Conscious Thought and Problem Solving - AP Psychology

A representativeness heuristic is the idea that a small sample of known individuals can provide defining characteristics for a larger population. All of the birds that Kevin correctly identified are small and can fly; because the ostrich is large and cannot fly, it does not display the characteristics that Kevin believed all birds must have.

Intelligence quotient (IQ) is a score derived from a cognitive battery that reflects a person's intelligence. IQ scores are standardized, with 100 being the average score and 15 as the standard deviation. IQ scores fall on a normal curve, such that extremes can be easily classified. 68.26% of the population will fall within one standard deviation of the mean (IQ between 85 and 115). IQ scores below 70 and above 130 (two standard deviations from the mean) can help identify mental retardation and exceptional giftedness, respectively.

Belief perseverance is the distinct phenomenom in which we tend not to let go of our previous beliefs despite compelling or truthful evidence that contradicts them. For instance, we may believe that our spouse is faithful, but then find compelling evidence that contradict this. In spite of the evidence, we may continue to believe our spouse is faithful out of our inability to let go of our beliefs. Instead of confronting the problem, due to belief preserverance, we keep believing what makes us comfortable.

Developed by Freud, free association is a technique used in psychoanalysis as a path to the unconscious mind. When prompted, individuals are instructed to say whatever comes to their mind first. By blurting out uncensored words and phrases, Freud hoped to logically discover an individual's unconscious thoughts, fears, and conflicts.

The four stages of creative thinking, in the appropriate order, are: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification.

This kind of thinking can be applied to almost any problem or project, whether it's figuring out a scientific mystery or writing a great work of literature. First, the preparation is done. What are the different pieces you want to pull together? What are some relevant pieces of information or ideas? Incubation is when you leave the idea alone and your unconscious problem-solving mechanism kicks in. Illumination is when you've realized your vision or solved your problem: you got it, you know what it was you were searching for. Verification is perhaps the most difficult part, which is executing the solution (putting words on paper, drawing the painting, explaining and expanding on the idea).

Our unconscious mind is used for many different tasks and is much more powerful than we often suspect. Incubation, for instance, is a stage of creativity during which we allow our unconscious mind work on the task for us while we ignore it. Later on, the problem or inspiration will come to us from our subconscious, creating the classic "Aha!" moment.

Precognition is a term that depicts the correct prediction of future events. For example, if a child predicts that a certain team will win her soccer league and that prediction occurs, then the child has exhibited precognition of this event.

The correct answer is: Retrograde Amnesia, which describes a memory-loss associated with a specific traumatic event. The memory lost precedes the accident. Anne cannot recall certain events that occurred before her accident.

Anterograde Amnesia refers to the inability to form new memories after a traumatic event.

The other answer choices are irrelevant.

Availability heuristic is the tendency to assume that events remembered more easily (shark deaths on the news) actually occur more frequently.

"Someone is more afraid of bees than sharks because they know bees cause more deaths annually" is the opposite of availability heuristic since the person is relying on actual probability rather than perceived probability based on vividness of memory. "Someone decides whether to be more afraid of bees or sharks by creating an algorithim" is also incorrect because an algorithim (a rule based on a formula) is the opposite of a heuristic (an unscientific rule of thumb). "Someone who already fears sharks a lot looks for evidence that confirms that fear" is an example of confirmation bias and "someone goes to a therapist who encourages them to look at pictures and watch videos of sharks to get over their phobia of sharks" is an example of exposure therapy.

When learning about the cognitive errors associated with heuristics (unscientific rules of thumb), it is easy to start to assume that heuristics are always wrong or are useless in some way. However, small life decisions, such as which route to take to work when there is a little extra traffic, would take way too long if algorithims (rules based on formulas) were used for everything. Therefore, heuristics tend to be faster and algorithims more accurate, but the situation determines which is going to be best to use.

The difference between the positive perception of a 70% success rate and the more negative perception of a 30% failure rate is an example of the framing effect-- the way a situation is presented affects our perception of it. Sunk cost fallacy describes our tendency to move forward in an undesirable investment because of past costs, availability heuristic is the tendency to think that events that are easier to remember happen more frequently, representativeness heuristic is making a probability judgment by comparing something to the perceived prototype (instead of using probability), and functional fixedness is the inability to see the possible functions of an object beyond its usual function.

A heuristic does not guarantee a correct answer, but it typically leads to one. It is like a "rule-of-thumb" that is helpful in solving a problem, but may not provide the correct result. The two main kinds of heuristics are Availability Heuristics (basing one's assessment on prior comparable experiences, rather than judging that situation individually) and Representativeness Heuristics (basing one's assessment on common knowledge, stereotypes, or prototypes).

All four of these are common obstacles to making judgments. Fixation refers to being unable to look at a situation from any other perspective. Belief perseverance is the tendency to continue believing something even after evidence supporting it has been contradicted. Belief bias is the tendency to view that which conflicts with one's own bias as illogical, or believing something illogical in order to support a preexisting belief. Overconfidence refers to overestimating the accuracy of one's own judgments.

Framing refers to the way that a problem is presented to someone, and it can drastically change that person's view or reaction to the problem. In this case, the two approaches by Jean's boyfriend both lead to them breaking up, but how Jean handles it is different because of how each scenario was framed. Effectively framing a negative outcome can lessen the negative emotional impact of the event, and poor framing can exacerbate that emotional impact.

Functional fixedness is the tendency to see things only in their usual function. So, Jared only thought of the wire hanger as a hanger and not also a lock-pick.

Convergent thinking looks at obtaining one solution to a problem. Divergent thinking is more often associated with creativity and creative thinking because it seeks to find several different solutions to the same problem.

The availability heuristic leads people to make decisions based on how available information is inside their brains. After recently watching shark-attack programs, this readily available information influenced John's judgments of the likelihood of shark attacks.

The sunk-cost fallacy is the idea that one must go through with something or continue one's investment even if it is hopeless or detrimental to oneself. This occurs when one has invested money or time in something and feels obligated to continue to use resources on it. In this case, the man has already paid money for the ticket; therefore, he feels that he must attend the game even though he will be miserable. If he rationally thought about it, he is paying money to be miserable in the rain when he could just be relaxing at home, since the money is already gone.

Divergent thinking is when one thinks of new solutions to problems. It's how people innovate and address recurring issues with new solutions that may actually fix the problem. It is not stereotypical, sadistic, or emotional, and rather engages the creative thinking processes. An example of divergent thinking would be the development of electric cars in response to the air pollution problems.