Problem Solving Strategies and Judgement

Problem Solving

• There are multiple different approaches to problem-solving.
• Means-end analysis is more sophisticated than the other approaches.
• Progress monitoring involves evaluating progress towards the goal and changing strategies if needed.
• Availability heuristic relies on readily available information in memory to make judgments.
• Analogical problem-solving leverages similarities between the current problem and past experiences.
• The effectiveness of analogical problem-solving depends on recognizing relevant analogies and identifying the appropriate level of similarity.
• Insight is characterized by the "Aha!" moment, where a solution suddenly emerges after a period of impasse.
• Incubation, temporarily setting aside a problem, can also facilitate finding a solution.
• Representational change theory suggests that blocks in problem-solving stem from incorrect problem representation.

Judgement Under Uncertainty

• Judgement involves estimating the likelihood of events to guide actions.
• Factors such as information quantity, wording, and emotions can influence judgement.
• Availability heuristic leads to overestimating the frequency of events based on how easily we can recall them.
• Base-rate neglect occurs when general probabilities are ignored during judgement.
• Representativeness heuristic judges the probability of an event based on how representative it seems of a category, often ignoring relevant information.
• Conjunction fallacy judges the probability of two events occurring together as higher than the probability of one event occurring alone.

Decision Making

• We are more sensitive to losses than gains, a phenomenon known as loss aversion.
• Prospect theory suggests that our decisions are influenced by a reference point (usually our current state) and our aversion to losses.
• Framing effects influence our choices based on how information is presented, with positive framing being more effective.
• Sunk-cost effect leads to continuing investment in something based on past investments, even if it's not the optimal choice.
• Emotions, particularly anxiety, can make us risk-averse.
• Social context plays a role in decision-making, often leading to sunk-cost behavior due to the need to justify our decisions.

Reasoning

• Deductive reasoning draws logically valid conclusions from given premises.
• Inductive reasoning draws general conclusions from specific observations.
• Mental models guide our reasoning process but reliance on heuristics and biases can lead to errors.
• Informal reasoning draws plausible conclusions based on available information, not just formal logic.

Emotional Regulation

• Emotional regulation is essential for managing our responses to challenging situations.
• Gross and Thompson's (2007) process model categorizes emotional regulation strategies based on when they are employed.
• Distraction and reappraisal are effective strategies for regulating emotions.
• The effectiveness of a particular strategy depends on the specific situation and individual differences.

Emotion's Influence on Cognition

• Emotions can affect attention, memory, judgement, and decision-making.
• Examples include anxiety’s correlation with reduced attentional breadth and increased risk aversion, and sadness’ correlation with more risky decisions and altered perceptions of worth.

Anxiety and Cognitive Biases

• Attentional bias refers to a preferential focus on threatening stimuli.
• Interpretive bias refers to a tendency to interpret ambiguous information negatively.
• Even non-anxious individuals exhibit attentional biases towards threatening images.