INTRODUCTION TO COGNITIONHTTP://EDUCATION-PORTAL.COM/ACADEMY/LESSON/INTRO-TO-INTELLIGENCE.HTML

Cognitive Psychology = Study of mental processes…how humans receive info from their environment & then•Modify it•Make it meaningful•Store the info•Retrieve the info•Use the info•Communicate info to others

WHAT IS COGNITION?

Literally “thinking” The brain’s

representations of information in the world around us

CIRCLE OF THOUGHT

Describe Elaborate Decide Plan Guide/Act

5 Core Functions of Human Thinking

CONCEPTS

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people. Enables us to chunk large amounts of information –

don’t need to treat every new piece of information as unique. Chairs Holidays Political ideologies Psychologists

Concepts = CategoriesCategories: mental groupings of similar objects, events, and people.

.

What’s the category?Human infantPhoto albumsJewelryDogInsurance documentsData discsTapestries

“Things to take from a burning house”

CONCEPTS Category Hierarchies – We organize concepts

into category hierarchies

Prototypes = objects or events that Prototypes = objects or events that represent crepresent concepts:

Mental image or best example of a category

SOLVING PROBLEMS Algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

HeuristicA rule-of-thumb strategy that often allows us to

make judgments and solve problems efficiently (speedier but error-prone)

OBSTACLES… In the Thompson family there are 5 brothers,

and each brother has one sister. If you count Mrs. Thompson, how many females are there in the Thompson family?

Fifteen percent of people in Topeka have unlisted phone numbers. You select 200 names at random from the Topeka phone book. How many of these people can be expected to have unlisted phone numbers?

Without lifting your pencil from the paper, draw no more than 4 lines that will cross through all 9 dots.

OBSTACLES TO PROBLEM SOLVING

Irrelevant Information Unnecessary constraints (self-imposed

limitations)

OBSTACLES TO PROBLEM SOLVING Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for information that confirms one’s perceptionsSeinfeld Example

Fixation The inability to see a problem from

a new perspectiveMental Set = tendency to

approach situations in a certain way because that method worked in the past

Functional Fixedness = form of cognitive bias in which a person is unable to think of other, more creative uses for an object aside from its traditional use

Learned

REPRESENTATIVENESS HEURISTIC

A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes

people determine the probability of something based on assumptions or past experience

used quite often when making decisions….we make our decisions based on the likeliness of a sample to occur in the population.

HEURISTICS EXAMPLE Pick a number between 1 – 9 Subtract 5 Multiply by 3 Square the number (ex 6 x 6 = 36) Add the 2 digits together (ex 3 + 6 = 9) If your number is less than 5, add 5 HOWEVER

if you number is 5 or above, subtract 4 Multiply by 2 Subtract 6 Find the corresponding letter in the alphabet Think of a country that begins with that letter Find the 2nd letter of the country & think of a

mammal that begins with that letter

HEURISTICS EXAMPLE CONTINUED

This demonstration of cognitive heuristics works best for people who are most familiar with European countries, for the load caused by doing the math pops the name Denmark into their heads most rapidly (instead of the Dominican Republic). And while people can, if they give it some time, think of an animal whose name starts with an E besides an Elephant (how about an Elk), Elephants are cognitively easier.

Pick a number between 1 – 9 Find the corresponding letter in

the alphabet Think of a country that begins

with that letter Find the 2nd letter of the country &

think of a mammal that begins with that letter

Think of the color of that mammal

Is it a grey elephant from Denmark?

USING AND MISUSING HEURISTICS

Availability Heuristic Estimating the

likelihood of events based on their availability in memory

If instances come to mind = we presume such events are common

USING AND MISUSING HEURISTICS

Anchoring Heuristic Starting with an implicitly

suggested reference point (the "anchor") and make adjustments to it to reach their estimate

Once the anchor is set, it usually wont change.

Videos = http://education-portal.com/

academy/lesson/heuristics.html