1. Tuesday, November 7
Give an example of interference or transience in forgetting?
Name a problem that you have recently encountered. How did you solve it?
Today’s topic:
Introduction to Cognition
Upcoming Dates:
Homework:
Read pages
Assessments:
Cognition test, Tuesday

2. Marshmallow Challenge!!!!
Build the Tallest Freestanding Structure: The winning team is the one that has the tallest structure measured from the table top surface to the top of the marshmallow. That means the structure cannot be taped to the desk or suspended from a higher structure, like a chair, ceiling or chandelier.
The Entire Marshmallow Must be on Top: The entire marshmallow needs to be on the top of the structure. Cutting or eating part of the marshmallow disqualifies the team. 
Use as Much or as Little of the Kit: The team can use as many or as few of the 20 spaghetti sticks, as much or as little of the string or tape.
Break up the Spaghetti, String or Tape: Teams are free to break the spaghetti, cut up the tape and string to create new structures.
The Challenge Lasts 18 minutes: Teams cannot hold on to the structure when the time runs out. Those touching or supporting the structure at the end of the exercise will be disqualified. If your structure falls before or after it is measured, you are disqualified.

3. AP Psych – Myers, Ch. 7B
Thinking & Cognition

4. Thinking
Cognition – the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Cognitive psychologists study and emphasize mental processes - Piaget

5. Concepts
Schema (AGAIN)-a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
Hierarchies – further dividing concepts into smaller groups
Definitions – help refine concepts
Students probably had a general concept for what a building should consist of – a base, pillars to support the top, all based on geometric shapes.

6. Prototypes A mental image or best example of a category.
Everyone’s structures probably look similar – sharing similar prototypes about what a freestanding structure should look like.

7. To solve problems, we must use COGNITION!
Problem Solving

8. Solve this problem
I have to go to Wal-Mart to buy marshmallows for this weird thing I’m doing in my AP Psychology class tomorrow. Where the heck do I find marshmallows in this gigantic store?

9. Algorithm
A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
Ex: math formula, recipes
Time consuming but always right

10. Heuristic
A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently
Ex: common sense, educated guess
Usually speedy but more error prone than algorithms
Experience based
Trial and error
Students probably used common sense in constructing their buildings. Also, trial and error was probably used, but not frequently due to time constraints and the potential of winning a prize at the end.

11. Insight
A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem
Contrasts with strategy-based solutions
Right temporal lobe
Satisfaction
Students probably experienced a moment of sudden insight – an Aha moment – when constructing their marshmallow buildings.

12. Tuesday, March 28 Today’s topic:
Obstacles in Problem Solving
Upcoming Dates:
Homework:
Read
New Terms
Assessments:
Test, Tuesday
Create a top 3 of things that you fear the most.
Is the fear related to evolutionary history?
Is the fear something you cannot control?
Is the fear the result of the availability heuristic?

13. Using/Misusing Heuristics
Representativeness Heuristic
Availability Heuristic
estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if events come readily in mind, then we presume such events are common
Ex: 9/11 and flying
Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent or match particular prototypes
Ex: trucker vs professor

14. Do We Fear the Right Things?
Why do we fear a less likely terrorist attack more than a more likely car accident?
We fear what our ancestral history has prepared us to fear.
We fear what we cannot control.
We fear what is immediate.
We fear what is most readily available in memory (availability heuristic).
We overestimate flight risks, overvalue lottery tickets, and underestimate the dangers of driving.

15. Metacognition Thinking about thinking Knowledge about cognition
Regulation of cognition
Ex: reflective on best study habits
Ex: How have I solved this similar problem before?
Students probably used metacognition before building their buildings, asking themselves, “Have I solved a similar problem before?” etc
Reflecting on what went right and wrong in the constructing of our marshmallow buildings, we can practice metacognition

16. Obstacles to Problem Solving
Confirmation bias – a tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions
Overconfidence – the tendency to be more confident than correct – to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments
Weapons of mass destruction
Vietnam, stockbrokers, your feelings after a test,

17. Belief Perseverance
Clinging to one’s initial conceptions even after being presented with contradictory information.
Contradictory info often makes people even more defensive of prior beliefs.

18. Thursday, November 9 What is the availability heuristic? Example.
Name 2 obstacles of problem solving.
Do you think your marshmallow tower idea would have worked if you had more time (or materials) to work on it?
Upcoming Dates:
Tonight’s HW
Read all of 7B
Finish Terms
Assessment, Tuesday, November 14

19. Framing The way an issue is posed
How an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments
Those who understand the powers of framing questions can use framing to influence a particular viewpoint.

20. Make 4 equilateral triangles from these 6 matches.

21. Fixation Inability to see a problem from a new perspective
There are two examples of fixation
Mental set and functional fixedness
Were any of you fixated on your tower design? “All I needed was 2 more minutes Mr. Kraft, and we would have won”
Students probably fixated on a certain solving method, even if it was unsuccessful.

22. Mental Set
Mental set - a tendency to approach a problem in a particular way
often a way that has been successful in the past
Predisposes how we think
Ex. Solving a long division problem the same way you solved other problems and getting them all correct
Ex. When a child falls and gets a bruise or injures their head and they ask for a band-aid because maybe the last time they hurt themselves they fell and cut themselves and were given a band-aid.
Ex. a child may enter a store by pushing a door open. Every time they come to a door after that, the child pushes the door expecting it to open even though many doors only open by pulling. This child has a mental set for opening doors.
Ex: couldn’t think in 3 dimensions

23. Mount the candle to a bulletin board using the following:

24. Functional Fixedness
The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions
How could the supplies (marshmallow, spaghetti, tape, and string) be used different?

25. Functional Fixedness

26. Can you come up with as many different uses for the following item:

27. Duct Tape Prom!

28. Can you come up with as many different uses for the following item:

29. Can you come up with as many different uses for the following item:

30. Can you come up with as many different uses for the following item:

31. Functional Fixedness
Can you come up with at least 3 different uses for the following items:

32. Come up with as many descriptions for this ambiguous image as possible
Come up with as many descriptions for this ambiguous image as possible. You will have 10 seconds.

33. Come up with as many descriptions for this ambiguous image as possible
Come up with as many descriptions for this ambiguous image as possible. You will have 10 seconds.

34. Come up with as many descriptions for this ambiguous image as possible
Come up with as many descriptions for this ambiguous image as possible. You will have 10 seconds.

35. Convergent vs. Divergent Thinking
Convergent Thinking
Divergent Thinking
Thinking limited to available facts
Great for clear, concise problems.
Algorithms
Thinking that attempts to generate multiple solutions to a problems
Needed for real-world applications of problem-solving practices
The kindergarteners in the Marshmallow Challenge displayed divergent thinking and the openness to failure. As we age, traditional schooling diminishes this ability and we focus more on convergent thinking.
Brain Games – Use it or Lose it

36. Intuition and Problem Solving
Even though intuition is not always reliable, it allows us to make quick decisions and judgments that are born of experience and beliefs.
Smart thinkers should welcome intuition, but realize its limitations to overcome overconfidence, and biased and illogical thinking.