THINKING SELF

FRAMEWORK OF COURSE: Understand the SELF as a holistic being with interconnected thoughts,
feelings, sensation and behavior.

Learning Outcome : Identify the two systems of thinking and elaborate cognitive biases.

Activity (not recorded): Recite the alphabets from A-Z then recite it again but backwards.

Question: What can you say about the experience?

Two Modes of Thinking

SYSTEM 1 operates automatically and quickly with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary
control. Fast, Intuitive, Emotional, Automatic, Less Cognitive Effort.

Ex. Look for a source of sound.

SYSTEM 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex
computation. Slow, Deliberate, Reflective, Analytical, Complex, Effortful .

Ex. Focus attention on a lecture , discussion or problem solving.

Main Points:

SYSTEM 1 SYSTEM 2
Everyday
situations -biased to Believe -biased to Doubt
with limited and Question
information
Form opinions Adopt suggestion
(meeting a
and jump into with little
new person)
conclusion modification

INTUITION BELIEFS

COGNITIVE BIASES

Implications:

-Thinking may be prone to systematic errors.

- Some belief might not be based on evidence but we continue to consider them as truths.
-Even though you know what the objective reality is, it does not change the way you see it.

1. PEAK END RULE

EXPERIENCING SELF REMEMBERING SELF
-writes, reads and replays your
-lives through the moment
autobigraphical history

-people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at it PEAK and its END

Ex. A dance with your crush for 30 mins then after the dance he told you that he has a girlfriend.
Even if the dance gives you a blissful experience ,you still remembered the day as a bad one.

2. REPRESENTATIVENESS
- When people are asked to judge the probability that an object or event belongs to a category.
- assumption that any object (or person) sharing characteristics with the members of a particular
category is also a member of that category.

Ex. A student taking up BS education may be seen as studious and a good example especially to young
ones.
3. ANCHORING AND ADJUSTMENT
“How old is person A?” , “ What is person A’s weight?”
“Was Mahatma Gandhi more or less 144 years old when he died”

Decision is based on:

- Anchor based on a given reference point
- Adjust on the anchor(either higher or lower)
-In making judgements under uncertainty, people start with a certain reference point (anchor), then
adjust it insufficiently to reach a final conclusion.

GUARDING AGAINST COGNITIVE BIASES

1. Recognize the signs that you are in a cognitive minefield, slow down, and ask for help from System 2.
2. Identify practices and tasks that you do and the kind of thinking they demand.
3. Listen to understand it rather than listen to answer it.