thinking pt1

Cognition

The mental activities involved in acquiring, retaining, and using knowledge

Thinking

The manipulation of mental representations of information in order to draw inferences and conclusions

Mental Images

A mental representation of objects or events that are not physically present

Aphantasia

Cannot create mental images at all

Hyperphantasia

Experience intense and vivid mental imagery

studies of perception v. imagination brain areas

fMRI scans revealed imagining a face or place activated same brain region as perceiving face or place; overlap between perception and imagination brain areas

brain area activation for perception v. imagination

Involved stronger response than mental imagery

Mental rotation

Can mentally rotate objects; greater degree of rotation → longer time to rotate in your mind

Concepts

A mental category of objects or ideas based on properties they share; mental shorthand that reduces cognitive effort of communicating

Formal concept

Learned as definition; logical but rigid; if certain attributes are present then the object is part of the concept

Natural concept

Learned by encountering instances in the world; difficult to define based on characteristics because they have unclear characteristics; instead defined through prototypes

Prototype

Most typical instance of a particular concept

Prototype theory of classification

We determine whether an object belongs to a concept by comparing it to the prototype we have developed rather than focusing on defining features

Problem-Solving

Thinking and behavior directed toward attaining a goal that is not readily available/change our current status; depends on accurate mental representation of the problem.

Trial and Error

Involves attempting different solutions and eliminating those that do not work.

Trial and Error - Usefulness

Useful when there is a limited range of possible solutions.

Trial and Error - Drawback

Time-consuming with a large range of solutions.

Algorithms

Involves following a specific rule, step-by-step procedure, or method that inevitably produces the correct solution.

Algorithm benefits & drawbacks

Slower, but guarantees the right answer.

Heuristic

Involves following a general rule of thumb to reduce the number of possible solutions.

Functional fixedness

Only viewing objects as functioning in their usual or customary way.

Mental set

Persisting with solutions that have worked in the past; potentially prevents us from finding new solutions.

Confirmation bias

Tendency to seek out evidence that confirms an existing belief while ignoring evidence that might contradict it.

Belief-bias effect

We believe evidence that confirms our beliefs; exposure to contrary beliefs makes us more firm in our beliefs.

Single-Feature Model

Decision is based on a single feature (price, location, etc.).

Additive Model

Systematically evaluating self-generated important features of each alternative (rate from 1-10)

Elimination-by-Aspects Model

Evaluate all alternatives one characteristic at a time, starting with most important; progressively eliminate options that don't meet criteria.

Cognitive misers

Reason for heuristics, we have a large mental capacity but are selective in how we use it.

Cognitive load

Reason for heuristics, we have a lot of information to handle at once.

Insight

Involves recognizing a pattern in information without conscious thought; based on unconsciously perceiving patterns

Framing effects

More likely to make a decision if it is framed as a gain.

Availability Heuristic

The likelihood of an event is estimated based on how readily available other instances of that event are in memory; perceived likelihood can skew due to vivid rare events; more likely to be used when relying on long-term memory

Representativeness Heuristic

The likelihood of an event is estimated by comparing how similar it is to the prototype of an event; can lead to inaccurate judgments when we fail to consider variations or actual number of prototypes; more likely to be used when comparing different variables to make predictions

Fallacy of positive instances

Tendency to remember uncommon events that confirm our beliefs & forget those that disconfirm them

Overestimation effect

Overestimate rarity of events

Heuristics benefits & drawbacks

Faster, but potential mistakes