Chapter 8 part 1

Question 1

what is cognition?

Answer 1

mental activity that goes on in the brain when a person is processing information, organizing information, understanding information, and communicating information

Question 2

what do cognitive psychologists study?

Answer 2

concept formation, problem-solving, decision-making, reading, creativity, motivation

Question 3

what is an easy definition of what cognitive psychologists study?

Answer 3

higher level thinking than classical and operant learning

Question 4

what are concepts?

Answer 4

mental groupings of similar objects, ideas, events, or people

Question 5

when do we start forming concepts?

Answer 5

the moment we are born

Question 6

why are concepts important?

Answer 6

they make our lives faster, easier, and more predictable

Question 7

how do we form concepts?

Answer 7

in two ways:
artificial concepts
natural concepts

Question 8

what is another name for artificial concepts?

Answer 8

formal concepts

Question 9

what are artificial/formal concepts?

Answer 9

they come from logical rules or definitions. all of the objects that meet the criteria are included in the concept, and the objects that are missing some criteria are excluded

Question 10

where are artificial/formal concepts found?

Answer 10

in scientific and mathematical disciplines

Question 11

do you get to decide what objects are in an artificial concept?

Answer 11

no, scientists do

Question 12

what is an example of an artificial/formal concept?

Answer 12

a triangle has 3 sides and 3 angles

Question 13

what are natural concepts?

Answer 13

categories that have general rules about what belongs. we create a prototype or best example of the concept in our mind

Question 14

how are natural concepts formed?

Answer 14

your parents point similarities and differences in objects out to you as you grow up

Question 15

do you get to decide what is in a natural concept?

Answer 15

yes, because they are loosely defined

Question 16

what is a protoype?

Answer 16

what the best example of the concept is to you

Question 17

what is problem solving?

Answer 17

moving from a given state (problem) to a goal state (solution)

Question 18

what are the problem-solving strategies?

Answer 18

algorithms
heuristics
insight

Question 19

what are algorithms?

Answer 19

step by step procedure that, if appropriate, will always result in the solution

Question 20

what is an example of algorithms?

Answer 20

you order furniture and follow the instructions to build it. if the instructions are followed step by step and correctly, you will get a piece of furniture

Question 21

what is the problem with algorithms?

Answer 21

you have to do every step correctly and in order to get the correct answer, so it can take a really long time

Question 22

what are heuristics?

Answer 22

an educated guess. your “go to” strategy. applying shortcut solutions based on past knowledge and experience

Question 23

what is an advantage of heuristics?

Answer 23

they provide shortcuts to solutions

Question 24

what are disadvantages of heuristics?

Answer 24

increased errors
if they don’t work, you just wasted time
don’t always solve the problem

Question 25

what is insight?

Answer 25

when puzzling over a problem and we suddenly reach an abrupt, satisfying solution. AHA moment

Question 26

what are barriers to problem-solving?

Answer 26

mental sets functional fixedness confirmation bias

Question 27

when does a mental set happen?

Answer 27

when we can only think of past solutions and those solutions make it difficult to see any other solution

Question 28

when does functional fixedness happen?

Answer 28

when you see an object as only serving its intended purpose when it really has multiple uses

Question 29

what is an example of functional fixedness?

Answer 29

life-hack videos show how objects can be used for a variety of purposes

Question 30

what is an example of mental sets?

Answer 30

a physician sees nine patients in a row with the same illness. the 10th patient came in with similar symptoms, but because of her previous experience with the first nine patients, she diagnoses the 10th one with the same illness the first nine had, dismissing the symptoms that point to a different illness

Question 31

what is confirmation bias?

Answer 31

we tend to favor evidence that confirms our preconceived ideas

Question 32

do our own beliefs bias what information we search for?

Answer 32

yes, we always look for ways in which we are right

Question 33

why is it hard to fight confirmation bias?

Answer 33

because we do it unconsciously

Question 34

what is incubation?

Answer 34

some problems require a period where we allow them to "marinate" and let the important facts come into focus and the distracting or irrelevant information fade from our minds

Question 35

when we are decision-making, we can either ______________

Answer 35

engage in concerted, problem-solving efforts OR use our intuition

Question 36

what is engaging in problem-solving efforts?

Answer 36

weighing pros and cons, doing research, and weighing the evidence

Question 37

what is our intuition?

Answer 37

our fast, automatic, unreasoned feelings and thoughts

Question 38

when should we use our intuition?

Answer 38

when making small or unimportant decisions

Question 39

when should we use problem-solving efforts?

Answer 39

when we are making large or important decisions

Question 40

what happens when we use our intuition on an important decision?

Answer 40

our gut may lead us to the wrong choice because we are biased and ignore the red flags

Question 41

which decision-making strategy do we use more often and why?

Answer 41

intuition, because it is easier, faster, and often successful (when using on small decisions)

Question 42

what are common errors in decision-making?

Answer 42

availability heuristic overconfidence belief perseverance framing

Question 43

what is another name for errors in decision-making?

Answer 43

faulty thinking

Question 44

faulty think is ____________

Answer 44

part of human nature

Question 45

what is the availability heuristic?

Answer 45

estimating the likelihood of an event to occur based on its availability in memory; information that is more vivid, recent, or distinctive will more easily come to mind, leading us to believe it happens frequently

Question 46

what is an example of the availability heuristic?

Answer 46

which animal is the most deadly in the U.S.? many people think of a shark or snake because we hear on the news when people are bitten by them. in reality, it is the deer, but it happens so often we don't hear about it

Question 47

what is overconfidence?

Answer 47

the tendency to be more confident than correct -- overestimating the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

Question 48

what is an exception to overconfidence?

Answer 48

if you are an expert in the subject

Question 49

what is an example of overconfidence (planning fallacy)?

Answer 49

students underestimate the number of days it will take to complete an assignment, project, paper, or test prep

Question 50

what is belief interference?

Answer 50

clinging to one's original beliefs even when faced with legitimate evidence to the contrary

Question 51

what is an example of belief interference?

Answer 51

even though the study showing vaccines cause autism was fake and 1000 other studies showed the opposite, some people still believe vaccines cause autism

Question 52

what is framing?

Answer 52

how an issue is posed can greatly affect our perceptions and then our decisions and judgments

Question 53

what is an example of framing?

Answer 53

saying 10% of people die during this surgery concerns people more than saying 90% of people live during this surgery