PSYCHOLOGY

(8th Edition, in Modules)

David Myers

PowerPoint Slides
Aneeq Ahmad
Henderson State University

Worth Publishers, © 2007 1

Thinking

Module 29

2
 Thinking

Thinking
 Concepts
 Solving Problems
 Making Decisions and Forming
Judgments
 Belief Bias

3
 Thinking
Thinking or cognition refers to a process that
involves knowing, understanding,
remembering and communicating.

4
 Cognitive Psychologists
Thinking involves a number of mental activities
listed below, and cognitive psychologists study
them with great detail.

1. Concepts
2. Problem solving
3. Decision making
4. Judgment formation

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 Concepts
Mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas,
or people. There are a variety of chairs but their
common features define the concept of chair.

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 Category Hierarchies
We organize concepts into category hierarchies.

Courtesy of Christine Brune

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 Development of Concepts
We form some concepts by definitions, e.g.,
triangle has three side. But mostly we form
concepts by a mental image or a best example
(prototype), e.g., robin is a prototype of a bird
but penguin is not.

J. Messerschmidt/ The Picture Cube

Daniel J. Cox/ Getty Images

Triangle (definition) Bird (mental image) 8

 Categories
Once we place an item in a category our
memory shifts toward the category prototype.

Courtesy of Oliver Corneille

A computer generated face that was 70 percent
Caucasian, lead people to classify it as Caucasian.

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 Problem Solving
There are two ways to solve problems:
Algorithms: Methodical, logical rule or procedure that
guarantees solving a particular problem.

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 Algorithms
Algorithms exhaust all possibilities before
arriving at a solution. They take a long time.
Computers use algorithms.

SPLOYOCHYG
If we were to unscramble these letters to form a word,
using an algorithm approach would
take 907,208 possibilities.
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 Heuristics

Are simple thinking

strategies that often
allows us to make
judgments and solve
problems efficiently.

B2M Productions/Digital Version/Getty Images

Speedier but more
error-prone than
algorithms.

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 Heuristics
Heuristics make it easy for us to use simple
principles to arrive at solutions to problems.

SPLOYOCHYG
S
PPSL
YOCH
YOOC
LHOGY
Try putting Y at the end and see if the word
starts to make sense.
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 Insight

Insight involves sudden

novel realization of a
solution to a problem.
Insight is in humans
and animals.

Grande using boxes to

obtain food 14
 Insight
Brain imaging and EEG
studies suggest that
when an insight strikes
(“Aha” experience) it

From Mark Jung-Beekman, Northwestern

University and John Kounios, Drexel University
activates the right
temporal cortex (Jung-
Beeman, 2004). The time
between not knowing the
solution to knowing it is
0.3 seconds.
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 Obstacles in Solving Problems
Confirmation Bias: A tendency to search for
information that confirms a personal bias.

2–4–6
Rule: Any ascending series of numbers. 1 – 2 – 3 would
comply. Ss had difficulty figuring out the rule due to
confirmation bias (Wason, 1960).
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 Fixation
Fixation: Inability to see a problem from a fresh
perspective. Impediment to problem solving.
Two examples are mental set and functional
fixedness.

Scientific American, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

From “Problem Solving” by M. Scheerer. Copyright © 1963 by
The Matchstick
Problem: How would
you arrange six
matches to form four
equilateral triangles?
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 18
Using these materials, how would you mount the
Candle-Mounting Problem

From “Problem Solving” by M. Scheerer. Copyright © 1963 by

Scientific American, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
candle on a bulletin board?
 19
The Matchstick Problem: Solution

From “Problem Solving” by M. Scheerer. Copyright © 1963 by

Scientific American, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Candle-Mounting Problem: Solution

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 Mental Set
A tendency to approach a problem in a
particular way especially a way that has been
successful in the past.

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 Functional Fixedness
A tendency to think of the only familiar
functions for objects.
?

Problem: Tie the two ropes together.

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Use a screw driver, cotton balls and a matchbox.
 Functional Fixedness
Use screwdriver as weight, tie it to one rope’s
end swing it toward the other rope to tie the
knot.
?

The inability to think about screwdriver as weight is

functional fixedness about the object. 23
 Using and Misusing Heuristics

Two kinds of heuristics have been identified by

cognitive psychologists. Representative and
availability heuristics.

of Louisville and the Tversky family

Courtesy of Greymeyer Award, University

of Louisville and Daniel Kahneman

Courtesy of Greymeyer Award, University
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Amos Tversky Daniel Kahneman
 Representativeness Heuristic

Judging the likelihood of things or objects in

terms of how well they seem to represent, or
match a particular prototype.

If you were to meet a man, slim, short, wears

Probability
glasses that poetry.
and likes that person
Whatisdo
a truck driverwould
you think is far
greater
his than an
profession ivy league
would be? professor just because
there are more truck drivers than such professors.

An Ivy league professor or a truck driver?

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 Availability Heuristic
Why does our availability heuristic lead us astray?
Whatever increases the ease of retrieving
information increases its perceived availability.

How is retrieval facilitated?

1. How recently we have heard about the event.
2. How distinct it is.
3. How correct it is.
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 Making Decision & Forming
Judgments
Each day we make hundreds of judgments and
decisions based on our intuition seldom using
systematic reasoning.

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 Overconfidence
Intuitive heuristics, confirmation of beliefs, and
knack of explaining failures increases our
overconfidence. It is a tendency to overestimate
the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments.

At a stock market both

the seller and buyer may
be confident about their
decisions on a stock.
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 Exaggerated Fear
Opposed to
overconfidence is our
tendency for exaggerated
fear about how things
may happen. Such fears
may be ill-founded.

AP/ Wide World Photos

9/11 crashes led to
decline in air travel due
to fear.
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 Framing Decisions
How an issue is framed can significantly affect
decisions and judgments.

Example: What is the best way to market

ground beef — as 25% fat or 75% lean?

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 Belief Bias

The tendency for one’s preexisting beliefs to

distort logical reasoning sometimes by making
invalid conclusions.

God is love.
Love is blind
Ray Charles is blind.
Ray Charles is God.
Anonymous graffiti
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 Belief Perseverance
Our tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face
of contrary evidence is called belief
perseverance.

Once you see a country as hostile, you are likely

to interpret ambiguous actions on their part as
signifying their hostility (Jervis, 1985).

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 Perils & Powers of Intuition
Where intuition can be perilous if unchecked, it
is extremely efficient and adaptive.

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Perils & Powers of Intuition

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