Understanding Problem Solving in Psychology.ppt

Cognition

1. WHS AP Psychology
Unit 7: Cognition
Essential Task 7-3:  Identify decision making
techniques (compensatory models,
representativeness heuristics,
 and availability
heuristics) as well as factors that influence decision
making (overconfidence,
confirmation bias, belief bias, belief perseverance,
and hindsight bias)
 

2. We are
here
Unit 6:
Cognition
Problem
Solving
Techniques
Decision
Making
Techniques
Acquisition
and use of
Language
HeuristicsAlgorithms Compensatory
Models
Biological
Factors
Cognitive
Factors
Representativeness
Heuristic
Availability
Heuristic
Cultural
Factors
Memory
Obstacles to
Decision Making
Obstacles to
Problem Solving
Information
Processing
Model
StorageEncoding Retrieval

3. Essential Task 7-3:
•Problems vs. Decisions
•Identify decision making techniques
–representativeness heuristics
–availability heuristics
–compensatory models
•Factors that influence decision making
•Overconfidence
•confirmation bias
•belief bias
•belief perseverance
•hindsight bias
Outline

4. Problems and Decisions
•Problem solving – the task is to come
up with new solutions
–Decision making – a type of problem
solving in which we already know the
possible options.

5. Heuristics in Decision Making
•Short-cuts learned from experience,
that people use to make decisions
typically when facing complex
problems or incomplete information
•Assumptions
•Two Types
–Availability heuristic
–Representativeness Heuristic.

6. Representativeness Heuristic
You make a decision based upon how much
something represents, or matches up, with
characteristics from your schema, or the typical case.
Good
School
Bad School
School
It matches my
‘party school’
schema so I decide
it is bad school.

7. Representativeness Heuristic in
action.
•Susan is very shy and withdrawn,
invariably helpful, but with little
interest in people, or in the world of
reality. A meek and tidy soul, she has a
need for order and structure, and a
passion for detail.
•Is Susan a Librarian, a Teacher, or a
Lawyer?

8. Representativeness Heuristic in
action.
•Linda is 31 years old, single,
outspoken, and very bright. She
majored in philosophy. As a student,
she was deeply concerned with issues
of discrimination and social justice, and
also participated in anti-nuclear
demonstrations.
•Is Linda a Bank Teller? Or Is Linda a
feminist Bank Teller?

9. Availability Heuristic
Operates when we make decisions on how
available information is. The faster people
can remember an instance of some event the
more they expect it to occur.

10. Availability Heuristic in Action
•Which household chores do you do more
frequently than your partner? (e.g. washing
dishes, taking out the trash, etc.)
•- wives report 16/20 chores
•- husbands report 16/20 chores
Ross and Sicoly (1979)
•Why? Availability!
•- I remember lots of instances of taking out the
trash, washing dishes, but I do not remember lots
of instance of my wife doing it

11. Availability Heuristic
Why does our availability heuristic lead us
astray? Whatever increases the ease of
retrieving information increases its perceived
availability.
How is retrieval facilitated?
1.How recently we have heard about the
event.
2.How distinct it is.

12. Which causes more deaths per
100,000?
1.All accidents or strokes
2.Blood poisoning or suicide
3.Homicide or diabetes
4.Motor vehicle accidents or colorectal
cancer
5.leukemia or Drowning

13. Exaggerated Fear
The opposite of having
overconfidence is having
an exaggerated fear about
what may happen. Such
fears may be unfounded.
The 9/11 attacks led to a 20%
decline in air travel due to fear.
800 more people would die if
they drove just half those miles

14. Which causes more deaths per
100,000?
1.All accidents (35.7) vs. strokes (57.4)
2.Suicide (10.4) vs. blood poisoning
(11.3)
3.Homicide (7.1) vs. diabetes (25.1)
4.Motor vehicle accidents (15.7) vs.
colorectal cancer (18.9)
5.Drowning (1.1) vs. leukemia (7.8)

15. Which city has the higher crime
index?
•Detroit or Myrtle Beach
•Chicago or Baltimore
•Manhattan or Gary, India
•Boston or Flint
•Montreal or Hot Springs
•San Francisco or Durham

16. Answers
•Detroit (crime index = 531) vs. Myrtle Beach (597)
•Chicago (335) vs. Baltimore (479)
•Manhattan (152) vs. Gary (544)
•Boston (223) vs. Flint (329)
•Montreal (181) vs. Hot Springs (201)
•San Francisco (176) vs. Durham (216)

17. Overconfidence
Overconfidence is a tendency to
overestimate the accuracy of our
beliefs and judgments.
At a stock market, both
the seller and the buyer
may be confident about
their decisions on a
stock.

18. Confirmation Bias
•While we make a decision, we actively
look for information that confirms our
ideas

19. Belief Bias
The tendency of one’s preexisting beliefs
to distort logical reasoning by making
invalid conclusions.
God is love.
Love is blind
Ray Charles is blind.
Ray Charles is God.
Anonymous graffiti
Democrats support free speech
Dictators are not democrats
Dictators do not support free speech.
We more easily see the
illogic of conclusions that
run counter to our beliefs
than those that agree
with our beliefs.

20. Belief Perseverance
Belief perseverance is the tendency to
cling to our beliefs in the face of contrary
evidence.

21. Bias after the process
Hindsight Bias
•a tendency to think that one would have
known actual events were coming before
they happened, had one been present
then or had reason to pay attention.
•a.k.a Monday morning quarterback.
•‘I-knew-it-all-along’ effect, reflecting a
common response to surprise.

22. Decision Making and Judgements
•Decision making/judgments are special
cases of problem solving in which possible
solutions or choices are already known
•Logical decision making
–Compensatory model
•Rational decision-making model in which choices are
systematically evaluated on various criteria
•Example: buying a car
–Good when issues are well-defined