COGNITION

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COGNITION

• VIEWS ON HOW WE THINK AND ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE

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What is cognition?

• How we think, acquire knowledge, imagine, plan
  and solve problems.
• All functions of the cerebral cortex.
• An important aspect deals with our reasoning
  abilities.

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Reasoning

• Drawing conclusions or inferences from
  observations, facts, or assumptions
• Crucial to make wise decisions

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Formal reasoning

• Factors are well known and clearly established
• 224
• The capitol of Illinois is Springfield.
• Snakes lack legs.

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algorithms

• To solve problems through formal reasoning, we
  often use an algorithm
• A step-by-step, routine or mechanical
  procedure for solving a problem
• Exhausting all the possibilities
• Connecting the TV to the VCR
• A recipe

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heuristics

• But sometimes problems are too hard to pin down
  or there are too many competing alternatives
• In these cases, we use heuristics intuitive,
  rule of thumb strategies to simplify a problem
  or guide an investigation

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heuristics

• What restaurant do we choose?
• Whats my next school?
• What career is best for me?
• Go Fish!
• We use past experiences, advice from those we
  respect, word of mouth, to eliminate most
  possibilities quickly

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The Limits of Heuristics

• In many situations heuristics are the only way to
  tackle a complex problem
• But they have their shortcomings
• Since they rely on assumptions, occasionally they
  lead to bad decisions and mistakes

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Errors in cognition

• Although essential, heuristics sometimes lead us
  astray
• The Fairness Bias sometimes our thirst to be
  treated fairly causes us to make questionable
  decisions
• Simon (1955) economic decisions are often
  irrational

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Errors ii

• Confirmation Bias
• We make quick or emotional decisions and then
  focus only on evidence which confirms our hunch,
  ignoring evidence to the contrary
• A defendants greatest fear

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More errors

• The Availability heuristic
• Strategy of assuming that the number of memories
  of an event that are available indicates how
  common the event really is
• Leads to illusory correlations
• Must look to systematic data
• One compelling memory jumps to mind

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Availability examples

• Million dollar lawsuits
• Treacherous Arab-Americans
• Lotto winners
• Full moon/bizarre behavior connection
• Abductions

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Hindsight Bias

• Years later, we claim that we knew it all
  along.
• We didnt.
• Bulls 1992 championship
• The White Sox magical season
• Can prevent us from carefully investigating what
  happened.

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Finally .

• The Sunk Cost Effect
• We will often do stupid, illogical things
  because of money or effort already expended
• Throwing good money after bad
• Animals and kids just walk away
• 150,000 soldiers waiting in Kuwait

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Why do we gamble?

• After all, we know that the odds (Lotto!) are
  stacked against us
• Let us count the ways (reasons)
• Over-estimation of control
• we think we can influence the odds if we have
  some, or any, control
• But not if they are purely random events

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Gambling why?

• Big numbers Little risks
• We flock to long-shot bets with small risk
• Even if the odds are much worse
• We dont appreciate the difference between 1 in
  70,000 and 1 in 7, 000,000 if enough money is
  dangled in front of us

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More on gambling

• The Gamblers Fallacy
• The sad fact that weve always lost does not mean
  that someday well win
• The law of averages has little effect on truly
  random events

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Old favorites (?)

• Intermittent reinforcement hard to resist, but
  no certainty of eventual win
• Vicarious reinforcement we see big winners all
  the time Why not us?
• Sunk cost well make up all those losses