The best way to have a good idea is to have lots

of ideas.
Lines Pauling

What is it?
All

mental activities associated with

thinking, knowing, remembering and
communicating

Cognitive psychology
Studies

how the mind

Organizes perceptions
Processes information
Interprets experience

In order to think about the world, we form..

What are they?

Mental

groupings
of similar events,
ideas and people

These animals all look

different, but they fall
under our concept of

Concept
A mental

grouping of persons, places, ideas, events, or

objects that share common properties
Priming

When one concept is activated, others

nearby in the network are primed

Prototype
Best

representative of a concept

ex: When I say the word sport did you picture

Football?
Basketball?
Golf?
Chess?
NASCAR?

Why does this matter?

Prejudices

Less likely to recognize prejudice & discrimination

that does not fit our prototype

Faces

Experiment

Faces Experiment

Shown a face 70% Caucasian,

people remembered the face more
Caucasian than it actually was.
(Same for Asian)

Trial & error

Algorithm
A systematic,

step-by-step problem-solving
strategy, guaranteed to provide a solution

Heuristic
A simple

thinking strategy that allows us to make

judgment

Insight
A sudden

realization of a problems solution this

is not a strategy based solutions to solve problems
efficiently

Heuristic
A

rule of thumb that allows one to make judgments that

are quick but often in error

Representativeness Heuristic

Example I before E except after C

Why not use them all the time?
A tendency to estimate the likelihood of an event in terms of
how typical (how similar to the prototype) it seems

Availability Heuristic

A tendency to estimate the likelihood of an event in terms of

how easily instances of it can be recalled

Who went to Harvard?

He did not go to
Harvard (but he
looks like he
did).

If

I tell you that Sonia Dara is a Sports

Illustrated swimsuit model, you would
make certain quick judgments
(heuristics) about herlike about her
interests or intelligence.

Judging a
situation based
on how similar
the aspects are
to the
prototypes the
person holds in
their mind.

Judging a situation based on examples of

similar situations that initially come to mind.

Vivid examples in the news on social media

often cause an availability heuristic.

Our confidence is not a good

indicator of how right we are.
Belief Perseverancemaintaining a belief even after
it has been proven wrong.
Belief Bias- People will tend to
accept any and all conclusions
that fit in with their systems of
belief, without challenge or any
deep consideration of what
they are actually agreeing with.

Is the following conclusion valid?

Some

A are B
Some B are C
Therefore some A are C

Okay lets try it

Some

women are scientists

Some scientists are men
Therefore some women are men

Now what do you think?

Participants were provided a candle,

a box of nails, and several other
objects, and asked to attach the
candle to the wall so that it did not
drip onto the table below.

Participants tried to nail

the candle directly to the
wall or to glue it to the
wall by melting it. Very
few thought of using the
inside of the nail box as a
candle-holder and nailing
this to the wall.

The participants were

fixated on the boxs
normal function of holding
nails and could not reconceptualize it in a
manner that allowed them
to solve the problem.

Want:

100

21

127

18

43

10

21

42

14

36

It was: B(127) A(21) 2C(6) = 100.

How was problem 2?

But what about problems 3 and 4, which required

using a new formula?
Most people struggled on these, even though the
solution (A C) is fairly simple.

Why? Well, its because of the creation of a mental

set.
This reliance on prior strategies is also seen in
mathematical thinking, where students trying to
solve arithmetic problems over-apply rules that
had worked for other familiar types of problems.
Mental sets arent all bad its just that we are
often slow to shed our mental sets when we need

Mental set
The

tendency to use a strategy that has worked

in the past

Functional Fixedness
A

tendency to think of objects only in terms of

their usual functions, a limitation that disrupts
problem solving

Confirmation Bias
The

inclination to search only for evidence that

will verify ones beliefs

a.k.a. rigidity
The tendency to fall into established thought
patterns.
What occurs once in June, once in July, and
twice in August?
the letter u

Think of as many uses as

you can for a

The inability to
see a new use for
an object.

A tendency to search
for information that
confirms ones
preconceptions.
For example, if you believe
that during a full moon
there is an increase in
admissions to the
emergency room where you
work, you will take notice of
admissions during a full
moon, but be inattentive to
the moon when admissions
occur during other nights of

90% of the population

will be saved with this
medication..or
10% of the population
will die despite this
medication.
You should not drink
more than two drinks
per day.or
You should not drink
more than 730 drinks a
year.

The way a problem

is presented can
drastically effect
the way we view it.

Definition
The

ability to produce original, appropriate, and

valuable ideas and/or solutions to problems
Little correlation between creativity and
intelligence.

Creative process
Research

studies indicate that useful and

genuine creativity rarely appears in the form of
sudden flashes
Creative ideas that come to conscious awareness
have been incubating for some time

Convergent thinking
type

of mental activity measured by IQ and

achievement tests
consists of solving precisely defined, logical problems
for which there is a known correct answer
characterized by greater activity in the left frontal
cortex

Divergent thinking
The

ability to produce multiple ideas, answers, or

solutions to a problem for which there is no agreed-on
solution
marked by higher levels of activity in the right frontal
cortex