thinking, problem solving, reasoning

• Focused Thinking


  Thinking that has a clear starting point and a specific goal. Mind is focused on the task and individual is deliberately working through the problem.
• Unfocused Thinking


  Thinking that is not on task, e.g. daydreaming, unintentional thinking.
• Measuring Cognitive Abilities


  • Responses, accuracy, reaction times, brain activity during tasks
• Introspection


  Detailed, concurrent, and non-judgmental observation of the contents of your own consciousness as you work through a problem
• Issue with introspection is that it can't be validated (can't prove/disprove someone's thoughts)
• Types of problems


  • Well-defined (clear goal, beginning and end, rules and guidelines)
  • Ill-defined (no clear goal, little starting information, not many rules or steps clearly laid out)
• Most focus on well-defined problems as they are easier to present, score and modify/change
• Generate and Test problem solving technique

  1. Generate a number of potential solutions and then test to see if the solution fits

  2. Need a second step to eliminate wrong words that don't actually fit the category
• Generate and Test is only useful if there is a limited number of possibilities due to our limited cognitive capacity
• Means-Ends Analysis problem solving technique

  Identifies the current state, defines the end goal, and determines the modular action plan to reach the end state. End goal is split into sub goals, includes permissible moves, rules to follow along the way.
• Working Backwards problem solving technique

  Involves creating series of subgoals and reducing the differences between current state and goal state, Sub goals are created by working backwards from the goal state
• Reasoning by Analogy


  Uses perceived similarities between two or more things to infer some further similarity that hasn't been observed yet
• Blocks in Problem Solving

  • Faulty assumptions
  • Mental set (tendency to see things a certain way instead of an equally plausible way)
  • Lack of problem-specific knowledge
• Mental set can be induced by a short amount of practice and causes people to make certain unwarranted assumptions without being aware of making them
• Functional fixedness


  Rigid mental set towards an object
• Experts and novices have been found to approach certain problems differently
• Reasoning


  Involves inferences or conclusions drawn from other information, normally with one or more particular goals in mind
• Types of Reasoning


  • Deductive (general to specific)
  • Inductive (specific to general)
• Deductive Reasoning


  Final conclusion is derived from initial premises
• Inductive Reasoning


  Reasoning about conclusions that are likely, but not guaranteed to be true. Involves categorization and formation of rules or hypotheses.
• Confirmation bias occurs in the Wason 2-4-6 Task, where participants are trying to confirm the rule is true, rather than trying to test their rule
• Theoretical Approaches to Reasoning

  • Rules-based (argues people rely on special-purpose mental rules)
  • Mental Models (argues reasoning consists of constructing mental models to depict the premises)