Module 2.

2a: Thinking, Problem Solving, Judgments, and

Decision Making: Concepts and Creativity
Concepts

• Cognition: all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering,
and communicating
• Metacognition: cognition about our cognition; keeping track of and evaluating our
mental processes
• Concepts: a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people
• Prototype: a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a
prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories.
• Schemas: a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
o First, we assimilate new experiences
▪ Assimilate: interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing
schemas
o But as we interact with the world, we also adjust or accommodate our
schemas to incorporate information provided by new experiences
▪ Accommodate:
• In sensation and perception, the process by which the eye’s
lens changes shape to focus images of near or far on the retina
• In developmental psychology, adapting our current schemas to
incorporate new information

Thinking Creatively

• Creativity: the ability to produce new and valuable ideas

• Convergent thinking: narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the
single best solution
• Divergent thinking: expanding the number of possible solutions; creative thinking
that diverges in different directions
• Robert Sternberg and his colleagues believe creativity has five components:
Module 2.2b: Thinking, Problem Solving, Judgments, and
Decision Making: Solving Problems and Making Decisions
• Executive functions: cognitive skills that work together, enabling us to generate,
organize, plan, and implement goal-directed behavior

Problem Solving: Strategies and Obstacles

• Algorithms: a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a

particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier – but also more error prone
– use of heuristics
• Heuristics: a simple thinking strategy – a mental shortcut – that often allows us to
make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more
error-prone than an algorithm
• Insight: a sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrasts with strategy-based
solutions
o Animals can show insight too
 • Confirmation bias: a tendency to search for information that supports our
preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence
• Fixation: in cognition, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an
obstacle to problem solving
• Mental set: a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way
that has been successful in the past

Forming Good (and Bad) Decisions and Judgments

• Intuition: an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with

explicit, conscious reasoning
• Representativeness heuristic: judging the likelihood of events in terms of how well
they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other
relevant information.
• Availability heuristic: judging the likelihood of events based on their availability in
memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we
presume such events are common.
• The Fear Factor
Overconfidence

• Overconfidence: the tendency to be more confident than correct – to overestimate

the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements

Belief Perseverance

• Belief perseverance: the persistence of one’s initial conceptions even after the basis
on which they were formed has been discredited.

The Effects of Framing

• Framing: the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect
decisions and judgments.
• Nudge: framing choices in a way that encourages people to make beneficial
decisions.
Tim Steadman’s Video
Problem-Solving Strategies

• Algorithms
o Step-by-step, methodical procedures used to solve problems or make
decisions
o Math problems, following directions to a recipe, assembling Ikea furniture
• Heuristics
o Mental shortcuts or simple strategies used to solve problems quickly and
efficiently, often based on past experiences, but they don’t guarantee a
correct solution
o Choosing a line with the fewest people at the store or looking through the
textbook glossary to find a vocabulary term
• Representative Heuristic
o A mental shortcut where people judge the likelihood of something based on
how closely it matches a typical example or stereotype, often ignoring actual
probabilities or statistical information
• Availability Heuristic
o A mental shortcut used to make judgements based on how easily examples
come to mind, often leading to overestimating the likelihood of events that
are recent, vivid, or emotionally charged

Decision-Making Influences

• Mental set
o A cognitive tendency to approach a problem using strategies that have
worked in the past, even when a different method would be more effective
• Framing
o Refers to the way information is presented, which can influence how we
perceive and react to it, affecting our decisions and judgments
• Priming
o The process by which exposure to a specific stimulus influences how we
respond to a related stimulus, often activating associated ideas or concepts
in memory
Obstacles

• Gambler’s Fallacy
o The mistaken belief that if something happens more frequently than usual
during a given period, it will happen less frequently in the future, or vice
versa, despite the events being independent of each other
• Sunk-Cost Fallacy
o Occurs when people continue to invest time, money, or effort into a decision
or project because they have already spent resources on it, even if it no
longer benefits them or the situation has changed

Executive Function

• The mental processes that help us plan, focus attention, remember instructions,
and manage multiple tasks to achieve goals
• Working memory: the ability to temporarily hold and manipulate information in our
minds to complete tasks, solve problems, or make decisions
• Cognitive flexibility: the ability to switch between different thoughts or strategies
and adapt to new situations or changing demands
• Cognitive flexibility: the ability to regulate and suppress impulsive responses,
distractions, or unwanted behaviors to stay focused and act in line with goals

Divergent Thinking

• A cognitive process focused on generating multiple, creative solutions or ideas by

thinking outside the box and exploring different possibilities

Convergent Thinking

• A cognitive process that focuses on narrowing down multiple ideas or solutions to

find a single, best answer using logic and reasoning