Write the first 2 physical characteristics that come to mind when you think of each of the following:
• Fruit
• Bird
• Crime
• Sport
• Vegetable
• Vehicle

Rate each of the following as to how typical it is of the given category:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 atypical fairly typical prototypical a) Apple as a fruit ____
Tomato as a fruit____ b) Robin as a bird ____
Penguin as a bird____
What is the prototypical fruit?______
What is the prototypical bird?______
c) Robbery as a crime_____
Forgery as a crime____ d) Soccer as a sport?_____
Rugby as a sport? ____
What is the prototypical crime?______
What is the prototypical sport?______
e) Onion as a vegetable____
Red pepper as a vegetable ____ What is the prototypical vegetable?______
f) Jeep as a vehicle____
Elevator as a vehicle____ What is the prototypical vehicle?______

• Apple was rated the prototypical fruit.
• Robin was rated the prototypical bird.
• Murder was rated the prototypical crime.
• Football was rated the prototypical sport.
• Carrot was rated the prototypical vegetable.
• Vehicle was not included in the Rosch test.

• Concepts
– simplify
– mental groupings
– Category hierarchies further simplify
– form concepts by definition
– form concepts by prototype
• mental image or best example
• the more closely something matches our prototype…..
 Once we place an item in a category, our memory of it later shifts towards the category prototype .

algorithm
heuristics

Strategies
• Trial & Error
• Algorithms
» Step-by-step
» guarantee a solution
• Heuristic
– rule of thumb
– may or may not work
– faster
• Insight

Creativity
• Creativity
• Strernberg’s five components
–Expertise
–Imaginative thinking skills
–A venturesome personality
–Intrinsic motivation
–A creative environment

Connect the 9 dots using four straight lines without lifting the pencil from the paper

Obstacles to Problem Solving
• Confirmation bias
– we seek evidence to support our ideas rather than refute them
• Fixation
– inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective
– Mental set
• approaching a problem the way it worked in the past
– Functional fixedness
• think of things only in terms of their useful functions

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments
Using and Misusing Heuristics
• The Representative Heuristic
Short – slim –glasses –reads poetry trucker or professor?
– judging the likely of things based on how well they represent particular prototypes To judge likelihood, compare our
– enables us to make snap judgments mental representations
– leads us to ignore relevant information of category – if matches it usually overrides statistics

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments
Using and Misusing Heuristics
• The Availability Heuristic
gambling base our judgments on how mentally available information is – if something
“pops into mind” we perceive it as available/more likely

• We fear what our ancestral history has prepared us to fear.
• We fear what we cannot control
• We fear what is immediate
• We fear what is most readily available in memory

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments
Overconfidence
• Overconfidence
– tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge and judgments

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments
The Belief Perseverance Phenomenon
• Belief perseverance
–clinging to one’s initial conceptions after they’ve been discredited
–fix: consider the opposite

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments
The Perils and Powers of Intuition
• Intuition
–Unconscious intuition

Each side of the room is going to be presented with a series of questions.
You must keep your eyes closed and head down when the other side of the room is reading their questions.
You will write your answers down.
You cannot speak while answering questions.

(window side/eyes closed)
• What is 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8?
• Is the cost of the average college textbook more or less than $70?
• Estimate an answer – What is the cost of the average college textbook?
• When Gandhi was killed in January 1948, was he older or younger than 9 years old?
• Estimate an answer – How old was Gandhi when he was killed?

(door side/eyes closed)
• What is 8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1?
• Is the cost of the average college textbook more or less than $700?
• Estimate an answer – What is the cost of the average college textbook?
• When Gandhi was killed in January 1948, was he older or younger than 140 years old?
• Estimate an answer – How old was Gandhi when he was killed?

Door Side…
• What is 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8?
• Is the cost of the average college textbook more or less than $70?
• Estimate an answer – What
is the cost of the average college textbook?
• When Gandhi was killed in
January 1948, was he older or younger than 9 years old?
• Estimate an answer – How old was Gandhi when he was killed?
Window Side…
• What is 8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1?
• Is the cost of the average college textbook more or less than $700?
• Estimate an answer – What
is the cost of the average college textbook?
• When Gandhi was killed in
January 1948, was he older or younger than 140 years old?
• Estimate an answer – How old was Gandhi when he was killed?

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments
• Framing
–the way a question/problem is framed can influence the decision

= the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

= a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

= a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories
(as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin).

= a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
Contrasts with the usually speedier – but also more error-prone – use of heuristics.

= a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.

= a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

= the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

= a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

= the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.

= a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

= the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.

= judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.

= estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

= the tendency to be more confident that correct – to over-estimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

= clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they are formed has been discredited.

= an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.