Cognitive Biases and Mental Models
Description
Understanding and overcoming cognitive biases that affect thinking and decision-making.
Learning Objectives
Learners will identify common cognitive biases affecting judgment, understand how mental models influence perception, develop strategies to minimize bias impact, and improve objectivity in thinking and decision-making processes.
Topics (8)
Overview of cognitive bias research, evolutionary origins, and general impact on decision-making and reasoning.
Study of groupthink, social proof, authority bias, self-serving bias, and motivated reasoning effects.
Analysis of mental model formation, schema theory, framing effects, and techniques for mental model improvement.
Systematic approaches including perspective-taking, devil's advocate methods, premortem analysis, and structured decision processes.
Metacognitive strategies, self-reflection techniques, thinking about thinking, and bias self-assessment methods.
Techniques for understanding others' perspectives, empathetic reasoning, role-playing exercises, and viewpoint diversity.
Evidence-based thinking methods, systematic data collection, structured analysis techniques, and objectivity maintenance strategies.
Detailed study of confirmation bias, anchoring bias, availability heuristic, representativeness bias, and overconfidence effects.