MODULE 8: Intro and Lesson 1
July 18
TODAY'S MESSAGE
TODAY'S ASSIGNMENTS:
#1. Complete the Module 8 Pre-Test. Take the pre-assessment quiz to establish how much about our topic you already know. You are required to take this pre-assessment, but don't worry. It does not impact your grade!
#2. Review the 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. Begin lesson 1 by reviewing the notes to learn about Thinking.
#4. Begin lesson 1 by reviewing the notes to learn about Thinking.
#5. Complete the Thinking practice quiz after reviewing the practice materials.
#6. Complete the Thinking assignment. In this assignment you will analyze the decision making pyramid.
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 us 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 site you will look at BELOW 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.
SHOUT OUT
CONTACT ME
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)