1. Thinking & Intelligence

2. Fact or Fiction?
In general, people underestimate how much they really know.
It takes less compelling evidence to change our beliefs than it did to create them in the first place.
Only human beings seem capable of insight (the sudden realization of a problem’s solution)
In general, people with high intelligence scores are more creative than people with low intelligence scores.
Among the intellectually challenged, males outnumber females by near 50%.
As adopted children grow older, their intelligence scores become more similar to those of their biological parents than to those of their adoptive parents.
The SAT is a much better predictor of the college performance of white students than it is of blacks.

3. What is a Problem?
“A problem arises when a living organism has a goal, but does not know how this goal is to be reached.” Duncker

4. What is Thinking?
Thinking is the mental expression of a problem or situation-
If the brain is the computer then the thinking is the program-

5. Types of thinking….
Convergent Thinking
Divergent Thinking

6. Unscramble….
SPLOYOCHYG

7. Homo Sapiens= Wise humans Why are we so smart?
Images & Concepts
Reasoning
Problem Solving
Form Judgments
Think Creatively

8. We think in images… 97% of all people have visual images of thought.
92% have auditory images of thought.
50% Have images of touch, taste, smell & pain.

10. Images Help us Understand verbal instructions
Help us think about our goals
Help us choose what clothes to wear
Help us arrange furniture

11. You are in a park….

12. We think in Concepts (mental groups)
Human brain has a built-in capacity to group objects, events and people with similar characteristics…
Does it sounds like schema? (Piaget)
Prototype: A typical best example of a concept….
Simple concepts: Tree Floor covering Dinosaur Job Athlete President Car Flower Book Ball House Store

13. Concept Map

14. We run into trouble when…
Our information doesn’t match our concept

15. Reasoning Drawing conclusions based on information
Sources of Error………
Mood
Belief perseverance
Passive learning
Confirmation bias

16. Which parent will you award custody to?
Imagine that you serve on the jury of an only-child 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 the following few observations.
Parent A, who has an average income, average health, average working hours, a reasonable relationship with the child and a relatively stable social life. Or Parent B, who has an above income, minor health problems, lots of work-related travel, a very close relationship with the child and an extremely active social life.

17. Reasoning.. Sources of strength
Mindfulness= “Flexible state of mind in which we are actively engaged in the present.” Langer
Recognizing that there is sometimes more than one good answer.

18. Problem Solving… Trial & Error (until something works!)
Rote (learned set of rules)
Insight (sudden realization)
Feeling of knowing (tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon)
Deep understanding of a problem (Dunker)
Heuristics (rule of thumb)
Representative heuristics
Algorithm (step-by-step procedure: guarantees a solution)
Framing (how information is presented)
Overconfidence (vs. accuracy)

19. Imagine that a rare tropical disease has entered the US
Imagine that a rare tropical disease has entered the US. It is expected to kill 600 people. Two plans to combat the disease exist.
If plan A is adopted, 200 people will be saved. If plan B is adopted, the chances are one in three that all 600 will be saved but two in three that no one will be saved. Which plan would you choose?
Now consider… If plan C is chosen 400 people will definitely die; If Plan D is chosen, the chances are one in three that no one will die, but two in three that all 600 will die. Which plan would you choose?

20. What is the difference? Plan A & B represent lives SAVED
Plan C & D represent lives LOST

21. Barriers to problem solving
Mental set
Human intuition (there are limits)
Implicit assumptions (Rules)
Functional fixedness
Belief perseverance (especially if we have made our belief public)
Political correctness
Faulty concepts
Cultural barriers

22. Limits of Human Intuition….
A man bought a horse for $60 and sold it for $70 He then bought the same horse back for $80 And again sold it for $90 How much did he make?

23. Draw four continuous lines connecting all the dots without lifting your pen from the paper.

24. Creativity= A way of problem solving that generates unique and valuable contributions
Fluency= # of ideas
Flexibility= Shift from one idea to another
Originality=How unusual/novel are ideas

25. What makes a person creative?
Small positive relationship between IQ and creativity.
Open to new experiences.
Challenges assumptions.
New ideas from existing knowledge.

26. Imagine……..
Imagine that you have created an animal that lives on another planet.
Draw a picture of what that animal might look like.

27. Brainstorming Define the problem broadly What information do you have?
What don’t you know?
Allow time for processing
Seek varied input
Take some risk
ALL ideas are worthwhile!

28. Is there a link between creativity and psychiatric illness?

29. Famous People with “Known” mental illness…
Nancy Anderson (University of Iowa) studied 30 successful creative writers. 80% had mania- in control group, she found less than 1%
Kay Redfield studied 47 British writers-painters-sculptor’s at the Royal Academy- 38% treated for Bi Polar disorder
Bi Polar and Clanging”?
“Imagine the worst
Systematic, sympathetic
Quite pathetic, apologetic, paramedic
Your heart is prosthetic”
Blue October