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Thinking
Cognition
• thinking, knowing,
remembering, problem solving,
and decision making
• Does the way we think really
matter?
Of Course it does!!!!
Maybe we can become super
Thinkers if we understand
the process of thinking!!!
How do I become a super thinker you ask…
• In order to think about the world, the 1st step is to form
something called Concepts
– A mental category of similar objects, events or ideas
– Concepts are similar to Piaget’s idea of…schemas
• These animals all look different, but they fall under our
concept of ????
• Lets try another…
What is the Concept??? One or Two??
Sometimes we use our concepts of things to
define a Prototype
• A best example of a concept (category)
Differs from person to
person based on experience
• If a new object is similar to our prototype,
are better able to recognize it
Prototype
Man
we
• If that is your prototype what about these
people?
What happens if something
doesn’t fit your prototype??
Concept Hierarchy
• Different levels of thinking
– start with a general concept and then get more complex
– Helps us understand our world better
• When our thinking is simple we first master the
simple concepts
– “Hey look at that truck!!”
• Then when our thinking becomes more
sophisticated we can understand more complex
concepts
– “No, that is not a truck it is a Ford crossover SUV”
• Vehicles
car or sedan
cars or trucks
sports car
cars
sports
corvette
How do we solve
thinking problems?
Trial and Error
• Trying out different solutions until
one works
• This is good for solving problems
when??
– Only practical when the number of
solutions is pretty small
Algorithms
• A step by step set of rules that will always
lead to a correct solution or ending
• Example – following model directions
• Good and Bad??
– always will produce a solution –
– but could take very very long
Heuristics
• A short cut to a solution
• Does not guarantee a solution, but you will
arrive at one more quickly
• Good and Bad??
– May be quick
– But may be prone to errors
Insight and Intuition
• A sudden solution to a problem
AHA!! I’ve Got It!!!
• No real strategy involved
Move only 3 dots to make
A downward facing triangle
Jokes, Riddles, and
Insight
Obstacles to Problem Solving
OPS’s
What stops us from figuring things out??
OPS #1
Irrelevant Information
• Sometimes there is just too much stuff and we have to
figure out what is needed and what is fluff
– Example – Can you solve?
• In the Thompson family there are five brothers, and
each brother has one sister. If you count Mrs.
Thompson, how many females are there in the
Thompson family? Click to find the answer
–
2
• Fifteen percent of the people in Topeka have unlisted
telephone 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? Click to find the answer
–
0
OPS #2
Confirmation and Belief Bias
• Preexisting beliefs distort logical reasoning…because…
– We only search for information that confirms our
preconceptions
– For example, if you believe that during a full moon there is an increase in
admissions to the emergency room where you work, you will take notice of
admissions during a full moon, but be inattentive to the moon when admissions
occur during other nights of the month
• Why can be a problem for juries??
Belief Perseverance
• Clinging to your initial conceptions after
the basis on which they were
formed has been discredited
OPS #3
Fixation
• We can’t solve a problem because we can’t
see the problem in a new way
Why do we suffer from Fixation??
Mental Set
• The tendency to rely on strategies that
worked in the past
– Because things worked in the past we think they will work
again or may be the only way things work
OPS #3
Fixation
Without lifting your
pencil from the paper,
Draw no more than four
Lines that will cross
Through all nine dots.
See also the Tower of
Hanoi Problem
OPS #4
Functional Fixedness
• The tendency to think of things only in terms of their
usual functions
• What are some things I
can do with this quarter
(other than spend it)?
How would you grasp both strings
at the same time?
Mount a candle on the wall with the
items shown.
OPS #5
Overconfidence
• The tendency to be
more confident
than correct
• To overestimate
the accuracy of
your beliefs and
judgments.
I’m the
Greatest of
all time!!!
OPS #6
Framing
• The way statement is posed or how choices are
structured can often confuse us
– This can block us from making good decisions and
judgments
• A surgeon has 95% success rate or a 5% death
rate?
– Who would you feel comfortable with??
• What would happen if ground beef were
marketed as 20% fat instead of 80% lean?
• A - a sure gain of $240
• B – a 25% chance of winning $1000
and a 75% chance of winning
nothing
• A – a sure loss of $750
• B – a 75% chance of losing $1000 and
a 25% chance of losing nothing
Decisions Involving Uncertainty
How do we make a decision when we are
uncertain and not sure what to do??
• We often use a heuristic…(remember what
these are??)
– They will help us solve problems and reach
answers but often lead to errors and bad decisions
1. Availability Heuristic
2. Representativeness Heuristic
Availability Heuristic
• We base our judgments (or decisions) on the availability of
information in our memories
– If instances of an event come to mind easily we assume such events are
common
Ex: Although car accidents kill many more people than
airplane crashes, it has been shown that people will judge
airplane crashes to be more of an issue.
This is because airplane crashes are more dramatic and
are often written up in the paper or seen on the news on
T.V. and are more available in memory than car crashes
Representativeness Heuristic
• A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in
terms of how well they match our prototype
Ex: Below is Linda. She loves books and hates loud noises.
Is Linda a librarian or a beautician?
– Chances are she is a beautician.
Why? Even though the person
described maybe be more
representative of librarians,
statistically there is a better
chance she is a beautician
because of the number of
beauticians out there.
Creativity and Thinking
• Creativity
– there is no real definition of creativity but often it is looked
at as the ability to generate novel, valuable, useful ideas
– Must have a minimum level of intelligence to be creative,
but not all intelligent people are creative
Divergent vs. Convergent Thinking
• Divergent
– people’s thoughts go in different directions as they try to
generate many different solutions to a problem
• Convergent
– people narrow down a list of possibilities to arrive at a
single right answer
Divergent thinking is generally associated more with creativity