Rhythms in Humans• Yearly - seasonal variations in appetite, sleep length, moods

….Seasonal Affective Disorder 28 day - female menstrual cycle 90 minute - we cycle through various stages of sleep

• 24 hour - Circadian Rhythms: alertness, body temp, growth hormone secretion

• What happens if no external cues? 25-hour cycle

• Jet lag West to East Phase advance

East to West Phase delay

• Sleep Deprivation: form of torture, stress, after about 72 hours, slip unwillingly into brief, repeated periods of “microsleep”

Latin: circa means “about” and diem “day”

Theories on Sleep

There is no physiological reason found for sleep

Sleep is a state of consciousness

Evolutionary/Circadian Theory: Sleep evolved so that…

Adaptive: Species need a certain time awake to survive. Sleep protects by keeping out of trouble.

Conserving Energy: Less calories burned

Repair/Restoration Theory: Restore body and nervous system, heal wounds, recover from emotional and intellectual fatigue

Sleep as a change in consciousness• Sleep Stages

– Stage 1

– Stage 2

– Stage 3

– Stage 4

– REM

Collectively called NREM stages

Brain Waves

Sleep Stages 1 & 2

Stage 1• Theta Waves, irregular, breathing slows, light sleep,

easily awakened, lasts about two minutes, may have sensory experience without stimulus

Stage 2• About 20 minutes long• Characterized by sleep spindles (bursts of rapid, rhythmic

brainwave activity) and K Complexes• Easily awakened but clearly asleep

DEEP Sleep stages 3 & 4

Stage 3

– A purely transitional stage

– Marked by 20-50% delta waves

Stage 4

– About 30 minutes long

– Hard to awaken

– Delta waves > than 50% of the time

– Walking or talking in sleep, wetting the bed, and night terrors can occur during this stage

– Still attend to external stimuli– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2BgjH_CtIA

Sleep Stages REM

REM– Occurs the first time about an hour into the

sleep cycle– Brain waves rapid– Breathing and heart rate rapid– Arousal of genitals– Rapid eye movement– Essentially paralyzed during this stage– Cannot easily be awakened

The Cycles of Sleep

• Repeats about every 90 minutes, 4-7 times

• REM sleep increases as the night moves on

• About 25% of sleep is REM

Specific Sleep Disorders: “Dyssomnias” & “Parasomnias”• Sleep Apnea: irregular breathing or periods of many seconds without breathing during sleep,

snoring, repeated awakenings

• Narcolepsy: Sudden, irresistible onset of sleep during waking hours, cataplexy is sudden attack of muscle weakness/paralysis http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2204446853653695027#

http://insideedition.com/videos.aspx?videoID=3

• Insomnia: persistent difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep (note: sleeping pills can be helpful for short-term, but create more problems than they solve for more than that)

• REM without Atonia: Atonia is loss of muscle tone when we dream… without means we can more easily act out our dreams – can be dangerous

• Restless leg: leg discomfort during sleep, which is only relieved by frequent movements of the legs, no known cause

• Sleep walking, talking: Walking tend to accompany night terrors and occur during NREM, talking an happen at any stage

• Night Terrors: (NREM), children, sudden terror, may be difficult to waken

• Nightmares: Usually during REM sleep, bad dreams

• Sleep Paralysis: strikes as person is moving into or out of REM sleep. During REM body is largely disconnected from brain leaving the body paralyzed.

The Function of Dreaming• Function: Why do we dream? Wish Fulfillment (Freud):

- Freud believed that dreams let us see into repressed memories and unacceptable desires

- Dream of beating up a bully – wish fulfillment - Manifest Content (actual, story line of dream)

Latent Content (symbolic, meaning behind dream) - The Interpretation of Dreams (1913)

Information Processing (Cartwright): The need to continue processing the day’s activities.

Solves problems

Activation - Synthesis Hypothesis (Hobson & McCarley): Triggered by neural activity from the brainstem, “biological view,” brain guides how dream is constructed around brain activity

According to Freud… Journey = death

Horseback riding = sex

Dancing = sex

Gun, cigar, etc = penis

Factors Influencing Drugs Effects• Tolerance• Weight• Physiology• Amount and strength • Mood • Personality • Age• Gender

Psychoactive Drugs: Chemicals that change conscious awareness, mood and/or perception

Drugs and Consciousness• Concepts in Drug Use

– Tolerance: The need to use more & more of a drug to continue to get the same effects

– Reverse Tolerance: taking same or less amount of drug produces bigger effect b/c combines with drugs still in system

– Dependence• Physiological: Showing a withdrawal syndrome once

removed from the drug regimen • Psychological: An emotional need for the drug (craving)• Co-dependence: When another person ‘enables’ the

drug dependent person (Ex: wife calls husband in sick when he is actually hung over)

– Withdrawal: A distinct set of physiological symptoms associated with the removal of the drug from the system (headaches, cravings, anxiety, depression, seizures, delirium tremens “DT’s”)

Delirium:

-Acute & debilitating decline in attention-

focus, perception &

cognition

- Produces altered form of

semi-consciousness

Hallucinations & delusions

are often present

Classifications of Drugs• Stimulants: Drugs that stimulate CNS activity (activity & responsiveness)

– Ex – amphetamines, methamphetamine (cyrstal meth), caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, MDMA or “Ecstasy,” Speed, Ritalin

• Depressants (Sedatives): Drugs which decrease CNS activity (relaxation, sedation, loss ofconsciousness & even death)

– Ex - Alcohol, Barbiturates (Seconal, Valium), Minor tranquilizers (Rohypnol or “roofies”), Ketamine or “Special K”

• Hallucinogens (Psychedelics): Drugs that change perception and self-awareness

– Ex - LSD, PCP, marijuana

• Opiates (Narcotics): Drugs derived from opium that numb the senses and relieve pain

– Ex – Morphine, heroin, codeine

Did you know?

Tobacco kills more than

AIDS, legal drugs, illegal drugs, road accidents,

murder and suicide

combined

Classical Conditioning• Definition: A type of learning that occurs when an association is

made between a meaningful stimulus & a non-meaningful stimulus

• Ivan Pavlov (1903 Pavlovian Conditioning)

– Russian physiologist/digestion in dogs

• John Watson (1925)

– Little Albert

Terminology• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Stimulus

that evokes an unconditioned response (automatic)

• Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response

• Unconditioned Response (UCR): Unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning

• Conditioned Response (CR): Learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning

To the food (UCS)

To the bell (CS)

Classical Conditioning –another version

Second-Order Conditioning

Procedures in Classical Conditioning

• Conditioning or Acquisition– Presenting the CS and the UCS together

• Testing and Extinction– Presenting the CS alone

Processes in Classical Conditioning• Acquisition: initial stage of learning

• Extinction: the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency (does not mean “unlearn”)

- CS repeatedly presented without UCS

• Spontaneous Recovery: a reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of nonexposure to the conditioned stimulus

• Stimulus Generalization: a similar CS makes a CR– Classic Study: “Little Albert”

• Stimulus Discrimination: no CR with a similar CS

Acquisition, Extinction & Spont. Recovery Curve

Myers in Modules, Module 20

Idealized Curve of Acquisition, Extinction, and Spontaneous Recovery

Operant Conditioning: modification of voluntary behavior based on consequences

• Thorndike’s Law of EffectBehavior before positive reinforcement Behavior before punishment or no reinforcement

– Puzzle Box

• Skinner– Skinner Box

– Shaping: Reinforcing small steps toward more complex behavior (easiest to build on animals’ existing behavior)

– Discriminative Stimulus: signals availability of reinforcement or punishment (light, sound, parent)

Skinner Box

Consequences Reinforcement • Reinforcement: consequences that strengthen responses

– Positive Reinforcement: A response is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of a rewarding stimulus (Money, praise, food, stickers, candy, smile)

– Negative Reinforcement: A response is strengthened because it is followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus (buzzer for seat belt)

(+)add/give

(-)subtract/remove

*Note: “positive” & “negative” are not synonymous with “good” & “bad” or “nice” & “mean”

•Conditioned Reinforcement•Primary Reinforcers: Inherently reinforcing satisfy biological needs (food, water, shelter)

•Secondary Reinforcers: Acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers (money, stickers, praise)

Consequences PunishmentPunishment: consequences that weaken responses

• Positive Punishment: addition of a stimulus that decreases the likelihood of the response occurring again. (Adding chores for getting home late)

• Negative Punishment: taking away a stimulus that decreases the likelihood of the response occurring again (grounding, no car, no scholarship)

(+)add/give

(-)subtract/remove

*Note: “positive” & “negative” are not synonymous with “good” & “bad” or “nice” & “mean”

The Big Bang Theory Clip

Schedules of ReinforcementContinuous: Reinforce every time (fastest, but quickest to extinction)

Partial Schedules– Variable Ratio: Reinforcer after a variable number of

nonreinforced responses– Variable Interval: Reinforcer is given for the first response

after a variable time interval has elapsed

– Fixed Ratio: Reinforcer is given after a fixed number of nonreinforced responses

– Fixed Interval: Reinforcer is given for the first response that occurs after a fixed time interval has elapsed

Schedules of Reinforcement

Extinction• Variable schedules are most resistant to extinction• Ratio schedules cause the greatest amount of response

Observational Learning• Definition: Occurs when an organism’s responding is influenced

by the observation of others (model)

• Four Processes (Bandura)– Attention – watch closely– Retention – remember what was taught– Reproduction – demonstrate what we learned– Motivation – have desire to learn and repeat what was learned

• Applications of Observational Learning - prejudice, domestic violence, media influences, prosocial behavior- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4586465813762682933# (bobo)

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hzh-gW-CO8

Bobo Doll Visual

Other Forms of Learning• Insight: Sudden understanding of a problem that implies the

solution

• Cognitive Mapping: A mental representation of spatial orientations that may not require direct experience to be learned

• Latent Learning: Learning that has occurred but has not been expressed (often appears when reward for displaying it)

History of Intelligence Testing

• Francis Galton– Believed that intelligence was related to

visual acuity and reaction time

• Alfred Binet– French Government– Mental age– Fear test would be abused

History of Intelligence Testing

• Terman (Stanford-Binet Scale)– revised the Binet scale – created the term IQ– “IQ” determined by taking: MA/CA x 100– Extended the test to also assess IQ in adults– The normal distribution of intelligence scores

• Wechsler– Developed a more accurate test for adults– First to use standard deviation, bell curve– Examples of some of the test developed by Wechsler include

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

Kinds of Intelligence

• Spearman - “g” and “s”– “g”-general

intelligence– “s”-specific

abilities

Kinds of Intelligence• Gardner - Theory of

Multiple Intelligences– He believed that

intelligence could be broken down into seven categories:

Kinds of Intelligence• Sternberg - Triarchic Theory

– He believed that intelligence could be broken down into three categories

• creative intelligence-ability to solve problems with novel solutions

• practical intelligence-”common sense”

• analytical intelligence-ability to analyze a problem into its integral components

Kinds of Intelligence

Raymond Cattell • Fluid Intelligence: innate, inherited

intelligence including reasoning and problem solving abilities, memory, and speed of info-processing

- relatively independent of education

- tend to decline with age

• Crystallized Intelligence: specific knowledge and skills gained through experience & education- tend to increase over life span

Types & Characteristics of Tests

Types• Aptitude: person’s capability, potential for future• Achievement: person’s knowledge of subject, what they

have learned

Characteristics• Validity: the ability of the test to measure

what you say it will measure• Reliability: the ability of the test to measure

a construct with consistency • Standardization: the use of reference scores

for interpreting an individual’s performance

Types of Validity & Reliability of Tests

Validity

• Content: Complete range of material to test concept

• Criterion: Compare to other tests of the same measure (high on SAT, high on ACT)

• Predictive: future performance (MCAT)

• Construct: theoretical or hypothetical construct (depression, intelligence)

Reliability

• Test-retest: take the test again – same score?

• Alternate form: give similar, but alternate form – same score?

• Inter-rater: do all graders give the same score?

Chapter 16: Social PsychologyDefinition: Sub-field of psychology that studies of how others influence our thoughts, feelings and actions

Focuses on…- How large social forces such as groups, social roles and norms bring out the best and worst in all of us

- Explaining why people act differently in the same situation, and why the same person may act differently in different situations.

Conformity and Obedience• Conformity – going along with a group;

yielding to social pressure

– Asch’s Conclusions1) subjects often conform to a group, even when

the group states clearly inaccurate conclusions

2) conformity to a group increases with the size of the group, up to five or six, but only when the group is unanimous in its beliefs

• Obedience – going along with a direct command, often from figure of authority

– Milgram’s Conclusions1) situational pressures can make people obey

instructions that go against their belief systemshttp://www.france24.com/en/20100317-disturbing-tv-docu-game-tests-limits-small-screen-power-france-game-of-death

Attribution TheoryDefinition: Inferences that people draw about the causesof events, others’ behavior, and their own behavior

Dispositional Attribution: we attribute a person’s behavior to an internal state (personality, abilities, etc.)

Situational Attribution: attributing a person’s behavior to an external state (stress, abuse, hardship, wealth, etc.)

• Function: People like to explain and understand behavior and the events that impact their lives

• Attributions are made when an event is unusual and personal

• “Just world” phenomenon

Bias in Attribution• Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE): Observer’s bias in favor of internal

attributions in explaining others’ behavior but external attributions in explaining their own (Ex: Someone else drops out of college because “they couldn’t handle the pressure or work load” – internal. You drop out of college because “tuition was raised and you had to help support your family” – external)

• Defensive Attribution: Tendency to blame the victim for their misfortune, so that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way

• Self-Serving Bias: Tendency to attribute one’s successes to personal factors and one’s failures to situational factors

Attitudes & Attitude Formation- When we observe & respond to the world around us, it is never without

the influence of our attitudes (even if we don’t realize it).

- Advertisers spend millions because they know that

attitudes can be shaped & changed….to their benefit $$

• Definition

Positive, negative, or mixed feelings, based on our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.

Ex: A friend tells you that they believe Coach Stove is a mean teacher. You may feel dislike for Coach Stove, and act unfriendly.

• Components of Attitudes

– Cognitive: What you believe

– Affective: How you feel about it

– Behavioral: What you are willing to do about it

Cognitive Dissonance & Social FacilitationCognitive Dissonance Theory:

When we act in a way not consistent with our beliefs we feel tension. We then revise our beliefs

to align with our behavior.Example:

Asked to do hour long boring task Offered $1 or $20 to say it’s fun

Results: Larger payment led to less dissonance b/c high payment could

account for ‘lying’. $1 was not enough to justify lying so those people changed

their attitude to saying they enjoyed the task

Social Facilitation

Improved performance of tasks in the presence of others

better on simple tasks

worse on complex tasks

Example: After you go to all

the trouble of buying a new house you

start to like it more

Person Perception• Definition: The process of forming impressions of others

• Impressions are influenced by:– Physical appearance

• good looking people are seen as intelligent, friendly, and confident

– Schemas: Organized clusters of ideas about categories of social events and people

– 1st Impressions: self fulfilling prophecy, primacy– Stereotypes: gender, race, job

Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination• Stereotype: Thoughts and beliefs held about people strictly because

of their membership in a group

• Prejudice: A negative attitude held toward members of a group

• Discrimination: Negative actions towards a group

These often arise from learning, personal experience, mental shortcuts,

economic & political competition, & displaced aggression Scapegoat: Blame other groups without as much power Social Identity (in-group bias): Favor own group Outgroup Homogeneity: Judge members of outgroup as more alike Learning Theory: Classical or operant conditioning Cognitive: Easier to organize our world if we ‘categorize’

Explanations

Social Influence

• Chameleon Effect: our tendency to unconsciously mimic those around us– Yawning when others yawn

– Picking up the mood of a happy or sad person

– Dress like your friends

This automatic mimicry is an ingredient in our ability to empathize with others

Behavior in GroupsThe power of group membership affects us in many ways…• Social Roles: (as mentioned before with Zimbardo study)

• Deindividuation: Feel less self-conscious, less inhibited, & less personally responsible as a member of a group than when you are alone [this can be increased by requiring use of uniform, mask, same haircut, etc…feeling of anonymity]

• Bystander Effect: less likely to help others when in groups than when alone

• Diffusion of Responsibility: when more people are around we feel less personally responsible to help

• Social Loafing: individuals produce less work (reduced efficiency & effort) when working in groups than by themselves

• Decision MakingGroup Polarization - when group discussion leads to a more “polarized”point of view by the group

Groupthink - when feel pressure to conform to the group, stops critical thinking to avoid dissention in the group

• Ex: Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs

Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs

Failed attempt to assassination Fidel Castro in Cuba. All of the 1400 men were captured or killed within three days.

The drive for consensus among Kennedy's advisors was believed to have precluded crucial information from being discussed, and has been blamed for the invasion's failure.

The flawed decision of President Kennedy and his advisors to authorize the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba is the example commonly used to illustrate the phenomenon of groupthink.

Symptoms of groupthink include group members' tendency to (i) believe the group to be more invulnerable than it is; (ii) rationalize the group's decisions and believe stereotypes about its enemies; and (iii) feel increasing pressure to agree with others in the group.

Group Polarization

Memory• Memory

– persistence of learning over time via the storage and retrieval of information

– internal record or representation of some prior event or experience

• Flashbulb Memory– a clear memory of an emotionally significant

moment or event

Memory• Memory as Information Processing

– Similar to a computer

• write to file encoding

• save to disk storage

• read from disk retrieval

Encoding the processing of information into the memory

system (perception) Storage the retention of encoded information over time

Retrievalprocess of getting information out of memory

                   

Memory

• Sensory Memory- the immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the

memory system

– Iconic Memory

- a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli - a photographic or picture image memory lasting no more that a

few tenths of a second - registration of exact representation of a scene

– Echoic Memory

- momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

STM & LTM• Short Term Memory

– activated memory that holds a few items briefly– look up a phone number, then quickly dial before the information

is forgotten

• Long Term Memory– the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory

system

Encoding- Getting Information InEncoding

Effortful/Controlled

Automatic

Unconscious encoding of incidental information

• space• time• frequency

Well-learned information• word meanings

We can learn automatic processing• reading backwards

requires attention and conscious effort

Maintenance Rehearsal conscious repetition

of information- to maintain it in

consciousness - to encode it for storage

EncodingEbbinghaus used nonsense syllables

– TUV ZOF GEK WAV

– Found: the more times practiced on Day 1, the fewer repetitions to relearn on Day 2

– Spacing Effect

* distributed practice yields better long term retention than massed practice

Encoding- Serial Position Effect

12

Percentage of

words recalled

0

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

Position of word in list1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Primacy effect

Recency effect

Forgetting• Ebbinghaus- forgetting

curve over 30 days – initially rapid, then levels off

with time

12345 10 15 20 25 30

1020

30405060

0

Time in days since learning list

Percentage of list retainedwhen relearning

What Do We Encode?• Semantic Encoding

– encoding of meaning

– including meaning of words

• Acoustic Encoding– encoding of sound

– especially sound of words

• Visual Encoding– encoding of picture

images

Encoding• Imagery

– mental pictures– a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when

combined with semantic encoding

• Mnemonics– memory aids– use of acronyms

• HOMES- Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior• ARITHMETIC- A Rat In Tom’s House Might Eat Tom’s Ice Cream

• Chunking– organizing items into familiar, manageable units

- like horizontal organization: 1776149218121941

– often occurs automatically

Storage- Long Term Memory

• How does storage work?– Karl Lashley (1950)

• rats learn maze

• lesion cortex

• test memory

• Synaptic changes– Long-term Potentiation

• increase in synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation

• Strong emotions make for stronger memories– some stress hormones boost learning and retention

Storage- Long Term Memory

Amnesia- the loss of memory

Explicit Memory– memory of facts and experiences that one

can consciously know and declare– hippocampus- neural center in limbic

system that helps process explicit memories for storage

Implicit Memory– retention without conscious recollection– motor and cognitive skills– dispositions - conditioning

Retrieval- Getting Information Out• Recall

- ability to retrieve info learned earlier and not in conscious awareness-like fill in the blank test

• Recognition

- ability to identify previously learned items-like on a multiple choice test

• Relearning

- amount of time saved when relearning previously learned information

• Priming

- activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

Retrieval Cues• Deja Vu- (French) already seen

– cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier similar experience

– "I've experienced this before"

• Mood Congruent Memory

– tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current mood

– memory, emotions or moods serve as retrieval cues

– State Dependent Memory• what is learned in one state (while one is high, drunk or depressed)

can more easily be remembered when in same state

Forgetting• Forgetting can occur at any memory stage

• As we process information, we filter, alter, or lose much of it

Encoding Failure

• Information never enters the memory system

• Attention is selective

– we cannot attend to everything in our environment

• William James said that we would be as bad off if we remembered everything as we would be if we remembered nothing

Forgetting as Interference• Learning some items may disrupt retrieval of other information

– Proactive (forward acting) Interference

- disruptive effect of prior learning on recall of new information

– Retroactive (backwards acting) Interference

- disruptive effect of new learning on recall of old information

Forgetting as Interference

• Motivated Forgetting– people unknowingly revise history

• Repression– defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts,

feelings, and memories

• Positive Transfer– sometimes old information facilitates our learning of new

information

– knowledge of Latin may help us to learn French

Memory ConstructionWe filter information and fill

in missing pieces

• Misinformation Effect– incorporating misleading

information into one's memory of an event

• Source Amnesia– attributing to the wrong

source an event that we experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined (misattribution)

Language

Definition: Symbolism used to communicate ideas & concepts & to problem solve

All Language shares 3 things in common1. Semanticity: True language conveys thoughts

in a meaningful way by use of symbols and sounds

2. Generativity: Ability to combine words in new ways

3. Displacement: Ability to talk about objects that are not present

Parts of Language• Phonemes: Smallest unit of sound that can be understood as

part of a language, basic speech sounds (40 in English) - Ex: The m of mat, the b of boy, or the ch in church

• Morphemes: Smallest meaningful units of language. Can be individual or combinations of phonemes

- Ex: Unit consisting of a word, such as man - Ex: A word element, such as -ed in walked - Ex: Phoneme such as I ** cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts**

• Grammar: Set of rules that enables us to use our language– Semantics – Refers to aspects of meaning assigned to language

(Ex: adding “ed” means it happened in the past)

– Syntax – The system of rules we use to string words together into proper sentences (Ex: adjectives come before nouns)

Theories of Language Acquisition

• Skinner – Learned through association, reinforcement and social imitation

• Chomsky – Believed that language acquisition is innate from his observations that children create sentences they have never heard before and learning is too rapid to be explained solely by learning principles

*Possibly a combination of the two

Language Acquisition as we get older…

Components of Thinking - Concepts

• Concepts– Definition: A mental grouping of similar

objects, people, events, etc.

– Function: Help us to order our world into categories and communicate with fewer words

– Prototypes: Our best example of a concept Ex: concept: dog

prototype: your Poodle (the image that pops into your head when you think of “dog”)

Components of Thinking - Problem Solving

Trial and Error: Trying one solution after another in no particular order

Ex: Thomas Edison – light bulb

Means-Ends Analysis: Given a current state and a goal state, an action is chosen to reduce the difference between the two. Ex: Used often in computer programming and artificial intelligence

Insights: Sometimes answer just comes to us out of nowhere when we are not focusing hard on it

Ex: Coming up with a jumbled word ITIGKHNN

Components of Thinking - Problem Solving

Algorithm: A systematic procedure

which guarantees a solution, although it may take longer than a Heuristic approach. -Like a recipe to solve something

Heuristics: Using a rule of thumb strategy to problem solve and make decisions. -Often comes from our past experiences and personal judgments. -Usually quicker, but more error-prone, than algorithms. -Sometimes called“mental shortcuts

Ex: If you are having difficulty understanding a problem, try drawing a picture. If you can't find a solution, try assuming that you have a solution and seeing what you can derive from that ("working backward"). If the problem is abstract, try examining a concrete example.

Decision MakingDefinition: The process of choosing among a number of

alternatives

• Representativeness Heuristic – When we make a decision based on how much a new situation or object resembles our old prototypes

(Ex: truck driver vs. Ivy League professor)

• Availability Heuristic – When we base a decision on what we have most available in our memory. Things that come to mind are presumed to be more common.(Ex: letter “k”…more frequent 1st or 3rd letter)(Ex: casino noises)

• Comparison – When we measure the value of two alternatives by comparing them on a point-by-point basis

Errors Made in Problem Solving

• Functional Fixedness: Inability to use familiar objects in new ways– Ex: Need a flashlight? Use your cell phone.– Ex: Someone who does not show functional fixedness is a

robber who uses women’s hosiery placed over his head to distort his facial features

• Mental Set: When people continue to use problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past

• Irrelevant information: When someone becomes fixed on information that is given in the problem that does not impact the solution

• Unnecessary Constraints: The inability to solve a problem because we place constraints on the solution that really don’t exist

Faulty Decision Making

Confirmation Bias – A tendency to seek out information that confirms our previously held beliefs

Belief Perseverance – The tendency to hold onto our belief even in the face of evidence against our belief…our beliefs distort our logic

Overconfidence – The tendency to count on our own estimates and beliefs too much

Framing Decisions – The way we are presented the information needed for making the decision can impact what we decide Ex: coat for $100 or same coat for $150 at 33% off