The frontal lobes are involved in thinking which uses information from senses, memories, and emotions to create mental representations like concepts, images, and schemas. Concepts are mental categories that allow us to classify experiences and objects and are organized in hierarchies from general to specific. Schemas provide frameworks for thinking about objects and events. Imagery adds complexity to thinking, while different cultures develop different concepts and ways of thinking. Problem solving uses strategies like algorithms, heuristics, and breaking problems into smaller parts, while common obstacles include mental set, functional fixedness, and self-imposed limitations. Poor judgment can arise from biases like confirmation, hindsight, anchoring, representativeness, and availability biases. Genius requires high knowledge, imagination
2. Thinking
The frontal lobes of the brain are
involved in thinking.
Thinking is a cognitive process in which
the brain uses information from
senses, emotions and memory to create
and manipulate mental
representations, such as
concepts, images, schemas and scripts.
3. We will examine different building blocks of
cognition and the first ones are called
concepts.
The ability to categorize experiences and
certain objects into different mental
categories and give them a label is one of
the most basic features of thinking.
The mental categories that we form this way
are called concepts. Concepts are
understandings of different items or ideas
retained into one’s mind from experience.
4. For example for the word power there are
at least 5 different concepts, here are
some examples:
1) An ability to do or act
2) Strength
3) A person or a thing having authority
4) A continuous multiplication of a number
by itself
5) An electricity supply
5. Concepts can be mental representations
for different items or ideas such as:
Classes of objects: a table or a chair for
example
Activities: birthday party, a wedding
Living organisms: animals, cat, dog
Features of something: small, big
Practices: how to wash your hands, how to tie
your shoe laces
It is difficult to observe concepts because they
are mental structures but there are two ways of
observing them indirectly. The first one is that
you can study ones reactions to certain stimuli
and see how many people react in the same
way to different concepts. And the other one is
to observe the brain activity.
6. Two kinds of concepts
Natural concepts
-”Mental representations of objects and events drawn from
our direct experience”
-inprecise mental categories
-based on prototypes
Artificial concepts
-”Concepts defined by rules, such as word definitions and
mathematical formulas”
-represent precisely defined ideas or abstractions rather
than concrete objects
7. Concept hierarchies
-”Levels of concepts, from most general to most
specific, in which a more general level includes
more specific concepts”
You organise declartive memory
General to specific
Concepts are arranged in hierarchy levels
- For example animal – bird – blackbird
Linked to many different concepts
8.
9. Culture, concepts and thought
Concepts are different in different cultures
People think differently
Everyone forms concepts
10. Schemas
Schema can be defined as a cluster of related
concepts that provides a framework for thinking
about objects, events, ideas, or even emotions.
Expectations
Making inferences
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzbRpMlEHz
M)
Humor
Scripts/ event schemas
12. Visual Thinking
Visual imagery adds complexity and
richness to our thinking, as do images
that involve the other senses
(sound, taste, smell, touch)
Cognitive map- a cognitive
representation of physical space
Cultural influences on cognitive maps
13. Thought and the brain
Event-related potentials are EEG patterns
associated with particular stimuli
With PET and MRI it is possible to find out
which parts of the brain become active
during various mental tasks
Visual imagery drawn from memory arises
from the visual cortex, auditory memory
from auditory cortex etc
14. Prefrontal cortex takes on three
different tasks:
1.Keeping track of the episode
2.Understanding the context
3.Responding to a specific stimulus
15. Intuition
...or sometimes called „common sense“
allows us unconsciously to add
emotional „hunches“ to our decisions in
the form of information about past
rewards and punishments
When people make decisions they
draw on feelings as well as reason
16. What abilities do good thinkers
possess?
“Good thinkers not only have a
repertoire of effective
strategies, called algorithms and
heuristics, they also know how to
avoid the common impediments to
problem solving and decision
making.”
17. Problem solving
1. Identifying the problem
good problem solvers consider all the
possibilities before committing to one solution
2. Selecting strategy
Algorithms =problem solving procedures of
formulas that guarantee a correct
outcome, if correctly applied.
Designed formulas or procedures to solve
particular kinds of problems.
Step-by-step procedure that leads directly from
the problem to solution
18. Does not work if…
values are subjective
too many unknowns
too complex problems
19. Heuristics
= Cognitive strategies or ”rules of
thumb” used as shortcuts to solve
complex mental tasks. Does not
guarantee a correct solution.
require no specialized knowledge.
20. Heuristic strategies
working backward
-solving problem from finish to start
searching for analogies
-to solve problem by associating it with same
type of problem that it previously solved
Braking a big problem into smaller
problems
21. Obstacles to problem solving
Knowing different styles of strategies is
essential to problem solving.
Different situations require different methods.
22. Mental Set
”The tendency to respond to a new problem
in the manner used for a previous problem. ”
For example: when your computer shows some
kind of error, you try to solve the problem by
restarting the computer.
Functional-fixedness
”The inability to perceive a new use for an
object associated with the different purpose.”
Functional-fixedness is a form of mental set.
In other words, this is when a use of familiar
objects becomes so fixed that you cannot
think any alternative ways of using it.
23. Self-imposed limitations
You built up your own limitations, when
solving a problem.
To illustrate this phenomenon, lets make
a short test;
26. The 5 most common causes of
poor judgment:
1. The Confirmation Bias
Ignoring and finding fault with information
that doesn’t fit ones opinions
Seeking information which one can agree
with
Common for everyone every once in a
while, especially on issues we hold strong
opinions on
27. 2. The Hindsight Bias
A.K.A. “I-knew-it-all-along effect”
(Fischhoff, 1975; Hawkins & Hastie, 1990)
After an event has occurred, people
overestimate themselves by claiming to
have been able to predict the past
Can potentially flaw judgment of
historians, jurors etc.
28. 3. The Anchoring Bias
A flawed evaluation of a problem
Tendency of estimating problems based
on completely unrelated quantities
Based on Kahneman & Tversky´s
experiment
29. 4. The Representativeness Bias
Derives from people’s prejudices
Risk of underestimating diversity of
individual cases and the complexity of
human beings
5. The Availability Bias
People’s tendency to use examples from
memory to judge probabilities of events
30. How to become a genius?
Genius has to have a lot of imagination
Requires high knowledge on their own
field
31. Five main things geniuses are
Independent
Intensely interested in a problem
Willing to restructure the problem
Preference for complexity
A need for stimulating interaction
Importance of high IQ: Able to become genius
with low IQ, they are called savants. Their low IQ
decreases creativity but they might have high
develop skills.
High IQ doesn’t mean that you will become
genius, it just helps on it.
Intelligence and creativity are whole separate
abilities.
