ThinkingConcepts - Our brain goes out of its way to organize its thoughts. A mental grouping of similar ideas, based on what is the essential meaning of that idea. Doesn’t have to be physical. Our brain groups what it takes to be something. A chair is something that needs to be sat in, so it needs a seat. Are essential for communication because they allow us to understand what is said. If you didn’t have the concept of angry, you cannot describe someone as angry, but it would take forever to communicate. Allow us to quickly and accurately understand what people are talking about without specific knowledge of what it is.Hierarchies - An organizational structure, go from the most general of definitions to a more specific definition. Also a way of classifying things. Once we recognize the hierarchy, it is easier to see things that are connected to us. Definitions - Sets a specific parameter for what it means to be something. Prototypes - In your mind, you have a mental image of what something is, and everyone’s is slightly different. As we encounter new objects, our brain compares the object we are seeing with our prototype. The more it compares that new object, the more we are willing to accept it asthat object. A platypus does not meet our expectations of a mammal, but it is a mammal. The idea of a prototype does not only apply to objects, but concepts and emotions too. They save time, but do not guarantee accuracy.Problem SolvingAlgorithm - Methodical, logical step by step processes that guarantee a solution. How computers solve problems, a more mathematical form of problem solving. We don’t have time torun out every single scenario. Heuristic - A logical shortcut. A quick thinking strategy that allows us to make a quick judgment to get a logical answer. While not logically driven, they are fast, yet they are not always correct.Insight - A sudden realization of the correct answer. Not a logical shortcut, the answer just comes to you, and you cannot think it thought, it just happens.Creativity - The ability to create new and novel solutions to problems; valuable ideas. Not tied toyour intelligence.Convergent vs. Divergent Thinking - Convergent thinking is when there is only one way to get an answer, like a multiple choice question. Divergent is when there are more than one possible answer. Intelligence testing is based on convergence thinking.Expertise - One of the four keys to thinking creatively, you need expertise in the subject. If you have no prior knowledge, it does not help you.Imaginative Thinking Skills - There can be more than one possible answer to a problem. To think outside the box and see things in new approaches.Venturesome Personality - The willingness to take risks, and to stray from the norm. If you are not willing to occasionally fail, then your cool solution is useless because you will not go throughwith it.Creative Environment - Being creative doesn’t help you if you are not in an environment where other people do not know your creativity.Confirmation Bias - One of the things that stop us from being creative. A tendency to seek information that supports our preconceived notions. We look for information that supports how we are thinking. CFJ looking for patterns.Fixation - The inability to see a problem from a new perspective.Mental Set - A type of fixation, predispose us to think in a certain way, and renders of incapable of approaching the problem in a different way. Once we solve a problem one way, it becomes easier to use that solution again and again.Functional Fixedness - Seeing only one possible use for something. Seeing the candle box as something you can use, not just to hold the candle.Making DecisionsHeuristic - We rely highly on heuristics when making decisions. Heuristics are immediate, instinctive, and happen automatically without us thinking about them.Representative Heuristic - Helps us judge things based on the likelihood of how well they match our prototypes and our expectations. If you see a 6’5” 350 pound person holding a protein shake, we assume he is an English professor, not a NFL linebacker. That guy looks like we expect a linebacker to look like, but there are much less linebackers. So it is more likely to be anEnglish professor, but because his appearance matches what we expect a linebacker to be, we think he is one.Availability Heuristic - We judge things based on the most available memory in our brain. We tend to remember things that are unique. The common, everyday memories begin to disappear. When something happens that seems similar to said situation, we assume it is that situation. When we hear the PA, we assume it is a shelter in place. People remember the full moon because it is different and unusual, people remember unique things, so we pair them together. We begin to assume that the unique is common.Overconfidence - More confident than correct. When we ask people if they are 100% sure they got a question right, it only happens about 85% of the time. We overestimate our abilities, so things take longer to do some.Belief Perseverance - Tendency to cling to a belief even when it has been scientifically proven wrong. Flat earth believers are not only mental, but also have belief perseverance. Pointing towards ambiguous information and saying that it proves a point. The more the evidence is mixed, the more disagreements we see. A tightly held belief is hard to be given up on.Intuition - An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or reaction; a gut reaction. It is very frequently correct, but it is so automatic and ingrained into who we are, when we logically try to think about something it still affects our decision making. Covers things like heuristics, and any less than logical approach to a situation. Allow us to react quickly and usually correctly, becauseit is built upon experience. Our brain bases its intuitions off of association. Framing - The way an issue is posed can see differences in how people respond to it. We process a 90% survival rate as opposed to a 10% chance of dying, we see that differently. People are more afraid of statistics in numbers than in percentages. How we frame things can influence our decision making process.LanguageLanguage - Allows us to communicate, and sets us apart from animals. Not through the spoken word only, but through the written word. Allows us to know things we never experienced. Writtenlanguage allows us to know what happens across the world, it is the key to
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