PSY1011 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Thomas Edison, Frontal Lobe, Temporal Lobe
4 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Cognition: Thinking and Intelligence
Thinking
Cognition: all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and
communicating
Concepts: mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people
Coept of hair iludes a a’s high hair, reliig hair, et.
Often form our concepts by developing prototypes (mental image/best example of a
category)
ex; people who viewed 70% of male faces categorized them as male, then later
misremembered them as even more prototypically male
Coept = speeds ad guides our thikig, ut the do’t alas ake us ise
Problem Solving: Strategies and Obstacles
Some problems we solve through trial and error (Thomas Edison = light bulb filaments)
Some through algorithms: methodical, logical rule/procedure that guarantees solving a
particular problem
Can be laborious and exasperating
Two types: intuitive (automatic, affective, heuristic-based, quick) and analytical
(controlled, cognitive, rule-based, slow, rational)
Heuristics: simply thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve
problems efficiently (mental shortcut)
Usually speedier, but more error-prone than algorithms
Two types:
Feelings (when topic is of importance, risk/satisfaction), contaminated by
irrelevant experiences
Insight: abrupt, true-seeming, and often satisfying solution
Frontal lobes active, burst of activity in right temporal lobe
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Strikes suddenly, then a sense of satisfaction
Confirmation bias: tendency to search for info. that supports our preconceptions and to
ignore/distort contradictory evidence
Ordinary people = evade facts, systematically defend selves against threat of new info.
Prefer belief-confirming info.
Fixation: inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective
Mental set: tendency to approach problem with mindset of what has worked for us
previously
Predisposes how we think
The Availability Heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory
If instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common
Its vividness, recency, or distinctiveness = make it seem commonplace
We often fear wrong things (ex; fear flying b/c we play air disaster in our heads, fear
swimming ocean waters b/c we replay Jaws in our heads)
We reason emotionally and neglect probabilities, we over-feel and under-think
The ore ho die, the less e are
Overconfidence
Tendency to be more confident than correct-to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs
and judgements.
E; oil spill i Gulf of Meio doplaed safet oers, doplaed spill’s
magnitude).
History full of leaders who were more confident than correct.
Despite our painful underestimates, we remain overly overconfident of our predictions
Those live on this the overconfident side = live more happily, seem more credible than
others.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Belief Perseverance
Cligig to oe’s iitial oeptios after the asis o hih the ere fored has ee
discredited
Fuels social conflict, but if one pondered on opposite findings, people became much less
biased in their evaluations of the evidence
The Effects of Framing
Framing: the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect
decisions and judgements
ex; % of people die i this surger as opposed to % of people ill surie
Powerful persuasion tool, but those who understand power of framing can use it to
influence our decisions
ex; how to help employees decide to save for their retirement
Before the pension law, employees who wanted to contribute to 401k retirement
plan had to choose lower take-home pay, but now, companies can automatically
enroll employees in plan, but allow them to opt out
Enrollments in one analysis of 3.4m workers soared from 59 to 85%
The Perils and Powers of Intuition
Letting unconscious mental machinery work on and await is when the intuitive result of
our unconscious processing comes
Intuition = usually adaptive, enable us to react quickly, predict our future decisions
before they consciously make up our minds
Intuition = recognition born of experience, implicit knowledge
Can be perilous, esp. when we over-feel and under-think
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Cognition: all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. Concepts: mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people. Co(cid:374)(cid:272)ept of (cid:272)hair i(cid:374)(cid:272)ludes a (cid:271)a(cid:271)(cid:455)"s high (cid:272)hair, re(cid:272)li(cid:374)i(cid:374)g (cid:272)hair, et(cid:272). Often form our concepts by developing prototypes (mental image/best example of a category) ex; people who viewed 70% of male faces categorized them as male, then later misremembered them as even more prototypically male. Co(cid:374)(cid:272)ept = speeds a(cid:374)d guides our thi(cid:374)ki(cid:374)g, (cid:271)ut the(cid:455) do(cid:374)"t al(cid:449)a(cid:455)s (cid:373)ake us (cid:449)ise. Some problems we solve through trial and error (thomas edison = light bulb filaments) Some through algorithms: methodical, logical rule/procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Two types: intuitive (automatic, affective, heuristic-based, quick) and analytical (controlled, cognitive, rule-based, slow, rational) Heuristics: simply thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently (mental shortcut) Feelings (when topic is of importance, risk/satisfaction), contaminated by irrelevant experiences. Frontal lobes active, burst of activity in right temporal lobe.
