Please remember…•Cell phones off•No chatting during the

lecture

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chapter 7COGNITION: THOUGHT

Cognitive Psychology – LOBJ 7.1

• The study of the overlapping fields of– Learning– Perception– Memory– ThoughtHow do we attend to, acquire,

transform, store and retrieve knowledge? THINKING!!!

Concept Formation – LOBJ 7.2

• Concepts:– Mental categories used to classify

events and objects according to common propertiesOne of these things is not like the others; one of these things doesn’t belong.

• Concept Formation:– The way people organize and

classify events and objects, usually to solve problems (+/- instances)

A bird is a bird is a bird???Prototypical bird…

Concept Formation• Classification:

– Separating dissimilar events, finding commonalities, and then grouping similar items together

• “fuzzy concepts”– Concepts with unclear boundaries– Defined by using prototypes (best

examples)

Is this furniture?

Is this Furniture?

Is this Furniture?

Is this Furniture?

Is this furniture?

Is this furniture?

Concept Formation and Stereotyping

• Our natural tendency to form concepts and categorize leads to stereotyping– Eg. Sexism,

racism, ageism

• Only solution is to educate

How do we solve new Problems?• Learning Theory

– Trial-and-error

• Gestalt Theory– Insight

• Information-Processing Theory– Purposeful registration

and retrieval of information. Pay attention in lab this week!!!

p.245-249 / LOBJ 7.3, 7.4 & 7.6

Reasoning & Decision Making

REASONING LOBJ 7.7

• Reasoning = Purposeful process

– Allows us to: (a) generate logical ideas(b) evaluate situations(c) reach conclusions

- Formal (academic) vs. informal (real world)

REASONINGFormal• Information provided• Method available (e.g. algorithm)• One correct answer

– Recipe for a cake

Informal• Information often missing• No method• Multiple solutions

– Playing poker

LOGIC - LOBJ 7.7

Logic: system of reasoning used to reach valid conclusions or make inferences

Tools • Deductive Reasoning

– General to specific• Inductive Reasoning

– Specific to general

DECISION MAKING – LOBJ 7.7

• Decision making: assessing and choosing among alternatives

• Trivial or complexBreakfast?Marriage?

So how are they different?• Reasoning

– Arriving at a good rational solution

• Self-generation of the options followed by choosing the best one

• Decision Making– Arriving at a

good rational solution

• Narrowing options presented to you

Uncertainty: Estimating Probabilities• Decisions can be based on:

(a) formal logic(b) hypothesis, testing(c) an educated guess

Educated Guess: making a decision based on knowledge from past experiences

Probabilities or Percentages

Psychological Factors – LOBJ 7.8Problems with Estimating Probabilities

• Because of their mood or lack of attention, people may act irrationally, ignore key data, and make bad decisions– But you can learn to make

better decisions

Barriers to Good Decision MakingLOBJ 7.9Gambler’s Fallacy:

The belief that an event is more likely to occur if it has not recently occurred.

“I have to win eventually.”

Barriers to Good Decision MakingBelief in small

numbersDecision based on a small number of observations

Anecdotal Evidence

Barriers to Good Decision MakingAvailability heuristic

Judging the probability of an event based on how easy it is to think of examples of it

Media overplay

Barriers to Good Decision Making

Overconfidence Being so committed to one’s own ideas that one is often more confident than correct

Loud, bold and wrong“Don’t cloud the

issue with facts.”

Barriers to Good Decision MakingConfirmation bias

People cling to beliefs despite contradictory evidence

We find what we look for.

Barriers to Good Decision MakingFallacy of Composition:

Belief that what is true of the parts is also true of the whole

All the players are good, but the team is awful.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Artificial Intelligence - definition• Artificial

intelligence – a field that draws on concepts from both cognitive psychology and computer science to develop artificial systems that display some aspects of human-like intelligence

Limitations of AI• Well-defined and ill-defined

problems– Computers do not define their

own problems• Lack of common sense

– computers do not have a referential context in which to interpret situations

• Lack of creativity– Computers are programed by

people and can not function independent of their programs

Neural Networks• Various bits of

information are stored in different parts of the brain

• A convergence zone is needed to mediate and organize the information located in various areas of the brain

Neural Networks: Hierarchical Network Model• Assumes a hierarchy in which a particular

word is stored under the higher order category that subsumes it, which in turn is stored under a yet higher category

• EXAMPLE:ANIMAL

Eats, reproduces,

BIRDWings, feathers,

CANARYSings, yellow,

ROBINRed breast, blue eggs

Neural Networks: Parallel distributed processing • parallel distributed processing

(PDP)• PDP involves many operations

taking place at the same time in various parts of the brain