Class 13 thinking and intelligence oct 10 Decision making o Make irrational decision o Make decisions without knowing all pros cons o Make decisions quickly o Two approaches Algorithms Heuristics Step by step procedure that guarantees a correct answer to a problem Mental shortcut or rule of thumb May pay off with a quick correct answer but may lead to no answer or an incorrect one Availability heuristic o Rule of thumb that the more available an event is in our memory the more probable it is o When making judgements we tend to rely on info that s easy to retrieve Representativeness heuristic o Make judgements about categorization based o how well an object resembles that category o More rep it is the more probable o Use bc te mind categorizes info automaticall Good use of limited resources o Base rates Frequency of an event occurring in world Tend to pay more attention to inso we are given without considering actual base rates reasoning o deductive o inductive problem solving o functional fixedness o mental set from general statement to specific applications from specific instances to reach a general conclusion inability to see that an obj can have a function other than its typical one limits our ability to solve probs that require using an object in a novel way combat functional fixedness by systematically thinking about the possible novel uses of all the various objects in the problem environment past exp With problem solving can lead to mental set tendency to use previously successful solution strategies without considering others are more appropriate for the current problem o satisficers choose an option that suffieicntly satisfies have standards but don t worry that theres a better choice like good things but don t worry its not the best o maximizers making the wrong choice can have enormous consequences seek to make the best possible choice often frustrated by multiple options and become paralyzed by choice intelligence o human ability to use knowledge to reason make decisions solve problems understand complex ideas learn quickly and adapt to environmental challenges o Achievement o Aptitude Current levels of skill and knowledge Predicts your future performance What jobs you may be good at o IQ INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT Mental age age your performance most resembles IQ divide mental age by chronological age x100 Average IQ 100 Conceptualized differently today Compared to average adult o Flynn effect For all countries testing IQ average intelligence scores have increased with each generation Proposed explanations involve many environmental factors such as better nutrition and more education IQ scores are re normalized periodically such that the average score is reset to 100 o Important issues to consider Validity Does assessment measure what it claims o School performance o Complex careers o Income But only predicts 25 of variation Cultural biases Intelligence test may penalize people for belonging to particular culture or group Western values are considered important o Quick thinking versus reflection speaking assertively Performance measure may be less culturally biased