PSY 101 1st Edition Lecture 14 Outline of Last Lecture I. MemoryOutline of Current Lecture II. ThinkingIII. LanguageCurrent Lecture-two types of representations-concept: a mental representation of a class of objects, ideas, or events that share common properties-prototype: the best example of a concept-proposition: makes an assertion relating concepts in a way that can be true or false-reasoning: how we generate arguments and beliefs-we are likely to get correct syllogisms that are easy to visualize and syllogisms that reflect problems that are important to our survival (ex card, bus/car/Okemos/Lansing example from lecture)-belief bias: the tendency for one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning; sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or conclusions seem invalid-the two most important things we do with reasoning-problem solving: the process of transforming an initial state into a goal state, by using Operators (which can be defined as mental or behavioral processes that change a state)-insight: sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem-algorithm: methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a Particular problem-heuristic: rule of thumb strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently-decision making-normative model: how people ought to make decisions; should be based on Logic, probability, and expected utility (value of outcome time’s odds of success)-descriptive model: how people actually make decisions; people are very bad at formal logic and probability; decisions are often based on heuristics (shortcuts, rules of thumb); people often fail to use calculation or other algorithms; major research done by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky-fixation: inability to see a problem from a new perspective-mental set: tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, especially in a way thathas been successful in the past but may or may not be helpful in solving a new problem-functional fixedness: tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; impediment to problem solving-confirmation bias: tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions-representativeness heuristic: rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent or match particular prototypes; may lead one to ignore other relevant
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