Psychology / Unit 6: Memory and Thinking
6.6 Problem Solving and Biases
Notes
- Algorithm: a step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution. Heuristic: a mental shortcut that is faster but can lead to errors.
- Heuristics: availability (judging likelihood by how easily examples come to mind, so people overestimate plane crash risk after news coverage) and representativeness (judging by how well something matches a stereotype).
- Obstacles: functional fixedness (seeing objects only for their usual use), mental set (using a strategy that worked before), confirmation bias, anchoring (relying too much on the first number), overconfidence, hindsight bias ("I knew it all along").
- Framing: how a choice is worded changes decisions. "90 percent survive" sounds better than "10 percent die."
- Insight is a sudden realization of a solution.
Practice
Anita can't find a way to hold up a poster because she thinks of a stapler only as a stapler. This is:
Seeing an object only in its usual function is functional fixedness.
After seeing news about a shark attack, Ben believes shark attacks are very common. This is:
Vivid, easy-to-recall examples make events seem more likely.
Which is true of an algorithm compared with a heuristic?
Algorithms are systematic and reliable; heuristics are fast shortcuts.
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