“The best way to have a good idea is

to have lots of ideas.”

Lines Pauling
What is it?
 All mental activities associated with
thinking, knowing, remembering and
communicating

Cognitive psychology
 Studies how the mind
 Organizes perceptions
 Processes information

 Interprets experience
In order to think about the world, we form……..

What are they?

 Mental groupings of
similar events, ideas and
people

These animals all look different,

but they fall under our concept
of “dogs”.
 Concept
 A mental grouping of persons, places, ideas, events, or
objects that share common properties
 Priming
 When one concept is ‘activated’, others nearby
in the network are primed
Prototype
 Best representative of a concept
 ex: When I say the word sport – did you picture
 Football?
 Basketball?

 Golf?

 Chess?

 NASCAR?
 Animal
Has skin
Eats
Breathes

Bird Fish
Has wings Has fins
Can fly Can swim
Has feathers Has gills

Canary Ostrich Shark Salmon

Can sing Can’t fly Can bite Is pink
Is yellow Is tall Is dangerous Is edible
Norris Edwards: Chapter 2:
Wade02.ppt Page: 6
 Why does this matter?
 Prejudices –
 Less likely to recognize prejudice & discrimination that does not fit
our prototype
 Faces Experiment
• Faces Experiment

– Shown a face 70% Caucasian, people

remembered the face more Caucasian than it
actually was. (Same for Asian)
 Abilityto recall information
about specific topic with
specific answer
 Finding the single best solution
 Typical of many tests
 Multiple choice questions
 What is the Capital of Peru?
 Associated with Left Parietal
Lobe
 Abilityto come up with
numerous and different
solutions to a single
problem
 Typical of Inquiry projects
or opinion based questions
 Associated with areas of
the Frontal Lobes
1. Expertise
2. Imaginative Thinking
3. Venturesome Personality
4. Intrinsic Motivation
5. Creative Environment
1. Expertise
 Strong knowledge base
 Giving yourself the building block to create
something new
 “Chance favours only the prepared mind” Louis
Paseur
1. Expertise
2. Imaginative Thinking Skills
 Ability to recognize patterns and make
connections
 Using knowledge base to redefine problems
1. Expertise
2. Imaginative
Thinking
3. Venturesome Personality
 Willingness to take risks and explore the
unknown
 Perseverance in the face of obstacles
1. Expertise
2. Imaginative Thinking
3. Venturesome Personality
4. Intrinsic Motivation
 Personal interest
 Enjoying the challenge of
the problem
1. Expertise
2. Imaginative Thinking
3. Venturesome Personality
4. Intrinsic Motivation
5. Creative Environment
 Surrounding yourself with
similarly motivated people
 Supporting, challenging and
mentoring each other
 Trial& error
 Algorithm
 Heuristic
 Insight
SPLOYOCHYG
PSYCHOLOGY
 Trial & error
 Problems are solved by trying multiple approaches
until one does not fail to find a solution.
 Typical of Early learning
 Algorithm
 Heuristic
 Insight
 Trial & error
 Algorithm
 A systematic, step-by-step problem-solving
strategy, guaranteed to provide a solution
 Algorithm
 Heuristic
 A simple thinking strategy that allows us to make
judgment
 Heuristic
 Insight
 A sudden realization of a problem’s solution – this
is not a strategy based solutions to solve problems
efficiently
 Insight
 Whatsingle word will for a compound word
when combined with the following;
 Crab
 Pine
 Sauce
 Answer:
 Apple
 Heuristic
 A rule of thumb that allows one to make
judgments that are quick but often in error
 Representativeness Heuristic
 A tendency to estimate the likelihood of an event
in terms of how typical (how similar to the
prototype) it seems
 Availability Heuristic
 A tendency to estimate the likelihood of an event
in terms of how easily instances of it can be
recalled
 Who went to Harvard?
He did not go to • Judging a
Harvard (but he situation based
looks like he did). on how similar
the aspects are
to the
prototypes the
person holds in
their mind.
•If I tell you that Sonia Dara is a Sports Illustrated
swimsuit model, you would make certain quick
judgments (heuristics) about her…like about her
interests or intelligence.
•She is an economics major at Harvard University.
 Judging a situation based on examples of
similar situations that initially come to mind.

 Vivid
examples in the news on social media
often cause an availability heuristic.
 Our confidence is not a good
indicator of how right we are.
 Belief Perseverance-
maintaining a belief even after
it has been proven wrong.
 Belief Bias- People will tend to
accept any and all conclusions
that fit in with their systems of
belief, without challenge or
any deep consideration of what
they are actually agreeing
with.
 Is the following conclusion valid?
 Some A are B
 Some B are C
 Therefore some A are C
 Okay let’s try it…
 Some women are scientists
 Some scientists are men
 Therefore some women are men
 Now what do you think?
 Participantswere provided a candle,
a box of nails, and several other
objects, and asked to attach the
candle to the wall so that it did not
drip onto the table below.
 Participants tried to nail
the candle directly to the
wall or to glue it to the
wall by melting it. Very
few thought of using the
inside of the nail box as a
candle-holder and nailing
this to the wall.

 • The participants were

“fixated” on the box’s
normal function of holding
nails and could not re-
conceptualize it in a
manner that allowed them
to solve the problem.
 O-T-T-F-F-?-?-?
 O-T-T-F-F-S-S-E
 J-F-M-A-?-?-?
 J-F-M-A-M-J-J
Want: A B C
100 21 127 3
5 18 43 10
18 22 42 6
6 14 36 8
• It was: B(127) – A(21) – 2C(6) = 100.

• How was problem 2?

• But what about problems 3 and 4, which required using a new

formula?
• Most people struggled on these, even though the solution (A
– C) is fairly simple.

• Why? Well, it’s because of the creation of a mental set.

This reliance on prior strategies is also seen in mathematical
thinking, where students trying to solve arithmetic problems
over-apply rules that had worked for other familiar types of
problems. Mental sets aren’t all bad – it’s just that we are
often slow to shed our mental sets when we need to.
 Mental set
 The tendency to use a strategy that has worked
in the past
 Functional Fixedness
 A tendency to think of objects only in terms of
their usual functions, a limitation that disrupts
problem solving
 Confirmation Bias
 The inclination to search only for evidence that
will verify one’s beliefs
 a.k.a. rigidity
 The tendency to fall into established thought
patterns.
What occurs once in June, once in July, and
twice in August?
 the letter u
  Theinability to
see a new use for
an object.

Think of as many uses as

you can for a ……
 A tendencyto search for
information that confirms
one’s preconceptions.

For example, if you believe that

during a full moon there is an increase
in admissions to the emergency room
where you work, you will take notice
of admissions during a full moon, but
be inattentive to the moon when
admissions occur during other nights
of the month.
 90% of the population  The way a problem
will be saved with this is presented can
medication…..or
drastically effect
 10% of the population
the way we view it.
will die despite this
medication.
 You should not drink
more than two drinks
per day….or
 You should not drink
more than 730 drinks a
year.
 Which Direction is
this bus Heading?
 What is the
missing number
from the final
triangle?