Thinking Flashcards
normative model
what standards should we use to evaluate the quality of thinking, judgements, and decisions?
- always with respect to an individual’s goals
- following the normative model does not guarantee the best outcome in any specific instance
- it’s important it is developed in a way that is separate from what people actually do
descriptive model
how do people actually think, decide, and make judgements?
- must be able to observe and measure what people actually do
- bias: systematic deviation from normative standard
prescriptive model
what can we do to improve our thinking? what advice can/should we follow in a given circumstance?
- not necessarily the same as the normative model; must take into consideration what is reasonable to expect of people
- also takes into consideration people’s goals (including valuing their time and effort)
- doesn’t follow same standards as normative; heuristic based
rational thinking
“the kind of thinking we would all do, if we were aware of our own best interests, in order to achieve our goals” Baron definition
good thinking and decision-making is more about the process than the outcome
forms of thinking
make decisions: choice of a plan if action made to further a goal, based on belief that it will have the desired outcome
form beliefs: degree of confidence in truth of a proposition, which can be expressed in terms of probabilities; the basics for actions and decisions
automatic thinking
associative; intuitive; responsive only to information present; involve memory systems
controlled thinking
conscious awareness; effortful; can make use of complex logic; scientific reasoning
what is most thinking?
a combination of automatic and controlled thinking
bounded rationality
our ability to think well (rationally) is partly constrained by the limitations of our memory systems (particularly Working Memory, but also experiences stored in long-term memory)
how do we learn new concepts?
by attempting to incorporate it into our existing worldview rather than changing it entirely; we attempt to conserve our existing knowledge, maintain our existing worldview
behaviorist theories
learning via reinforcements - does not posit any real concept of understanding (awareness is an “epiphenomenon”)
cognitive theories
sugget an “active, hypothesis-testing mind mediating between the reinforcement provided by the experimenter and the behavior in the sorting task”; decisions are guided by ideas and beliefs
naive theories
result from incomplete thinking (lack of experimentation to test our understanding)
understanding requires….
- knowledge of the structure of what we want to understand (known as the design)
- knowing the purpose of the structure
- knowing the arguments for why the design (structure) serves the purpose; must also understand what makes a good argument
