2. Cognition
The mental action or process of
acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought,
experience, and the senses.
An element of Cognition is THINKING
3. THINK ABOUT….
A garden.
◦ What happened when you thought about
it? Did you have a word, a picture, a
memory pop into your head?
Thinking about how we think and what
we think about is difficult, but the point
of studying Cognitive Psychology
4. 2 basic elements of thought
Language
◦ You tend to repeat the word in your head
(this helps to pull the relevant items into a
different area of the brain to use them)
◦ Think about a dog. Reading that word
makes you repeat the word (language)
which also triggers the second element of
thought
Mental Pictures
◦ You likely had a picture of a garden and a
dog pop into your head when you were
thinking about those items
5. Organization through
Concepts
Your brain is organized even if you are
not!
Each group of like items gets it’s own
group in your brain = CONCEPT
(mental category)
◦ Each Concept has concepts within
Pet
Dog
Attack dog
Lap dog
Friendly dog
6. Concept Mental pictures -
Prototypes
We have an “iconic” mental picture for
each concept
◦ Dog, attack dog, fence, garden, car, truck,
flower (likely a different mental picture for
each word)
◦ These iconic pictures are called
PROTOTYPES
◦ Prototypes help us think about objects
when they are not in front of us
7. Concept - Cognitive Schemas
A Cognitive Schema is a behavioral
and physical expectation of an object.
We have one for each concept
◦ Dog
You expect a dog will have __________ (list
physical features here such as ears, tail, fur,
etc)
You expect a dog will ___________(list
behaviors here such as bark, dig, chew, poop
outside, etc)
8. Placing objects into concepts
When we encounter an object we have
to place it into a concept. We have two
means of deciding what concept it
belongs within
◦ Artificial concept logic
Uses rules and definitions – an object MUST have
these features to belong
A square MUST have (4) equal sides and (4) 90degree
angles to belong to the group
◦ Natural concept logic
Uses our prototypes and cognitive schemas to
compare objects – an object likely has these
features so probably belongs
A product item tastes sweet, so it is probably a fruit
9. Problem Solving Steps
1. Define
◦ Define problem & goal
2. Elaborate
◦ Identify options
3. Decide
◦ Which will work out best? (use reasoning skills to
predict best outcome)
4. Plan
◦ How to implement the option
5. Execute
◦ Take action
6. Evaluate
10. Barriers to Effective Problem
Solving
ill defined Problems
Unnecessary Constraints
◦ Irrelevant Information (not being able to filter
out the useless)
◦ Functional Fixedness (getting stuck on the
primary purpose of an object – not being able
to MacGyver the situation – see video posted)
◦ Mental Set (getting stuck on how you solved
the problem before)
Nutrition, lack of
Health, lack of
Lack of sleep, lack of
Others?
11. Reasoning Techniques
Inductive
Deductive
Algorithm
Trial and Error
Information
Retrieval
Heuristics
Insight
Tips for improving
◦ Forming subgoals
◦ Working backward
◦ Searching for analogies
◦ Changing the
representation of a
problem
12. Inductive/Deductive Reasoning
Inductive Reasoning Deductive reasoning
Examples form premise
I have small feet, Jane has
small feet, Gloria has small
feet
◦ All women must have small feet
My driveway is slippery, road
A is slippery, road B is
slippery
◦ All roads must be slippery
Premise predicts
examples
All humans are mortal
◦ I am human; I must be
mortal
Roads are slick
◦ Road A is a road; it must be
slick
◦ Road B is a road; it must be
slick too
