PSY 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Expected Utility Hypothesis, Functional Fixedness, Utility
1 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chapter 8: Thinking
• Behaviorism: emphasizes the study of observable environmental effects on behavior
o The mind is like a black box. The contents cannot be observed scientifically.
o Concentrate our efforts on understanding the relationships between stimulus and
response
• Cognitive science: use behavior to infer what is going on inside the black box and use
knowledge of what is going on in the black box to understand the constraints on conscious
experience and behavior
• Cognition: the mental activity that includes thinking and the understanding that can result
from thinking
• Cognitive psychology: based on 2 ideas
o Information about the world is represented within the brain
o Thinking is that act of manipulating these representations
• Mental representations
o Analogical representation: have some of the physical characteristics of objects
• Images typically faster to be processed
o Symbolic representation: are abstract with no resemblance to objects
• Words slower to be processed
• Categorization: group objects into categories according to the object's shared properties
o Concept: a category of related items consisting of mental representations of those
items
• Prototype model: the best example
• Exemplar model: any concept has no single best representation
• Heuristics: generally accurate shortcuts used to reduce the amount of thought necessary to
make a decision
o Require fewer cognitive resource than an optimal strategy (carefully weighing all
evidence) allowing us to focus attention on other things
o Faster than an optimal strategy allowing us to respond more quickly
o Accurate enough for most purposes BUT occasionally prone to errors and biases
under certain circumstances
• Schemas: cognitive structures that help us perceive, organize, process and use information
o Contain info on the objects, events, and rules of behavior that are relevant within
different situations
o Script: is a schema that guides a sequence of behaviors
o Provide context that allows us to process information more easily and respond more
quickly
o The downside of schemas:
• Inaccuracies in one's schemas or the application of schemas too broadly, can
lead to
• Negative stereotypes based on gender, race, etc.
• Decision making: select among alternatives
• Normative decision theories: assume that people make rational decisions that maximize
gain
o Prescribe the optimal decision strategy
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
