Lesson Notes

Lesson 8.1a Cognitive Building Blocks: Foundations of Thought

 

Like building a house, before we can put on the roof, you need to build a solid foundation. This lesson looks at the building blocks of our thoughts. The area of the brain most associated with thinking is the prefrontal cortex which has the ability to deal with mental images, concepts, and language development (language will be looked at more in-depth later).

            Mental Images: We have all had mental images at one point in our life. I bet there have been several times while you were in class and pictured being with friends or a partner or imagined the game that you were going to play after school. These are all mental images, which are simply mental representations of experiences we may have had or imagine having.

            Concepts: The term concepts can be explained by how we categorize information. The way we group what is a square, what is a dog? or what we view as a house will all have unique characteristics that form their own concept. These concepts are vital for us to understand the world. Without effective concepts we would have a very difficult time functioning in our society.

Let’s try to think about it in a different way. What characteristics would you use to describe a dog – perhaps four legs, furry and has a tail. As a young child this may be enough, but then everything that shared these characteristics would also be a “dog” – such as a cat, hamster, or even a racoon (which could be dangerous). As we get older, our concepts become more refined and detailed which helps us make sense (and be safe) of our world.

The three main types of concepts you will learn about are:

            Artificial Concepts: Formal rules that must be followed. For example, a square must have four right (90 degree) angles and four equal length sides. Without this formal (artificial rule) it cannot be a square. In other words, a rectangle has four right-angles, but all the sides are not equal—a rectangle has its own artificial concept.

            Natural Concepts: Are also referred to as prototypes. They provide us with a “best example” of what we would consider a member of a group. An example can be fish; for many people a whale is a fish, but in reality it is a mammal…which is usually figured out as we get older and develop the third level of concepts – hierarchies.

            Hierarchies: We develop hierarchies as we grow and learn new experiences in the world. Hierarchies help us set up different categories for things in our world. In other words, we may see all things in the water as being “fish” but as we grow our concepts to include mammals, we realize that the whale does not fit the concept of fish. Our ability to learn and understand how to create these hierarchies makes survival and understanding of the world more attainable.

 

Lesson 8.1b Problem Solving: Three Steps to the Goal

In this lesson we will discuss how we problem solve and possible barriers to us solving problems. Most problem- solving of moving from the problem to the goal is done in three steps:

1. Preparation:  In this stage of problem solving a person will have to identify the facts, separate what is important or not, and finally determine what is the goal
2. Production: At this point people will begin to generate solutions to the problem. This will be done with an algorithm (step-by-step process) or as a heuristic (by using a simple rule or short-cut)
3. Evaluation: By now a person will need to decide which solution fits best with the original question/problem. If one solution doesn’t work, we will generally try a different method.

Let us try to put this into a practical situation. You were asked out by two girls (or boys) to go to a movie on the same night. Which one do you go with? In your head you would start to come up with various criteria as to which person you like best (preparation), from there you would have to decide how you are going to tell the other person (imagine how tough this is if you like BOTH of them), finally, you will have to decide which option is best for you and make a decision. Hopefully, it is the right oneJ

Although the process to solving problems seems quite straightforward, why are there so many times that we just seem to be stuck when it comes to solving a problem. Most of the time, these barriers can be attributed to:

1. Mental Sets: This happens when we continue to try a solution that has been effective in the past. Our previous successes prevent us from finding other possible solutions.
   1. Try this out? What does OTTFFS stand for? For most of you this will be very difficult, but if I gave you a hint such as “numbers” can you figure it out that is stands for one, two, three… The difficulty in doing this at first is based on your Mental Set.
2. Functional Fixedness: This occurs when we get fixated on seeing an object only for what it is typically used for. For example, a quarter is typically used to flip heads or tails, or to pay for something. People who are functionally fixed will have difficulty realizing that it can also be used as a screwdriver if needed.
3. Confirmation Bias: This is a term that you were introduced to in the first chapter. It refers to looking at information that supports your pre-existing opinions/ideas, and ignoring those that are contrary. In chapter one, researchers can be blamed for this in their experiments.
4. Availability Heuristic: This barrier results in people making judgements solely on the information that is immediately available. For example, a person’s grandmother has smoked for 60 years may believe that smoking is not hazardous to your health.
5. Representative Heuristic: In this circumstance, people make judgements based on how well the information fits their prototypes. For example, there are two people, one is skinny and likes to read, while the other person is large and smokes…the question is Who drives a truck for a living and who is the college professor? Most people will automatically say the large person is the truck driver, but that is not necessarily true.

 

 

Lesson 8.1c Creativity: Finding Unique Solutions

In this lesson you will explore the term creativity. Here is a real-life example:

There is a great story from when Mount St. Helen’s erupted in 1980. Mount St. Helen’s is located in Oregon which is about a 5-6 hour drive from Canada. The eruption was so big that Vancouver had ash falling on the ground. Around the volcano people were stuck, especially cars. But one police officer saw a car driving down the street. Curious as to how this was happening, the officer asked the gentleman how he was able to drive his car. The man simply said that he took his wife’s pantyhose and placed it where the air filter would go. This would allow for air to flow through the engine. Once the pantyhose were full of ash he would shake them out and do it all over again!

This man demonstrated the three components necessary for creativity:

            Originality: Seeing unique solutions to a problem

            Fluency: Generating possible solutions (trying them out)

            Flexibility: Moving from one strategy to the next if needed