Problem Solving

• Thinking and behaving in ways to reach a goal
• Identifies goal and steps needed to get there.

Trial and Error

• Try different ways til 1 works aka mechanical.

Algorithms

• Applies a solution to a problem, or step by step procedures that guarantee a solution.
• Ex. a2+b2=c2 (squared) you may know that you can find the length of the right triangle but you don't know the meaning of if or the reason why your doing it.

Heuristics

• A cognitive shortcut that may lead to a correct solution, it enhances the success to a solution.
• Educated guess based on past experience
• Ex. Tic-Tac-Toe, each mark doesn't guarentee you to win but from past expierences taught you that will.
• Ex. Students preparing for a test by ignoring the assigned textbook and reading and studying only on their lecture notes.

Insight

• Solution comes suddenly and often novel (vs. strategy based)

Creativity

• The ability to combine ideas and behaviors in new ways-think outside the box.
• Even when you identify the stages of problem solving and understanding it, it does little to explain why some people come up with better solutions than others do.
• Ex. "Ho many uses can you think of for a newspaper?"

Confirmation Bias

• Tendency to search for information that supports what we already think, and ignore or distort information that contradicts or beliefs.
• Even when we find evidence that contradicts a solution we have chosen, we are apt to stick with our original belief or thought.
• Ex. Political debate, Sterotyping

Mental Set

• Tendency of old patterns of problem solving to persist. But failure to see from new perspective can slow problem solving too.
• Ex. (on bottom page 172) The task is to use the jars in each row to measure out the designated amount of liquid (trying to get a sense of the power of mental set before moving on.)

Functional Fixedness

• Tendency to think of an object only in terms of its typical use.
• Ex. This book is something to read, instead of its potential use as a doorstop or as kindling for a fire.
• Ex. Mom! There's no body soap!

Decision Making & Forming Judgement

• Using and Misusing Heuristics
• Two generally helpful shortcuts can lead the smartest into dumb decisions

Representative Heuristic

• Judging how likely something is by how well it represents (matches) prototype
• (can help or hurt)
• Can lead us to ignore other relevant information like base rates.
• Ex. Mother of a Down Syndrome baby

Availability Heuristic

• the easier it is to think of an example, the more likely we are to think it will happen. Yet ease may be due to vividness or personal experiences-not reality.

Overconfidence

• We are often more confident than we are correct!
• We overestimate accuracy of our beliefs/judgements.
• Ex. I'm going to pass this exam by studying the night before.

The Belief Perseverance Phenomenon

• Tendency to cling to initial conceptions even after basis tehy were formed on has been discredited (don't like to change our minds)
• Can we break them away? NO, give them data from the other side and make them find it.

Intuition

• An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.
• Something acquired expertise becomes an automatic habit.

Effects of Framing

• How an issue is posed can significantly affect decisions and judgements.
• Ex. burger content, surgery death rate, condom effectiveness, "aid to the needy" vs "welfare"

Intelligence

• Reflects the ability to understand the world 
• Learning from past expierences
• Uses resources effectively in adapting to new situations or solving problems. Intelligence cannot be measured directly.

G- Factor

• The single, general factor for mental ability assumed to underlie inelligence in some early theories of intelliegence, or ability to reason and solve problems aka: general intelligence. 

Fluid Intelligence

• Intelligence that reflects information processing capabilities, reasoning and memory.
• Believed to be relatively free of cultural influences. 

Crystallized Intelligence

• The accumulation of information, skills, and strategies that are learned through experience and can be applied in problem-solving situations.
• Ex. school information, cultural influences 

Theory of multiple intelligences

• Gardner's intelligence theory that proposes that there are eight distinct spheres of intellignece.
• Felt tradition IQ too narrow, Proposes 8(9) types
• Musical, Bodily, Logical-Mathematical, Linguistic, Spatial, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Naturalist.
• Teachers can use to help kids discover and explore natural curiosities and talents. 

Practical Intelligence

• Intelligence related to overall success in living or ability to break problems into parts to solve.
• Sternberg points to evidence showing that in fact, do a very good job of predicting career success. 

Emotional Intelligence

• The set of skills that underlie the accurate assessment, evaluation, experssion, and regulation of emotions.
• The ability to get along well with others, providing us an understanding of what other people are feeling and experiencing and permits us to respond appropriately to others' needs. Empathy for others. 

Intelligence tests

• Tests devised to quantify a person's level of intelligence
• These tests have proved to be of great benefit in identifying students in need of special attention in school, and helping people make optimal educational and vocational choices.
• at the same time, their use has proved controversial and raised important social and educational issues. 

Mental Age

• The average age of individuals who achieve a particular level of performance on a test.
• Ex. if the average 8-year-old answered, 45 items correctly on a test, anyone who answered 45 items correctly on a test, anyone who answered 45 items correctly would be assigned a mental age of 8 years.