PSY 105 Week 4 Part 2 Psychology From Science to Practice - Cognition

Slide 1

Introduction

Welcome to week four, part two of Psychology From Science to Practice. This lesson will cover cognition. Next slide

Slide 2

Objectives

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; and Describe language development. Next slide

Slide 3

Overview

In this lesson we will examine what is currently understood about cognition, a term used to describe thinking and many other aspects of our higher mental processes, including reasoning, decision making, problem solving, language, and creativity. Next slide

Slide 4

Thinking

At any given moment in time, our consciousness contains a rapidly shifting pattern of diverse thoughts, impressions, and feelings. In order to understand this ever-changing pattern, psychologists have adopted two main strategies. The first focus is on thought or how aspects of the external world are represented in our thinking. The second focus is on reason or how we attempt to process available information cognitively in order to reach specific conclusions. Thoughts are internal representations of the external world that consist largely of three basic components: concepts, propositions, and images. Next slide

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Concepts

We will first discuss concepts. Concepts are mental categories for objects or events that are similar to one another in certain respects. Psychologists often distinguish between logical and natural concepts. Logical concepts are ones that can be clearly defined by a set of rules or properties. An object or event either is or is not a member of a given concept category by virtue of its defining features. In contrast natural concepts are fuzzy as they have no fixed or readily specified set of defining features and are more common. Natural concepts are often based on prototypes which are the best or clearest examples of various objects or stimuli in the physical world. Next slide

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Representatio n of Concepts

There are several theories to explain how concepts are represented in the mind: 1) Concepts may be represented in terms of their features or attributes stored in memory. When we encounter a new item, we compare its attributes with the ones we have in memory. The closer the match, the more likely we are to include that item within the concept. 2) Natural concepts may be represented through visual images or mental pictures of objects or events in the external world. And 3. Concepts are closely related to schemas and are also acquired through experience and represent information about the world in an efficient summary form. However, schemas are more complex than concepts as each contains a broad range of information and may include many distinct concepts. It is possible that natural concepts are represented in part through their links to schemas and other broad cognitive frameworks. In summary, concepts may be represented in the mind in several ways and play a role in thinking and in our efforts to make sense out to the world. Next slide

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Propositions

Thinking is not a passive process but involves active manipulation of concepts. Frequently it involves relating one concept to another concept, or one feature of a concept to the entire concept. These cognitive actions take the form of propositions or sentences. Propositions are sentences that relate one concept to another and can stand as separated declarations. Clusters of propositions are often represented as mental models. Mental models are knowledge structures that guide our interactions with objects and events in the world around us. Mental models are used to judge cause and effect and perform mental simulations of the probable outcomes of different situations. However, if some aspect of a mental model is incorrect, or if we process information contained in the mental model incompletely or incorrectly, we tend to make mistakes. Sometimes relationships between concepts can be understood more easily in an image than in words. Research indicates that mental manipulations performed on images of objects are very similar to those that would be performed on the actual object.

Slide 8

Reasoning

Next slide One task we face every day is reasoning. Reasoning is the cognitive activity in which we transform information in order to reach specific conclusions. In formal reasoning, all the required information is supplied, the problem to be solved is straightforward, and the reasoning we apply follows a specific method. By contrast, everyday reasoning involves the kind of thinking we do in our daily lives such as planning, making commitments, and evaluating arguments. In this reasoning, information may be missing; problems may have several answers; or may relate to other issues and questions. There are several factors, working together, that reduce our ability to reason effectively. One is confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is the tendency to pay attention primarily to information that confirms existing views or beliefs. Another is the hindsight effect. This is the tendency to assume that we would have been better at predicting actual events than is really true.

Slide 9

Decision Making Heuristics

Reasoning is an integral part of decision making and is the process of choosing among various courses of action or alternatives. We tend to take shortcuts when making decisions. These cognitive shortcuts are called heuristics. Heuristics are rules of thumb that permit us to make decisions and judgments in a rapid and efficient manner. There are three useful heuristics. 1) Availability heuristic is the tendency to make judgments about the frequency or likelihood of events in terms of how readily examples of them can be brought to mind. The more memorable an event, the more likely we think it is to happen. An implication of this effect is that people may spend more time and effort trying to prevent unlikely events than likely events. 2) Representativeness heuristic is the mental rule that the more closely an event or object resembles typical examples of some concept or category, the more likely it is to belong to that concept or category. Sometimes this causes us to ignore forms of information that could prove very helpful. 3) Anchoring and adjustment heuristic is a mental rule for reaching decisions in which existing information is accepted as a reference point but then adjusted, usually insufficiently, in light of various factors. Next slide

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Decision Making cont

There are two more concepts that may play a role in decision making. One is framing, or the presentation of information about potential outcomes in terms of gains or in terms of losses. Research has shown that when the emphasis is on potential gains, most people are risk averse. They prefer avoiding unnecessary risks. However, when the emphasis is on potential losses, most people are risk prone. They prefer taking risks to accepting probable losses. The last concept we will cover is escalation of commitment. This is the tendency to become increasingly committed to bad decisions, even as losses associated with them increase. People may even commit additional time, effort, and resources to a failing course of action in the hope that they can turn the situation around. There are four ways this can be avoided: 1) Providing feedback that clearly shows the extent of losses in relation to resources;

2) Limit available resources and stress the evidence of failure; 3) Allow people to diffuse their responsibility for being part of a poor decision; and 4) Make clear to people that they will be held accountable for their actions.

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Problem Solving Methods

In this slide we will mention various approaches to problem solving. Problem solving consists of efforts to develop or choose among various responses in order to attain desired goals. Trial and error is a common technique. A second approach involves the use of algorithms. These are rules for a particular kind of problem that will, if followed, yield a solution. Sometimes we attempt to solve problems through the use of analogy. Analogy is a strategy based on applying solutions that were previously successful with other problems similar in underlying structure. Next slide

Slide 13

Interference with Problem Solving

Sometimes people cannot solve problems because they lack an internal framework that allows them to fully represent the problem situation. One factor that interferes with effective problem solving is called functional fixedness. This is the strong tendency to think of using objects only in ways they have been used before. Another factor that often gets in the way of effective problem solving is mental set. A mental set is the tendency to stick with a familiar method of solving a particular type of problem that was successful in the past even if better alternatives are available. Next slide

Slide 14

Creativity

We will now move on to a discussion on creativity. Creativity is defined as the ability to produce work that is both novel and appropriate. A cognitive approach to creativity explains that creativity is part of our everyday lives. Each time we utter a new sentence or understand a new concept, we are showing creativity. Psychologists distinguish between everyday creativity, termed mundane creativity, and exceptional creativity where something dramatically new emerges. Social psychologists have focused on the personality traits of creative people and the environmental conditions surrounding them. Others have focused on the motivational aspects and developmental variables that appear to be associated with creative potential. One unusual finding from research showed that exposure to examples of previous ideas or work can greatly restrict creative thought. Next slide The accepted view now of creativity is called the confluence approach. This is an approach suggesting that for creativity to occur, multiple components must converge. For example, creativity requires a confluence of six resources: 1) Intellectual abilities: see problems in new ways and recognize which ideas are worth pursuing; 2) Knowledge; 3) Certain styles of thinking: preference for novel ways of thinking and seeing the big picture 4) Personality attributes: willingness to take risks 5) Intrinsic, task-focused motivation: love for what are doing; and 6) Supportive environment. All these conditions must be present for creativity to occur. One factor that can exert negative effects on creativity is competition. Apparently competition stifles a persons ability to think in novel ways and undermines intrinsic motivation. One study showed that boys were more creative when in competition compared to girls who were more creative when not in a competitive situation. Next slide

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Creativity cont

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Language Development

Language, the communication of information, sets us apart from other species of animals. There are several theories of language development. The social learning view proposes that speech is acquired through a combination of operant conditioning and imitation. Children are praised and rewarded by their parents as they learn to speak. Another view is proposed by Noam Chomsky. He suggests that language acquisition is at least partly innate. He believes human beings have a language acquisition device or a builtin neural system that provides them with an intuitive grasp of grammar. His evidence is that children around the world go through similar stages of language development. A more recent approach is the constrained statistical learning framework. This theory suggests that we acquire language through the use of statistical features of linguistic input that helps us discover structure, including sound patterns, words, and grammar. Humans may have an inherent generalized set of learning mechanisms. Next slide Next we will discuss how language development progresses. Phonological development is the development of the ability to pronounce the sounds and words of one or more languages. Infants begin with cooing, repeating vowel-like sounds such as aaaaa or oooooh. At three or four months infants start to add consonant sounds to their cooing and they begin to babble which contains a rich mixture of sounds, virtually every sound used in human speech. By nine or ten months, the range of babbling narrows and consists of sounds used in the language of the childs native culture. The first spoken word is usually done by a childs first birthday. Between the ages of one and two years, childrens vocabularies increase rapidly. They use holophrases which are single words that communicate much meaning especially when combined with pointing and other gestures. There is considerable variability in the size of a childs vocabulary and the rate it increases. Exposure to spoken words and extensive parental time speaking to a child plays an important factor in speech development. Next slide

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Components of Language Development

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Components of Language Development cont

Semantic development is the acquisition of meaning. Children do not simply learn new words; they also learn new types of words that allow them to communicate a much richer range of thoughts and ideas. While children rapidly increase their vocabulary, they often demonstrate several forms of errors. One error involves overextension which is a tendency to extend the meaning of a word beyond its actual usage. Next slide

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Language and Thought

The linguistic relativity hypothesis attempts to explain the relationship between language and thought. It suggests that language shapes or determines thought. According to this view, people speaking different languages perceive the world in different ways, because their thinking is determined by the words available to them. The opposing view is that thought shapes language. This position suggests that language merely reflects the way we think or how our minds work. The modified version of the linguistic relativity hypotheses suggests that structural characteristics of language my influence the way people think about objects and relationships among objects in the physical world. Next slide 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. Concepts are represented mentally by features or attributes and through visual images. The two types of reasoning studied by psychologists 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 act of deciding between alternatives usually involves the use of one or more heuristics, or rules of thumb. These rules of thumb tend to reduce the effort required to make a decision. The most common are the availability heuristic, the representativeness heuristic, and the anchoring and adjustment heuristic. Framing is the presentation of information about potential outcomes in terms of gains or

Slide 20

Summary

losses. The heuristics of decision making are also used in problem solving. 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.