Transcript Thinking - Coweta County Schools

Thinking
 Cognition
 mental activities associated with thinking,
knowing, remembering, and communicating
 Cognitive Psychology
 study of mental activities
 concept formation
 problem solving
 decision making
 judgment formation
•organizes
perceptions
•processes
information
•interprets
experience
The Matchstick Problem
 How would
you arrange
six matches
to form four
equilateral
triangles?
Determining shortcut
between solutions
Problem Solving Strategies
• Trial & error “Law of Effect”
• Algorithm
– Systematic, step-by-step problem-solving
strategy, guaranteed to provide a solution
• Heuristic
– Rule of thumb that allows one to make
judgments that are quick but often in error
Means–end analysis - heuristic in which difference between
starting situation and goal is determined then steps taken to
reduce difference.
• Insight
-sudden perception of a solution to a problem.
Algorithm
methodical, logical rule or procedure that
guarantees solving problem
SPLOYOCHYG - 907,208 COMBINATIONS
 Concept
 mental grouping of similar objects, events,
ideas, or people
 Prototype
 mental image or best example
 matching new items to prototype provides
quick method for including items in category
(comparing feathered creatures to prototypical bird ; robin)
 Heuristic "rule of thumb”
 simple thinking strategy often allows us
to make judgments
 solve problems efficiently
 usually speedier than algorithms
 more error-prone than algorithms
Contagion heuristic;
Effort heuristic;
value of object is assigned based on
amount of perceived effort that
went into producing object.
people avoid contact with
people or objects viewed
as "contaminated"
“Blind Spots” in Problem Solving
• Representativeness Heuristic
– Tendency to estimate likelihood of event in terms of how
typical it seems; does it represent the norm?
may cause us to ignore other information
• Availability Heuristic
– Tendency to estimate likelihood of event in terms of how
easily instances of it can be recalled;
Is the memory available?
Plane crashes happen often because we
have a vivid memory available of them.
• Illusion of Control
– Tendency for people to believe they
control chance events that mimic skill situations
can
Peak-end rule; judge past experiences on how they
were at peak (pleasant or unpleasant) and how they
ended. All other information discarded, including
pleasantness or unpleasantness,
and how long experience lasted.
This heuristic was first suggested by Daniel Kahneman
Social proof; aka: informational social influence,
in ambiguous social situations
when people are unable to determine
appropriate behavior.
Makes assumption that surrounding
people possess more knowledge
about situation, behavior of others
considered as appropriate.
Functional Fixedness
think of things in terms of
usual functions
 Overconfidence
tendency to be more confident
than correct & to overestimate
accuracy of one’s
beliefs and judgments
Mental Set
tendency to approach
problem in particular way
especially if successful in
past but may not be help
solving new problem
Confirmation Bias
Inclination to search only for
evidence that will confirm
one’s beliefs
Belief Perseverance
clinging to initial conceptions after basis
on which they were formed has been discredited
• Anchoring Effect (focalism) cognitive bias
- describes human tendency to rely heavily, or
"anchor," on one trait or piece of information
when making decisions.
• Framing Effect
– biasing effects on decision making due
to way in which a choice is worded
Best way to market ground beef—
as 25% fat or 75% lean?
Deductive reasoning
Top-Down reasoning
All apples are fruit.
All fruits grow on trees.
Therefore all apples
grow on trees.
Spain & Portugal
are near each other&
they have similar
languages.
Sweden & Denmark are
near each other & have
similar languages.
Therefore, countries that are near
each other have similar languages
Bottom-Up reasoning
Inductive reasoning
 Artificial Intelligence
 designing/programming computer systems
 to do intelligent things
 simulate human thought processes
 intuitive reasoning
 learning
 understanding language
–True flexibility of human
thought processes has yet to
be developed in machine.
The Matchstick Problem
Solution