Cognition critical thinking example

Part. 1.
Cognitive decisions vary systematically amongst different individuals. Preferences vary amongst other factors by knowledge and skills, risk and value considerations, avoidance of conflicts, emotions and identities, past experiences, attribute weights, and the tendency to accept choices as described.
Knowledge and skills drawn from past experiences provide problem solving skills and strategies that define the quality of preference. For instance, an accountant may perform poorly in recruitment of interns than how a human resource manager may perform. The decision on intern recruits derives its preference from skills, knowledge or repeated decisions over past experiences or scrutiny of risks involved in hiring the interns.
Choices also require a measure of individual attributes. A consideration of the case above on recruitment of interns may reveal that the strengths of some individuals may be the weaknesses of others. This indicates that in making a preference there is the need to consider the value and quality of each attribute. The best decision is that which measures the extent to which a weakness on an attribute can be compensated by the strength of another.

Part 2.

Not every decision has a risk or uncertainty attached. Uncertainty or risk absence, however, does not imply that a preference is riskless. Take an instance of a decision involving a surgery; the aim of such a decision may be to improve health, but that does not eliminate the risk of losing life. In taking such decisions, a decision maker has to be willing to take a risk in consideration of the status quo, risk aversion, and the attributes attached to a preference.
In taking a risk, the decision maker makes a choice between what the current situation is and what would be preferred. The choice defines if the preference should remain the way it is or needs a change. In making the changes, the decision maker moves towards a risk of either losing it or making it better.
Loss aversion figure prominently when it comes to choices. For example, in the stock market most investors feel a double pain when they lose that when they gain. When a decision is framed, people become more sensitive to the losses associated with the outcome than to the gains. Attribute framing also affects the willingness of risk taking in decision making. Take an instance of lean versus fat meat. Most buyers would prefer to go for a pound of meat framed as 90% lean and forego a pound of meat framed at 10% fat. The manipulations in framing affect the perceived quality of preferences influencing the willingness to take a risk.
Most people perceive giving as a risk from the fact that they cannot forecast the gains that accrue to such acts. An example involving giving an intern a chance to work in an organization; by giving the intern a chance, there lacks a guarantee of productivity though the employer believes in the best from the intern. To many, this may be a risk as they cannot predict the outcome of their choice.
The lesson from these articles is that an altruistic decision is that which is made in a consideration of the risks, co-operation, and genuine concern to individual’s welfare. In making such a decision, it is crucial to weigh out the attributes framed to a preference, predict the losses and gains, and compare the predicted outcomes to the status quo.