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Executive Functioning and Decision Making

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23 views

Executive Functioning and Decision Making

Uploaded by

21simranbagga
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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EXECUTIVE

FUNCTIONING AND
DECISION MAKING
Executive Functions
• Executivefunction refers to skills you use to manage
everyday tasks like making plans, solving problems and
adapting to new situations.
• The three main skills are working memory, cognitive
flexibility and inhibition control.
• Theseskills develop during your lifetime, often declining as
you get older.
Working Memory

Cognitive Flexibility

Inhibition Control
• Executivefunctioning refers to cognitive processes that
enable individuals to manage their thoughts, actions,
and emotions to achieve goals.
• These functions are essential for planning, decision-
making, problem-solving, self-control, and
organization.
Executive functions are often grouped into three main
categories:

Inhibitory Control: The ability to regulate impulses and resist


distractions or automatic behaviours.
Working Memory: The capacity to hold and manipulate information
in the mind for short periods.
Cognitive Flexibility: The ability to adapt to new information, shift
between tasks, or think about multiple concepts simultaneously.
Inhibitory Control
• The ability to suppress automatic, impulsive responses in
favour of goal-directed actions.
• It allows individuals to pause and think before acting.
• Inhibition is crucial for impulse control, emotional regulation,
and following social norms.
Examples:
o Resisting the temptation to check your phone while working on an
important task.
o Stopping yourself from interrupting someone during a conversation.
o Avoid distractions and focus on the task at hand.
Working Memory
• The ability to hold and manipulate information in the mind over
short periods.
• Working memory is essential for reasoning, decision-making, and
learning.
• Working memory allows you to integrate new information with
what you already know and is important for learning,
reasoning, and comprehension.
Examples:
o Remembering a phone number long enough to dial it.
o Following a sequence of instructions.
o Keeping track of where you are in a complex task with multiple steps.
Cognitive Flexibility (Mental
Flexibility or Set Shifting)
• The ability to adapt to new situations, change perspectives,
or adjust to shifting demands.
• It allows individuals to transition smoothly from one task to another
or change their approach when faced with unexpected challenges.
Examples:
• Adjusting plans when something goes wrong.
• Seeing a problem from different angles and coming up with
alternative solutions.
• Switching between tasks with different rules, such as answering
emails and then solving a math problem.
Decision-Making
• The decision-making process is defined as a systematic
approach to making choices or selecting a course of
action among several alternatives.
• It
involves several steps, which can vary depending on the
context, complexity, and significance of the decision.
Factors influencing Decision
Making

Heuristics:
Availability, Framing and
Representativenes Decision
s, Anchoring and Strategy
Adjustment
Heuristics
• Mental
shortcuts or rules of thumb are used by people to
make quick judgments.

Representa
Availability
tiveness

Anchoring
and
Adjustme
nt
Availability Heuristic
• The availability heuristic is a cognitive shortcut where people make
judgments about the probability or frequency of an event based
on how easily examples of that event come to mind. This means
that if something is more readily recalled from memory—often due
to recent exposure or emotional intensity—it is perceived as being
more common or likely than it is.
• Example: If a consumer hears a lot of positive reviews for a
product from friends or sees influencers promoting it online, they
may believe that it is the best option, even if they haven't done
thorough research. The positive mentions are more
memorable than other options.
Representativeness heuristics
• This heuristic involves assessing the probability of an event based on
how much it resembles typical cases or stereotypes.
• People ignore statistical realities and base decisions on how
representative something seems.
• The representativeness heuristic is driven by how much something
seems to match a certain prototype or stereotype.
• Example: A customer browsing skincare products on Nykaa comes
across a new serum with sleek, minimalist packaging and a high price
tag. Based on the packaging and the price alone, the customer assumes
that the product is of high quality and effective, even though they haven't
checked reviews or researched the ingredients. The product’s
appearance and price "fit" the prototype of luxury, high-quality
skincare, leading the customer to judge its effectiveness based on these
surface characteristics rather than actual performance data.
Anchoring and Adjustment
• The anchoring and adjustment heuristic is a cognitive bias
where people rely too heavily on the first piece of
information (the "anchor") they receive when making
decisions, and then make adjustments based on that anchor.
• Example: A customer sees a lipstick originally priced at
₹1,500, but it’s on sale for ₹1,000. Because the original price
of ₹1,500 is their anchor, they believe ₹1,000 is a great deal,
even if they initially planned to spend only ₹800. The high
anchor of ₹1,500 makes ₹1,000 seem much more reasonable,
so they adjust from the original price, but not enough to
realize they are still spending more than they wanted.
Framing and Decision strategy
• Framing refers to the way information is presented or structured,
which can significantly influence how people perceive and make
decisions about that information. The same information can lead to
different conclusions depending on how it is framed.
• Gain vs. Loss Framing: Decisions can be influenced by whether
outcomes are presented in terms of potential gains (positive
framing) or potential losses (negative framing).
• Example: A sale promotion states, "Buy one, get one free!" vs. "Buy
two, save 50%!"Impact:
• The first framing can feel like a better deal because it emphasizes
gaining an extra product, while the second framing focuses on the
loss of money spent.
Escalation of Commitment: Getting Trapped in Bad
Decisions

• Escalationof commitment is a common pitfall in decision-making


that can trap individuals and organizations into continuing down a
path that may not yield positive results.
• Awareness of this tendency can help in making more rational
decisions by evaluating current circumstances rather than being
influenced by past investments.
• Example: Someone may stay in an unfulfilling or toxic relationship
because they’ve already invested years into it, fearing that leaving
would mean wasting that time, even though they’re unhappy.
Naturalistic Decision Making

• Decision-making as it appears in the real world.


• This approach emphasizes the importance of context, experience,
and intuition rather than relying solely on formal decision-making
models.
• Example: Parents often make decisions about their children’s
activities or education based on their experiences, values, and the
unique needs of their children, adapting their approaches as
situations change.
Stages of Decision Making
• Problem Identification: Recognizing that a decision needs to be
made.
• Information Gathering: Collecting relevant data and
alternatives.
• Weighing Options: Evaluating the pros and cons of each choice.
• Making the Decision: Choosing the option that best fits the
desired outcome.
• Implementation: Putting the decision into action.
• Evaluation: Assessing the outcome to determine if it achieved
the desired goal.

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