2135 Cognitive psychology final exam notes

2135 Cognitive psychology final exam notes (Chapters 12 & 13: Reasoning & Problem solving, Decision Making, Creativity) Chapter 12 - Thinking and Reasoning What is thinking?Going beyond the info given (Bruner, 1957) Complex and high-level skill that fills up gaps in the evidence (Bartlett, 1958) Process of searching through a problem space (Newell & Simon, 1972) What we do when we are in doubt about how to act, what to believe, or what to desire (Baron, 1994) (1) Focused thinking (e.g. goal based, problem solving, decision making, reasoning) oHow do people use their memory, language, and concepts?Reasoning – arriving at a conclusion Inference and predictions – predicting future outcomes, and reducing uncertainty Arguments – persuading and evaluating Hypothesis testing Solving problems Making decisions Producing a creative output Becoming an expert (2) Unfocused thinking (e.g. daydreaming, unintentional, creative thinking?)

Other types of thought:

oPropositional thought: expresses statement

ex, Mount Fuji is breathtaking

oImaginal thought: consists of images we see in our mind

ex, picture of Mount Fuji

oMotoric thought: mental representations of motor movements

ex, steps you took up Mount Fuji Reasoning and Logic Reasoning oGoing beyond the given info to comprehend a situation  Making inferences & Deductions oTaking knowledge about what is known and drawing conclusions  Accepting/doing the logical task oDiscovering something new by thinking Creating schema’s for logical thinking (Creating probability variables to make things easier to evaluate) oEither P or Q = Thus if P isn’t true, then Q must be true

Logic: A formal description of reasoning

oFacts  P or Q + “My friend is not by the corner” oOperators  OR (also AND, NOT, IF, … THEN) Deductive logic/reasoning (TopDown Logic): is general to specific (i.e. Making a conclusion about a specific case)  humans can reason formally (via deduction) and informally  involves syllogisms ocategorical oconditional Categorical syllogisms (instance form of reasoning based off: 2 premises, each sharing a term w/ conclusion) -Only valid if the conclusions originated logically from its premises PSYCHOLOGY 2135 Cognitive psychology final exam notes 1 / 2

“Classical” reasoning oimplicit assumption of the classical model Categorical reasoning oAbout a whole class or category  Four forms of syllogistic reasoning: (All, No, Some) Universal affirmative/negative (All A are B)/(No A are B) Particular affirmative/negative (Some A are B)/ (Some A are not B)

oConversion errors: errors caused by converting the

statement from 1 form to another Belief bias Logical structure determines if an argument is valid or not valid (regardless of perceived truth or real-world knowledge) Examples come from context effects and belief bias Validity Be wary when comparing validity to belief bias, as the syllogism is not valid because it is possible for both premises to be true and more than one conclusion to be drawn Conditional reasoning If A then B Each statement can be positive or negative oA, Not A, B, Not B

Modus Ponens: Affirming the antecedent (If A then B  A  B)

oIf the cat is hungry, she will eat her food  affirmation of the cat being hungry

Modus Tollens: Denying the consequent (If A then B  Not B  Not A)

oIf the cat is hungry, she will eat her food  She is not hungry  she will not eat her food Confirmation bias A tendency to seek info that confirms what we already believe Wason Card Selection task oIf the card has a vowel on one side, then it has an even number on the other oA 4-card problem based on conditional reasoning oProblem appears deceptively simple but participants often end up mistaken oNeed to choose cards that disconfirm the rule, but participants tend to choose cards that could confirm the rule oPs do better on problem if the 4-card task in a scenario vs. 4-card task alone Why do people fail at card selection?Hypothesis matching – hypothesis mentions vowels and even number  people are more inclined to affirm the hypothesis  best way to test the rule is by constructing a counter example to disconfirm the hypothesis/rule Attention or working memory limitation Abstractness (content effect) Deontic selection task – If a person is drinking alcohol they must be over 19.oPermission schema

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