Chapter 8: what are thinking, intelligence, and language Part 1

Cognition: An Introduction

What Is Cognition?

Cognition refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring, processing, storing, and using information. Cognitive psychologists study how information is processed and manipulated in remembering, thinking, problem solving, and knowing. The field emerged as a response to behaviorist perspectives, emphasizing the importance of internal mental processes.

• Historical Context: Early psychologists like B.F. Skinner focused on observable behavior, but cognitive psychology shifted attention to mental processes.

• Computer Analogy: The brain is often compared to a computer, with the brain as hardware and cognition as software. Information is input, processed, stored, and output, similar to computer operations.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI research explores how machines can simulate human cognitive processes, such as learning and problem solving.

Example: Computers can outperform humans in numerical calculations but struggle with tasks requiring emotional understanding or flexibility.

Thinking: The Manipulation of Information

What Is Thinking?

Thinking involves manipulating information mentally by forming concepts, solving problems, making decisions, and reflecting in a critical or creative manner. It is central to reasoning and decision making.

What Are Concepts?

Concepts are mental categories used to group objects, events, and characteristics. They help us organize information and respond efficiently to new experiences.

• Functions of Concepts:

  • Allow us to generalize and categorize new information.

  • Associate experiences and objects (e.g., sports, food).

  • Make memory more efficient by grouping related items.

  • Guide behavior in novel situations.

• Prototype Model: People compare new items to the most typical example (prototype) of a category to determine membership.

Example: When deciding if a platypus is a mammal, we compare its features to the prototype of a mammal.

Problem Solving

What Is Problem Solving?

Problem solving is the process of finding an appropriate way to attain a goal when the goal is not readily available. It involves several steps and overcoming mental obstacles.

How Do You Follow the Four Steps in Problem Solving?

1. Find and Frame Problems: Recognize and clearly define the problem. This may involve identifying underlying issues and being open to new perspectives.

2. Develop Good Problem-Solving Strategies: Strategies include:

   • Subgoals: Breaking a problem into intermediate steps (e.g., writing a paper by dividing it into research, drafting, revising).

   • Algorithms: Step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution (e.g., mathematical formulas, recipes).

   • Heuristics: Shortcut strategies or guidelines that suggest a solution but do not guarantee an answer. Heuristics are faster but more error-prone than algorithms.

3. Evaluate Solutions: Assess the effectiveness of the solution by comparing outcomes to criteria or standards.

4. Rethink and Redefine Problems and Solutions Over Time: Good problem solvers continually reflect on and revise their approaches based on past performance and new information.

How Does Fixation Prevent Us From Solving Problems?

• Fixation: The inability to see a problem from a new perspective, often due to using a prior strategy repeatedly.

• Functional Fixedness: Focusing on an object's usual function and failing to see alternative uses (e.g., using pliers only as a gripping tool, not as a weight).

Example: The Maier string problem requires overcoming functional fixedness by using pliers as a weight to swing a string.

Reasoning and Decision Making

What Are Reasoning and Decision Making?

Reasoning is the mental activity of transforming information to reach conclusions. Decision making involves evaluating alternatives and choosing among them.

What Are Two Types of Reasoning?

• Inductive Reasoning: Drawing general conclusions from specific observations (e.g., noticing that all tested males have XY chromosomes and generalizing to all males).

• Deductive Reasoning: Drawing specific conclusions from general principles or rules (e.g., if all mammals have hair and a whale is a mammal, then whales have hair).

Example: Scientists use inductive reasoning to form hypotheses and deductive reasoning to test them.

What Is Decision Making?

Decision making is the process of evaluating alternatives and choosing the best course of action. It differs from reasoning in that it often involves uncertainty and incomplete information.

What Are the Two Systems of Reasoning and Decision Making?

• System 1 (Automatic): Fast, intuitive, and heuristic-based. Operates unconsciously and is efficient for routine decisions.

• System 2 (Controlled): Slow, deliberate, and analytical. Used for complex or novel decisions requiring conscious effort.

Example: Choosing what to eat for breakfast may use System 1, while deciding on a career path may require System 2.

Biases and Heuristics in Decision Making

How Can Biases and Heuristics Lead to Bad Decisions?

Heuristics are mental shortcuts that can lead to systematic errors or biases in judgment and decision making. Several common biases include:

Bias/Heuristic	Description	Example
Loss Aversion	Tendency to prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains.	Choosing not to retake a test for a better grade to avoid the risk of a lower score.
Confirmation Bias	Tendency to search for and use information that supports one's ideas rather than refutes them.	Only reading news sources that align with your beliefs.
Base Rate Neglect	Ignoring statistical information in favor of specific information.	Assuming someone is a librarian based on personality, ignoring the low base rate of librarians in the population.
Hindsight Bias	Tendency to report falsely, after the fact, that one accurately predicted an outcome.	Claiming you "knew it all along" after your team wins a game.
Representativeness Heuristic	Judging the probability of an event based on how similar it is to a prototype.	Assuming someone who is quiet and likes books is more likely to be a librarian than a salesperson.
Availability Heuristic	Predicting the probability of an event based on how easily examples come to mind.	Fearing plane crashes after hearing about one in the news, despite their rarity.

Examples and Applications

• Endowment Effect: People value things they own more than things they do not own.

• Sunk Cost Fallacy: Continuing an endeavor due to previously invested resources, even if it is no longer beneficial.

Improving Decision Making

• Awareness of biases and heuristics can help individuals make better decisions.

• Critical thinking and reflection are essential for overcoming cognitive errors.

Additional info: The notes also reference the role of artificial intelligence in modeling human cognition, the importance of cognitive flexibility, and the distinction between automatic and controlled processes in decision making.