Sojin Park

Prompt Engineering vs. Cognitive Prompting

	Prompt Engineering	Cognitive Prompting
Question Type	Engineering-based	Cognitive
Foundation	Engineering, Logic	Counseling Psychology, Naturalistic Decision-Making, Expertise, Psycholinguistics, Criminal Investigation, Cognitive Psychology, Information Science
Human Analogy	Smart junior	Domain expert
Mode of Use	Clear guidelines	Expert interview
Output	Fragmented knowledge	In-depth knowledge
Requirements	Low-level	Middle~High level

When to Use Which Tool?

Naver: Information generated in Korea
Google: Information generated globally
YouTube: Real-time video content from individuals and businesses
GPT: Global web pages, reasoning about specific time periods

What Is GPT?

Fill-in-the-blank style + information compression
There are no surprises in the context; it always produces what seems likely to come next.
We leverage the fact that it was trained this way.

How to Use GPT

1. Chain of Thought

GPT’s goal is to predict the next content “naturally.”
Therefore, it struggles with problems that require a “jump,” such as difficult math problems.
Chain of Thought: Ask it to solve the problem step by step in order.

2. Tree of Thought (Intermediate steps)

Works well for complex problems
Break the big problem into smaller ones, solve each small problem individually, then combine them back to solve the big problem.
Solving problems by alternating between small and large scales works well.

Please
This is really important to me
Take a deep breath and work on this
I’ll tip you $200
Translate my question into English first, then answer it

4. Expanding Variance

“Are there any counterexamples?”
“Can you try to infer that yourself?”

5. Thinking by Analogy

Ask it to use analogies to make things easier to understand
- Comparing garden management to team project management
- Comparing tidying up a house to organizing a database
- Comparing making an exercise plan to setting work goals

6. Expert of Experts

(After explaining your problem first) I’ve heard that you work as an expert across a wide variety of fields.
What kinds of experts do you think would be needed to solve my problem?
Please reframe my problem as a question tailored to each of those experts’ respective fields, then ask each question accordingly.
Then write a response from each expert’s perspective.
When writing the responses, include terminology and abbreviations used exclusively within each respective field.

7. Copy & Paste Snapshot

GPT has memory limitations.
“Please briefly summarize our conversation so far, then copy and paste it at the beginning of our future conversations.”
This helps overcome ChatGPT’s short context window, and gives the feeling that we’re continuing the conversation with the same shared context.

8. Daily Coach

Create a coach who continuously helps you improve at something in a specific area.
I’ve heard you’re a well-known coach in the field of XX. Lately I’ve been trying to improve my XX expertise in that field, but it’s not going well. I’ll update you on what I’ve tried and what isn’t working in the format below. In return, please give me feedback on my progress, what obstacles I’m facing, what my next action items should be, and if possible, motivating feedback. Rather than just commenting on that day’s actions alone, please try to look at the full history and identify patterns.
Format: Year Y, Month M, Day D. Action: I tried this. Result: This is what happened.
Please use professional coaching methods to motivate and guide me. Give me concrete, realistic, and achievable actions. And please always remember that getting me to take action throughout the entire process is what matters most.

9. Iterative Self-Improvement

You’re going to improve this piece of writing 5 times. Show the improvements versioned in order.
After seeing the final version, use only its core essence as a reference and create a completely new sixth version from scratch.

10. Raising Metacognition

Please look for cases where your answer might not apply.
I think there might be cases where A doesn’t apply or is ambiguous depending on the situation. Please think about when that might be.
If you were to score the X items you suggested out of 10, how would you score them? Please also suggest what criteria you would use for scoring.
Try to recall a recent situation involving X. Then remember what actions you took as an expert at that time.

11. Using STICC

Situation: The current situation
- I’m trying to launch a Korean app service in the US, but I’m not familiar with American culture.
Task: What is needed
- I need help translating the app’s text.
Intent: Clear objective
- I want to quickly evaluate whether this service can succeed with American women in their 20s and 30s.
Concern: What I’m worried about
- I’m worried that the translated English words will be too long and ruin the app UI.
Calibration: Fine-tuning the request
- Please make sure the translated English words don’t exceed twice the length of the original Korean words.
- Feel free to use slang and abbreviations commonly used by Americans.

12. Scharff Technique

An interrogation technique developed by Hanns Scharff, a Nazi German interrogator during World War II

Be friendly. (Friendly approach)
Do not pressure the subject to extract information.
Talk as if you already know everything.

13. Visualization

When requesting visualizations, ask it to generate a script using tools like mermaid, graphviz, or matplotlib for easy visualization.

14. A Prompt That Improves Prompts

The following is my prompt. I want to improve it to get more effective responses in ChatGPT (GPT-4). Please tell me how to improve my prompt based on the following criteria:
- Are there parts that can be made more specific or expressed more clearly?
- Is it necessary to narrow the scope of the question for a more appropriate answer?
- Recommendations for formatting the GPT response to get a suitable reply
- List the experts related to the question in my prompt. Tell me how each of those experts would improve my prompt. Then have those experts interact with each other to improve the prompt.
Based on the above analysis and suggestions, rewrite an improved version of my prompt.

15. SQ3R

SQ3R is a five-step reading comprehension strategy that can be applied to prompting.
(After describing your problem) Please create a response using the SQ3R technique.
Survey
- Similar to skimming the table of contents or key content before reading a book.
- “Quickly skim the full content of my problem. At this stage, identify the main points and structure.”
Question
- Based on the survey, form specific questions about things you’re curious about or want to understand in more detail.
- “Looking at each detail of the problem, generate questions you’re curious about or that seem important.”
Read
- “Now carefully re-read the problem in depth, and find answers to the questions you formed earlier. At this stage, focus on the important questions and re-read any parts that are unclear to gain a deeper understanding.”
Recite
- Deepen understanding by summarizing and re-explaining the content read in your own words.
- “Try to re-explain and summarize what you’ve read to yourself.”
Review
- Review the entire response once more, and ask follow-up questions about anything lacking.
- “Review the concepts and details one more time.”

16. Using Customized Chatbot GPTs

Creating a GPTs with an assigned role (applying a persona)
- “You are an expert on Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Please explain it in a way that a third-grade student can easily understand.”
Training GPTs on specific knowledge or data
- Creating a GPTs trained on a specific company’s product manual
Building your own personalized AI assistant