MODULE 8: Introduction and Lesson 1
July 19
TODAY'S MESSAGE
Today starts the Grace Period for Module 7. This ends on Friday night at 11:59 p.m. so make sure to get those late assignments in. Anything not turned in by then will go down as zeros. The Grace Period for Module 6 has ended.
TODAY'S ASSIGNMENTS:
1. Complete the Module 8 Pre-Test.
2. Review the Module 8 Glossary and any vocabulary practice. You will be required to know the terms included for the post assessment at the end of the module.
3. Review Lesson 1 Notes about Thinking.
4. Complete the Lesson 1 Practice Activity.
5. Complete the Lesson 1 Assignment.
TEACHER TALK 1
As we begin our module on Thinking, Learning, and Intelligence try remembering back to the 1st module and our study of the cognitive perspective. To refresh your memory, here is Webster’s definition of cognition,
Cognition - the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.
Psychology Today refers to cognition this way, “....Quite simply, cognition refers to thinking. There are the obvious applications of conscious reasoning—doing taxes, playing chess, deconstructing Macbeth—but thought takes many subtler forms, such as interpreting sensory input, guiding physical actions, and empathizing with others. The old metaphor for human cognition was the computer—a logical information-processing machine. (You can’t spell cognition without “cog.”) But while some of our thoughts may be binary, there's a lot more to our 'wetware' than 0's and 1's.”
As we work through Module 8, keep in the forefront the above definitions and your learned understanding of cognition. It will help you as we tackle some difficult concepts. Concepts like inductive and deductive reasoning and heuristics are among those that you may find frustrating to understand. The Lucid Chart below should help you visualize the process that takes place for both inductive & deductive reasoning. Prior knowledge of each will help you as you work through each lesson.
TEACHER TALK 2
Today you learned about the availability heuristic. An availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to mind. When you are trying to make a decision, a number of related events or situations might immediately spring to the forefront of your thoughts. As a result, you might judge that those events are more frequent and possible than others. You give greater credence to this information and tend to overestimate the probability and likelihood of similar things happening in the future.
For example, after seeing several news reports about car thefts, you might make a judgment that vehicle theft is much more common than it really is in your area. This type of availability heuristic can be helpful and important in decision-making. When faced with a choice, we often lack the time or resources to investigate in greater depth. Faced with the need to an immediate decision, the availability heuristic allows people to quickly arrive at a conclusion.
While it is very useful, it can lead to problems and errors. Reports of child abductions, airplane accidents, and train derailments often lead people to believe that such events are much more typical than they truly are. Things that come to mind more easily are believed to be far more common and more accurate reflections of the real world.
Examples
- After seeing news reports about people losing their jobs, you might start to believe that you are in danger of being laid off. You start lying awake in bed each night worrying that you are about to be fired.
- After seeing several television programs on shark attacks, you start to think that such incidences are relatively common. When you go on vacation, you refuse to swim in the ocean because you believe the probability of a shark attack is high.
- After reading an article about lottery winners, you start to overestimate your own likelihood of winning the jackpot. You start spending more money than you should each week on lottery tickets.
The second site you will look at today shows you some biases you make when decision-making. You will notice many from the lecture today, including availability heuristic, bandwagon effect and anchoring bias.
Today, you will complete two assignments: a quiz and a written assignment. For the quiz, make sure you are familiar with the terms/concepts from lesson 1. Today’s written assignment is looking at the process of making decisions, i.e. how we “think” through our decisions. There are actual models used to make decisions, businesses use them all the time. The most common is the Rational Model. This is the one we will use today.
Take a look at the ToonDoo. Hopefully, it will help you visualize the Rational Model.
Assignment Title: Decision Making Pyramid (or design of your choice)
-
Decide on a problem - For example, I need to make money in order to pay for my car insurance and gas.
-
Pick three ways to solve your problem - For example, get a job, sell my collection of valuable stamps, don’t get a car just ride my bike everywhere
-
Identify the possible “consequences” for each solution - getting a job might take time away from getting schoolwork done, I wouldn’t make enough money from the sale of my stamps to cover both insurance and gas, and I can ride my bike in nice weather but I can’t when it rains or snows.
-
Choose the solution that is the best and explain why
-
USE AT LEAST 3 terms from the lesson
Recommended supplemental article: I know you are really busy, but if you have about 5 extra minutes take the time to read this fascinating article from Psychcentral.com, Thinking About How You Think. It offers a fascinating look at how to enhance your thinking skills, something we can ALL benefit from.
IMPORTANT DATES THIS WEEK
7/21: Module 7 Grace Period ends; Module 8 ends; Take Module 8 Test and Honors Summative
CONTACT ME
Text/Call: 919.602.5075
E-mail: christopher.watson@ncpublicschools.gov
Text anytime between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
NCVPS Psychology
CITATIONS
Today's Assignments (Book Icon Orange, David Peters, Wikpedia Education Program Case Studies.pdf, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Teacher Talk (Red Silhouette - Teacher, Ben from Openclipart, Openclipart, Creative Commons CCO 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license)
Shout Out (callout-quote-bull-speaking-bubble, Pixabay, Pixabay, CCO Public Domain license)
Important Dates This Week (Blank Calendar Page Icon, Jackaranga, Jackaranga, GNU Free Documentation License)
Contact Me (Smart phone mobile phone, Pixabay, Pizabay, CCO Public Domain)