COGNITION

1
COGNITION

• Area of psychology that refers broadly to mental
  processes or thinking

2
Problem Solving

• Refers to the active efforts to discover what
  must be done to achieve a goal that is not
  readily attainable
• Must go beyond given information to overcome
  obstacles to reach goal/solution

3
Types of Problems

• Problems of Inducing Structure
• Must discover relations among parts of problem
• Analogy
• MerchantSellCustomer ___
• Series Completion
• -XX-X--X-??X

4

• Problems of Arrangement
• Arrange parts in a way that satisfies some
  criterion
• Often solved w/burst of insight
• Anagrams
• elsnsmea salesmen
• String Problem p.

5

• Problems of Transformation
• Must carry out a sequence of transformations in
  order to reach a goal
• Hobbits Orcs
• Water Jar Problem

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Barriers to Problem Solving

• Irrelevant Information trying to use all info.
  to solve a problem/numerical
• Functional Fixedness a tendency to perceive only
  a limited number of uses for an object, thus
  interfering with the process of problem solving
• Mental Set the tendency to perceive and to
  approach problems in certain ways---especially
  ones that worked in the past

7
Try to figure this out

• What is the pattern of the following numbers
• 8 5 4 1 7 6 3 2 0

8
More barriers

• Unnecessary Constraints perceiving barriers that
  dont exist
• People usually make assumptions that impose
  unnecessary constraints on problem-solving
• Nine-dot problem

9
Producing Strategies Evaluating Progress

• Trial Error works best with limited choices
• Algorithm step-by-step problem-solving method
  that guarantees a solution
• Heuristics short cuts to problem solving called
  rule of thumb used to simplify problem
• Forming subgoals
• Analogy
• Changing representation of problem-good to use
  when your initial attempts were unsuccessful

10
Unscramble the following letters

• G S P L O Y O C H Y
• Algorithm
• All 90, 208 combinations
• Heuristic
• Throw out all YY combinations

11
Decision Making

• Involves evaluating alternatives and making
  choices among them
• Simons theory of bounded rationality asserts
  people frequently make irrational decisions that
  are less than optimal
• We tend to use simple strategies that only give
  us a few options where more are available

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Making Choices

• Additive Strategy list/weigh options (p. 231)
• Elimination by Aspects alternatives are
  eliminated by evaluating attributes
• We tend to use additive more often, however, as
  more options/factors are added we switch to
  elimination by aspects.

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Decision Making Heuristics

• Availability easily retrieved information from
  LTM sways decision
• KLNRV Do these letters appear more often in the
  1st or 3rd letter position?
• Is flying more dangerous than driving?
• People tend to overestimate the likelihood of
  improbable events
• Representativeness resemblance to a stereotypic
  model used to judge a new situation
• Steven is articulate, outgoing, artistic, and
  politically liberal. Is it more likely that he
• A) is an engineering major, or
• B) started out as an engineering major and
  switched to journalism?
• Illustrates conjunction fallacy

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• Confirmation Bias seeking evidence in support of
  our beliefs ignoring evidence that is not
• Overconfidence Effect people put too much faith
  in their estimates, beliefs, and decisions
• We tend to be more confident than accurate!
• The more confident we are about our predictions,
  the more likely we are overconfident. (p. 237)