Deck 11: Decisions, Judgments, and Reasoning

Question 1

In reasoning, the tendency to search for evidence that confirms a conclusion:

A) Confirmation bias
B) Modus ponens
C) Modus tollens
D) Anchoring and adjustment heuristic

Answer 1

Confirmation bias

Question 2

Consider the following problem. What does it represent?
All A are B.
Some B are C.
Thus, some A are C.

A) Logically valid syllogism
B) Invalid syllogism
C) Confirm the antecedent
D) Illicit conversion

Answer 2

Invalid syllogism

Question 3

Which of the following reflects valid conditional reasoning?

A) Deny the antecedent
B) Symbolic comparison
C) Modus ponens
D) Affirming the consequent

Answer 3

Modus ponens

Question 4

Matty and Gloria are out on a date. When Gloria asks Matty where they should go for dinner,he says "I keep hearing about a new Italian restaurant near here, so it must be a great place to eat." Matty is:

A) Showing a confirmation bias
B) Using an availability heuristic
C) Using counterfactual reasoning
D) Using a simulation heuristic

Question 5

The Wason card problem is an example of:

A) A mental model
B) Conditional reasoning
C) Availability bias
D) Modus ponens

Question 6

In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the point at which children begin to go from concrete to formal operations is:

A) Two
B) Four
C) Eight
D) Twelve

Question 7

Which is true of judgments of number magnitude?

A) The smaller 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 not affected by semantic congruity.
D) When people make mental comparisons and judgments of purely symbolic quantities, there is a pronounced semantic distance effect.

Question 8

Using the following picture and asking "Which {balloon // yo-yo} is higher"(the example from the textbook) will illustrate:

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

Question 9

When scientists were given evidence that their original theory was wrong:

A) An equal number did/did not alter their theory
B) The majority kept to their original beliefs
C) Nobody took any notice
D) The majority altered their theory

Question 10

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 11

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 12

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% of the babies born will be male." The correct answer is ________.

A) The "45" hospital
B) The "15" hospital
C) There is an equal chance of either
D) Neither hospital will have more than 50% males born

Question 13

Kahneman & Tversky (1973) report having participants 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) Stereotypic information biased the reported likelihood in the direction of the stereotype
C) Worthless information did not bias the reported likelihood; prior probabilities were retained unless the information was consistent with a stereotype.
D) The descriptive model deviated strongly from the normative model

Question 14

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). This is an informal approach that can be extremely useful in many situations, but which sometimes produces the wrong answer.

A) Representativeness heuristic
B) Bayes' theorem
C) Availability heuristic
D) Confirmation bias

Question 15

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:

A) Counterfactual thinking
B) Inductive rationalization
C) Adaptive thinking
D) Paradoxically called the "recognition heuristic"

Question 16

Katy is 26, loves the snow and being outdoors, and is very athletic. If someone immediately thinks that Katy must be a ski instructor who loves to hike, they have fallen victim to:

A) The representative heuristic
B) The conjunction fallacy
C) The availability heuristic
D) The simulation heuristic

Question 17

If a coin is tossed eight times, which of the following is most likely to occur?
HHHHTTTT
HTHTHTHT

A) HHHHTTTT
B) HTHTHTH
C) Both are equally likely to occur
D) They will occur on alternate tosses

Question 18

When a concrete version of the Wason card problem is compared to an abstract version:

A) Performance is better on the concrete version
B) Performance is better on the abstract version
C) Performance is the same on both versions
D) Performing the abstract version helps performance on the concrete version

Question 19

Which of the following is implicated in limitations that lead to incorrect reasoning and decision making?

A) Not using a mental model
B) The semantic congruity effect
C) Psychophysics
D) Limitations in working memory processes

Question 20

In general, people's performance on syllogisms becomes worse when they are shown how to use Venn diagrams.

Question 21

Research suggests that working memory is not necessary for good reasoning and decision making.

Question 22

In everyday reasoning we rely on mental models of the device or event to make our judgments. These models are usually very accurate.

Question 23

In the statement "If it rains, then the picnic will be cancelled", the ________ is "If it rains".

Question 24

A ________ heuristic is when you decide between alternatives based on the first useful information you retrieve about the alternatives.

Question 25

In psychophysics, the amount by which two stimuli must differ so that the difference can be perceived is called ________.

Question 26

The notion of ________ refers to the fact that it is often preferable to select a satisfactory answer to a question rather than taking the time and effort to search for the optimal answer.

Question 27

When might you use a Venn diagram? What would be particularly important to keep in mind? [Use an example.]

Question 28

Describe the research by Fugelsang and colleagues showing that even scientists are prone to the confirmation bias. Be sure to include the neuroimaging findings in your discussion.

Question 29

Define, and use examples to illustrate, the semantic distance effect and the semantic congruity effect.