PSYC 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Availability Heuristic, Representativeness Heuristic, Source Amnesia

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Cognitive psychology
Introduction to Psychology PSYC*1000-01 Lecture 14
November 1st 2016
Module(s) 8.1 & 8.2
What are some of the perils of memory in this information age?
Availability of information is unlike anything humanity has seen
We encode automatically at least part of everything we are exposed to
• ... for the better and for the worst
Once encoded, information affects all of our perceptions
• Top-down processing
How to avoid some of the perils of memory?
• Because of a multiple of cognitive biases we have the illusion that we control how the information we encode
affects us
• But in reality the research shows that overall we don’t control it
• The best solution may now be to consciously filter (select) the information that you expose yourself to, before
exposing yourself to it
• Maybe you just don’t want see that, or hear that 7
Recalling information from long-term memory
When we recall our memories we filter or fill in parts to make our memories more consistent
• Each time we recall information our memories can change • Misinformation effect
• Incorporating misleading information in the memory of an event • Source amnesia
• Assign details of a memory to the wrong source 8
Will jurors continue to believe an eye witness even if they know about recall problems? Even if an eye witness is
biased and an expert comes to testify about that bias, jurors still believe the eyewitness!
• Participants were grouped in mock
juries, and randomly assigned to 80 one of three conditions:
• Condition 1: Circumstantial evidence
• Condition 2: Circumstantial evidence + eye witness
• Condition 3: Circumstantial evidence + eye witness + expert challenge to eye witness
Natural tendency to try to understand events and people; to explain and solve problems; to think! ... but not too
hard.
• Overall our thinking is different then a computer’s, it balances the need for speed with quality and accuracy
• Suitable for most situations
• e.g., what to eat at lunch time, how to get to campus and back home
• But, can sometimes lead us to be incorrect: • I still have lots of time...
• I’ll be more focused tomorrow.
• I work better under pressure.
1.1 What is cognition? • Mental activities and processes associated with thinking,
knowing, remembering, and communicating information
1.2 What do we think about?
• Concepts, which are mental groupings of similar objects, events, states, ideas, and/or people
How do we form/learn concepts?
• Do NOT derive concepts from a definition that we have learned/memorized
• Typically derived from prototypes
• Mental images of the best example of a concept within a category
How do we organize concepts?
• Categorization: Create categories of objects according to a certain set of rules of by a specific definition
• Fit to a category is determined by comparing a target to the prototype of the category
When do prototypes fail us?
1. When examples stretch the qualities associated with the prototype
2. When the boundary between the categories of concepts is fuzzy
3. When examples contradict our prototypes 16
2.1 What are some problem solving strategies and natural obstacles to
effective problem solving?
Problem solving: Thinking in order to answer a complex question or to figure out how to accomplish a goal when
the solution or path to the solution is NOT clear
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Document Summary

Natural tendency to try to understand events and people; to explain and solve problems; to think! 1. 1 what is cognition: mental activities and processes associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating information. 1. 2 what do we think about: concepts, which are mental groupings of similar objects, events, states, ideas, and/or people. How do we form/learn concepts: do not derive concepts from a definition that we have learned/memorized, typically derived from prototypes, mental images of the best example of a concept within a category. How do we organize concepts: categorization: create categories of objects according to a certain set of rules of by a specific definition, fit to a category is determined by comparing a target to the prototype of the category. When do prototypes fail us: when examples stretch the qualities associated with the prototype, when the boundary between the categories of concepts is fuzzy, when examples contradict our prototypes 16. I need to find a topic for my paper.

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