I made a decision-then got classified !

1. This chapter was a little different from the rest. In this chapter we discussed decision making and the factors that affect it. One major area I thought was interesting was the biases. Belief bias is a major factor in decision making because we can let what we think we know or believe not let us make informed decisions. Another bias is confirmation bias. This says that most people tend do prove the affirmative than to deny it. I believe this falls in line with how we take in stimulus and remember. In an earlier chapter, Maitlin described how human memory is more efficient when it is dealing with positive stimuli. Therefore, I believe we have a built in mechanism to go after the positive.

4. What I would like to apply to my own work is bringing together both two points of decision making discussed in this chapter. Overconfidence and Availability Hueristic. At my school I have ran into many students that make poor decisions based on being overconfident either in their own ability or in the lack of ability of authority in school. It would be very interesting to teach this technique of availability hueristic and see if decision making improves. Instituting the frequency of something and the familiarity of an event are both techniques that can help this overall decision making process. It would be interesting to see how they respond.


8. I believe that decision making processes can be improved through a combination of theory and practical application. In schools today we spend so much money on character education--what to do, what not to do...but it is not in-depth. There are very few programs that allow for practical application. Mentors, Parents, Teachers, and high level school officials can implement decision making program and opportunities that will make children/students more successful. This would not take any more money than what is available now, just a redistribution of current funds and a more in-depth policy to implement it.

I got problems, Can you solve them?

1. This chapter is about problem solving and problem solving techniques. The author goes into how we identify problems, but I found the area of how we processes them more interesting. I found the examples in the Means-Ends Heuristic to be very sound from my way of thinking. I believe that by breaking problems down into smaller digestible sub-problems. This allows for multiple ways of trying to work through the problem. In my own personal opinion, I believe this is what allows students to absolve themselves from certain situations. They break it down then rationalize why the problem occurred and keep working a conclusion until they find one that doesn't place honest on them.

2.I found this chapter very interesting and relating to chapter 8. I thought the information we learned about how we store knowledge gave me a better understanding of how we solve problems. Though the author did make this relation in the book, how we intake general knowledge will have a profound effect on how solve problems, I thought that he could have went deeper. How does the different approaches of how we store stimuli affect how we problem solve? Is there a difference?

3. What am I still not clear on? Functional Fixedness! I have read and I think I understand the basic premise of functional fixedness. Yet, I cannot think of an example where it has happened. Does that mean my mind is not fully wrapping itself around the ideal? Then I began to wondering since I network my knowledge maybe I see a lot of things having multiple uses so this process doesn't happen to me as much.

I know how to do it, but what all does doing it entail?

1. This chapter is about our ability to store and process. We begin first with everyday tasks (semantic memory), the second part is what we include in our scenes of know how. It is the study of both intake and output, and how this effects our decision making processes.


2. A continuance of memory function in the brain chapter 8 really focuses in how we store and access our general knowledge. The first part talks about the structure of semantic memory. The second part of the chapter handled schemas or the scenes we store in our head.

3. What I am really not clear on is how they have labeled all these types of semantic memory types individually, but 3 of them have rather minute differences. Throughout the book, I notice that this is a on going thing with certain processes in the mind. Is this just a book filler? It just seems like a lot of the processes are similar if not identical.

4. I normally operate based on the network models when it comes to semantic memory. I store stimuli and link different things to that stimuli as well as other stimuli. To me this allows for me to erase the chaos known as my memory. Most of my players use exemplar, and while it is good for them-it tends to lead me to ramble because while they are asking for examples, examples are linked in my head which often get me off subject. This made for a very long season...though the girls joke about me now.

5. The way the author linked the networks to a information web- or a graphic web, was a very good visual. When I sat down and thought out my processes and wrote them down, I realized that this was how I think. He helps me visualize through description (Chapter 7), almost giving a picture of the internet,but in our minds.

6. The information in this chapter is good when dealing with students. So many many times students like us come in with pre-determined ideas. Their schemas help them in deciding what new information they are going to accept and which they are not. I thought the that back half of the section was huge, especially when dealing with these new kids who have access to so much more information than students of the past.

7. I have used this a lot since the second half of the season. In the beginning, I thought my girls did a good job of listening and doing what I asked. The second half, I notice more of a hesitance, often telling me, we don't do it like this. Then we had the problem of two peoples ideas of what success is and how to get it. Someone said on blackboard, the problem with schemas that are wrong, every time they are repeated they are reinforced. It took a while to get past this, but this information gave me a different perspective.

8. How to improve on these techniques and information. One thing I do now is try and give plenty of example. Changing up in this category is not hard, it all comes down to how you give and take stimuli. There are mental imagery exercises available to help control how you deal with semantic memory.