Chapter 8
Thinking and reasoning
- Thinking: manipulation of mental representations of information
- Mental images:
Thinking and reasoning
Mental imagery: try to mentally rotate one of each pair of patterns to see if it is the same as the other member of that pair
Categorizing the world
- concepts: categorizations of objects, events, or people that share common properties that enable us to categorize(e.g., vehicle)
- prototypes: typical, highly representative example of a concept (e.g., car)
Making up your mind
Syllogistic reasoning: formal reasoning in which people draw a conclusion from a set of assumptions (or premises). Example: all men are mortal (premise), Socrates is a man (premise). Therefore Socrates is mortal (conclusion)
Reasoning
Algorithms: a rule that, if applied appropriately, guarantees a solution to a problem
Reasoning
Heuristic
- cognitive shortcut that may lead to a solution
- cannot ensure a solution
Availability heuristic
- involves judging the probability of an event on the basis of how easily the events can be recalled from memory
- are airplanes more dangerous than cars?
Artificial intelligence
- field that examines how to use technology to imitate the outcome of human thinking, problem solving, and creative activities, computers show rudiments of human like thinking because of their knowledge of where to look for an answer to a problem
- a computer was able to write a piece of music that sounded like Bach to music experts
Preparation: understanding and diagnosing problems
- well-defined problem: both the nature of the problem itself and the information needed to solve it are available and clear (2+2=?)
- Ill-defined problem: both the specific nature of the problem and the information to solve it are unclear
Kinds of problems
Arrangement problems
- require the problem solver to rearrange or recombine elements in a way that will satisfy a...