Psy 101 Pp.395-410

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pp. 395-410

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Thinking and Language/Higher order cognition

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cognition

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

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concept

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

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prototype

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

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algorithm

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a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantess solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier--but also more error prone-use of heuristics ex: search every aisle of supermarket for guava juice, assures that you will find it

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heuristics

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a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgment and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error prone that algorithms. Ex; to find guava juice search bottled beverage aisle)

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insight

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a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; contrasts with strategy-based solutions. An aha! reaction ex: rescuing a robin fallen into a hole by pouring sand in slow enough to allow the bird to keep its feet on top of the constantly rising sand.

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confirmation bias

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a tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions ex: 2-4-6 so you test pattern by trying 4-6-8 instead of testing 3-6-9 to prove yourself wrong.

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fixation

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the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an impediment to problem solving

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mental set

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

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functional fixedness

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the tendency to think of things only in terms of their unusual functions; an impediment to problem solving. Ex: looking for a screwdriver when you could have used a dime

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representativeness heuristic

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judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead one to ignore other relevant information ex: short, slim, stranger who likes to read poetry is he likely a classics professor at Princeton or a truck driver? will probably answer professor even though there are more truck drivers in the world compared to princeton classics profs.

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availability heuristic

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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 as common ex: shark attacks vs. parts falling out of an airplane

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overconfidence

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tendency to be more confident than correct-to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs and judgments. Can have devastating effects in terms of military and war and failing to realize possibiility of personal errror. Ex: where are the weapons of mass destruction?!

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framing

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the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments ex: 200 people saved vs. 400 people die

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belief bias

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the tendency for one's preeexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid. Ex: God is love, Love is blind, Ray charles is blind, ray charles is god"

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belief perseverence

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clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited. Ex: pro and anti capital punishment people given 2 articles, one in support and one against the death penalty, they typically only cited from the one that supported their argument--made them disagree more; however when given an article that matched their beliefs and then asked to consider whether they would have valued the study as higher or lower if it supported teh opposite argument, the bias was lowered

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role of categories, hierarchies, definitions, and prototypes in concept formation.

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divide clusters of objects into categories based on their similarities; in creating hierarchies we subdivide these categories into smaller and more detailed units; we form other concepts such as triangles by definitino(3 sided object); but we form most concepts around prototypes or best examples of a category

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smart thinke's reaction to intuition

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as we gain expertise in a field, medicine for example, we grow adept at performing the skills. Smart thinkers will welcome their intution but chech them against available evidence to avoid overconfidence, biased, and illogical thinking

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reduced discriminatino

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minimize the number of labels of objects in the world(category should allow you to have as few labels as possible; yields few large categories)

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informativeness

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knowledge of category membership allows inferences to be made (yields many small categories) ex. This is a chair, it is safe to sit on

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give an example of a subordinate, basic level,a nd superordinate category

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toyota(sub), car(basic), vehicles(super

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what does wason's card task test; what are some conclusions that can be drawn from it?

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confirmation bias; brain evolved with a variety of cognitive adaptations. Cheater detection is especially strong there may even be a cheater detection module; explains why in wason's card task we are better at determining which card to turn over when the drinking example is givne)

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Prospect Theory

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kahnemen and Tversky studied what people do when they make choices; found that tehre was a value function; a risk function; and reference points

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value function

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diminishing sensitivity; the more money you have, the less you notice small changes which leads to risk aversion. For losses--Also diminishing returns for losing leads to risk seeking activities. Steeper curve than for gains. ex; losing a nickel vs. winning the jackpot

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risk function

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how we understand probability in risk; overweight of small percentages and underweight of large percentages ex: why people play the lotto? Why people stop taking medicine bc of possible side effects

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reference points

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extremeness aversino-don’t like to choose extreme, can get choice reversals depending on what surrounding choice set is. Ex: william's sonoma 'invisible item' 2 cd $100 vs. 3 cd$75-bad option there to manipulate people into buying things

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Bounded rationality

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limits on attention, memory, and processing capacity; given the constraints we must take mental shortcuts

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Anchoring

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asked first question causes the subject to use that number as a reference point for the subsequent question even though the two are unrelated. Ex: spinning the wheel of fortune will bring up a number then the person will be asked a questino and they will use this number as a reference even though it has nothing to do with the question.

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Affective heuristic

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willing to donate same amount of money regadless of how many seals are suffering. Amount donated is dependent on the emotion felt.