Deck 11: Decisions, Judgments, and Reasoning

Question 1

A three-statement logical form is called __________.

A)incomplete
B)modus ponens
C)valid
D)a syllogism

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Consider this problem.What does it represent? If it is a weekend,Mark is sailing.
Mark is sailing.
Thus,it is a weekend.

A)valid syllogistic reasoning problem
B)invalid syllogistic reasoning problem
C)valid conditional reasoning problem
D)invalid conditional reasoning problem

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Consider this problem.What does it represent? Premise 1: If Mark drew it,it is a duck.
Premise 2: Mark drew it.
Conclusion: It is a duck.

A)conditional reasoning
B)affirm the antecedent
C)valid inference
D)all of the above

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Consider this problem.What does it represent?

A)logically valid syllogism
B)invalid syllogism
C)confirm the antecedent
D)illicit conversion

Question 5

In reasoning,the tendency to search for evidence that confirms a conclusion is __________.

A)confirmation bias
B)the search for positive evidence
C)a major source of human error in decision making
D)all of the above

Question 6

Which of the following is a search error?

A)confirmation bias
B)deny the antecedent
C)affirm the consequent
D)misattribution

Question 7

A syllogism is __________.

A)a logical truth
B)only applicable to abstract problems
C)a three-statement logical form
D)an ancient,but flawed system

Question 8

?Form errors in reasoning occur because __________.

A)logical reasoning forms don't take into account the real world
B)people don't use proper logic notation
C)euler circles have been shown to be false
D)people use invalid logical forms,such as affirming the consequent

Question 9

Which is TRUE?

A)In general,research evidence indicates that people tend to act as logically rational decision makers.
B)Denying the consequent leads to a valid inference.
C)Affirming the antecedent does not lead to a valid inference.
D)In conditional reasoning,an illicit conversion is best described as a network error.

Question 10

In reasoning,the tendency to search for evidence that confirms a conclusion is called __________.

A)confirmation bias
B)insight
C)counterfactual reasoning
D)availability heuristic

Question 11

What is a belief bias in reasoning?

A)mistakes in reasoning based on beliefs about how reasoning works
B)misplaced belief in logical forms
C)drawing conclusions based on one's prior beliefs
D)failure to see the reasons behind other people's beliefs

Question 12

Which is NOT true?

A)If a conclusion matches the first mental model derived from the problem,it is particularly easy (and thus likely)to accept the (potentially false)conclusion,leading to fallacies or errors in reasoning.
B)In statistics,we test against the null hypothesis in hopes that our evidence will be inconsistent with the predicted "no effect" outcome.
C)When hypothesis testing with increasingly complex if-then relations,the typical mistake is to search for positive,confirming evidence.
D)The strongest logical test of a scientific theory is to see if the hypothesized effects are produced in accordance with the theoretical predictions.

Question 13

Which is the most likely error in scientific hypothesis testing?

A)confirmation bias
B)modus ponens
C)modus tollens
D)anchoring and adjustment heuristic

Question 14

Johnston-Laird reports that people's performance on the Wason card task can be greatly improved by __________.

A)using Venn diagrams
B)seeking disconfirmation
C)making the situation concrete
D)casting a more appropriate frame via headers

Question 15

The search for positive evidence only is labeled the __________.

A)confirmation bias
B)Pollyanna effect
C)overconfidence error
D)anti-negativity tendency

Question 16

Which does NOT reflect valid conditional reasoning?

A)deny the antecedent
B)modus tollens
C)modus ponens
D)deny the consequent

Question 17

__________ is(are)defined as "mental representations of meanings of the terms in reasoning problems."

A)Formal logic
B)Venn diagrams
C)Mental models
D)Semantic networks

Question 18

Johnson-Laird argued that __________.

A)Humans cannot use formal logic
B)Humans use mental models of the described state of affairs
C)Human decision making is intrinsically connected to language skills
D)Human decision making relies on explicit hypothesis testing

Question 19

__________ is the study of the relationship between physical stimuli and the perceived characteristics of those stimuli: the study of how perceptual experience differs from the physical stimulation being perceived.

A)Simulation heurisitc
B)Naïve physics
C)JND
D)Psychophysics

Question 20

Consider this problem.What does it represent? Premise 1: If it is a weekend,Mark is sailing.
Premise 2: Mark is sailing.
Conclusion: It is a weekend.

A)syllogistic reasoning
B)affirm the antecedent
C)illicit conversion
D)deny the antecedent

Question 21

Making judgments about which is smaller-a "1" or a "2" versus a "1" or a "4"-will illustrate __________.

A)the symbolic congruity effect
B)the Stroop effect
C)the imagery effect
D)the symbolic distance effect

Question 22

There are two hospitals; one averages 45 births per day,the other 15 births per day.You are asked,"In any given year,which hospital will have a higher percentage of days during which more than 60 percent of the babies born will be male?" The correct answer is __________.

A)the "45" hospital
B)the "15" hospital
C)that there is an equal chance of either
D)that there is insufficient information provided (thus,we cannot answer the question)

Question 23

Asking a subject to judge which set of clock hands produces a larger angle-"3:20 or 7:25" and then "2:15 or 9:20"-produces all but __________.

A)symbolic distance effect
B)evidence for the use of visual imagery
C)the semantic congruity effect
D)slower response times for "3:20 vs.7:25" than for "2:15 vs.9:20"

Question 24

Kahneman & Tversky (1973)report having people read various personality descriptions and then estimate the likelihood or probability that a person was a member of one or another profession.To a surprising degree,people's estimates are influenced by the similarity of the description to a widely held stereotype.This reflects __________.

A)the availability heuristic
B)general world knowledge
C)the vividness effect
D)the representativeness heuristic

Question 25

The amount of change required for people to detect the change is __________.

A)JND
B)Weber's constant
C)Helmholtz's equation
D)Fechner's phallia

Question 26

A heuristic is __________.

A)a specific rule or solution procedure that is certain to yield the correct answer if followed correctly
B)an informal "rule of thumb" method for solving problems,not necessarily guaranteed to solve the problem correctly,but usually much faster or more tractable than other alternatives
C)the act of someone who reasons; to think logically; to analyze with reason
D)the mental representation of meaning in a reasoning problem

Question 27

Decisions about size differences are sped up when the stimuli differ by a greater amount.This reflects __________.

A)JND
B)distance effect
C)discriminability index
D)spatial cueing

Question 28

An algorithm is __________.

A)a specific rule or solution procedure that is certain to yield the correct answer if followed correctly
B)an informal "rule of thumb" method for solving problems,not necessarily guaranteed to solve the problem correctly,but usually much faster or more tractable than other alternatives
C)the act of someone who reasons; to think logically; to analyze with reason
D)the mental representation of meaning in a reasoning problem

Question 29

In the __________,knowledge from a variety of sources is factored into a decision (e.g.,Chicago judged north of Rome based on "Northern North America" vs."Southern Europe").

A)symbolic distance effect
B)semantic imagery effect
C)semantic congruity effect
D)plausible reasoning hypothesis

Question 30

A heuristic is to __________ as an algorithm is to __________.

A)correct; incorrect
B)incorrect; correct
C)likelihood; certainty
D)certainty; likelihood

Question 31

Make a judgment about which is rounder: an apple or a pear versus a toothpick or an oar.The difference between these judgments will illustrate __________.

A)the semantic congruity effect
B)the von Restorff effect
C)the imagery effect
D)the recency effect

Question 32

Consider this pair of judgments about which is smaller: "Which is smaller,a sheep or a bear?" and "Which is smaller,a mouse or a rat?" The faster response to the second question illustrates __________.

A)the semantic congruity effect
B)the imagery effect
C)the number magnitude effect
D)the symbolic distance effect

Question 33

Consider the following problem and then choose which of the statements below is NOT true. If each of 10 people at a meeting shakes hands (once)with every other person,how many handshakes are exchanged?

A)The descriptive model might be "Ten people shaking hands with nine folks each… a couple fewer because you want to avoid repetitions ...say something like maybe sixty to seventy?"
B)The normative method will yield the "correct" answer: in this case,N x ((N-1)/2).
C)A heuristic approach is not necessarily systematic or orderly,instead relying on educated guessing.
D)The algorithmic approach will differ substantially from the normative model of what is "right"; that is,it is particularly prone to distortions,inaccuracies,and omissions.

Question 34

RT is longer for the comparison "a whale is a fish" than for "a whale is a bird." This reflects __________.

A)the semantic congruity effect
B)the Stroop effect
C)the imagery effect
D)the symbolic distance effect

Question 35

A reasoning heuristic in which we judge the likelihood of some event by deciding how much that event seems to be like the larger group or population from which it was drawn is a(n)__________.

A)association heuristic
B)availability heuristic
C)normative heuristic
D)representativeness heuristic

Question 36

Using this picture and asking "Which {balloon // yo-yo} is higher" (the example from the text)will illustrate __________.

A)the symbolic distance effect
B)the semantic congruity effect
C)the fact that decisions about size differences are sped up when the stimuli differ by a greater amount
D)the magnitude effect

Question 37

Which is NOT true of judgments of number magnitude?

A)The larger the difference between the digits,the faster the judgments are made.
B)Just as in psychophysics,the psychological difference is a direct function of physical difference.
C)Judgment time is affected by semantic congruity.
D)When people make mental comparisons and judgments of purely symbolic quantities,there is a pronounced semantic distance effect.

Question 38

The belief that small samples will be representative of the population from which they are selected is __________.

A)the law of large numbers
B)the central limit theorem
C)the fallacy law of small numbers
D)called sensitivity to sample size

Question 39

The bias or heuristic that includes the law of small numbers is __________.

A) veracity bias
B) availability heuristic
C) representativeness heuristic
D) confirmation bias

Question 40

The representativeness heuristic is a bias to make decisions based on __________.

A)how closely one outcome resembles the population of possible outcomes
B)whether an option is represented in the set of possible outcomes
C)how well one can represent the choice to other people
D)the degree to which a choice represents a correct answer

Question 41

When we alter an unusual story element,substituting a more typical or normal element in its place,we refer to this as reflecting __________.

A)the simulation heuristic
B)downhill change
C)uphill change
D)the familiarity bias

Question 42

Which of the following represented a "belief" effect?

A)Clinical psychologists deviate from the DSM-IV based on their personal views of cause-effect relations.
B)Israeli students tend to judge simultaneous events in history from Europe as occurring before the matched event in North America.
C)the confirmation bias
D)all of the above

Question 43

In the three months following the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center buildings in New York City,the rate of traffic fatalities increased by about 350 people.This increase was most likely due to the operation of __________.

A)the effect of sample size
B)the familiarity bias
C)the salience bias
D)the representativeness heuristic

Question 44

When doing counterfactual thinking,what kind of change is the easiest to imagine and then base decisions upon?

A)uphill
B)downhill
C)transverse
D)inverted

Question 45

__________ is a decision-making strategy based on the ease of retrieval from memory.

A)Representativeness heuristic
B)Retrieval effect
C)Availability heuristic
D)Algorithm

Question 46

Sometimes people make decision-making errors because of limited __________.

A)heuristics
B)domain knowledge
C)algorithms
D)imagination

Question 47

The mistaken belief that a compound outcome of two characteristics can be more likely than either one of the characteristics by itself is __________.

A)the conjunction fallacy
B)the compound bias
C)the law of small numbers error
D)satisficing

Question 48

If you make a decision about what most households in the country are like by thinking about what your college friends are like,you are succumbing to the __________ heuristic.

A)representativeness
B)retrieval
C)availability
D)belief bias

Question 49

The simulation heuristic involves __________.

A)running a computer simulation of human cognitive decision making
B)imagining the outcome of your own actions
C)making a model of the event to help your decision making
D)imaging other possible outcomes of an event

Question 50

Judging events as more frequent or important just because they are more familiar in memory illustrates __________.

A)familiarity bias
B)salience bias
C)vividness bias
D)the effect of general world knowledge

Question 51

Two groups of participants read identical stories that differed in their endings: meeting a new person and having the story end in a marriage proposal,a rape scenario,or,as a control,a neutral ending (Carli,1999).People __________.

A)showed no difference in the accuracy of their recall for story elements
B)in both experimental groups reported "being able to predict" how the story would end
C)in both experimental groups illustrated undoing effects
D)showed evidence for semantic congruency effects in recall

Question 52

The anchoring and adjustment effect most likely reflects the __________.

A)representativeness heuristic
B)scope ratio
C)availability heuristic
D)simulation heuristic

Question 53

Making a decision based on ease of retrieval of relevant examples from memory (e.g.,the "words with K in the first/third position" example)is __________.This is an informal approach that can be extremely useful in many situations,but it sometimes produces the wrong answer.

A)representativeness heuristic
B)Bayes' theorem
C)availability heuristic
D)all of the above

Question 54

A German sample was better at (correctly)identifying that San Diego was more populous than San Antonio than a U.S.sample.This result is best described as reflecting __________.

A)the chronic underfunding of the U.S.educational system
B)the recognition heuristic
C)the frequency heuristic
D)the simulation heuristic

Question 55

Stereotypes are a reflection,in part,of the __________ heuristic.

A)availability
B)representativeness
C)belief bias
D)prejudice

Question 56

The argument that there is a central flaw in heuristics and bias research-that it is a mistake to assume that the correct answer to any decision-making problem must be the normative answer supplied by classic probability theory-is __________.

A)counterfactual thinking
B)inductive rationalization
C)adaptive thinking
D)recognition heuristic

Question 57

__________ is(are)defined as people's misconceptions of the physical world,in particular their understanding of the principles of motion.

A)Simulation heuristic
B)Mental models
C)Naïve physics
D)Self-conceptualization of beliefs

Question 58

Recent research suggests that what sort of reasoning might be influencing how people make decisions?

A)political
B)religious
C)temporal
D)causal

Question 59

Kahneman & Tversky (1973)report having people read various personality descriptions and then estimate the likelihood or probability that a person was a member of one or another profession.They report __________.

A)good use of prior odds in the "bare bones" situation
B)that stereotypic information biased the reported likelihood in the direction of the stereotype
C)that worthless information did not bias the reported likelihood; prior probabilities were retained unless the information was consistent with a stereotype
D)that the descriptive model deviated strongly from the normative model

Question 60

In terms of undoing,which is most involved?

A)tending to maintain properties of the main object or focus of the story unless a different focus is provided
B)satisficing
C)the law of small numbers
D)counterfactual thinking driven by availability and frequency effects

Question 61

If a conclusion matches the first mental model derived from the problem,it is particularly easy (and thus likely)to accept the (potentially false)conclusion,leading to fallacies or errors in reasoning.

Question 62

The strongest logical test of a scientific theory is to see if the hypothesized effects are produced in accordance with the theoretical predictions.

Question 63

Denying the consequent leads to a valid inference.

Question 64

The difference in "guestimate" answers for 8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 versus 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8 reveals __________.

A)the prototypicality heuristic
B)the simulation heuristic
C)the availability heuristic
D)the recognition heuristic

Question 65

In judgments of "bigness," "8 vs.12" will be judged more quickly than "8 vs.9."

Question 66

The subjective experience of magnitude is a direct function of the amount of physical stimulation.

Question 67

The "roadrunner effect" (dropping off a cliff)reflects __________.

A)naïve physics
B)ambiguity
C)counterfactual reasoning
D)downhill change

Question 68

Geography questions can show semantic congruity and symbolic distance effects.

Question 69

In general,research evidence indicates that people act as rational decision makers.

Question 70

Affirming the antecedent does not lead to a valid inference.

Question 71

In conditional reasoning,the confirmation bias is a search error.

Question 72

In conditional reasoning,an illicit conversion is a form error.

Question 73

In statistics,we test against the null hypothesis in hopes that our evidence will be inconsistent with the predicted "no effect" outcome.

Question 74

When hypothesis testing with increasingly complex if-then relations,the typical mistake is to search for positive,confirming evidence.

Question 75

Adults often will not demonstrate formal or abstract reasoning processes when presented with abstract problems.

Question 76

The psychological distance between small numbers is compressed relative to the psychological difference between large numbers.)

Question 77

Naïve physics refers to __________.

A)errors in physical reasoning
B)early learning of physical principles
C)counterfactual reasoning
D)our implicit understanding of the physical world

Question 78

It is incorrect to think of human decision making as a search for evidence.

Question 79

Using concrete rather than abstract concepts tends to improve reasoning accuracy.

Question 80

Mental models exist only for concrete systems.