Question 1

Phineas Gage suffered damage to his ______ that resulted in an inability to plan for the future and to conduct himself according to social rules.

Accepted Answer

Phineas Gage suffered damage to his prefrontal cortex, which is known to be involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. This injury led to significant changes in his personality and behavior, illustrating the role of the prefrontal cortex in these functions.

Question 2

Of the following,which should always produce a logically certain conclusion?

Accepted Answer

Deductive reasoning, when correctly applied, starts with premises assumed to be true and uses logical steps to arrive at a conclusion that must be true if the premises are true. This process ensures a logically certain conclusion, unlike inductive or other forms of reasoning that might only suggest probable conclusions.

Question 3

Participants in a decision-making study in which they had to decide among 6 or 12 apartments often eliminated some alternatives on the basis of one or two dimensions.This is an example of the strategy called ______.

Accepted Answer

The strategy called "elimination by aspects" involves participants eliminating options based on one or two key dimensions or aspects, rather than evaluating all aspects of all options simultaneously. This approach simplifies decision-making, especially when faced with multiple alternatives.

Question 4

A ______ table shows all possible algorithmic outcomes of a propositional reasoning problem.

Accepted Answer

A truth table is used to show all possible outcomes of a propositional reasoning problem by listing all possible truth values of the propositions involved and the resulting truth value of the overall expression.

Question 5

______ effects shows that participants are more likely to affirm a syllogistic conclusion if it matches their starting assumptions.

Accepted Answer

Believability effects occur when individuals are more likely to accept a conclusion as true if it aligns with their pre-existing beliefs or assumptions, even in the context of logical reasoning tasks like syllogisms.

Question 6

______ is a normative model for integrating different dimensions and goals of a complex decision.

Accepted Answer

MAUT, which stands for Multi-Attribute Utility Theory, is a normative model that integrates different dimensions and goals of a complex decision by considering multiple criteria for decision-making.

Question 7

Expert decision-makers may rely on intuition and mental simulation,according to the ______ model.

Accepted Answer

The recognition-primed decision-making model suggests that expert decision-makers use their experience to recognize patterns and scenarios, allowing them to make decisions quickly and effectively by using intuition and mental simulation to evaluate options.

Question 8

______ theory assumes that people rarely go through a formal structuring process in making real-life decisions,but instead do most of their work through a pre-choice screening of options.

Accepted Answer

The answer of ______ theory assumes that people rarely go...

Question 9

Of the following,which does NOT lead to a probabilistic conclusion?

Accepted Answer

Deductive reasoning leads to conclusions that are logically certain, rather than probabilistic. It starts with a general statement or hypothesis and examines the possibilities to reach a specific, logical conclusion.

Question 10

Heuristics are to ______ illusions as the Ponzo illusion is to ______ illusions.

Accepted Answer

Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts or rules of thumb, while the Ponzo illusion is a visual or perceptual illusion.

Question 11

According to Cosmides' social contract theory,college students should best be able to perform best on which version of the Wason selection task?

Accepted Answer

Cosmides' social contract theory suggests that humans are particularly adept at reasoning about situations involving social exchanges or contracts, especially those that involve detecting cheaters or violations of social rules. The version of the Wason selection task involving students trying to unfairly gain admission to the university (C) directly taps into this evolutionary adaptation by presenting a scenario where social rules could be violated, making it the situation where college students should perform best according to the theory.

Question 12

Which of the following has NOT been shown to influence syllogistic reasoning?

Accepted Answer

Desirability has not been shown to influence syllogistic reasoning. Syllogistic reasoning is more affected by how a problem is phrased, the content of the problem, and the individual's understanding of the terms and structure of the syllogism, rather than by what outcomes are desired.

Question 13

When making a complex decision such as choosing 1 of 10 different apartments to rent,participants ______.

Accepted Answer

When faced with complex decisions, such as choosing an apartment from many options, individuals often simplify the process by eliminating options that have one or a few undesirable characteristics, rather than evaluating all alternatives comprehensively. This approach helps manage the cognitive load and makes the decision-making process more manageable.

Question 14

Which of the following heuristics most closely would be associated with the phrase,"I knew it all along!"

Accepted Answer

The answer of Which of the following heuristics most closely...

Question 15

Deductive reasoning leads to ______ conclusions,while inductive reasoning leads to ______ conclusions.

Accepted Answer

Deductive reasoning, when correctly applied, leads to certain conclusions because it starts with general principles or premises to reach a specific conclusion. Inductive reasoning, on the other hand, makes broad generalizations from specific observations, leading to probabilistic conclusions that are not guaranteed to be true in all cases.

Question 16

The availability heuristic functions on which principle?

Accepted Answer

The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision. The principle is that if something can be recalled, it must be important, or at least more important than alternative solutions which are not as readily recalled. Hence, things that are more easily remembered are assumed to occur more often.

Question 17

Patients with prefrontal cortex damage tend to show deficits in their ______.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Patients with prefrontal cortex damage tend to...

Question 18

Based on principles of overconfidence,you'd expect that a participant with ______ confidence to have ______ accuracy.

Accepted Answer

Overconfidence is a cognitive bias where an individual's subjective confidence in their judgments is reliably greater than their objective accuracy, especially when confidence is relatively high. Thus, a participant with 80% confidence might only have 60% accuracy, illustrating overconfidence.

Question 19

What is a concern in using a truth table to come to a conclusion for a propositional reasoning problem?

Accepted Answer

Truth tables indeed face scalability issues as the number of propositions increases. For each additional proposition, the number of rows in the table doubles, leading to exponential growth. This makes truth tables impractical for complex problems with many propositions.

Question 20

A ______ curve shows the degree to which participants' confidence matches against their accuracy in any given task.

Accepted Answer

A calibration curve is used to demonstrate the relationship between an individual's confidence and their actual accuracy or performance on a task, showing how well their self-assessment matches with their true ability or knowledge.

Quiz 12: Reasoning and Decision Making