Psychology From Science to Practice

Cognition and Intelligence

PSY 105

Objectives of the Lesson

Upon completion of this lesson you will be able to: Define the three basic elements of thought Describe the reasoning process and two sources of errors Explain the heuristics that are used in decision making Explain three ways used to solve problems State the definition of creativity and explain two contrasting views Describe language development

Overview
Cognition Reasoning Decision making Problem solving Language Creativity

Thinking
Consciousness contains rapidly shifting pattern of diverse thoughts, impressions, and feelings Thoughts: internal representations of external world
Basic components: concepts, propositions, and images

Concepts
Concepts: mental categories for objects or events that are similar to one another in certain respects
Logical concepts: t can be clearly defined by set of rules or properties Natural concepts: fuzzy as have no fixed or readily specified set of defining features
Prototypes: best or clearest examples of various objects or stimuli in the physical world

Representation of Concepts
Possible theories
1. Represented in terms of their features or attributes stored in memory 2. Represented through visual images or mental pictures of objects or events in external world 3. Represented through their links to schemas and other broad cognitive frameworks.

Propositions
Thinking is not a passive process but involves active manipulation of concepts Cognitive actions take form of propositions or sentences Propositions: sentences that relate one concept to another and can stand as separate declarations
Cluster of propositions are represented as mental models

Mental models: knowledge structures that guide our interactions with objects and events in world

Reasoning
Reasoning: cognitive activity in which transform information to reach conclusions
Formal reasoning: information is supplied and the problem solved straightforward and reasoning follows specific method

Everyday reasoning: information may be missing, problems may have several answers and may relate to other issues Reduction in ability to reason
Confirmation bias: pay attention to information that confirms existing views or beliefs Hindsight effect: assume better at predicting actual events than is really true

Decision Making Heuristics

Decision making: process of choosing among various courses of action or alternatives Heuristics: rules of thumb that permit decisions and judgments in rapid and efficient manner
1) Availability heuristic: judgments about frequency or likelihood of events in terms of how readily examples of them can be brought to mind 2) Representativeness heuristic: more closely an even or object resembles typical examples of some concept or category, more likely belong to concept or category 3)Anchoring and adjustment heuristic: existing information is accepted as a reference point but then adjusted, usually insufficiently, in light of various factors

Decision Making cont

Framing: presentation of information about potential outcomes in terms of gains or in terms of losses
emphasize potential gains, people risk averse emphasize potential losses, t people risk prone

Escalation of commitment: become increasingly committed to bad decisions, even as losses increase
Avoid
Provide feedback of losses in relation to resources Limit available resources Allow people diffuse responsibility Make clear people held accountable

Problem Solving Methods

Problem solving consist of efforts to develop or choose among various responses in order to attain desired goals Trial and error Algorithms: rules for problem if followed will yield a solution Analogy: strategy based on applying solutions were successful with other problems similar in underlying structure

Interference with Problem Solving

Functional fixedness: tendency to think of using objects only in ways been used before Mental: tendency to stick with familiar method of solving a problem that was successful in past even if better alternatives available

Creativity
Creativity: ability to produce work that is both novel, (original, unexpected), and appropriate, (it is useful or meets task constraints)
Mundane creativity Exceptional creativity

Research showed exposure to examples of previous ideas or work restricts creative thought

Creativity cont
Confluence approach: creativity to occur, multiple components must Confluence of all resources
Intellectual abilities - see problems in new ways Knowledge Certain styles of thinking - preference for novel ways Personality attributes - willingness to take risks Intrinsic, task-focused motivation Supportive creative environment

Competition may have negative effect

Language Development
Social learning view proposes speech is acquired through operant conditioning and imitation Noam Chomsky - language acquisition partly innate
language acquisition device or a built-in neural system that intuitive grasp of grammar

Constrained statistical learning framework

use of statistical features of linguistic input that helps discover structure, including sound patterns, words, and grammar

Components of Language Development

Phonological development: ability to pronounce the sounds and words of one or more languages
Infants - repeat vowel like sounds, cooing Three to four months add consonant sounds to cooing Nine to ten months, babbling drops off and begin sounds used in native language Twelve months first word Two to three years - vocabulary rapidly increases

Components of Language Development cont

Semantic development: acquisition of meaning Children learn new types of words that allow communication of a rich range of thoughts and ideas Children exhibit overextension - tendency to extend meaning of word beyond actual usage

Language and Thought

Views on relationship of language and thought
Linguistic relativity hypothesis: language shapes or determines thought Thought shapes language: language reflects way we think Modified linguistic relativity hypotheses: structural characteristics of language my influence way people think about objects

Summary

Cognition refers to the processes of thought, and includes the study of reasoning, decision making, problem solving and creativity. Concepts, propositions and images are considered the basic elements of the thought process. Types of reasoning studied are formal reasoning which involves syllogistic logic and everyday reasoning which allows for biases and errors. Decision making refers to the process of choosing between alternatives. The most common rules of thumb are the availability heuristic, the representativeness heuristic, and the anchoring and adjustment heuristic. Trial and error techniques, algorithms and analogies are used in problem solving. The confluence approach of creativity is the idea that multiple components must converge in order for creativity to occur.