Cognition mental activities associated with thinking, reasoning, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Thinking Occurs on three levels: conscious processes thinking we are consciously aware of sub-conscious processes thinking which lies just outside of our consciousness helps prevent overload non-conscious processes thinking which occurs outside and is not available to our conscious awareness why things “pop into our head”

Elements of Thinking Concept Prototype mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people (category) Prototype mental image or best example of a concept (category)

Types of Thinking Reasoning Purposeful mental activity that involves operating on information in order to reach conclusions or problem-solve.

Types of Reasoning Formal Reasoning Informal Reasoning based on specific knowledge and information with one single best answer algorithm: step by step procedures that guarantee a solution Informal Reasoning possible solutions based on personal experience and things familiar with heuristic: a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements I before e except after C dialectical reasoning: pros and cons of a situation

Types of Reasoning Insight (Intuition) sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem Critical Thinking

Barriers to Reasoning Confirmation Bias tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions Fixation inability to see a problem from a new perspective Functional Fixedness tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions

Barriers to Reasoning Exaggerating the Improbable inclination to exaggerate the probability of very rare events Hindsight Bias “I knew it all the time”

Barriers to Reasoning Representativeness Heuristic judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes

Barriers to Reasoning Availability Heuristic estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory

Barriers to Reasoning Framing Overconfidence tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments Framing how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments

Barriers to Reasoning Belief Perseverance clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited