ap psych class announcements:

AP Psych Class Announcements:AP PSYCH QUIZ BOWLDefend our title!!!!Attend and get your EXTRA CREDITKellam HS Thursday 1/17

Review session for those competing Wed 2:00

Quiz make-ups: See me if you need to do so.

I want to thank many of you who have been very responsible about make-up work recently, even if you have had multiple quizzes to catch up on. In most cases, I never even have to remind you….Just another reason why I appreciate my students so much!!!!!

Aim: to explain and provide examples of terms related to problem solving

Do NOW: Ch 9 application assignment

HW: 1. ch 8,9 practice ques. and study for test

2.Bring in ch 8,9 flashcards!!

Next Psych Club: Monday 1/28

Help Class for ch 8,9 test next Tuesday at 2:00

Thinking

Cognition• Another term for thinking, knowing

and remembering

Maybe by studying the way we think, we can eventually think better.

Does the way we think really matter?

Concepts• A mental

grouping of similar objects, events, ideas or people.

• Concepts are similar to Piaget’s idea of….

In order to think about the world, we form……..

SchemasThese animals all look different, but they fall under our concept of “dogs”.

Prototypes• A mental image

or best example of a category.

We base our concepts on ….

•If a new object is similar to our prototype, we are better able to recognize it.

If this was my prototype of a man; then what am I?

How do we solve problems?

Algorithms• A step by step rule or

procedure that guarantees the a solution.

• Usually by using a formula.

• They work but are sometimes impractical.

• Ex: following a recipe

Heuristics• A rule-of-thumb

strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.

•A short cut (BUT can be prone to errors).

• EX: What strategy should your dad use in the grocery store to find oregano?

• Go down the aisle labeled “spices”

Insight• A sudden and

often novel realization of the solution to a problem.

•No real strategy involved

What are some obstacles to problem solving?

Confirmation Bias• A tendency to

search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions.

Example:An elementary teacher might think that boys are naughtier than girls, therefore, she watches the boys more closely and “catches” them misbehaving more frequently

Activity:

• Can you cut a pizza into 8 slices using only 3 lines?

Match Problem

Fixation• The inability to

see a problem from a new perspective.

Scenario:

• A girl feels her man is not spending enough time with her. She feels he’s hanging with the guys too much.

• What to do?

• Last time she wanted to get him to spend Friday night with her, she cried and he did.

• Should she do it again?

Mental Set• A tendency to approach a

problem in a particular way, especially if it has worked in the past.

• May or may not be a good thing.

Functional Fixedness

• The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions.

What are some things I can do with this quarter (other than spend it)?

Functional Fixedness• The inability to see

a new use for an object.

Think of as many uses as you can for a ……

Types of Heuristics(That often lead to errors)

Representativeness Heuristic

• A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype.

• Can cause us to ignore important information.

Below is Linda. She loves books and hates loud noises. Is Linda a librarian or a bartender?

Availability Heuristic• Judging a situation

based on examples of similar situations that initially come to mind.

• Vivid examples in the news often cause an availability heuristic.

Which place would you be more scared of getting mugged or even murdered?

The Bronx, NY

Gary, Indiana

The crime rate of Gary, Indiana is MUCH higher than the Bronx. But when you think of crime, which town comes to mind?

I realize the Bronx picture is misleading.

Can you think of an example of availability heuristic?

• Scenario: An 8th grader is considering one of the many academies in VB. One is the academy at Bayside HS.

• What availability heuristic might the student use to determine his/her decision?

• “Bayside is________ because __________.”

Representative or availability heuristic?

1. The day after the tragic plane crash, the number of people flying decreased dramatically the following day.

2. Tim’s symptoms were so similar to that of a concussion, he mistakenly believed he had one following the accident.

3. Chris Brown is frustrated when fans and reporters continue to ask him questions about his attack on Rihanna 4 years ago.

Overconfidence• The tendency

to be more confident than correct.• To overestimate

the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments.

Considering “overconfidence” who you want to risk 1 million dollars on an audience poll?

Framing• Example:

• 80% lean or 20% fat

• 90% of the population will be saved with this medication…..or

10% of the population will die despite this medication.

• The way a problem is presented can drastically effect the way we view it.

Belief Perseverance• Clinging to

your initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

.

• “I researched the Health Care Bill and, despite my feelings against it, I found out it is wonderful for all. However, I think the article I read may be incorrect in it data, so I’m still against it.”

Phonemes• In a spoken

language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.• Chug has three

phonemes, ch, u, g.

B, th, d, ch, p Phones make sound.

Morphemes• In a language, the

smallest unit that carries meaning.

• Can be a word or part of a word (prefix or suffix).

• Anti-, car . . .

Grammar• A system of

rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand others.

Semantics• The set of rules

by which we derive meaning in a language.• Adding ed at

the end of words means past tense.

The Chinese languages do not have expansive semantic rules. They usually have totally different symbols for different tenses.

Syntax• The rules for

combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

• In English, adjectives come before nouns, but not in Spanish!!

Is this the White House of the House White?

Language development

• How many words do you think you know now?

Probably around 80,000.

After age 1 you average about 13 words a day.

Language Development• Babbling Stage: starting at 3-4 months, the

infant makes spontaneous sounds. Not limited to the phonemes of the infant’s household language.

•One-word stage: 1-2 years old, uses one word to communicate big meanings.

•Two word stage: at age 2, uses two words to communicate meanings- called telegraphic speech.

How do we explain language development?

Skinner• Skinner thought

that we can explain language development through social learning theory (which is?).

The young boy imitates his dad, then gets a reward.

Noam ChomskyInborn Universal Grammar

• We acquire language too quickly for it to be learned.

• We have this “learning box” inside our heads that enable us to learn any human language.

• We’re born with a “blue print” for learning language

Does language influence our thinking?

Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity• The idea that

language determines the way we think (not vive versa).•The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the past.