Cognition Thinking and Reasoning

Key Question

• How do we construct and process information based on our needs, motives and desires?

Chief Belief of the Cognitive Perspective

• The mind is like a super computer processor

Concept

• A mental category which groups pieces of information together which share common properties– Objects– Relations– Activities– Abstractions– Qualities

• Allow us to summarize info in a manageable format to make quick and efficient decisions

Categorization of Concepts• Basic Concepts-concepts having a moderate number of instances

– Easier to acquire than those having few (more specific) or many (more abstract) instances

– Convey an optimal amount of info– Based on:

• Prototype-our own representative example of a concept– We compare instances of a concept to our prototype to evaluate how representative the instance is of the

concept

• We link our concepts together via relationships that give the concept meaning and express a single ides called Propositions

• Propositions are further linked into cognitive schemas which create an integrated mental network of knowledge, beliefs, and expectations about a particular topic– Images, particularly Mental Images, are important in the construction of cognitive

schemas as well.• These mental representations allow us to manipulate and may exist in all sensory modalities

Organization of the Brain

Conscious = Thought• Many processes are performed by our mind without our

deliberate knowledge– Subconscious Processes- lay outside of awareness, but can be

brought into conscious when necessary (ex decoding letters to read)

– Nonconscious Processes-remain outside of awareness (ex intuition)

• Jerome Kagan (1989) argued that fully conscious awareness occurs only when we must make a deliberate choice

• Much of Cognition has been spent on this conscious thought though and out ability to reason

Reasoning • Drawing conclusions from observations, facts or assumptions• Formal Reasoning

– Solving problems with a single right (or best) answer– Options:

• algorithms-set of procedures guaranteed to produce correct answer • deductive reasoning-drawing conclusions from a set of observations or propositions (premises)

– Important not to reverse premises• Inductive reasoning-conclusion probably follows from the premise, but could be false

• Informal Reasoning– Solving problems with no clearly correct solution– Options:

• Heuristic-a rule of thumb that suggests the course of action without guaranteeing an optimal solution

• Dialectical Reasoning-the process of comparing and evaluating opposing points of view in order to resolve differences.

Creative Thinking• People often stick to the same heuristics, strategies and

rules that have worked for them before, called mental set• Help us to be efficient, but hinder us when fresh insights

and methods are needed• People who are uncreative tend to be convergent

thinkers-following a particular set of steps that they think will converge on one correct solution

• People who are creative tend to be divergent thinkers-mental exploration of unconventional alternatives in breaking mental sets

Creativity

• Traits associated with Creativity:– IQ is not one of them– There are 3:• Nonconformity• Curiosity “Why?• Persistence

Development of Thought and Reasoning

• First proposed by Swiss Psychologist Jean Piaget• As children develop, they must make constant mental

adaptations to new observations and experiences• Takes two forms:– Assimilation-the process of absorbing new information into

existing cognitive structures• (ex. Owen and the dogs)

– Accommodation-the process of modifying existing cognitive structures in response to experience and new information• (ex. Owen and the cat)

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to Age 2)• Preoperational Stage (2-7)• Concrete Operations Stage (7-12)• Formal Operations Stage (12-Adult)

Challenges to Piaget• Changes between stages are not as clear-cut not as

sweeping as Piaget implied– Children may use several different strategies to solve a

problem and it may pertain to circumstances, therefore stages actually overlap

• Children Can understand far more than Piaget gave them credit for– Object permanence may be much younger– Operations may take place much earlier also

• Preschoolers are not as egocentric as Piaget thought– 3 and 4 year olds can take another’s perspective

What we do take from Piaget

• New reasoning abilities depend on the emergence of previous ones

• Children actively interpret worlds at all stages not just passive empty vessels (important to understand for education)

• Piaget probably underestimated children and overestimated adults– Believed all adults developed formal operational

reasoning and abstract reasoning (some do not)

How Adults Think

• Based on the work of King and Kitchener in 1994 – Interested in determining how people came to

decisions on important issues– Developed 7 cognitive stages on the road to

reflective thought– Some in childhood others in adolescence and

adulthood

Broad Outlines of King and Kitchener’s Stages

• Two Pre-Reflective Stages– Correct answer always exists through sensed or through authorities– If authorities don’t have answer answer is what “feels” right

• Three Quasi-Reflective Stages– People know that some things can’t be known with absolute certainty, not sure how

to deal with such situations– Any judgment about evidence is considered purely subjective (All opinions are

created equal)• Two Reflective Stages

– Some things can never be known with certainty, but some judgments are more valid– Willing to consider evidence from a variety of sources and reason dialectically– Most people do not show evidence of this until their middle or late 20’s, if at all.– Represents movement away from “ignorant certainty” towards “intelligent

confusion” (Kroll, 1992)

Barriers to Reasoning Rationally• The need to be right• Television viewing?• Hindsight Bias– Prevents us from looking back at findings critically (we assume

we knew more that we actually did)• Avoiding Loss– People make decisions based on trying to avoid and minimize

risks and losses• Exaggerating the Improbable– Particularly with catastrophic events due to the availability

heuristic

More Barriers to reasoning Rationally

• Confirmation Bias– Tendency to accept evidence that confirms what we already believe

and ignore or reject information that disconfirms our ideas• Need for Cognitive Consistency

– People look to avoid cognitive dissonance-state of tension that occurs when a person simultaneously holds two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent, or when a person’s belief is incongruent with their behavior

– Dissonance exists and needs to be reduced when:• You need to justify a choice or decision you freely made• Your actions violate your self-concept• You put a lot of effort into a decision, only to find the results less than you

hoped for (Justification of Effort)

Overcoming Cognitive Biases

• People are not equally irrational in all situations

• Bias diminishes in areas where we have expertise or when decisions have serious consequences

• Once we understand a bias, we may be able to reduce or eliminate it– Hal Arkes (1988) work with Neuropsychologists

Animal Minds

• Animals seem to possess Cognitive abilities• Originally explained through principles of

operant conditioning, but now we have moved on from ridicule of behaviorists

• Study of Cognitive Ethology has demonstrated animals abilities to anticipate, make plans, and coordinate activities

• Much of this could be tied to genetics as well, so we must be cautious

Examples of Animal Cognition

• Otters and Chimps using stones as rudimentary tools

• Chimps seemingly able to count to understand more and less

• My favorite:– Chimp that doesn’t like Zoo Guests

Animal Language• No nonhuman species meets the following criteria for

language:– Must use combinations of sounds, gestures, or symbols that are

meaningful, not random– Must permit displacement, communication about objects and

events that are not present– Must have a grammar that permits productivity, ability to

produce and comprehend an infinite number of new utterances• Some primates have been trained to communicate, but

interpretations often times were subjective leading to fascinating findings that may have been exaggerated

• Other animals have also been used (Dolphins, Parrots)

Thinking about the Thinking of Animals

• Must be careful to avoid Anthropomorphism• Demonstrated in the horse Clever Hans