A Visual Guide to Cognitive Bias You’re biased. I’m biased. We’re all biased when it comes to thinking, remembering, being social, and making decisions. Understanding the different cognitive biases we have can help us design and interpret experiments, interact with each other, and make healthy, rational choices. Probability and Game Theory in The Hunger Games | Wired Science This is a guest post by Michael A. Lewis (PDF), a friend of mine who is a professor at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. One of the things I found most interesting and surprising about the movie The Hunger Games (HG) is how mathematical it is. The basic premise of the story is that there is a society in what used to be North America made up of a centralized capital and 12 outer districts. Seventy-four years ago the districts staged an uprising against the capital which was violently put down. As punishment for this transgression, every year each of the districts must send one boy and one girl (it’s not clear what would happen to transgendered persons in this world) to take part in the Hunger Games. Let’s focus on two mathematical aspects of the movie: the lottery probabilities, and the game theory of sleeping. The way districts choose which boy and girl to send to the capital for the Hunger Games is by lot. Now let’s consider some of the complications.
A Taxonomy of Reflection: Critical Thinking For Students, Teachers, and Principals (Part I) My approach to staff development (and teaching) borrows from the thinking of Donald Finkel who believed that teaching should be thought of as "providing experience, provoking reflection." He goes on to write, ... to reflectively experience is to make connections within the details of the work of the problem, to see it through the lens of abstraction or theory, to generate one's own questions about it, to take more active and conscious control over understanding. ~ From Teaching With Your Mouth Shut Over the last few years I've led many teachers and administrators on classroom walkthroughs designed to foster a collegial conversation about teaching and learning. In an effort to help schools become more reflective learning environments, I've developed this "Taxonomy of Reflection." - modeled on Bloom's approach. 1. See my Prezi tour of the Taxonomy It's very much a work in progress, and I invite your comments and suggestions. A Taxonomy of Lower to Higher Order Reflection
Quantum game theory Quantum game theory is an extension of classical game theory to the quantum domain. It differs from classical game theory in three primary ways: Superposed initial states,Quantum entanglement of initial states,Superposition of strategies to be used on the initial states. This theory is based on the physics of information much like quantum computing. Superposed initial states[edit] Entangled initial states[edit] The set of qubits which are initially provided to each of the players (to be used to convey their choice of strategy) may be entangled. Superposition of strategies to be used on initial states[edit] The job of a player in a game is to choose a strategy. Multiplayer games[edit] Introducing quantum information into multiplayer games allows a new type of equilibrium strategy which is not found in traditional games. See also[edit] References[edit] Notes Bibliography External links[edit]
Inference | Classroom Strategies Language Arts The Question-Answer Relationship strategy helps students understand the different types of questions. By learning that the answers to some questions are "Right There" in the text, that some answers require a reader to "Think and Search," and that some answers can only be answered "On My Own," students recognize that they must first consider the question before developing an answer.See Question-Answer Relationship strategy > Into the Book has an interactive activity that helps young children learn about inferring. Riddles are one way to practice inferential thinking skills because successful readers make guesses based on what they read and what they already know. BrainPop offers several activities for teaching inference, and they offer resources for teachers and parents.See inference activities > Math Pre-K–2 Expectations: In pre-K through grade 2, all students should discuss events related to students' experiences as "likely" or "unlikely." Science Social Studies
A tale of two qubits: how quantum computers work Quantum information is the physics of knowledge. To be more specific, the field of quantum information studies the implications that quantum mechanics has on the fundamental nature of information. By studying this relationship between quantum theory and information, it is possible to design a new type of computer—a quantum computer. A largescale, working quantum computer—the kind of quantum computer some scientists think we might see in 50 years—would be capable of performing some tasks impossibly quickly. To date, the two most promising uses for such a device are quantum search and quantum factoring. Although quantum search is impressive, quantum factoring algorithms pose a legitimate, considerable threat to security. Quantum computers are fundamentally different from classical computers because the physics of quantum information is also the physics of possibility. Single qubits. Pairs of qubits. Quantum physics 101. How do they work? Is the polarization horizontal or vertical?
Advice for effective analytical reasoning Good list of cognitive biases Wikipedia List of Cognitive Biases (Please read this before continuing below.) After reading through the list, one wonders how people ever get anything right. There's also the "bias bias," where lists of cognitive biases are used as rhetorical weapons to attack any analysis, regardless of the quality of the analysis. The way out is to demand evidence for a claim of bias, and not just to rely on an assertion of bias. The effects of cognitive biases are diluted by peer review in scholarship, by the extent of opportunity for advancing alternative explanations, by public review, by the presence of good lists of cognitive biases, and, most of all, by additional evidence. The points above might well be included in the Wikipedia entry, in order to dilute the bias ("deformation professionnelle") of the bias analysis profession. In Wikpedia, I particularly appreciated: -- Edward Tufte
Interpretations of quantum mechanics An interpretation of quantum mechanics is a set of statements which attempt to explain how quantum mechanics informs our understanding of nature. Although quantum mechanics has held up to rigorous and thorough experimental testing, many of these experiments are open to different interpretations. There exist a number of contending schools of thought, differing over whether quantum mechanics can be understood to be deterministic, which elements of quantum mechanics can be considered "real", and other matters. This question is of special interest to philosophers of physics, as physicists continue to show a strong interest in the subject. History of interpretations[edit] Main quantum mechanics interpreters An early interpretation has acquired the label Copenhagen interpretation, and is often used. Nature of interpretation[edit] An interpretation of quantum mechanics is a conceptual or argumentative way of relating between: Two qualities vary among interpretations: Concerns of Einstein[edit]
How To Make Students Better Online Researchers I recently came across an article in Wired Magazine called “ Why Kids Can’t Search “. I’m always interested in this particular topic, because it’s something I struggle with in my middle and high school classes constantly, and I know I’m not alone in my frustrations. Getting kids to really focus on what exactly they are searching for, and then be able to further distill idea into a few key specific search terms is a skill that we must teach students, and we have to do it over and over again. We never question the vital importance of teaching literacy, but we have to be mindful that there are many kinds of “literacies”. An ever more important one that ALL teachers need to be aware of is digital literacy. I could go off in many directions on this, but for the purpose of this post I’m focusing strictly on the digital literacy of searching. As they get older, kids often employ the tactic of typing a question into the search bar – “How do I find out about mummies in Egypt?” The real answer? 1.