Cognitive #1 Flashcards
What are heuristics?
Rules of thumb that produce quick results but leave room for errors
Humans use these
What are algorithms?
A procedure that always produces a correct solution
Computers use these
What is inductive reasoning?
Specific examples to a general conclusion
What is a descriptive approach?
How people actually do reason
Psychology
What is a normative approach?
Asks the question: what should people do if we were perfectly rationale
Economic models
What are base rates? How do people ignore base rates?
Helps us understand when our reasoning isn’t perfect; we believe it is irrelevant to the judgment we are making
What is the availability heuristic?
Occurs when we judge the likelihood of an event based on how easily we can recall similar events
What is the representativeness heuristic?
Occurs when we estimate the probability of an event based on how similar it is to a known situation
What is confirmation bias?
Our tendency to cherry-pick information that confirms our existing beliefs or ideas
What is deductive reasoning?
General to specific examples
In problem-solving, what is the initial state, the goal state, and the current state?
Example Chess
Initial state: The place you are at in the beginning (all pawns in their starting positions)
Goal state: Where you are trying to get to (trap the opponent’s King)
Current state: State of the problem right now (plays throughout the game)
What is a weak method of problem-solving?
Means-End Analysis; ways of solving the problem when don’t have any expertise
What is forward chaining?
Always keep in mind the current state and the goal state
From where I am now, what are all the moves I can make and get my closest to the goal
What is backward chaining?
Moving the goal closer to where we are by coming up with a sub goal
What is the difference between experts and novices in problem-solving?
Domain knowledge - they’ve seen it all before, recognize patterns
