Medical Undergraduate Lecture

1. THINKING AND REASONING
Dr Zahiruddin Othman
Department of Psychiatry
10 Oct 2002

2. What Is Thinking?
 Thinking or cognition, refers to
mentally processing information
 It takes many forms, including
daydreaming, problem solving and
reasoning

3. Three Basic Units of Thoughts
 At its most basic form, thinking is an
internal representation of a problem
or situation
 Image: usually has visual-like qualities
 Concept: a generalized idea representing a
class of related objects or events
 Language: words or symbols, and rules for
combining them, that are used for thinking and
communication

4. Common Uses of Mental Images
 To make decision or solve a problem
 To help understand a verbal description
 To change feelings
 To explain or describe something
 To improve a skill or to prepare for
some action
 To aid memory

5. Using Mental Images
 Stored image
 A mental image retained in memory and retrieved
when appropriate
 Created image
 A mental image that has been assembled or
invented rather than simply remembered
 Kinesthetic image
 Any mental representation based on produced,
remembered, or imagined muscular sensation

6. Concept
 A concept is an idea that represent a class
of objects or events
 Concept formation is the process of
classifying information into meaningful
categories
 Positive instance: an object/event that belongs to the
concept class
 Negative instance: an object/event that belongs to the
concept class
 Conceptual rule: a formal rule for deciding if an
object/event is an example of a particular concept

7. Types of Concept
 Conjunctive concepts
 A class of objects that have 2 or more features in
common
 Relational concepts
 A concept defined by the relationship between
features of an object or between an object and its
surrounding e.g., “greater than”
 Disjunctive concepts
 A concept defined by the presence of at least one
of several possible features

8. Prototypes
 An ideal model used as a prime
example of a particular concept

9. Meanings of a Concept
 Denotative meaning
 The exact, dictionary definition of a word
or concept; its objective meaning
 Connotative meaning
 The subjective, personal, or emotional
meaning of a word or concept

10. Problem Solving (1)
 Mechanical solution
 A problem solution achieved by trial and error or by a fixed
procedure based on learned rules
 Solution by understanding
 Understanding: a deeper comprehension of the nature of
a problem
 General solution: correctly states the requirement for
success but not enough for further action
 Functional solution: a detailed, practical, and workable
solution

11. Problem Solving (2)
 Heuristics
 Any strategy or technique that aids
problem solving, especially by
limiting the number of possible
solutions to be tried
 Insightful solution
 Insight: a sudden mental
reorganization of a problem that
makes solution obvious

12. Quiz 1
 Water lilies growing in a pond doubles
in area every 24 hours. On the first day
of spring, only 1 lily pad is on the
surface of the pond. 60 days later, the
pond is entirely covered. On what day
the pond is half-covered?

13. Quiz 2
 What mathematical symbol you can put
between 2 and 3 that result in a
number greater than 2 and less than 3?

14. Quiz 3
 A ship is moving toward port at 20 km/h. it is
50 km from the port when a bird flies toward
the port. At the same instant, a boat leaves
port at 30 km/h. The bird flies back and forth
between the boat and the ship at a speed 40
km/h. How far the bird have flown when the
boat and ship pass?
30 km/h   20 km/h 40 km/h 
50 km

15. Nature of Insight
 Selective Encoding
 The ability to select information relevant to a problem
while ignoring useless or distracting information
 Selective Combination
 The ability to connect seemingly unrelated items of
information
 Selective Comparison
 The ability to relate a present problem to similar
problems solved in the past or prior experience

16. Intelligence
 Intelligence
 Is an overall capacity to think rationally, act
purposefully, and deal effectively with the
environment
 Intelligent quotient (IQ)
 An index of intelligence defined as a person’s
mental age divided by his chronological age and
multiplied by 100
 (MA/CA) X 100

17. Deviation IQs
 Scores based on a person relative
standing in his/her group
 Normal distribution
 Mean IQ = 100
 1 SD = 15
 +2 SD = 130 (gifted)
 -2 SD = 70 (MR)

18. IQ Description Percent
> 130 Very superior 2.2
120-129 Superior 6.7
110-119 Bright normal 16.1
90-109 Average 50.0
80-89 Dull normal 16.1
70-79 Borderline 6.7
<70 Mentally retarded 2.2

19. Mental Retardation
 Definition requires
 IQ < 70
 Inability to perform adaptive behaviors
 Dressing, eating, communicating, shopping,
working etc

20. IQ range
Degree of
retardation
Educational
classification
Required level
of support
50-55 to 70 Mild Educable Intermittent
35-45 to 50-55 Moderate Trainable Limited
20-25 to 35-40 Severe Dependent Extensive
Below 20-25 Profound Life support Pervasive

21. Creative Thinking (1)
 Inductive thought
 Thinking in which general rule or principle is
inferred from a series of specific examples
 Inferring the laws of gravity by observing many falling
objects
 Deductive thought
 Thoughts that applies a general set of rules to
specific situations
 Using the laws of gravity to predict the behavior of a
single falling object

22. Events
Events
Events
Events
General rule
General rule
General rule
General rule
General rule
Events

23. Creative Thinking (2)
 Logical thought
 Drawing conclusions on the basis of formal
principles of reasoning
 Illogical thought
 Thought that is intuitive, haphazard, or
irrational

24. Creative Thinking (3)
 Creative thinking involves all these
styles of thought (in varying
combinations) plus divergent
thinking
 Fluency: number of solution produced
 Flexibility: number of different type of solution
produced
 Originality: refers to how novel or unusual
solutions are

25.  Divergent thought
 Thinking that produces many ideas or
alternatives
 A major element in original or creative
thought
 Convergent thought
 Thinking directed toward discovery of a
single established correct answer
 Conventional thinking

26. Creative Thinking (4)
 Stages of creative thought
 Orientation
 Problem defined
 Preparation
 Collecting information as much as possible
 Incubation
 Problem solving at subconscious level
 Illumination
 End of incubation period by rapid insights
 Verification
 Critical evaluation of solution

27. Characteristics of
Creative Persons
 General traits
 Originality
 Verbal fluency
 Relatively high IQ
 A good imagination
 Thinking abilities
 Uses metaphors in thinking
 Flexible decision maker
 Uses broad categories
 Makes independent
judgment
 Can break mental set
 Find order in chaos
 Thinking styles
 Challenge assumptions, ask
“why?”
 Draws new ideas out of
existing knowledge
 Personality
characteristics
 Persist in problem solving
 Curious and open to new
experience
 Highly interested in work
 Broad range of interest
 Intuitive
 Playful with ideas

28. Syllogism (1)
 Premises
 All human are mortal
 All women are human
 Conclusion
 Therefore, all women are mortal

29. Syllogism (2)
 Premises
 All women are human
 All human are mortal
 Conclusion
 Therefore, all mortal are women

30. Syllogism (3)
 Premises
 All psychologists are weird
 Mary is a psychologist
 Conclusion
 Therefore, Mary is weird

31. Syllogism (4)
 Premises
 All ducks have wings
 All birds have wings
 Conclusion
 Therefore, all ducks are birds