DO NOW:  What is cognition (it’s okay to guess)?  Prepare your spring break extra credit to turn in (if you have it).

Cognition AP Psychology Ms. Desgrosellier

THINKING  Objective: SWBAT define cognition.

THINKING  Cognition: the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Concepts  Objective: SWBAT describe the roles of categories, hierarchies, definitions, and prototypes in concept formation.

Concepts  concept: a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Concepts What makes a “chair” a chair?

Concepts  concept: a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Concepts  To simplify concepts down even more, we organize them into hierarchies.  Some concepts are formed by definition.  e.g. a triangle is a figure with three sides, therefore all three sided objects are triangles.

Concepts  prototype: a mental image or best example of a category.  Matching new items to the prototype provides a quick and easy method for including items in a category.  The more closely something matches our prototype of a concept, the more readily we recognize it as an example of the concept.

Solving Problems  Objective: SWBAT compare algorithms and heuristics as problem-solving strategies, and explain how insight differs from both of them.

Solving Problems  Solving problems is one way that we form and use concepts.

Solving Problems  algorithm: a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.  e.g. SPLOYOCHYG  We could try our every combination of these letters one- by-one to figure out what the word is, but this would give us 907,200 options.

Solving Problems  heuristic: a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.  Speedier, but more error-prone than algorithms.  With our example, we can use heuristics to reduce the number of options.  e.g. SPLOOCHGYY

Solving Problems  insight: a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem.  This contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

Obstacles to Problem Solving  Objective: SWBAT contrast the confirmation bias and fixation, and explain how they can interfere with effective problem solving.

Obstacles to Problem Solving  confirmation bias: a tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions.  We look for evidence that confirm our ideas more often than we look for evidence that might refute them.

Obstacles to Problem Solving  fixation: the inability to see a problem from a new perspective.  Slows down problem solving.

Obstacles to Problem Solving  mental set: a tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.  O-T-T-F-?-?-?  J-F-M-A-?-?-?

Obstacles to Problem Solving  functional fixedness: the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions.  Hunting for a screwdriver when you could have used a coin.

MAKING DECISIONS AND FORMING JUDGMENTS  Using and Misusing Heuristics  Objective: SWBAT contrast the representativeness and availability heuristics, and explain how they can cause us to underestimate or ignore important information.

MAKING DECISIONS AND FORMING JUDGMENTS  representativeness heuristic: judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes.  This may lead one to ignore other relevant information.

MAKING DECISIONS AND FORMING JUDGMENTS  availability heuristic: estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory.  if examples come easily to mind, we assume such events are common.

Overconfidence  Objective: SWBAT describe the drawbacks and advantages of overconfidence in decision making.

Overconfidence  overconfidence: the tendency to be more confident than correct – to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments.  Confidence is not necessarily related to correctness; people who are very confident can be just as incorrect.

Framing Decisions  Objective: SWBAT describe how others can use framing to elicit from us the answers they want.

Framing Decisions  framing: the way an issue is posed.  How an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.  e.g. 75% lean vs. 25% fat.

Belief Bias  Objective: SWBAT discuss how our preexisting beliefs can distort our logic.

Belief Bias  belief bias: the tendency for one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid.

Belief Bias  Premise 1: Democrats support free speech.  Premise 2: Dictators are not Democrats.  Conclusion: Dictators do not support free speech.

The Belief Perseverance Phenomenon  Objective: SWBAT describe the remedy for the belief perseverance phenomenon.

The Belief Perseverance Phenomenon  belief perseverance: clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

The Belief Perseverance Phenomenon  To counter the belief perseverance phenomenon, consider the opposite.  e.g. Given a side in a debate, it’s easier to ignore evidence that counters your beliefs.