Psychology April 9, 2012 What do the following warning signs mean? Are there other warning signs around your home or around town that you automatically know what they mean, without explanation?

Understanding Thinking Main Idea – Thinking is a mental activity that allows humans to process, understand and communicate information. There are three types of thinking; convergent, divergent, and metacognitive. Question – What are some basic elements related to thinking? Question – How do the three types of thinking differ?

Basic Elements of Thinking Thinking – a mental activity that is involved in the understanding, processing and communicating of information. – Symbols, concepts and prototypes Symbols – an object or an act that stands for something else. Concepts – grouping objects together based on similarities (objects, events, or ideas.) Prototypes – an examples of a concept that exemplifies the characteristics of that concept.

Prototypes Think of a shoe in your mind. Draw a quick sketch of the shoe. Does it have laces, straps or neither? Does it have a heel? Is it a tennis shoe or a dress shoe? Prototypes can be an average of all experiences – for example, not one shoe, but the idea of several you have seen in one.

Three Kinds of Thinking Convergent – limited to available facts. – Looking at a problem with a narrow point of view, one solution. Divergent – allows the mind to associate more freely to various elements of a problem. – At the base of creativity, allowing for more than one option to solve a problem.

Three Kinds of Thinking (cont.) Metacognition – consists of planning, evaluating and monitoring mental activities. – Thinking about thinking Metacognitive knowledge – knowing how you or others think, knowing what a task requires, and knowing what strategies to use to perform it. – You realize you learn best when you study with a friend and quiz each other. Metacognitive experience – reflecting on your own thoughts. – Wondering why you choose the answer France when you knew earlier it was Germany.

Three Kinds of Thinking (cont.) Metacognition works in 3 categories (stages) – Developing a plan (knowledge) Ask the following question: What do I already know about the topic? What is my goal? What should I do first? What strategies will work best? How much time do I have to complete the task (consider making a calendar)? How will I be evaluated? – Monitoring yourself to judge progress towards your goal How am I doing? Am I on the right track? What more might I need to know? How is my pacing going? Do I need to adjust my timeline for completion? Do I need to try something different? – Evaluate how you actually performed How well did I do? What could I have done differently? Can I apply any of what I learned in doing this task to other problems?

Activity – Elements of Thinking Posters Create posters that provide definitions and examples of each of the Elements of Thinking. 1.Notes from the basic elements of thinking. 2.Divide your poster into 3 sections and label it each SYMBOL, CONCEPT, PROTOTYPE. 3.In each section write the definition, and give two examples. (Think about our symbol examples from our warm up or prototype example from the notes.) 4.Illustrate the two examples you choose. The illustrations do not have to be perfect, but comprehendible.