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Thinking, Problem Solving, & Judgment

Mr. Koch

AP Psychology

Andover High School

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Thinking

  • Concepts – a category of objects, events, or ideas that have common properties
      • Ex – “cars,” “birds,” “books,” etc.
  • Prototypes – a member of a concept that possesses all or most of its characteristic features (best example)

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Thinking & Problem Solving

  • Convergent Thinking – involves narrowing in on a single, correct solution
  • Divergent Thinking – involves generating many possible solutions to a problem

(Important for creativity)

  • Executive Functions – cognitive processes that allow individuals to generate, organize, plan, and carry out goal-directed behaviors an experience critical thinking

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Problem solving� How do we figure out solutions to novel situations?

    • Trial and Error
    • Insight
      • A sudden understanding about what is required to solve a problem
    • Algorithm
      • a methodical, logical rule or procedure that cannot fail to produce a correct solution to a problem, if a solution exists
          • (formal/deductive reasoning)
    • Heuristics
      • A time-saving mental shortcut used in reasoning, but is also prone to error
        • In our typical daily decision-making, we often rely on our intuition
          • (informal/inductive reasoning)

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Heuristics

  • Anchoring heuristic
    • The tendency to give excessive weight to the starting value (anchor), based on information first received or initial judgment
  • Representativeness heuristic
    • Making categorical judgments about a person or target based on how closely they match our prior expectations or stereotypes of the category
  • Availability heuristic
    • Judgments are based on information that is most easily brought to mind
      • Can bias judgment when doesn’t reflect actual frequency

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Obstacles to Problem Solving and Judgment

  • Confirmation Bias
      • Tendency to seek evidence and reach conclusions that support our hypotheses/beliefs rather than refute them
  • Belief Perseverance
      • Tendency to cling to initial beliefs, even in the face of evidence to the contrary
  • Gambler’s Fallacy
      • The mistaken belief that a random event is more or less likely to occur based on previous outcomes
  • Sunk Cost Fallacy
      • The tendency to continue a course of action because we have invested time, money, or effort, even when abandoning this action would be clearly beneficial

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Obstacles to Problem Solving and Judgment

  • Overconfidence
    • people’s confidence in their knowledge/judgment tends to be greater than the accuracy of these judgments

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  • Framing
    • The way an issue is posed
      • Can affect judgments and decisions about that issue (commonly exploited in advertising and politics)
        • “75% lean” beef vs. “25% fat”
        • “pro-choice” vs. “pro-abortion”

“pro-life” vs. “anti-choice”

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Obstacles to Problem Solving and Judgment

  • Fixation – inability to see problem from a new perspective
    • Mental set - tendency to use old patterns of problem solving (esp. when have been successful)
      • but may not be best approach available
    • Functional Fixedness – a tendency to think about familiar objects in familiar rather than novel ways (often a barrier to creativity)

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MacGyver�never a victim of functional fixedness!...