PSYC 1010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Cognitive Revolution, Problem Solving, Decision-Making
Chapter 8 Exam Review
Cognitive Psychologists
• Study reasoning, judgements, decision making, and problem solving
Cognitive Therapy
• “you must become the master of your own thinking. This is the only way you will realize
freedom and joy.
• You will have to turn your thoughts away from lack, want and limitation, and let them dwell on
the good
Cognitive Revolution; how do we know what we know?
Authority
Reason:
▪ Considered by renaissance scholars to be the most reliable source of knowledge
Observation
▪ Basis for empirical knowledge
▪ Scientific approach
Deductive Reasoning:
▪ Invalid Conclusions:
o Conclusions must follow logically from 2 or more premises to be valid
o Example:
▪ Premise 1: Some A’s are B’s
▪ Premise 2: Some B’s are C’s
▪ Conclusion: Some A’s are C’s?
o OR
▪ Premise 1: Some children are brilliant beings
▪ Premise 2: Some brilliant beings are seniors
▪ Conclusion: Some children are seniors?
▪ Belief Bias Effect:
o We tend to judge as true those conclusions with which we agree, and as untrue those
with which we disagree
Inductive Reasoning
▪ Problem solver goes from the particular to the general
▪ Typical in process in science
o Base a hypothesis on limited evidence, and test it against other evidence
▪ Example:
o Problems of inducing structure (p. 344):
o Can you supply missing number?
o 1 3 4 7 ___; 5 9 13 __ 21
▪ Analogies:
o Carpenter: House Author: _____
o Star: Constellation Room: ____
Problem Solving
▪ Approaches to solving problems:
o Means-end analysis
o Clarify: what is the initial state? What is goal state?
• Specify sub problems and sub goals to move from initial state to
goal
▪ Barriers
o Functional fixedness: Definition; the tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its
most common use
o Mental sets: can help or hinder add****; exists when people persist in using problem-
solving strategies that have worked in the past
• E.g. O-T-T_-_-_
• J-F-M-A_-_-_
o Stress: leads to fixation
• E.g. soldiers war
Chapter 8 Part 2:
Judgements:
▪ Processes by which we form opinions, reach conclusions, make evaluations of people and events
Problems:
▪ Overconfidence effect: people’s tendency to be overconfident about the reliability of their
memory.
▪ Availability Heuristic: basing the estimated probability of an event on the ease with which
relevant instances come to mind (E.g. estimate the divorce rate by recalling the number of
divorces among.
Heuristics:
▪ Representativeness Heuristic:
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PSYC 1010 Full Course Notes
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Document Summary
Cognitive psychologists: study reasoning, judgements, decision making, and problem solving. Reason: considered by renaissance scholars to be the most reliable source of knowledge. Observation: basis for empirical knowledge, scientific approach. J-f-m-a_-_-: stress: leads to fixation, e. g. soldiers war. Judgements: processes by which we form opinions, reach conclusions, make evaluations of people and events. Heuristics: representativeness heuristic, basing the estimated probability of an event on how similar it is to the typical prototype of that event, e. g. you hear about a person who is short, slim, and likes to read poetry. Conjunction fallacy: occurs when people estimate that the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happening alone: e. g. bill is 34 years old, intelligent, unimaginative, compulsive, and somewhat boring. Which is more likely to be true: bill plays jazz as a hobby or bill is an accountant who plays jazz as a hobby.
