Cognitive Process/Thinking

 Mental processes by which people become aware of and

understand the world.
 Sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored,
recovered and used.
Cognitions  Mental processing including attention of working memory,
comprehending and producing language, calculating, reasoning,
problem solving and decision making
 Sensation
Attention
Perception
Learning
Cognitions Memory
Thinking
Reasoning
Decision Making
Problem Solving
  Reasoning

 “reasoning is a process of thinking during which the individual is

Reasoning aware of a problem identifies, evaluates, and decides upon a
solution”
   The process of thinking about something in a logical way in
order to form a conclusion or judgment.

 The ability of the mind to think and understand things in a

logical way.
  There are two Main types of reasoning
Types of
Reasoning 1. Deductive Reasoning
2. Inductive Reasoning
 Deductive Reasoning: It refers to arguing from a general
principle to a specific case.

 Deductive reasoning provides complete evidence of the truth of

its conclusion. It uses a specific and accurate premise that leads
to a specific and accurate conclusion. With correct premises, the
Deductive conclusion to this type of argument is verifiable and correct.

Reasoning Examples:
My boss said the person with the highest sales would get a promotion at
the end of the year. I generated the highest sales, so I look forward to a
promotion.
One of our customers is unhappy with his experience. He does not like
how long it takes for a return phone call. Therefore, he will be more
satisfied if we provide a quicker response.
I must have 40 credits to graduate this spring. Because I only have 38
credits, I will not be graduating this spring.
 It is when you take two true statements, or premises, to form a
conclusion.
 For example, A is equal to B. B is also equal to C. Given those two
statements, you can conclude A is equal to C using deductive
reasoning.
 All numbers ending in 0 or 5 are divisible by 5. The number 35
ends with a 5, so it must be divisible by 5.
 It's dangerous to drive on icy streets. The streets are icy now, so it
would be dangerous to drive on the streets.
 All cats have a keen sense of smell. Fluffy is a cat, so Fluffy has a
keen sense of smell.
1.Initial assumption. Deductive reasoning begins with an
assumption. This assumption is usually a generalized
statement that if something is true, it must be true in all
cases.
2.Second premise. A second premise is made about the
first assumption. The second related statement must also
be true if the first statement is true.
3.Testing. Next, the deductive assumption is tested in a
variety of scenarios.
4.Conclusion. The information is determined to be valid or
invalid based on the test results.
 Inductive reasoning: it refers to arguing from a specific principle to a general
case. It takes specific information and makes a broad generalization that is
considered probable, allowing for the fact that the conclusion may not be
accurate. This type of reasoning usually involves a rule being established based
on a series of repeated experiences.
Inductive Examples
Reasoning  Premises: Every three-year-old you see at the park each afternoon spends most
of their time crying and screaming.

 Conclusion: All three-year-olds must spend their afternoon screaming.

 Explanation: This would not necessarily be correct, because you haven’t seen
every three-year-old in the world during the afternoon to verify it.
 Find the example of Inductive reasoning
 A college requirements catalogue states that all freshman must take
a math evaluation. You are a freshman, so you must take the
evaluation.
 kashif knows that dogs can bite people. His neighbor has a dog, and
he always avoids walking by her house so as not to get bitten.
 Ali saw bunnies on his lawn the last three times he left his house at
night. Ali concludes that bunnies only appear on his lawn at night
 Ayesha has been warned that it is dangerous to drive on icy streets.
After an ice storm she stays inside, determining it's too dangerous
to drive.
 At the beginning of his essay, Saad states that increased screen
exposure is harmful for young children and adolescents. He spends
the rest of his essay providing examples and evidences to prove his
thesis true. Is Saad using inductive or deductive reasoning to
structure his essay?
 Inductive
 Deductive?
  Abductive Reasoning
 Abductive Reasoning: Abductive reasoning is a logical assumption formed by
observations and which is turned into a hypothesis. In abductive reasoning, the

Abductive conclusion that is drawn is merely an educated guess or hypothesis and is,
therefore, not absolutely verifiable or true. We use a lot of abductive reasoning in

Reasoning daily decision-making

 Example: Observations; In ancient time, Bad Air Spread all around & People
Getting Malaria, So old People make hypothesis that Malaria is Spreading due to
Dirty Air.
  Logical reasoning is an essential component in an intelligent system. It acts as a
“brain” behind the decision-making process of the system.

 Logical reasoning is an essential part of the learning process.

 Reasoning enables a learning process to form an “experience” capability,

Logical  which could influence the whole decision-making process.

Reasoning  All of the above examples of reasoning show that you can use logic to make
decisions and to draw conclusions. Sometimes those conclusions are correct
& Decision conclusions, and sometimes they are inaccurate. When you use deductive
reasoning, you arrive at correct logical arguments while inductive reasoning
Making: may or may not provide you with a correct outcome

Decision Making

 Decision-making is all about choosing from the available options. The better
choices you make, the better decision-maker you'll become. You have many
decision-making examples in daily life such as: Deciding what to wear.
Deciding what to eat for lunch.
  You have all the necessary information to make a correct decision

Decision  Decisions about physical differences

under  Our decisions about which stimulus is the brightest , smallest,

heaviest, etc. depends upon factors other than the physical
situation of difference between them

certainty  Example: The determination of which of 2 lights is brightest

depends upon the physical difference, but also the absolute
brightness of the light, the brightness of the background, and how
long the lights were visible
Decision  The individual is not given all the information
necessary to be certain of the answer and has to
making in use previously acquired knowledge
situations  Primary problem:  lack of knowledge and
of misinterpretation
uncertainty  Example: Car Driving in Foggy Condition
  A heuristic is a mental shortcut that allows people to
solve problems and make judgments quickly and
efficiently.

 Types of Heuristics
Heuristic  There are many different kinds of heuristics, including
the availability heuristic, the representativeness
heuristic, and the affect heuristic. While each type plays
a role in decision-making, they occur during different
contexts. Understanding the types can help you better
understand which one you are using and when.
  The availability heuristic involves making decisions based upon
how easy it is to bring something to mind. When you are trying to
make a decision, you might quickly remember a number of relevant
examples. Since these are more readily available in your memory,
you will likely judge these outcomes as being more common or

Availability
frequently occurring.

 For example, if you are thinking of flying and suddenly think of a

number of recent airline accidents, you might feel like air travel is
too dangerous and decide to travel by car instead. Because those
examples of air disasters came to mind so easily, the availability
heuristic leads you to think that plane crashes are more common
than they really are.
  The representativeness heuristic involves making a
decision by comparing the present situation to the most
Representa representative mental prototype.
tiveness  Thinking that because someone is wearing a suit and tie and
carrying a briefcase, that they must be a lawyer, because
they look like the prototype of a lawyer.
  The affect heuristic involves making choices
that are influenced by the emotions that an
individual is experiencing at that moment. For
example, research has shown that people are
Affect more likely to see decisions as having benefits
and lower risks when they are in a positive
mood. Negative emotions, on the other hand,
lead people to focus on the potential downsides
of a decision rather than the possible benefits.
Information
Processing and
EXECUTING
FUNCTIONING
Information processing
• Information processing begins when a message or stimulus from
environment is received by receptors.
• Information processing theory is an approach to cognitive
development studies that aims to explain how information is encoded
into memory. It is based on the idea that humans do not merely
respond to stimuli from the environment. Instead, humans process
the information they receive.
• These include how the brain processes information. Information
processing theory not only explains how information is captured, but
how it is stored and retrieved as well.
Purpose in Experimental psychology?
• A leading orientation in experimental psychology that focuses on how
people select, process, and internalize information and how they use
it to make decisions and guide their behavior.
• By enabling experimental psychologists to test theories about
complex mental processes through computer simulation, information-
processing models helped reestablish internal thought processes as a
legitimate area of scientific inquiry.
Stages
• Attending- when a person is gathering information from their
environment.
• Encoding- person focusing and trying to truly understand
something.
• Storage- keeping or maintaining information in the brain for
an extended period
• Retrieval – when a person remembers information they had
stored in their memory bank. 
WHAT IS EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING?

The skills and mental processes that allow

individuals to plan and execute tasks, focus
attention, and follow and remember
instructions within the context of achieving
a goal.
• In other words, executive functioning acts
as our brain’s management system, and it
plays a huge role in our behavior and in
learning across the ages. 
Executive functioning involves three major
types of brain functions or core skills. 
• Working memory, or the ability to hold and process information
over short periods. It can also include drawing from past learning
experiences and applying them to current or future projects and
situations. It allows an individual to hold information while actively
processing information without losing track of a bigger task.
• Mental or cognitive flexibility, which enables an individual to adapt
to changing conditions, respond to different demands, and analyze
situations in several ways. This plays a key role in solving problems,
whether in school or daily life.
• Inhibition or self-control allows an individual to set priorities and
control impulsive behavior
Executive function is responsible for many
skills, including:
• Paying attention
• Organizing, planning, and prioritizing
• Starting tasks and staying focused on
them to completion
• Understanding different points of view
• Regulating emotions
• Self-monitoring (keeping track of what
you’re doing)
WHAT ARE THE SIGNS OF EXECUTIVE
DYSFUNCTION?
• Easily distracted and requires plenty of reminders or prompts to stay on
task
• Struggles with setting goals
• Has trouble identifying a starting point in tasks and often procrastinates
• Struggles to understand the amount of time required to complete a task
or project
• Has difficulty focusing on both details and the big picture
• Takes longer than peers to finish tasks or homework
• Has problem checking and assessing their own work
• Has trouble following multi-step directions
 WHAT CAUSES EXECUTIVE
DYSFUNCTION?

• A child who has trouble with executive functioning skills is likely to

have a parent with the same problem.
• Executive dysfunction could be the result of diseases, disorders, and
injuries that affect and damage the prefrontal cortex. 
• Differences in brain development is also another factor, as found by
researchers who have studied the causes of executive dysfunction and
ADHD. Results show that the brain’s areas responsible for working
memory and emotional control develop more slowly in people who
have trouble with executive functioning skills.
CREATIVE THINKING &
PROBLEM SOLVING
 CREATIVE THINKING
 Creative Thinking means to think out of the box.
 Creative thinking is all about using your abilities to come up with innovative
solutions to Problems.
 Creative thinking skills are techniques used to look at the issue from different
and creative angles, using the right tools to assess it and develop a plan.
 Since it is skill, you need to exercise it on daily interval for keeping it sharp.
• There are six eggs in the basket
• Six people each take one of the eggs

• How can it be that one egg is left in the basket?

 TYPES OF CREATIVE
THINKING
 Divergent Thinking
 Lateral Thinking
 Aesthetic Thinking
 Systems Thinking
 Inspirational Thinking
 Abstract Thinking
 Design Thinking
 TYPES OF CREATIVE THINKING
 Divergent Thinking: Exploring multiple perspectives with flexibility, fluency, and
originality to find a solution for a problem. (For Example, Giving a child a stack of
blocks and asking them to see how many shapes they can create with those blocks).
 Lateral Thinking: is a manner of solving problems using an indirect and creative
approach via reasoning that is not immediately obvious. It involves ideas that may
not be obtainable using only traditional step-by-step (For Example, solving a riddle or
a puzzle by thinking out of the box).
 TYPES OF CREATIVE THINKING
 Aesthetic Thinking: Visual or spatial thinking with the use of structure, colors,
composition to achieve aesthetic beauty. (For Example, we says nature is
beautiful but thinking about what makes it beautiful is aesthetic thinking).
 Systems Thinking: Identifying an interrelation between things and viewing
them from a 360-degree perspective. (For Examples, if you take the car apart
it is no longer a car, as it has lost its essential functions. It is the collective
interactions of the parts that dictate system behavior).
 TYPES OF CREATIVE THINKING
 Inspirational Thinking: Lightbulb moments inspired by great personalities or insightful thoughts. (For
Examples, people get inspired by inspirational thinking of Quaid-e-Azam or Nelson Mandela.
 Abstract Thinking: is the ability to understand concepts that are real, such as freedom or
vulnerability, but which are not directly tied to concrete physical objects and experiences. (For
Example, the idea od democracy, freedom, love and humor is the product of abstract thinking).
 Design Thinking: Applying strategy, problem-solving and decision-making to the process of design.
(For Example, designing a logo requires design thinking like Apple or UBER.
 PROBLEM SOLVING

 Problem solving is the act of defining a problem; determining the

cause of the problem; identifying, prioritizing, and selecting
alternatives for a solution; and implementing a solution.
 STEPS IN PROBLEM SOLVING
(Tesla’s Model)
 Step 1: Identify the problem. (i.e. fuel consumption & pollution).
 Step 2: Analyze the problem. (i.e. World will get run of the fuels in 2030).
 Step 3: Describe the problem. (i.e. by the end of this decade, the air will be
unbreathable and we will run out of natural fuel).
 Step 4: Look for root causes. (i.e. over consumption of fuel).
 Step 5: Develop alternate solutions. (i.e. stop using vehicles or create an electric
vehicle system with no pollution and fuel consumption).
 Step 6: Implement the solution. (i.e. in 2008, first ever successful electric car was
manufactured).
 Step 7: Measure the results. (i.e. since 2011, record reduction of pollution can be
measured).
CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING
 Creative problem solving (CPS) is a way of using your creativity to
develop new ideas and solutions to problems.  It is an approach that
identifies unique solutions to issues through a process of problem
identification and resolution planning.

 You can improve your creative problem solving skills by using a

strategic framework, getting a hobby, questioning standard practices,
considering past experiences and practice creative problem solving.