Final Exam

Psychology 2145 with Yankovich at University of Colorado Boulder

About this deck

By: Kiera Murphy
Textbook:

Cognition: Exploring the Science of the Mind (Fourth Edition)

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
Created: 2011-04-25
Size: 50 flashcards
Views: 196

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Reasoning

Cognitive processes by which people start with information and come to conclusion that go beyond original information.

Both deductive and inductive

Decision Making

Making choices between alternatives

- Buying an apartment

-Gambling

Judgement

Component of decision making- involves calculating likelihood of various events

Deductive Reasoning

Applying rules

- A conclusion logically follows from premises
Derive a specific fact from a general set of facts
Involves deriving conclusions when all the facts are available
Syllogism: a logical argument

All A's are B's
All B's are C's- therefore all A's are C's
Example: Hay fever causes people misery in the summer. Alan has hay fever, therefore, he is miserable in the summer.

Categorical Syllogism

Premises and conclusions that describe the relationship between 2 categories using statements that begin with some, no, or all.

Normative and Descriptive Approach to Studying Categorical Syllogisms

Normative: Involves logic and concerns validity

i.e which syllogisms are valid/not valid

Descriptive: Involves psychology and concerns how well people judge and evaluate validity

1st Principal of Deductive Reasoning

If the premises are true then, the conclusion of a valid syllogism must be true.

Valid because conclusion logically follows from the premises

2nd Principal of Deductive Reasoning

The validity of syllogism is determined only by its form, not its content.

Syllogism is valid but conclusion is not true

Determining the Validity via Euler Circles

Diagrams that graphically depict the relationships between premises to determine whether or not a syllogism is valid

- A tool that makes it possible to determine validity of most syllogisms

3rd principal of deductive reasoning

The conclusion must follow for every possible case- one exception invalidates the syllogism

Descriptive Approach to Studying Syllogisms

Concerned with how well people can actually judge validity
2 methods in judging peoples performance in syllogisms

Evaluation: present 2 premises and a conclusion and ask if the conclusion logically follows the premises
Production: present 2 premises and ask people to indicate which conclusion from a set logically follows, or if no conclusion follows

1st source of Syllogistic Error

Atmospheric Effect:

- Qualifiers (all, some, or none) create an overall mood that influences the evaluation/production

2 All's---> All conclusion
1 or 2 No's ---->No conclusion
1 or 2 Some's ----> Some conclusion

Often leads to correct evaluation, but sometimes leads to errors

2nd source of Syllogistic Error

Belief Bias:

- If a syllogism's conclusion is true or agrees with a persons beliefs the syllogism will be judged as valid. –All of the students are tired –Some tired people are irritable

–Some of the students are irritable –All of the men are tired

- Illustrates a violation of Principle 2: validity of a syllogism is determined by its form.

People influenced by believability of conclusion

Mental Models of Deductive Reasoning

- Specific situation represented in a person's mind that can be used to determine validity of syllogisms in deductive reasoning

Imagining situations

Conditional Syllogisms

- 2 premises and a conclusion

- 1st premise : If this happens... then.....

Both antecedent and consequent

Wason Four Card Problem - The Outcome

Falsification Principle: to test a rule, it is necessary to find situations that falsify that rule.

Inductive Reasoning

Reaching conclusions from evidence

Premises based on observation from one or more cases
Generalize from cases to a more general conclusion

There are

Evaluating Inductive Arguments

Deductive= validity

Inductive= strength of argument

Arrive at conclusion that are probably true, based on evidence

Some factors that contribute to strength of inductive argument:

# of observations: - I have often seen vultures circling thirsty people in the desert.
Representativeness of observations
Quality of evidence: stronger evidence- stronger conclusion

Induction in Science and Everyday Life

Basic procedure for making discoveries

- Used in generalization of results

- Used in creating a novel hypothesis

Everyday Life: mechanism for using past experiences to guide present behavior

Anytime we make predictions about what will happen based on our observations about what has happened in the past.

Hueristics: "economical shortcuts"- often lead to correct conclusion

Availability Heuristic

Tverksy and Kahneman (1973)

Things that are easy to remember are judged to be more prevalent

- We base our judgments of frequency of events on what events come to mind

Illusory Correlations

- A correlation between two events appears to exist, but actually does not (or is very weak)

Awareness of correlations very useful

Stereotypes: oversimplified generalization about a group that often focuses on negative

The Representativeness Heuristic

People often make judgments based on how much one event resembles another event

The base rate: relative proportion of different classes in the population

- The likelihood that event A comes from class B depends on how close A resembles B

Conjunction fallacy: mistaken belief that a combination of two events is more likely than one of the events on its own

Utility Approach to Decision Making

Utility: outcomes that are desirable because it is in the persons best interest.

i.e- maximum monetary payoff

Problems: People do not always act to maximize monetary value

casinos: fun of gambling
some payoffs cant be calculated
incorrect mental simulations

Decisions and Emotion

Focusing Illusion

- Focusing on only one aspect of a situation and ignore other aspects that may be important

Date Question: Asking their happiness level vs how many dates they had been on this month. If dates question was asked first....there will be a bigger correlation between the answers.

Problem Solving

Problem: A problem occurs when there is an obstacle between a present state and a goal and it is not completely obvious how to get around the obstacle

Problem Solving: An effort to overcome obstacles obstructing the path to a solution

The Gestalt Approach

Extended their theories of perception to problem solving behavior
Gestalt:

Whole is more than the sum of it's parts

Perceive problems as a whole

Problem Solving: how people represent a problem in their minds

Problem Solving as Restructuring

Problem Perception
Reorganization or restructuring of a problem representation
Finding in the x in the radius

Problem Solving as Re-representation

Changing the problems representation : restructuring
Solution to problem requires perceptual insight

sudden realization of the problem's solution

Non-insight problems

Math problems. " solve for x"

- Perceived "warmth" increases gradually

Insight Problems

Puzzles

perceived "warmth" erupts suddenly.

An "aha!" moment

Obstacles to Problem Solving

Gestalt

- Experience can help or hinder problem solving

- Previous experience can influence reconstructing

- Duncker's Candle Problem (1945)- Mount candle to the wall without having it trip using only candle, tacks, and a matchbox.

Seeing the matchbox as a container involves necessary insight

Function Fixedness

a cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used
Maier's (1931) two string problem-

Using a chair and pliers tie together the two ends of the string
Using the pliers to tie to the end of the string and put it in motion. When "accidentally" set in motion, people could solve it faster.

Mental Set

- Tendency to respond in a certain manner based on past experience

- Function fixedness creates mental set by causing people to focus on a particular function of an object

- Luchins (1942) water jug problem

Gestalt Approach Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths -

Problem solving is often more than reproducing past experiences
Involves reconstructing representations
Explains how past experience can lead to failure

Weaknesses-

What is "insight" (mechanism unexplained...)
Focus on initial and final states, but no process model

Problem Space Theory

- Newell & Simon

Problem solving as a search that occurs between the posing of the problem and its solution

A problem space:

Possible states or conditions of the problem (maze of pathways)
Includes solvers knowledge and external devices

A problem space consists of :

initial state
goal state
intermediate states- various conditions along the way
Operators: legal moves within a problem

Problem solving: SEARCHING the problem space

Heuristics in Problem Solving

Newell & Simons Means-end Analysis strategy
Stepwise reduction of differences between current and goal state by creating subgoals
Everyday problems: # of smaller steps to get to a goal: fixing a car.
Tower of Hanoi and Hobbits and Orcs Problem

Works most of the time but some backtracking away from the goal is sometimes necessary

Importance of how a Problem is Stated

Puzzle problems vs everyday problems

Many everyday problems are ill-defined

Well defined problems:

Clear problem space (initial state), operators, goals, etc.

Ill- defined problems:

Vague problem space, operators, goals, etc.
Which grad school should i take? How can I make this relationship work?

Means-end Analysis is difficult to apply to ill- defined problems and some insight problems
Successful problems solving depends on representing problem in such a way that appropriate operators can apply

Mutilated Checkerboard Problem

How the way a problem is stated can affect the persons ablility to get started in the solution.

Kaplan & Simon:

- restating the problem can make it easier to solve

Problem Solving By Analogy

Analogy : structural similarity between situations or events

- reconstructing can be aided by retrieveing analogous instances

-solution to one problem analogous to solution of another

Dunckers Radiation Problem: When given a hint relating to another problem, participants were able to solve it faster. only 30% could solve it without a hint.

Process of Analogical Problem Solving

1. Noticing parallels

Most crucial & difficult step

2. Mapping corresponding elements

3. Applying the mapping to generate a solution

Schemas & Analogy

Activation of problem schemata can facilitate solution of analogous problems

- Discovering the basic concepts that link the source and the target problems

Experts vs. Novice Problem Solvers

Experts: 10 years of domain experience

Examples: Chess, phsyics

Experts exhibit faster and more accurate problem solving in their fields

Experts:

More knowledge
larger and more well organized store of knowledge
Differently organized knowledge:
Spend more time analyzing rather than problem solving
Expertise is domain-specific!!
Can result in functional fixedness

Problem Solving and the Brain

- Particular problem activates many different areas

Premotor Cortex: thinking about making a move

Prefrontal Cortex: Planning strategies

Occipital & Parietal: locating chess pieces

Aging

A fundamental biological process that can be defined, measured, described, and manipulated

- deeply rooted in the genetic makeup and metabolic workings of the organism as a whole and its every cell

- sensitive to many environmental influences that have modulatory effects

Neuropsychological Approach

-Aging vs. Brain Damage

- Neuroimaging Approach

- Structural imaging: volumetric changes

- Age related differences in activation

- Age related differences in activation-performance relation

Brain Changes due to Aging

-decrease in brain weight

-enlargement of sulci and ventricles

-decrease in cerebral volume

-debranching of dendrites

-loss of glia

"white matter" reduction

Parts of brain which are effected

Prefrontal regions: most susceptible to age

Hippocampus: less effected

Occipital cortex: moderate changes

Brain stem: very few changes

Age Differences in Brain Activation

- Localized task-specific under activation

- Different activation patterns even when performance matched with young

Cognitive Aging

Neurological Changes

volumetric reductions
blood flow reductions
neurochemical alterations

Cognitive Changes

decrease in processing resources
Changes in higher cognitive functions

Global Cognitive Changes

Decrease in processing resources

Speed of processing: cognitive slowing

How quickly we perceive, act,think

Attention/inhibitory control

Ability to concentrate on one thing and ignore others

Working memory capacity

ability to hold info in mind for a brief period of time

Fluid Intelligence : "naive mental ability"

Includes abstraction, learning, problem solving, pattern recognition, common sense
depends on persons inherent abilities & is independent from acquired knowledge
Closely related to attention and short- term memory
older people need more time to process and react to information