Cognition in Solving Problems and Decision-Making

To think about the countless things we must each day, we need to simplify. How? Concepts: Ideas that represent a class or category of objects, events or activities

Hierarchical Organization of Conceptual Categories Superordinate Level - the most general form of concept (animal, vehicle, fruit, utensil) Basic Level Categories - an example of a type of concept around which other similar concepts are organized (dog, car, pear, knife, table) Subordinate Level - the most specific category of a concept such as a very specific example (German Shepard, Honda, Bradford pear, steak, card table)

Concept Categories Formal Concepts – Concepts that are defined by specific rules or features – Example: What is a square? – Two-dimensional figure with four equal sides and four angles adding up to 360 degrees – It cannot be anything but a square since it has very specific requirements. Natural Concepts – Concepts people form as a result of their experience in the real world – Example: What is a vehicle? Car, boat, raft,, truck, bobsled – Natural concepts are a bit more “fuzzy.” Is a whale a fish or a mammal?

Not all thinking is in the form of concepts Mental Imagery: representations that stand for objects or events and have a picture-like quality Try this: Tell me as fast as you can how many windows are in the place you live? Shout it out when you have determined a number. You might notice that people will look up, as if looking at an image that only they can see. If asked, they will say that to determine the number of windows was determined by a “walk through” of their home.

Problem Solving

Definition – a process of cognition that occurs when a goal must be reached by thinking and behaving certain ways.

Test Your Wits?

Different ways to Problem Solve Trial & Error – use trial solutions until one works Algorithms – step-by-step procedures for solving certain types of problems. – Math problems – Library organization – Rubik’s Cube® Heuristics – an educated guess, a “rule of thumb” that helps narrow down possibilities

Different ways to Problem Solve Intuition – what seems right to you 1.We only use 10% of our brain 2.Vinyl lunchboxes contain unsafe levels of lead 3.Psychologist B.F. Skinner’s daughter was traumatized by being raised in a Skinner box and later sued her father. 4.Drug dealers are selling flavored crystal methamphetamine called strawberry quick. 5.Bananas will be extinct in 10 years.

Different ways to Problem Solve Intuition – what seems right to you 6.Forty-five percent of the $20 bills in circulation in the United States are contaminated with cocaine. 7.Bubonic plague still exists in the western United States, but it does not cause epidemics. 8.Raisins can cause acute renal failure in dogs. 9.The stereotypical American image of Santa Claus originated in a Coca-Cola advertisement campaign. 10.Temporary tattoos laced with LSD are used to hook children on drugs.

Different ways to Problem Solve Insight – a sudden realization of a problem’s solution. This contrasts with strategy-based solutions. – Think of a word that will form a compound word with each of these: Pine Crab Sauce APPLE: Pineapple, Crabapple, Applesauce

Obstacles to Problem Solving Confirmation Bias – the tendency to search for information that supports our presuppositions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Think Outside the Box

Chicken, Fox & Grain Problem You have a boat and need to take a fox, a chicken and some corn across a river. The boat will only hold you and one other thing. If you leave the chicken alone with the corn, the chicken will eat the corn. If you leave the fox alone with the chicken, the chicken's in big trouble. How can you get them all across in the least amount of trips possible?

More on Heuristics Representative Heuristic: judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match particular prototypes; may lead to ignoring relevant information.

Representative Heuristic A stranger tells you about a person who is short, slim, and likes to read poetry, and then asks you to guess whether this person is more likely to be a professor of classics at an Ivy League university or a truck driver. Which would be the better guess?

First, figure out how many professors fit the description. Q = How many Ivy League universities do you suppose there are? A = about 10 Q = How many classics professors are there at each one? A = maybe 44 X 10 = 40 Q = What fraction are short & slim? A = perhaps half40 / 2 = 20 Q = Of these, how many like to read poetry? A = a guess of half 20 / 2 = 10 Ok – 10 professors fit the description

Now, figure out how many truck drivers fit the description. Q = How many truck drivers are there? A = perhaps 400,000 Q = What fraction are short & slim? A = Not many, maybe 1 in 850,000 Q = Of these 50,000, how many like to read poetry? A = Truck drivers reading poetry? Maybe 1 in 100 So that means there are probably about 500 short, slim, poetry-reading truck drivers. What odds do you think favor the person being a truck driver?

Availability Heuristic Estimating the likelihood of events based on the availability in memory. If instances come to mind, we presume such events are common. Risk of death from various causes?