Cognition

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Cognition
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BASIC FUNCTIONS OF THOUGHT

• The Circle of Thought
• Information-processing system
• Mechanisms for receiving information,
  representing it with symbols, and manipulating
  it.
• Thinking
• The manipulation of mental representations

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• Measuring Information Processing
• Mental Chronometry
• The timing of mental events
• Reaction time
• The time between the presentation of a stimulus
  and an overt response to it.

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• Evoked Brain Potentials
• A small, temporary change in EEG voltage that is
  evoked by some stimulus.
• Neuroimaging

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MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS THE INGREDIENTS OF
THOUGHT

• Concepts
• a category of objects, events, or ideas that have
  common properties
• Types of Concepts
• Formal concepts
• A concept that can be clearly defined by a set of
  rules or properties
• Natural concepts
• A concept that has no fixed set of defining
  features but has a set of characteristic features
• Prototype
• A member of a natural concept that possesses all
  or most of its characteristic features

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• Propositions
• A mental representation of the relationship
  between concepts
• Schemas, Scripts, and Mental Models
• Schema
• A generalization about categories of objects,
  places, events, and people
• Script
• A mental representation of familiar sequences of
  activity
• Mental model
• A cluster of propositions representing our
  understanding of objects and processes that
  guides our interaction with those things

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• Images and Cognitive Maps
• Image
• A mental representation of visual information
• Analogical representations
• Roger Shepherd and Jacqueline Metzler
• Cognitive map
• A mental representation of familiar parts of the
  environment.

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THINKING STRATEGIES

• Reasoning
• The process by which people generate and evaluate
  arguments and reach conclusions about them.
• Formal Reasoning aka logical reasoning
• The process of following a set of rigorous
  procedures for reaching valid conclusions
• Algorithm
• A systematic procedure that cannot fail to
  produce a correct solution to a problem, if a
  solution exists.

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• Rules of logic
• Sets of statements that provide a formula for
  drawing valid conclusions
• Deduction
• General rule to specific cases
• Syllogism
• An argument made up of two propositions, called
  premises, and a conclusion based on those
  premises.
• Premise
• Set of statements wherein a conclusion can be
  drawn

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• Pitfalls in our reasoning
• Belief bias
• What we know and believe biases our reasoning
  process
• Confirmation bias
• The tendency to pay more attention to evidence in
  support of ones hypothesis than to evidence that
  refutes that hypothesis
• Limits on working memory
• Difficult to hold and manipulate large amounts of
  info. in working memory.

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• Informal Reasoning
• The process of evaluating a conclusion, theory,
  or course of action on the basis of the
  believability of evidence
• Inductive reasoning
• Specific cases to general rule
• Heuristics
• Time-saving mental short-cuts used in reasoning

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• The Anchoring Heuristic
• A mental shortcut that involves basing judgments
  on existing information
• The Representativeness Heuristic
• A mental shortcut that involves judging whether
  something belongs in a given class on the basis
  of its similarity to other members of that class.
• The Availability Heuristic
• A mental shortcut through which judgments are
  based on information that is most easily brought
  to mind.

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PROBLEM SOLVING

• Strategies for Problem Solving
• Means-End Analysis
• A step by step approach, sub goals to final
  goals, constantly analyzing the means needed to
  reach the end.
• decomposition
• Working Backward
• Using Analogies
• Finding similarities between current problem and
  one faced in the past.

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• Obstacles to Problem Solving
• Multiple Hypothesis
• Too many possible solutions, too difficult to
  choose the right one.
• Mental Sets
• The tendency for old patterns of problem solving
  to persist, even when they might not always be
  the most efficient alternative.
• Functional fixedness
• A tendency to think about familiar objects in
  familiar way that may prevent using them in other
  ways

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• Ignoring Negative Evidence
• Absence of evidence can provide important
  information for or against a hypothesis
• Confirmation Bias
• Anchoring heuristic