1. Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity and Language E. Pardalis

2. What is “thinking”? Everything that has to do with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating Cognitive psychology The logical and illogical ways we form concepts, solve problems, make decisions and form judgments

3. Creating Concepts Mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas and people Prototype formation Piaget – schema formation – Assimilate – Accomodate

4. Introducing Prototypes Respond to the categories with the first examples that come to mind: – A bird – A color – A triangle – A motor vehicle – A sentence – A hero – A heroic action – A game – A philosopher – A writer

5. Introducing Prototypes Robin, sparrow or eagle Red or blue A picture of an equilateral triangle A car A short declarative statement Superman, Batman or possibly a fireman/policeman A single act by a male (i.e. rescue by a fireman) Monopoly or some other board game Socrates or Aristotle Stephen King or some other white male author

6. Creativity How do you define creativity? Unusual Uses Test: – You have two minutes to write down all the uses you can think of for an ordinary paper clip. Remote Associates Test (30-35 minutes) Consequences Test – What would happen if everyone in the world went blind?

7. Remote Associates Test Answers 1.Phone16. ball 2.Book17. go 3.Fire18. cover 4.Pin19. type 5.Cheese20. chair 6.Chair21. lead 7.Slow22. top 8.Foot23. tack 9.Party24. watch 10.Hard25. cat 11.Green26. stop 12.Floor27. mail 13.Stone28. bubble 14.Bar29. black 15.Fountain30. end

8. Problem Solving Answers to last night’s word problems. Strategies for problem solving: – Trial and Error (Buddhist Monk) – Algorithms (matrix, Fred, Ed, Ted) – Heuristics (Hobbits-and-Orcs problem) – Hypotheses (Truthteller)

9. Journal What are the top five things you fear? – Is the fear related to evolutionary history? – Is the fear not something you can control? – Is the fear immediate?

10. Obstacles to Problem Solving Imagine you serve on the jury of an only-child sole custody case following a relatively messy divorce. The facts of the case are complicated by ambiguous economic, social and emotional considerations and you decide to base your decision entirely on a few observations. Parent A, who has an average income, average health, average working hours, a reasonable rapport with the child, and a relatively stable social life or Parent B who has an above average income, minor health problems, lots of work related travel, a very close relationship with the child and an extremely active social life.

11. Confirmation Bias and Social Judgments Most people award sole custody to Parent B But when asked to which parent would they deny custody another group also selected Parent B. Award = look for positive Deny = look for negative Therapy: look for things to confirm original diagnosis, ask questions based on personal motives (Freudians: unconscious conflicts)

12. Availability Heuristic Base our opinions on how mentally available information is. Go back to the fears… how many of them are based on the availability heuristic?

13. Overconfidence Overestimate accuracy of beliefs and judgments – Bush into Iraq – LBJ into Vietnam – Students studying

14. Belief Perseverance Phenomenon Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the bias has been discredited – EX: Mess insisting on cramming Social conflict – Death penalty – Abortion

15. Effects of Framing The way we present an issue – Affects decisions and judgments – EX: statistics, political and sales decisions

16. Structure of Language Phonemes Morphemes Grammar – Semantics – Syntax

17. How do we learn Language? Receptive Productive Skinner vs. Chomsky

18. Langauge’s Influence on Thinking Linguistic determination – language determines the way we think Language influences our thinking – Forming categories Word count helps us conquer difficult images (freedom, commitment, rhyming) Doublespeak

19. Alter perceptions of reality and corrupt our thinking – Sometimes used to make bad seem good and vice versa Four forms – Euphemism: inoffensive or positive word to avoid harsh, unpleasant reality – Jargon: specialized language of trade or profession – Gobbledygook or bur