Question 1

Following the September 11, 2001, Twin Towers attacks, many Americans elected to drive rather than fly: The media coverage of the hijackings caused Americans to overestimate the danger of flying. This example illustrates:

Accepted Answer

The availability heuristic is at play here because people judged the risk of flying based on how easily they could recall examples of aviation disasters, which were made more memorable by the extensive media coverage of the September 11 attacks.

Question 2

An advertising agency creates advertisements containing bright colors, plenty of motion, and unexpected events. A psychologist might remark that the advertisements contain________ objects.

Accepted Answer

Salient objects or features in advertisements are those that stand out and grab attention, which is consistent with the use of bright colors, plenty of motion, and unexpected events.

Question 3

Stereotypes spring to mind easily. Therefore, we sometimes use them to judge the frequency of certain events such as crimes in a given neighborhood. This example BEST describes the use of the ________ heuristic.

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. In this case, stereotypes that come to mind easily influence judgments about the frequency of events, such as crimes in a neighborhood, illustrating the use of the availability heuristic.

Question 4

Psychologists sometimes use the adjective _________ to refer to things that attract our attention.

Accepted Answer

The term "salient" is used by psychologists to describe things that stand out and attract our attention due to their prominence or significance.

Question 5

Your text states that the salience of a gun draws a witness' attention away from the face of the perpetrator, reducing the witness' ability to later identify the perpetrator. This suggests that the effect of the weapon occurred mainly during:

Accepted Answer

The effect of the weapon drawing attention away from the perpetrator's face impacts the initial observation and memory formation phase, which is the encoding stage. This is when the witness is first observing the event and encoding the details into memory.

Question 6

The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Princess Diana's death. The 1986 Challenger explosion. People's memories for the moment in which they learned of these events are termed ________ memories.

Accepted Answer

Flashbulb memories are vivid, detailed memories of significant events, where people often remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they learned of the event.

Question 7

When people are asked which is more common, death by homicide or death by stroke, they often choose homicide because they simply hear more about murders than they do about strokes. In this instance, people are led astray in their judgments by:

Accepted Answer

This is an example of the availability heuristic, where people estimate the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples of it come to mind. In this case, because homicides are more frequently reported in the media than strokes, people mistakenly believe homicides are more common.

Question 8

Joanne will not go out at night because she hears from her local news station about the large number of muggings and robberies that occur in her city. However, crime in Joanne's city has actually gone down in the past few years. To which bias is Joanne falling victim

Accepted Answer

Joanne is falling victim to the availability heuristic, which 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. In this case, the frequent news reports about muggings and robberies in her city make these events seem more common than they actually are, influencing her perception of the city's safety.

Question 9

When you use the representativeness heuristic, you are

Accepted Answer

The representativeness heuristic involves basing judgments on the extent to which an event or situation is similar to one's stereotypes or expectations about the category to which that event or situation belongs.

Question 10

Which of the following is the best definition of the cognitive accessibility

Accepted Answer

Cognitive accessibility refers to the ease with which certain information is activated in memory and thus likely to be used in judgment.

Question 11

Which of the following alternatives best expresses psychologist Elizabeth Loftus' position on the validity of recovered memories

Accepted Answer

Elizabeth Loftus' research primarily focuses on the malleability of human memory and how suggestions can lead to the creation of false memories. She argues that recovered memories, especially those recovered through certain therapeutic techniques, can be unreliable and often false, reflecting confusion about the source of the memory rather than an accurate recollection of events.

Question 12

Which of the following is the best definition of the counterfactual thinking

Accepted Answer

Counterfactual thinking involves considering alternative realities and outcomes that did not happen, essentially thinking about what "might have been".

Question 13

We are often prone to make judgments on the extent to which the things we observe match our expectations of what we think things should be like while ignoring the mathematical probabilities of their occurrence. This error is known as the

Accepted Answer

The representativeness heuristic is a mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgment by comparing an object or event to a prototype of the object or event. It often leads to errors because it ignores the actual statistical probability of the observed outcome.

Question 14

Melinda is computing the correlation coefficient between scores on measure of eyewitness confidence and scores on a measure of eyewitness accuracy. What sort of relationship do you think she'll find

Accepted Answer

Research has shown that there is often a weak relationship between eyewitness confidence and eyewitness accuracy, meaning confidence is not a reliable predictor of accuracy.

Question 15

Last week, Mike heard about five separate airplane crashes on the news. Even though, overall, motorcycle accidents account for more accidents than plane crashes do, Mike decides to ride his motorcycle from Washington to Atlanta instead of flying. Which bias is reflected in Mike's decision

Accepted Answer

Mike's decision reflects the availability heuristic, which 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. Hearing about the plane crashes recently makes those events more memorable and impactful, leading him to overestimate the risk of flying compared to riding a motorcycle, despite statistical evidence to the contrary.

Question 16

A judgment strategy in which one uses the ease with which examples come to mind as the basis for judging how common events really are is called the _______ heuristic.

Accepted Answer

The availability heuristic involves using the ease with which examples come to mind as a basis for judging how common events really are, so choice A is the correct answer. The representativeness heuristic involves judging the likelihood of an event based on how similar it is to existing prototypes or stereotypes. The confirmation heuristic involves seeking information that confirms pre-existing beliefs or expectations. The frequency heuristic is not a commonly recognized heuristic in psychology.

Question 17

Loftus et al. (1987) found that the presence of a weapon in a crime scene reduced participants' ability to later identify the perpetrator. This finding reflects the role of ________ in memory.

Accepted Answer

The presence of a weapon in a crime scene draws attention and becomes highly salient, distracting witnesses from other details, such as the perpetrator's appearance. This phenomenon is known as the "weapon focus" effect, illustrating the role of salience in memory.

Question 18

Flashbulb memories:

Accepted Answer

The answer of Flashbulb memories:
...

Question 19

Which of the following is the best definition of the representativeness heuristic

Accepted Answer

The representativeness heuristic is a mental shortcut that involves making judgments based on how much one thing resembles another or matches a stereotype. It is about comparing the information at hand to our mental prototypes or expectations.

Question 20

Which of the following is the best definition of the availability heuristic

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, individuals tend to overestimate the importance and frequency of easily recalled items.

Quiz 8: Remembering and Judging