Cognition Flashcards
What is thinking or cognition defined as?
It can be defined as mental activity that goes in the brain when a person is processing information (organising, understanding and communicating information).
What are the 2 systems of thinking?
System 1 and System 2 thinking.
Describe the System 1 mode of thinking.
System 1 thinking involves making quick decisions and using cognitive shortcuts, which is guided by our innate abilities and personal experiences.
System 1 is thought to be faster, more intuitive and more emotional, however it may rely on faulty heuristics, biases and prejudices.
Describe the System 2 mode of thinking.
System 2 thinking involves relatively slow, analytical and rule based, it is more dependent on our formal educational experiences.
System 2 is thought to be slower, more deliberative and logical. It is also thought to take conscious control over the more automatic System 1 thinking, particularly in complex cases.
What are mental images?
Mental images are mental representations that stand for objects or events and have a picture-like quality.
What occurs in the process of creating a mental image?
In creating mental images, areas of the cortex associated with storing knowledge send information to the visual cortex, where the image is perceived in the “mind’s eye”.
Is generating a mental image of a cup a top-down process or a bottom-up process?
Top-down process, as you are trying to use and organise pre-existing visual knowledge to create the mental image of a cup.
Is seeing and perceiving a visual stimulus of a cup a bottom-up process or a top-down process?
Bottom-up process, as you visually see the cup, processing and analysing its features, to build up the perception that it is a cup.
What are concepts?
Concepts are ideas that represent a class or category of objects, events, or activities.
Concepts are used to think about objects or events without having to think about all specific examples of the category.
What are the two types of concepts?
Formal concepts and natural concepts.
What are formal concepts and what is an example of one?
Formal concepts are concepts with very strict definitions, such as the concept of a square as a shape with four equal sides.
What are natural concepts and what is an example of one?
Natural concepts are where the concepts form not as a result of a strict set of rules but rather as the result of experiences with these concepts in the real world.
For example, vehicles are a natural concept (cars? trucks? raft? bobsled?).
What is the purpose of having natural concepts?
Natural concepts help people understand their surroundings in a less structured manner than school-taught formal concepts, they form the basis for interpreting surroundings and events that may occur in everyday life.
What are prototypes of a concept? Give an example of a prototype.
Prototypes are an example of a concept that closely matches the defining characteristics of the concept.
For example, an apple can be considered a prototype of fruit.
How can prototypes of a concept differ among individuals? Give an example.
Prototypes develop according to the exposure a person has to objects in that category.
For example, people who grow up around banana trees may identify as bananas as the prototypical fruit instead.
What are schemas of a concept? Give an example.
Schemas are mental generalisations about objects, places, events and people.
For example, one’s schema for a library would include books and bookshelves.
What are scripts of a schema? Give an example.
Scripts are a kind of event schema that involves a familiar sequence of activities.
For example, going to a movie would include travelling to the theatre, choosing a movie, getting a movie ticket, buying popcorn, etc.
What is a cognitive map?
A cognitive map is a cognitive representation of physical space (e.g. rat maze) or non-physical relations (e.g. family tree).
What is problem-solving defined as?
A process of cognition that occurs when a goal must be reached by thinking and behaving in certain ways.
What is decision-making defined as?
A process of cognition that involves identifying, evaluating, and choosing among several alternatives.
What are the 4 methods or strategies in problem-solving and decision-making?
Trial and error, algorithms, heuristics and insight.
Explain the trial and error problem-solving method.
Method in which possible solutions are tried one after another until a successful one is found.
Explain the algorithm problem-solving method.
Type of rote solution: specific step-by-step procedures for solving certain types of problems.
Always results in a correct solution if there is a correct solution to be found and enough time.
What is the heuristics method of problem-solving?
Simple rule or “rule of thumb” intended to apply to many situations.
An educated guess based on prior experiences that helps to narrow down possible solutions for a problem.
What are the 3 methods of using heuristics in problem-solving?
Working backwards from the goal
Subgoals (Break down goals into smaller goals)
Analogies (Similarities between a new problem and old problem)
Explain the insight method of problem-solving.
When the solution to a problem seems to come suddenly to mind.
The mind is reorganising the problem, while the person is thinking about something else and during/after sleep.
Usually comes in the form of an “aha!” moment, where solutions seem to come in a flash.
Describe representativeness heuristic and some issues it may bring.
Representativeness heuristic is the assumption that any object (or person) sharing characteristics with the members of a particular category is also a member of that category.
May cause errors as it ignores base rates, the actual probability of a given event, can also create and sustain stereotypes.
For example, not all people with dark skin are from Africa.
Describe availability heuristic and some issues it may bring.
Availability heuristic occurs when estimating the frequency or likelihood of an event based on how easy it is to recall relevant information from memory or how easy it is for us to think of related examples.
It impacts judgement based on how easy it is to bring an example to mind.
For example, the actual likelihood of being the victim of terrorism is low, yet there is large emphasis of terrorism in various media outlets.
Describe the base-rate fallacy/neglect biases, provide an example.
The tendency to ignore base rate information (probability of a characteristic occurring in a general population) and give more weight to individuating information.
For example, a hospital receiving more vaccinated patients than unvaccinated ones suggests that the vaccine is ineffective. However, such an imbalance is expected as there is higher percentage of people vaccinated compared to being unvaccinated.
Explain the anchoring (and adjustment) heuristic biases, provide an example.
The tendency to base (anchor) an estimate on the first piece of information and adjust the estimate around the anchor.
For example, subjects were asked whether Mahatma Gandhi died before or after age 9, or before or after age 140. Clearly neither of these anchors can be correct, but when the two groups were asked to suggest when they thought he had died, they guessed significantly differently (average age of 50 vs. average age of 67).
Explain the framing effect in biases of thinking, give an example of the effect.
The way information is presented can influence our judgments, decisions and recall.
For example, when presented with 2 cups of frozen yoghurt labelled 20% fat or 80% fat-free, it is more likely the person would choose the 80% fat-free even though it is identical.
Explain the hindsight bias in thinking and some issues it may bring about.
Tendency of people falsely believing that they would have accurately predicted an outcome without being told about it in advance.
Discards any incorrect information they actually had and replace it with more accurate information gained after the fact.
It can impede our ability to learn from mistakes.
Explain functional fixedness and how it may present as a barrier to problem-solving.
Involves thinking about objects only in terms of their typical uses/functions, or “fixed on the function”.
Leads to a lack of creativity on how to use an item.
Explain mental sets and how it may present as a barrier to problem-solving.
Tendency for people to persist in using problem-solving patterns that have worked in the past.
Solutions that have worked in the past tend to be the ones people try first, people are often hesitant or even unable to think of other possibilities.
Explain confirmation bias and how it may present as a barrier to problem-solving.
Tendency to search for evidence that fits one’s beliefs while ignoring any other evidence to the contrary.
Similar to a mental set, except that it is a belief rather than a method of solving problems.
What is creativity defined as?
Creativity is defined as the process of solving problems by combining ideas or behaviours in new ways.
What is the convergent type of thinking?
The logical method for problem solving is based on convergent thinking, which is a type of thinking in which a problem is seen as having only one answer, and that all lines of thinking will eventually lead to that single answer, using previous knowledge and logic.
