UNIT 5: Cognitive Psychology
PART I: Cognition
Learning Targets
35-1 Describe the cognitive strategies that assist our problem solving and the obstacles that hinder it.
35-2 Discuss the meaning of intuition, and describe how the availability and representativeness heuristics influence our decisions and judgments.
35-3 Discuss the factors that exaggerate our fear of unlikely events.
35-4 Describe how our decisions and judgments are affected by overconfidence, belief perseverance, and framing.
35-5 Discuss how smart thinkers use intuition.
What are two problem �solving strategies?
algorithm
a methodical, logical
rule or step-by-step procedure that guarantees
solving a particular problem
heuristic
a simple thinking
strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone
than an algorithm
What are some examples?
algorithm
When asked to open an unused locker in the school hallway, you try every combination in a specific order…0-0-0, 0-0-1, 0-0-2, etc. until you find the solution.
heuristic
When asked to open an unused locker in the school hallway, you stop by the main office to see if the secretary has a list of combinations for each locker.
What word can you find in these letters?�SPLOYOCHYG
algorithm
Try each letter in each of
the ten positions—907,200
combinations in all.
heuristic
Group letters that often appear together (CH and GY) and exclude rare letter combinations (YY).
Discuss with your partner.
How would you find guava juice in the grocery store using an algorithm? Heuristics?
What is insight?
a sudden realization of a
problem’s solution; contrasts with
strategy-based solutions
Sometimes, no problem-solving strategy (such as algorithms or heuristics) seems to be at work at all, and we arrive at a solution to a problem in a quick instance…an “aha!” moment.
Insight strikes suddenly, with no prior sense of “getting warmer” or feeling close to a solution.
What research has been conducted on insight?
In one study, researchers asked people to think of a word that forms a compound word or phrase with each of three other words in a set
(such as pine, crab, and sauce)
and to press a button to sound a bell when
they knew the answer.
A sudden Aha! Insight led to about half the solutions.
What is happening in the brain?
Before the ‘aha!’ moment, the problem solvers’ frontal lobes
(involved in focusing attention) were active.
At the instant of discovery, there was a burst of activity in the right temporal lobe, just above the ear.
What research has been conducted on insight in non-human animals?
Psychologist Wolfgang Köhler placed a piece of fruit and a long stick outside the cage of a chimpanzee named Sultan, beyond his reach.
Inside the cage, Köhler placed a short stick, which Sultan grabbed, using it to try to reach the fruit.
After several failed attempts, the chimpanzee
dropped the stick and seemed to survey the situation. Then suddenly (as if thinking “Aha!”), Sultan jumped up and seized the short stick again. This time, he used it to pull in the longer stick—which he then used to reach the fruit.
What are three obstacles to �problem solving?
confirmation bias
fixation
mental set
What is confirmation bias?
a tendency to
search for information that supports
our preconceptions and to ignore or
distort contradictory evidence
Why we look only for supporting evidence.
Confirmation bias leads us to seek evidence for our ideas more eagerly than
we seek evidence against them.
1. What Would You Answer?
Thom believes that his congresswoman is honest. He quickly looks for examples of her giving to charity and chooses to ignore her ethics violations that have recently been in the news.
Which type of cognitive bias is impacting Thom’s decision making?
A. confirmation bias.
B. intuition.
C. mental set.
D. availability heuristic.
E. overconfidence.
How would you arrange six matches to form four equilateral triangles?
Discuss your answer with a partner.
Did you solve it?
To solve this problem, you must view it from a new perspective, breaking the fixation of limiting
solutions to two dimensions.
What is fixation?
the inability to see a problem from a new
perspective; an obstacle to problem-solving
In the previous TRY IT, did you fixate on a two-dimensional solution? Why? Was two-dimensional a direction in the problem? Why did you add that rule?
What is mental set?
A prime example of fixation is mental set, our
tendency to approach a problem with the mind-set of
what has worked for us previously.
What goes next?
Given the sequence O-T-T-F-?-?-?, what
are the final three letters?
Write down your answer.
Most people have difficulty recognizing that the three final letters are�F(ive), S(ix), and S(even). �The next one might be easier now…
Given the sequence J-F-M-A-?-?-?,
what are the final three letters?
Solutions that worked in the past often
do work on new problems. Mental sets can have positive outcomes.
What is intuition?
an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning
What are two intuitive �mental shortcuts?
representativeness heuristic
estimating the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent,
or match, particular prototypes;
may lead us to ignore other relevant information
availability heuristic
estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory;
if instances come readily to
mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such
events are common
How can the representativeness heuristic lead to stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination?
Consider the reaction of some non-Arab travelers
soon after 9/11, when a young male of Arab
descent boarded their plane.
The young man fit (represented) their “terrorist” prototype, and the representativeness
heuristic kicked in.
His presence evoked anxiety among his fellow passengers—even though nearly 100 percent of those who fit this prototype are peace-loving citizens.
Consider this…
One mother of two Black and three White teens asks other parents, “Do store personnel follow your children when they are picking out their Gatorade flavors? They didn’t follow my White kids.
Do your kids get pulled out of the TSA line time and again for additional screening? My White kids didn’t.”
(Roper, 2016)
The end result…
If people have a prototype—a stereotype—of delinquent Black teens, or terrorist Arabs, they may
unconsciously use the representativeness heuristic when judging individuals.
The result, even if unintended, is racism.
How can the representativeness heuristic aid in problem solving?
If a young man wants to win the affections of a young woman, he may notice that she plays on the varsity basketball team, and frequently wears Celtics jerseys to school. The young woman fits the young man’s idea of an athlete and so he buys two tickets to the NBA finals and asks her if she would like to go.
His behavior (buying tickets) is based on how well the young woman represents his idea (concept) of sport-loving athlete. He believes she will say Yes!
(And of course… she does!)
What is the availability heuristic?
estimating the likelihood of events based
on how fast they come to mind…
their ‘availability’ in memory
If instances come readily to mind
(perhaps because of their vividness),
we presume such events are common.
AP Exam Tip
Make sure you understand the
difference between representativeness
and availability heuristics.
AP® exam takers have confused them.
We often fear the wrong things…
In 2015 and again in 2016, feared Islamic
terrorists shot and killed fewer Americans than
did armed toddlers.
(Ingraham, 2016; LaCapria, 2015)
“ Don’t believe everything you think.”
~Bumper sticker
What are we afraid of?
In the three months
after 9/11,
fear of flying
led more Americans to travel by car, and some to die.
Why do we fear the wrong things?
How does the availability heuristic �add to our fears?
2. What Would You Answer?
After seeing a news story about a kidnapping we are more afraid of kidnapping, even though it is a very rare occurrence. What of the following is the term for this phenomenon?
A. intuition insight
B. confirmation bias
C. belief perseverance
D. mental set
E. availability heuristic
How are our decisions and judgments �affected by overconfidence?
Overconfidence is the tendency to
be more confident than correct—
to overestimate the accuracy of our
beliefs and judgments.
Sometimes our decisions and judgments go
awry simply because we are more
confident than correct.
What is the planning fallacy?
Overconfidence often leads to a planning fallacy— overestimating our future leisure time and income. (Zauberman & Lynch, 2005)
Students and others often expect to finish assignments ahead of schedule. In fact, such projects generally take about twice the predicted time.
(Buehler et al., 1994, 2002)
Anticipating how much more time we will have next month, we happily accept invitations. And believing we’ll surely have more money next year, we take out loans or buy on credit.
What is belief perseverance?
clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited
____
The more we come to appreciate why our beliefs might be true, the more tightly we cling to them.
For instance, in politics, once we have explained to ourselves why candidate X or Y will be a better
commander-in-chief, we tend to ignore evidence undermining our belief.
What research has been conducted on belief perseverance?
A classic study of belief perseverance engaged
people with opposing views of capital punishment. (Lord et al., 1979)
After studying two supposedly new research findings, one supporting and the other refuting the claim that the death penalty deters crime, each side was more impressed by the study supporting its own beliefs.
And each readily disputed the other study.
What is the takeaway from the research?
Showing the pro- and anti-capital-punishment
groups the same mixed evidence actually increased their disagreement.
Rather than using evidence to draw conclusions, they used their conclusions to assess evidence—a phenomenon also known as motivated reasoning.
Have a discussion.
How does the concept of overconfidence and belief perseverance help explain national divisions along political partisan lines?
What is framing?
the way an issue is
posed; how an issue is worded can
significantly affect decisions and
judgments
Which sounds more like something you might agree with?
“gun safety” or “gun control” laws
“undocumented workers” or
“illegal aliens,”
“carbon offset fee” or a “carbon tax,”
How does framing impact �judgments and decisions?
Framing—the way we present an issue—can be a powerful tool of persuasion.
Imagine two surgeons explaining the risk of an upcoming surgery. One explains that during this type of surgery, 10 percent of people die. The other explains that 90 percent survive. The information is the same. The effect is not. In real life surveys, patients and physicians overwhelmingly say the risk is greater when they hear that 10 percent die.
(Marteau, 1989; McNeil et al., 1988; Rothman & Salovey, 1997)
3. What Would You Answer?
Many people prefer meat that is 80 percent lean instead of 20 percent fat, even though they are the same thing. Which concept is being used when the same information is presented in a more
desirable way?
A. intuition
B. insight
C. framing
D. overconfidence
E. perseverance
How do smart thinkers use intuition?
Implicit knowledge that we’ve recorded in our brains but can’t fully explain, shows itself in the smart and quick judgments of experienced nurses, firefighters, art critics, and car mechanics.
To make adaptive and quick decisions, intuition allows
us to go with our gut, recognize stranger danger
when we see it.
Our mind’s unconscious track makes good use intuitively of what we are not consciously processing.
Unconscious, automatic influences are
constantly affecting our judgments.
Putting it all together…
Letting a problem incubate while
we attend to other things can pay dividends.
(Dijksterhuis & Strick, 2016)
Facing a difficult decision involving a lot of facts, we’re wise to gather all the information we can, and then say, “Give me some time not to think about this, even to sleep on it.”
Thanks to our ever-active brain, nonconscious thinking (reasoning, problem solving, decision making, planning) can be surprisingly astute.
(Creswell et al., 2013; Hassin, 2013; Lin & Murray, 2015)
Take a few minutes to review.
4. What Would You Answer?
A teacher has received false information that one
of your friends is a cheater.
Explain how each of the following can lead the teacher to continue in this false belief:
Learning Target 35-1 Review
Describe the cognitive strategies that
assist our problem-solving and the
obstacles that hinder it.
Learning Target 35-1 Review cont.
Describe the cognitive strategies that
assist our problem solving and the
obstacles that hinder it.
Learning Target 35-2 Review
Discuss the meaning of intuition.
Learning Target 35-2 Review cont.
Describe how the availability and
representativeness heuristics influence our
decisions and judgments.
Learning Target 35-3 Review
Discuss the factors that exaggerate
our fear of unlikely events.
Learning Target 35-4 Review
Describe how our decisions and
judgments are affected by
overconfidence, belief perseverance, and framing.
Learning Target 35-5 Review
Discuss how smart
thinkers use intuition.