Reading Activity Week #14 (Due Monday)

Reading Activity Chapter 13

1a) Syllogistic reasoning is interesting.
1b) Syllogistic reasoning is interesting because this reasoning may be affected by the form of presentation whether it be visual or verbal. Our textbook states that is also known as a talk-aloud procedure because a person is verbalizing the steps they are engaging in when they are solving a problem. In high school, I learned a lot about syllogistic reasoning in which it has three parts; the form of the argument, the content of the argument, and the individual differences of the participants. This reasoning is interesting as it all comes down to the validity of the argument. A syllogistic reasoning example includes: All Republicans are human. All Democrats are human. Therefore, all Republicans are Democrats. Overall, we know that the third statement is not a valid reasoning.

2a) I also found the atmosphere effect to be interesting.
2b) The atmosphere effect is the tendency to accept or reject an argument based on its form. Depending on how the argument is presented will depend on have much the argument will influence someone. This is interesting as I never knew there was a title for this reasoning. Many times, I have found myself believing something only because I was attracted to the way it was presented to me. However, I never knew this to be an atmosphere effect, but in hindsight, the atmosphere effect is the perfect title for it.

3a) Ad hominem arguments are also interesting.
3b) Many times have I watched a Presidential debate only to see one candidate attacking another candidate rather than attacking the substance of their argument. This is known as an ad hominem argument. This is interesting as I can personally relate to a time in which I have been attacked rather than the reasoning behind what I stood for within my argument. I did not know the proper term for this until I read about ad hominem arguments.

4a) I found the concept of availability heuristic to be the least interesting.
4b) In my former psychology classes and my Research Methods class, the concept of heuristics was very well laid out. In particular, availability heuristic was discussed many times and the definition of it seems to be quite obvious in a way that makes sense. Therefore, reading about it again in this textbook was not as interesting as the other things I was more unfamiliar with. Availability heuristic is like the ease with which something comes to mind because it was readily obtainable.

5) Reading about deductive and inductive reasoning will be most useful in understanding Cognitive Psychology. These concepts help determine how humans come to conclusions in situations. They also help at looking at studies of decision making and how our decision making influences our memory and the ways we think.

6) This chapter builds on previous chapters has it looks further in depth at decision making and the associations we have between situations within our memory. This chapter also looks at how psychologists clearly define thinking and how concept formation causes our thinking to differ. In prior chapters, we did not look as deeply into thinking and reasoning as we do in this chapter.

7a) I would like to learn more about deductive reasoning versus inductive reasoning.
7b) I would like to learn more about these concepts to better understand the similarities and differences between each of them. I have learned a lot about both deductive and inductive reasoning, but I have never been able to distinguish between the two. Therefore, I would like to research more to help me decipher the main similarities and differences between deductive and inductive reasoning.

8) While reading this chapter, I thought about how our deductive and inductive reasoning can be used to express a conclusion in a situation. I thought about decision making and what form of reasoning individuals most likely use to come to a conclusion in respect to the key concepts linked to deductive and inductive reasoning.

9) Syllogistic reasoning, atmosphere effect, ad hominem arguments, availability heuristic, deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, associations

1a&b) I thought the small section about whether prisoners are expert liars was interesting because I have always taken special interest in being able to detect lies. I watch a lot of body language but have found that the better you get to know someone, the better you are at detecting a lie. This particular section talks about a study that was done where they had prisoners write three true statements and three lies. They gave these statements to another group of prisoners who decided which was which. They also used a computerized system to see if it could analyze the content and decide which statements were truthful or lies. They found that the computer could not outperform the younger prisoners but that it was more effective than older prisoners.

2a&b) Another section I enjoyed learning about was the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task. This was a study where patients were asked to sort cards one by one. They were not told how the cards should be sorted and just had a prompter telling them when they were wrong or right. Once they learned the first sorting rule the prompter would change rules on them and see how long it took the participant to try and find the new rule rather than sticking with the first one. College students seemed to be very good at this task. However, patients that have frontal lesions weren’t able to do the task as well and people with bilateral frontal lesions had a very difficult time.

3a&b) I also thought the ad hominem argument was an interesting section because I remember learning about the different fallacies in my philosophy class but this section really explained it in a way that was easy to follow and understand. An ad hominem argument consists of someone attacking a person’s character rather than their argument. The example in the text is a politician because much too often we hear politicians talking about each other’s personal lives, and personal mistakes rather than their plan for the country. There is obviously some fault in this type of argument because while it is in some ways important to know someone’s background, that is not all that should be judged in political situations. It is common knowledge that humans make mistakes so it doesn’t make sense to find those little mistakes when there are more pressing matters that should be discussed.

4a&b) I did not like the section about syllogisms. It was really confusing and hard to understand. I think in its basic form I was able to get the gist of it but when they started substituting things for letters and making equations I became very confused. I do however, look forward to it being explained better in class.

5) I think learning about deductive and inductive reasoning as well as logic are both very important to cognitive psychology because they consider how we think and how illogically we as humans think. I didn’t realize just how much we use past experiences to make decisions and ignore obvious factual information.

6) I think this chapter builds off of the other chapters by going into more depth about our brain and how it “thinks.” Thinking is such a complex subject and this chapter dissected that term and related it to cognition.

7a&b) I think I would like to look into the ad hominem argument a little more and see how it really can get in the way of having an intellectual conversation. I would like to look up examples of politicians using it and possibly how successful they were then at getting elected.

8) This chapter was harder for me to read but I do know I was relating a lot back to a philosophy class as well as going through a lot of the examples this chapter gave and realizing that my brain falls for a lot of the tricks it was talking about.

9) Terminology: body language, philosophy, ad hominem argument, fallacy, thinking, logic, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, syllogisms, Wisconsin Card Sorting Task

1) One thing that I found interesting from the chapter was the section on Hypothesis testing. The part from this section that I found most interesting was the part about the concept formation experiment. I found this interesting because it has the person shows the positive and negative instance and they attained the criterion. They used three types of strategies that they could choose from is Simultaneous scanning (participants start with all possible hypotheses and eliminate the untenable ones) Successive scanning (Participants begin with a single hypothesis maintain it if successful and where it is unsuccessful, may change it to another that is based on all previous experiences and conservative focusing ( participants formulate a hypothesis select a positive instance of it as a focus and then make a sequence of reformulations, noting each time which turns out to be positive and which negative. I found this interesting because all research starts with a hypothesis and without it there is not a good research topic.
2) Another section that I found interesting was the part about syllogistic reasoning. During early research on syllogistic reasoning they relied on reports by the participant of “what was going on in my head” also known now as talk aloud procedure. The most basic case might be (all A are B, all C are D, there for all A are C) since the basic conclusion is easy when substituting with words the mood or atmosphere can change. One way to solve syllogistic reasoning is to draw Venn diagrams. The reason that this may be difficult more than for others is that you’re previous knowledge and your previous ability to recognize a logical argument when you see it. This way you are able to write it out and see the difference in the argument. I found this interesting because it gives me another way to personally study and know what I know from previous and what I truly have learned this helps for exam.
3) Another section that I found interesting was Decision making but more closely inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning is conclusion which is usually expressed implicitly in terms of a probability statement. In our daily life’s we make decisions not so much as a result of a well-reasoned syllogistic paradigm, but in terms where decisions are based on past experiences and conclusions are based on what is perceived as the best choice of a number of possible alternatives. I found this interesting because we are making decisions every day and often times we are not making them in a result of well-reasoned options but of our decisions of our past and how it has encountered our decisions affect our daily life.
4) One thing that I did not find as interesting was the section on the cognitive neuroscience support. This section was less interesting to me than the rest of the chapter. I found that I would rather know about the knowledge and how we use it rather than knowing the science behind it. I am not a biological side of psychology kind of person and would rather look at the psychological and or social side of the problems.
5) There are a lot of things that will be good to know when learning more about cognitive psychology. Learning more about how or brain works and how we go about making decisions in life will also help us to learn betters ways to learn and go about life. We should also get to know the different vocabulary in the chapters and take them with us when learning cognitive psychology because it is helping build a foundation and will be easier to learn more with that foundation.
6) This chapter continues to build on from the previous chapters by looking into how the brain is making decisions. We have looked into how the brain works and how it functions but now we are starting to learn more about what will our daily life use each function and how we can better our memory.
7) I would like to look further in to deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning because we often hear about them both at the same time when learning about the topic it can be hard to pull apart the difference and the similarities between the two topics. I feel that it is an important subject that everyone should look farther into and know the differences.
8) While reading this chapter I thought a lot about the different ways that we make decisions and how it effects our life. I thought a lot about memory and how I could better use what I have learned to help me make my college career easier by knowing memory tricks to know how to make information stay in my brain.
9) Successive scanning, hypothesis testing, simultaneous scanning, Conservation focusing, syllogistic reasoning, Venn Diagrams, decision making, Inductive reasoning

There was a lot of interesting information in this weeks chapter on artificial intelligence. The first subject that I found to be interesting was the section on artificial intelligence. I liked this topic because it was interesting to talk about, and something that I have researched before. It was interesting to read about what the book had to say about the topic. The next topic that I thought was interesting was the section on pattern recognition. I thought that this section had some useful information that helped in my understanding of cognitive psychology. It was interesting to see how computers use coding to identify letters and numbers. The last section that I enjoyed reading about was the section. Language and AI. I thought that this section was interesting because I did not know how computers were able to identify language, and also the programs used in voice recognition. The section that I thought was interesting, but not my favorite was the section on problem solving, games, and AI. This was interesting to read about because I had heard of using algrythms before, and was interesting to read about what the book has to say. I will also talk about what I would like to learn more about, how this helped in my understanding of psychology, how this chapter related to the previous chapters, and some thoughts I had while reading.

Artificial intelligence was an interesting topic to read about because it is going to become more and more apart of my generations future as we move forward in the digital age. I have seen some of the examples in movies I have seen. There is a picture in the book that came from the movie IRobot. This movie was cool and relates to the chapter because it was all about artificial intelligence. In this movie one robot was born with the ability to feel emotion which was previously known to be impossible. I think that in the advancement of future that computers may be able to have this ability. Computers have come so far in the generations, so it makes sense that artificial intelligence could be important to cognitive psychology. The ability to process is what separates us from the computers, but from the research I have done and what the book said, computers are soon to take over the basic functions that humans are able to do. I thought that this section had some very useful information, and was very helpful in my understanding of psychology.

The next section that I enjoyed reading about was the section on pattern recognition. I did not know much about facial recognition, so all the information that I read about was novel. The subject that the book talked about the most relating to pattern recognition was binary codes. Binary codes make it possible for computers to interpret numbers and letters. Unlike humans computers can not look at numbers and be able to interpret them, or put value to them. What computers do is use binary code to be able to identify the different numbers. By placing one and zeros in a pattern, it is possible to distinguish the different numbers. This was interesting to learn about because with this type of process computers are them able to process information faster than a human can. Solving a problem such as 2349*239203, a computer can do this way faster than a human can because of the binary code it has placed to each number. This is just as example of how computers are going to take over basic human functions that humans are able to do. I thought that this section was helpful in my understanding in cognitive psychology.

The last section that I thought to be interesting was on language and AI. The main thing that the chapter talked about was the types of language systems that have been developed. The main ones are Eliza, Parry, and nettalk. These now seem outdated, but back then they were considered revolutionary in the way computers were able to process language. These types of programs have developed even more since these programs last came out. They have even made there was to phones with the all familiar Siri program. It is amazing to see how these programs have developed over the years, and just goes to show that AI is always growing, and will soon become even more developed. It is beyond me that phones are now come to the point were they are able to answer questions, and then bring up the website, and then an address on how to get there. I thought that this section was very important in my understanding of psychology.

The section that I thought was interesting to read about, but did not like as much as the other sections was on problem solving and games. The book talked about how a computer is able to use algarythms to be able to problem solve. The example that the book gave on this was chess. Computers are very hard to beat in a game of chess because they are always a couple of moves ahead of their opponent because they have all the options available based on the opponents moved. There was one human that was able to beat a computer because of the maps that he had built in his head, and was also able to see moves before they had happened like the computer. I thought that this section had some interesting information that helped in my understanding of cognitive psychology, but I did not like it as much as other sections.

The topic that I would like to learn more about would have to be AI. I though that the information that I learned about was very interesting, and I caught myself wanting to learn more about the topic. I think that if I were to do some more research on the topic it would be important to learning more and understanding cognitive psychology. AI is such as broad topic, and I think that I could learn a lot more about the topic.

This chapter relates a lot of the previous chapters, and a lot to problem solving. In this chapter the book talked about how computers used problem solving to come to a decision. In the last couple of chapters the book talked about how humans use problem solving skills to come to a decision. What separates the two is that computers use a much more technical way of coming to the decision. Humans use previous knowledge most of the time that helps them solve a problem. What I leaned in this chapter is that computers are becoming faster in their problem solving capabilities to the point were they are out performing humans on many levels. Humans are becoming more reliable on the ability of computers to solve their problems, so maybe that is just another human problem solving technique.

This chapter helped a lot in my ability to understand cognitive psychology. Before this chapter I did not have a lot of knowledge about artificial intelligence, so it was nice to read what the chapter had to say. I feel that I know a lot more about the topic, and in turn, a lot more about cognitive psychology. Before I had learned mostly about the way in which humans work cognitively, but I think learning about computers is just as important to the understanding of cognitive psychology. Artificial intelligence is becoming so much more of the way in which humans process information, so this information was very important.

Thoughts that I had while reading came when I was typing this blog. I wondered if artificial intelligence is just another problem solving technique that humans use to come to a decision. I think that as the human civilization grows it will rely more and more on the ability of computers to the point were we always use computers in our decision making process. I am glad that this book had a chapter that was based on artificial intelligence because it is important to understand what will eventually talk over our decision making processes.

terms: Artificial intelligence, problem solving, binary code, pattern recognition, algorithms, computer chess, language, nettalk, eliza, parry, computers

1a) What did you find interesting? 1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought the atmosphere effect was interesting. This is interesting to me because it suggests that the believability of an argument isn’t necessarily due to the facts or support of an argument but how it is presented. I think a lot of psychological research suffers from this problem. The facts or evidence in psychology are presented in such a way that the general public has little interest in them. This allows certain agencies to present the facts in a more appealing but distorted manner.

2a) What did you find interesting? 2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought it was interesting that statements high in imagery and relatedness were better understood than statements low in imagery and relatedness. This helps explain why it is harder to read a text book than a novel because text books are generally low in imagery and it is hard to relate some concepts. Novels are high in imagery and follow the progression of a plot relating each event to the next. Interestingly enough, novels set up seemingly unrelated events in a way that does not confuse but rather interests the reader.

3a) What did you find interesting? 3b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought decision frames were interesting. This was interesting to me because it suggests that choice can be manipulated by the presentation of information. This has several real world applications such as politics or getting people to adhere to laws or bills.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? 4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I thought deductive reasoning was the least interesting part of the chapter. This did not interest me because deductive reasoning relates more to philosophy and I do not particularly enjoy philosophy. I tend to gravitate towards reasoning based on evidence and experiences rather than statements.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?
I think the idea that presentation of evidence or facts affects decisions is most useful in understanding cognitive psychology. This emphasizes the idea that our ideas of reality or fact are flawed because humans experience and perception is flawed.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
Chapter 13 relates to other chapters because this chapter shows how all the processes from previous chapters are used together in thought.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? 7b) Why?
I would like to know more about lying because I am not good at recognizing lies and I would like to know what makes someone a good liar.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I was thinking about media and the presentation of facts while reading this chapter. Sometimes the media or famous figures present ideas that are quite illogical but people believe them because of authority or the manner in which things are presented. I thought it was interesting that the chapter said people typically do not think logically. It’s beneficial to our lives to use logic but most people use emotions or anecdotes to make decisions.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Atmosphere effect, decision frame, deductive reasoning, logic, relatedness

1. One thing that I found interesting to read about in this week's chapter were all of the different fallacies that we naturally use in problem solving that may not always lead us to the correct and optimal conclusion. The book gave many examples of different forms of fallacies throughout the chapter. I found these interesting because it made me think about the different reason that I use from day to day and how it may be causing inaccurate decisions and rationalization. It was easy to come up with examples for each from my own life. The fallacy of reification occurs when a person assumes and idea to be real when the idea is actually hypothetical or metaphorical. An ad hominem is a fallacy that occurs when a person attacks a person's characteristics rather than their argument. An availability heuristic is a fallacy that occurs when we makes decisions and rationalizations based upon information and events that are available to us at a given point in time. Similar to this is the representative heuristic which occurs when a person makes a decision based upon how representative the idea or decision is based on properties of a given population.

2. Another thing that I found interesting in this chapter was the idea of inductive reasoning which states that we make decisions based upon calculating the probabilities of different outcomes and consequences occurring. Bayes's theorem provides a model for evaluating hypothesis based upon changing probabilistic values. The probabilities that we use that we base decision on can be from actual statistical numbers, but more often come from what we perceive the probabilities to be due to our own experiences. This theorem also shows states that we use what is known as conditional probability once new information is added into the situation. This probability determines the probability of the hypothesis is true given the probability of the new information is true. I found this section interesting because we do this somewhat unconsciously. We do not think about the exact probabilities in our minds when we make decision but it is easy to see how those probabilities are processed and influence the decision that we make.

3. Another thing that I found interesting in this chapter was the neuroscience section. I found this section interesting because I enjoy learning about what parts of the brain are responsible for different functions and processes. This section showed how we use different types of reasoning by showing that a particular type of reasoning was able to be done by those that had impairments in one hemisphere and not the other. Research has shown that those with damage to the frontal lobe have difficulty with flexibility in logic. They tend to perseverate when it comes to sorting tasks rather than being able to understand and follow a new rule if it is introduced. Research has also shown that those with right-hemisphere damage can have troubles following logic of a premise if it is a false conditional. Those without this damage can follow the logic and answer the conclusion correctly, even though they may not believe it due to experience.

4. One thing that I found the least interesting in this chapter was the section on syllogistic reasoning. I easily became confused when reading through the explanations of the different principles and factors that are involved with syllogistic reasoning. I would have like more explanation than what was given for each of the principles. When following some of the logic examples it was hard to see how it was working because the ending conclusion was one that was not known to be accurate. After reading through the sections about the atmosphere effect, relatedness, and content I felt even further confused as to how exactly this type of reasoning worked. I would have liked more real life examples in hopes that it would be lead to a better overall understanding.

5. I think the section that will be the most useful in understanding cognitive psychology was the section that explained the different fallacies that we make naturally as humans and the disclaimer at the end of the section that explains that even though we have all of these different techniques for reasoning does not make us super logical every day. It is important to understand how we naturally manipulate and bend our perceptions and our cognition to fit into a particular form and how our experiences shape that desired form. Knowing that these fallacies exist can help people understand how to shape their thinking in hopes to avoid using any of them to make false conclusions or a decision that is not the most optimal.

6. This chapter ties together many different aspects of chapters to bring about this basic idea of thinking and decision making. It builds on the ideas that we use memories and stored knowledge when we are problem solving and making decision. The idea of concept formation builds on the basic understanding that we given in earlier chapters about formation of ideas of objects into particular categories or classifications. The idea that we unconsciously use fallacies in our cognition and reasoning processes builds on the idea that our perceptions of the world and all cognitive processes are not an exact representation of the world around us. Our experiences influence a great majority of different cognitive processes and decision making can be added to that list. The neuroscience section builds on to the idea that certain areas of our brain can be specialized for different processes, while overall cognition is spread throughout the entire brain.

7. I would like to learn more about inductive reasoning and the different types of factors that can influence our thinking of probabilities. I'm intrigued by the fact that our minds go through inductive reasoning and would like to learn more about exactly how the process works and what types of information is taken in to determine the different numbers used for the probabilities and their calculations.

8. While reading this chapter I began to think about how I use logic not only in my course work, but in every day life to make so many different decision. The different sections that explained the fallacies that are used in our logic made me realize that I should be aware of these things while trying to make decisions so that I can make that decision which brings the most optimal outcome. I began to think about how I personally tend to attack logic problems in comparison to the norms found from research. It was eye opening to see how I, and the majority of those that participated in different experiments, made false conclusions based upon experiences and availability of information.

9. Terms used- fallacies, reification, ad hominem, representative heuristic, availability hypothesis, Bayes's theorem, conditional probability, unconscious, inductive reasoning, neuroscience, syllogistic, concept formation

1) One thing I found interesting is the atmosphere effect. The atmosphere effect is where people have a higher tendency to either accept or reject an argument or “fact” depending on how the information is presented. The picture in the book was helpful in understanding how this effect works. I found it interesting, because we use to use these bubble charts when I was in middle school to come to conclusions.
2) Another part I found interesting was the section on thinking. I found it interesting, because we use it all the time and we are constantly thinking even though we don’t realize it. Thinking occurs on a normal basis, some examples are when we recall information we have stored in our short and long term memory, such as grocery lists, taking a test, and remembering what we did the day before.
3) Another section I found interesting was the statements in high in imaginary and relatedness. I was able to understand why some readings are easier for a person to understand and attend to, because when a person is reading they relate things to personal experiences and can use their imagination, whereas text books for example are harder for people to read because it may be harder for them to relate to it.
4) Associations were least interesting to me because I have talked about and learned about them a lot in different classes, so it was old information to me.
5) I think the section on thinking is one of the most important, because it is used in everyday life even though we don’t think about it or realize it.
6) This chapter builds on by talking about thinking. Without any of the other chapters this one would not make sense.
7) I would like to learn more about deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning, because I have heard about it in some of my classes, and I would like to better understand it.
8) I related a lot of this stuff in the chapter to things I have learned in previous classes, and was even able to relate the bubble chart to things that I have learned in middle school. I think this chapter helped me better understand the different concepts.
9) atmosphere effect, conclusions, thinking, short and long term memory, imaginary and relatedness, associations,

1. One of the really interesting topics for me to read in this chapter was logic. I’ve always been of the opinion that logical people are the best people, at least when it comes to have a conversation with them, especially if you or they are attempting to make an argument. The sentence in the book “logic is the science of thinking” is perfect because too often do people assume that all thinking is flawless. The examples of syllogisms in this section were really interesting too. Although I knew that there are two types of reasoning, deductive and inductive, I never really understood the distinction until now. Deductive reasoning is the process of taking broad statements that are known to be true and coming to a conclusion based on those facts, while inductive reasoning is more like a multiple choice test where your decision or conclusion is based on past experience to pick the best option out of a few possibilities.
2. Reification was another interesting thing to me because I personally encounter it so often in my life. My favorite thing to do is when people say “they say…. Blah blah blah”, to ask who “they” are. Often people are so stumped that they get mad, and this relates so well to schooling in general because so many people have no idea where their information comes from. I also find it interesting that we reify statements because we assume that they are coming from a source we should trust when they may not be at all. For example, when you have a student or graduate teacher in your class, no one ever asks where their information is coming from because they’re affiliated with the university who we reify.
3. Another really interesting thing in this chapter was the idea of the availability heuristic. The idea that we will make conclusions based on the first few examples of that occurrence we can generate is amazing. It’s a lot like an observer bias, we see what we want to see, and nothing else. The example the book gives is about letters. Does the letter K appear more as the first or the third letter in words. Then you being to think of all of the words that begin with K. Kettle, kitten, ketchup, etc. And all of the words where k is the third letter. Cake, make, lake, etc. However, it far more simple to find words that being with K, and extremely hard to find words that have k as the third letter so we just assume that k appears more as the first letter in words.
4. One of the really boring things for me to read about in this chapter was probability. I’ve taken statistics, and this was basically a review with a lot of annoying asides because in order to understand how our brain uses that knowledge we first have to understand what knowledge we’re supposed to have at our disposal.
5. The most useful piece of this chapter I think were all of the experiments they discussed, and how exactly they help us understand our own minds. I think it’s important to know not only what we know, but how we know it, and all of the flaws of our brains. Too often do we just assume that we are perfect beings, and because we have the best brains of the rest of the animal kingdom (or so we believe) that we cannot make mistakes. These experiments show us just how good we are at making mistakes, and even how easy it is to confuse our brains.
6. This chapter, like the others lately have become more and more relevant to the every day. The beginning chapters were easy to build because they literally added onto each other as our knowledge broadened. Lately the chapters are far more disjointed, but each chapter seems to be more useful in everyday life.
7. Something I would like to learn more about was decision making. I found it really interesting to read about the many different methods of decision making we have as humans, and how exactly it is that we use them all in our everyday.
8. As I was reading this chapter the one thing that kept coming to mind was how many times have I been sitting in class, and made one of these logic errors and made a fool of myself?
9. Logic, syllogisms, deductive and inductive reasoning, Reification, availability heuristic, probability, decision making

1a) What did you find interesting?
The atmosphere effect.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
When reading through the section this was the first thing that I was truly interested in because as many people know, it’s not what you say, but rather how you say it that is most important. The atmospheric effect is defined as the tendency to accept or reject an argument on the basis of its form. This means that the words you present in an argument, whether you are right or wrong may influence its believability. No matter which topic you discuss or which personal aspect you worry about, you need reasons for your opinion and argument. The ability of reasoning is responsible for your cognitive features of decision making and choosing among alternatives. The tendency for particular behaviors to be stimulated by a particular situation, even when inappropriate or completely pointless are other examples of the atmosphere effect, the situation or the language often dictate the particular behaviors exhibited.
2a) What did you find interesting?
Ad hominem.
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
This topic interested me because it reminded me so much of the bickering and squabbling many politicians do around election times every year. Usually many political debate start in good nature and actually discuss important and pressing issues. The problem arises usually when someone is unprepared for a subject or has no knowledge of the area and decides to attack the other person based on their moral character or another irrelevant point. An ad hominem is a general category of misconceptions in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person presenting the claim or argument. Luckily reviewers of professional manners like promotion boards, book reviewers or manuscript reviewers are cautioned to avoid ad hominem arguments in their evaluations. As the book states, it is more effective to attack the idea, not the person, this is of course a good policy in everyday life.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Syllogism.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
I was first interested in this section because it was a term I had never heard of before and after reading through the section it seemed to go way over my head. After reading through it again slowly and googling it I began to get a better understanding of syllogism. It is a kind of logical argument that applies deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two or more propositions that are asserted or assumed to be true. Introduced by Aristotle over 2000 years ago, a syllogism has three steps, a major premise, a minor premise and a conclusion. The conclusion reached is considered valid or true if the premises are accurate. An example provided by Aristotle knowing that all men are mortal (major premise) and that Socrates is a man (minor premise), we may validly conclude that Socrates is mortal (conclusion). Using syllogistic logic makes it possible to evaluate or validate the correctness of the thought process on the basis of its form rather than content.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
Bayes’s theorem.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
This section was a little more difficult to understand for me and when I found out Bayes was a mathematician I was even more intimidated because math has never been a strong suit of mine. I just had little interest in learning about this section.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?
In many of the sections it spoke about different ways to articulate yourself to people, the chapter also discussed how the structure of an argument or idea can mean everything. Presentation accounts for a lot when trying to convey your thoughts or ideas to others. Understanding the way we reason and deal with problems will allow us to better understand one another and work together to solve our common problems more effectively.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter built off the previous chapter to speak more about how we come to certain decisions or conclusions throughout or life. We have learned that development occurs throughout the lifetime and our ability to reason plays a crucial role in how we interact on a day to day basis with one another.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to know more about ad hominem arguments.
7b) Why?
These type of arguments are used to win public office and eventually have a stake in controlling or speaking for large population. I would like to know more about why this technique is used and why it is so effective if it is based on fallacies.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
During this section I was thinking about different presentation I have given throughout my college career where I was trying to convey an idea or concepts to a crowd of people. When giving a presentation I like to be prepared because anyone who has sat through a presentation that has very little continuity and legitimacy falls flat on its face and the crowd is lost. An individual’s ability to remain calm and knowledgeable is often the factor that allows the presenter to win over the audience, no matter what they are talking about.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
- ad hominem, syllogism, major premise, minor premise, conclusion, deductive reasoning, atmosphere effect

1a. One thing I found interesting was the books discussion of the definition of thinking. Thinking is a process by which a new mental representation is formed through the transformation of information by complex interaction of the mental attributes of judging, abstracting, reasoning, imaging, problem solving logic, concept formation, creativity, and intelligence. The interesting part of this definition is that book says scientists argue about if thinking is an internal process or if it only exists as a process that can be measured behaviorally, which would make it an empirical (measurable) phenomena. They gave an example of a chess player who mulls over his next move. He is obviously thinking during this process but it can only be measured by the actual move he makes. For scientific purposes thinking needs a more useful definition that can be worked with. The book outlines three basic ideas that exhibits thinking. 1. Thinking is a cognitive process, it occurs internally but is inferred from behavior. 2.Thinking is a process that involves some manipulation of knowledge in the cognitive system. 3. Thinking is directed and results in behavior that solves a problem or is directed toward a solution.
2a. I found this interesting because I never realized how hard it would be to define something like thinking. Thinking encompasses almost all if not all of our cognitive functioning depending on the situation and until I took this I did not realize how complex our cognitive functioning could be. It cannot be defined in a sentence or even two, but rather it encompasses a spectrum of ideas that constitutes a best fit definition.
1b. The next topic I found interesting was the section on Hypothesis Testing. Hypothesis testing is something that we all do when solving problems and forming concepts. The first stage in concept formation is the selection of a strategy or hypothesis that matches up with the goals of our inquiry. The book gives the example of a doctor choosing one diagnosis over another, or a lawyer asking a series of questions. In the book it explains how in an experiment people generally choose one choice over a series of choices and if that choice proves to be a positive or negative to their assumption they choose another that then steers them in a direction that they hope be more positive until a resolution is met. It was found that the strategies participants may select in concept formation include scanning and focusing which has subtypes. There is simultaneous scanning in where participants start with all possible hypotheses and eliminate the ones that will not work. Next there is successive scanning in where participants begin with a single hypothesis and keep it if successful and chuck it if not, then going to the next logical hypotheses based on the previous experience. The first type of focusing technique is deemed conservative focusing in where participants formulate a hypothesis, select a positive instance of it as a focus, and then make a sequence of reformations, each of which only changes a single feature, then they would note each time which turns out to be positive or negative. The second type of focus strategy is focus gambling which is similar to the first but participants change more than one feature at a time in hopes of coming to a quicker conclusion.
2b. I found this interesting because while I was reading I thought of times where I have used some of these methods. A method I use, especially in school is successive scanning. When taking a scantron test is when I use this especially. I will pick the answer I think is right and hold onto it, and sometimes later on in the test something will reveal itself and make me want to go back and revise the answer based on new information.
3a. One of the last things in the chapter I found interesting was ad hominem arguments. Ad hominem arguments attack a person’s character rather than the substance of his/her argument. Examples of this can be seen in a lot of different aspects of life. One that readily comes to mind is in politics. Many people attack the President for many different things other than his political policies, such as where he was born, or his religion. In relation to ad hominem arguments are those arguments that are validated by ones individual experience or experience of one other person. This can be thinking that global warming doesn’t exist because a biology professor says it is a hoax (true story).
3b. I found this interesting because this type of argument happens all the time and people seem to fall for it all the time instead of weighing facts and seeing reason. It is an important aspect in our culture that we need to critically focus on in order to avoid slander and solutions that are not supported by a body of evidence.
4a. One thing I did not find particularly interesting was the section on inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning is coming to a decision based on past experiences and making a conclusion based on what you think is the best choice based on a number of alternatives.
4b. I already knew what inductive reasoning was so it was not particularly earth shattering. Everything else in the chapter expanded on things I knew or were completely new to me, but this was material I was familiar with.
5. I believe the most important thing going forward will be knowing about syllogism and the different types of reasoning. Not only are these important parts of cognitive psychology but they are important to know for everyday thinking. I believe being familiar with these terms will help in the overall way we think about things in our lives.
6. This chapter encompasses all of what we have learned really. Thinking, forming concepts, reasoning, these things in the chapter encompass all the topics that were previously discussed in prior chapters. It is all culminating into these big topics at the end of the book.
7a. I would like to know more about associationism.
7b. It is the most established and influential theory in concept formation so there should be a wealth of information out there elaborating on it. The book didn’t include too much on it so I would like to know more.
8. I tried to relate what I read to my personal experiences. When I read about some things I tried to be like, “Oh yea I’ve used that type of reasoning.” Or “I use that type of scanning when taking tests.” The things I can connect to I seem to remember better.
9. Thinking, hypothesis testing, simultaneous scanning, successive scanning, conservative focusing, focus gambling, ad hominem, inductive reasoning.

1) i like the section on hypothesis testing. i would like to believe that i do this all the time. i have a problem ( well i have a lot) i think of ways to fix it. i start out with a list ( not really but in my head) some of the ideas are really off the wall but they would fix the problem, and some are more tangible. you start eliminating the ones that might not work out the best. simultaneous scanning the successive scanning and Conservative focsing. sim. is were you start out with alot of ideas and get rid of some. suc. is where you start with one idea and change it if needed. conserv. is where you focus on one part and change it if needed. i guess i liked it cause i use it and it made sense to me.
2) the section on logic was neat. logic is the science of thinking as the book says. i think a lot and a lot of times my thoughts and thinking may be illogical but sometimes i get luck and one is logical. another thing i liked is that my thoughts may seam illogical to you but with my beliefs and reasoning i can argue that to me it is logic
3)Are prisoners expert liars
i just thought this was neat. lying it happens all the time, fishing how hot a girl was how big the deer was that you missed, how many beers that you had last night. why? in the great big scheme of things why does it matter and why do we do it? prisoners i guess they are surrounded by the lies all the time, maybe they are better at reading people so that they can tell when someone is or isn't lying.
4)i found that everything in the chapter was interesting.
5)i think that it is all going to be useful to me. maybe not today but there will be that time that i know will come about were there will be a conversation that comes up about logic and i will be on the spot and tell everything that i know.
6)on thing that i really like is that all the chapters build on each other and flow together
7)
8)i was thinking about every thing. there was tons of stuff running through my head and how i maybe didn't think about it that way and it makes sense now.