Complex Cognitive Process: Thinking Ricky Cook, Chris Piccillo, and Jon Chreng

Thinking Defined: Involves manipulating and transforming information in memory. We think to form concepts, reason think critically, make decisions, think creatively and solve problems.

Reasoning… Logical Thinking using inductive and deductive reasoning Inductive reasoning involves reasoning from the specific to the general.  Analogies are good examples of inductive reasoning.  Murder is to crows as a gaggle is to ______. Geese

Reasoning Cont’d… Deductive reasoning is reasoning from the general to the specific. Example:  Islands are completely surrounded by water.  Australia is completely surrounded by water. Therefore: Australia is an island.

Critical Thinking… Involves thinking reflectively and productively and evaluating the evidence. One of the best ways to think critically is to present students with a controversial topic or article representing both sides of the issue.

Creative Thinking What is it?

Creative Thinking… Creativity  Ability to think about something in novel/unusual ways and discover unique solutions. J.P. Guilford (1967)  Convergent vs. Divergent thinking

Creativity and Intelligence… Most creative students are intelligent, however…  many highly intelligent students are not particularly creative (Sternberg, 2006). Creativity may appear in different domains.

Creativity in the Classroom… Encourage creative thinking  Group and individual basis Environment  Activities  Field trips Facilitate  Student selection of activities

Classroom Cont’d… Internal Motivation  Don’t overuse rewards Flexibility Involve the community  Writers, poets, musicians, scientists, etc…

Decision Making The Process and the Strategy

Discussion One: What is Decision Making? What is involved in decision making? A Choice Scenario Gathering Evidence and Information Evaluating Alternatives Choose and Execute Alternative Def: involves thinking where individuals evaluate alternatives and make choices among them.

Sounds Simple? Our decision making strategies are NOT perfect! In fact, decision making is sometimes difficult and prone to certain flaws of thinking!

Flaws of Thinking Confirmation Bias Overconfidence Bias Hindsight Bias Belief Perseverance Availability Heuristic Representative Heuristic

Checkpoint: Which Flaw of Thinking? “I absolutely rock at math, man. I mean, I eat, sleep, and dream math! Math is like my anti-drug, yo. I’m so good at it, and there is absolutely ZERO percent chance I will drop my major. Therefore, I am deciding to be a math major.” Overconfidence Bias “Man, five days watching the news, and five days I’ve seen baseball players shoot up steroids like it’s candy. Steroids is a HUGE problem that is sweeping ALL over baseball, and I stand by that fact staunchly. All baseball players should be admitted into an anti-steroid psychology program!” Availability Heuristic Pretend it’s the same person as the first one after being a math major for a year: “Good grief, who knew math was going to turn into something this ghastly? I knew it! Why did you tell me I should be a math major? I told you I stunk at it! I knew I shouldn’t have been a math major!” Hindsight Bias “Yo, every one of those thugs there tell me that harassing 83 year old lady is sweet fun, man! I’m a gonna go find me an 83-year old lady and harass her!” Confirmation Bias

Conclusion: Strategies for Making Good Decisions Weigh the costs and benefits of various outcomes. Avoid confirmation bias. Resist belief perseverance. Don’t engage in overconfidence bias. Avoid hindsight bias. Be aware of the availability and representative heuristics.

Activity: Nuclear Survival In groups of 5:  You must come to a consensus regarding the five people who will be removed from the shelter  When you are finished write the names and occupations of the people your group decided would survive.