reasoning schemas play in everyday reasoning?

Wason selection task

• A logic puzzle (four-card problem) to test deductive reasoning

• Common error:

  • 80% choose A and 3 or just A

• Correct answer:

  • A - correct - testing if the rule will be disproved if the other side doesn’t have a 3

  • 7 - correct - testing if the rule will be disproved if the other side has an A

  • D - irrelevant

  • 3 - irrelevant - the rule allows any letter on the other side of 3

Given the statement “If p is true, then q is true,” according to modus tollens, what else can you conclude?

• What can you not conclude?

Modus ponens

• In logical reasoning: the principle stating that when the antecedent holds true, the consequent can be treaded as true

  • i.e. Under conditions when the statement is accepted and the antecedent (p) holds as true, the consequent (q) can be treated as true.

• Affirming the antecedent

  • e.g. Wason selection task: flipping A

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Modus tollens

• In logical reasoning: the principle stating that when the consequent is false, the antecedent is false

  • i.e. if consequent (q) is false, then antecedent (p) is false

• Denying the consequent

  • Wason selection task: flipping 7

.

Fallacies (errors)

• Denial of the antecedent (p)

  • i.e. “if p is false, then q is false“

  • e.g. Wason selection task: flipping D

• Affirmation of the consequent (q)

  • i.e. “if q is true, then p is true“

  • e.g. Wason selection task: flipping 3

What is property induction, and what are the effects of premise typicality, premise diversity, premise monotonicity, and premise-conclusion similarity?

Property induction

• How people generalize properties or features from one exemplar of a category to another

  • i.e. Making guesses based on past experiences

• Premise typicality

  • If premises are more typical or representative of a category, they will lead to stronger inductions (perceived as stronger argument)

    • e.g.

      

• Premise-conclusion simialrity

  • The more similar the premise and conclusion categories of a logical statement, the stronger the inductive argument will be

    • e.g.

      

• Premise diversity

  • Properties shared by diverse or dissimilar categories linked by a superordinate category are more likely to be generalized than properties shared by similar categories

    • e.g.

      

• Premise monotonicity

  • The larger the number of premises that share a property, the more likely people will conclude that the property generalizes broadly

    • e.g.

.

What is confirmation bias?

• Suggest an example!

Confirmation bias

• The favoring of evidence that supports one’s beliefs, expectations, or hypotheses

• e.g.:

  • Wanting to chose card nr. 3 in Wason selection task

What are the three main parts of a problem?

Problem

• A situation where someone has a goal but doesn’t know how to achieve it

Three main parts of a problem

1. The current situation

2. State where actions/operations are needed to achieve the goal state

3. The goal state

What roles do insight, transfer and heuristics play in problem solving?

Insight

• The process of suddenly gaining a solution to a problem

• “aha“ sensation

• Common for creative solutions

  • e.g. the nine dot problem

  • e.g. problem of destroying tumor without destroying healthy tissue around

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Transfer

• To generalize a solution from one problem to another

• Fundamental in education

  • Learning useful skills in one situation that you can use in other situations

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Heuristics

• Shortcuts/simple strategies used to solve problems

  • e.g. random trial and error

    • i.e. randomly selecting and applying different potential solutions until the problem is solved

What differentiates chess masters from novice chess players?

Specialists solve problems in their domain of expertise better than novices do

• Noticing meaningful patterns

• Organizing and remembering information in a way reflecting deeper understanding

• More specific and contextualized knowledge

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Chess masters vs. novices

• Chess masters are better at remembering the layout of pieces on the board - only if pieces are arranged in legal way/not randomly

  • Do not have better general memory than novices, but have expertise for creating configurations (chunking them) and increasing the amount of information to remember

• Situated cogntition

  • Thinking is shaped by its physical and social context

What is the remote associates test, and how does it differentiate creative individuals?

Creative cognition

• The cognitive processes supporting creativity

• Problem finding:

  • Finding new ways to frame questions and perceiving unrecognized needs and problems

  • Problem identification

    • Noticing a problem in need of a solution

  • Problem definition and redefinition

    • An approach that renders a problem tractable/manageable

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Remote associates

• Creative ideas that are remote from the original formulation of a problem

• Remote associates test

  • A cognitive test in which participants must think of what links three specific words

    • In many cases the association is far from obvious

• Flat associative hierarchies

  • Networks of mental associations in which the less obvious associations are nearly as accessible as the obvious one

  • May be linked with creativity

What is functional fixedness?

Functional fixedness

• The tendency for our thinking to be boxed in by predefined uses and associations

What is divergent thinking?

Divergent thinking

• The ability to generate a wide range of associations from a given starting point

• Often associated with creative cognition

• Can be tested with Torrance Test of Creative Thinking

  • Measures:

    • Fluency: number of ideas and images produced

    • Originality: number of unusual responses provided

    • Psychological openness

    • Degree of elaboration reflected in responses

    • Abstractness of the titles provided