Deck 7: Section 1 : Heuristics and Shortcuts: Efficiency in Inference and Decision Making

Question 1

According to the literature, which of the following is likely to be a result of imagining a hypothetical future event?
a. The event will seem more likely
b. The event will later be recalled more vividly
c. Both A and B
d. None of the above

Answer 1

The event will seem more likely

Question 2

A person who typically tries to avoid negative outcomes is most likely to be motivated by which of the following message frames?
a. Gain frame
b. Loss frame
c. Inhibitory frame
d. None of the above

Answer 2

Loss frame

Question 3

Which of the following best describes what is referred to as the "empathy gap"?
a. People base their understanding of others' emotional states on what they know of their own; therefore, judgments about others can be biased and inaccurate
b. It is easier to understand and relate to the emotional reactions of ingroup members than outgroup members
c. People in a cognition-based state cannot easily imagine motivations and behaviors of those in an affect-based state
d. The degree to which people attribute their own behaviors to emotional states is greater than the degree to which they make similar attributions for others

Answer 3

People in a cognition-based state can easily imagine motivations and behaviors of those in an affect-based state

Question 4

If someone says "You're sure to get into a top law school; you were ranked first in our class in college!", what mistake has this person made?
a. Ignoring the predictive value
b. Ignoring the sample size
c. Ignoring the base rate
d. Both A and C

Question 5

Which of the following is an important influence on decision making, according to prospect theory?
a. Reference point
b. Decision framing
c. Subjective value
d. All of the above

Question 6

You decide to take a beach getaway next weekend for some sunshine and relaxation. You're unsure of where to go, but you want the weather to be perfect. South Beach has had sunny weather for 8 of the past 10 days, and North Beach had sunshine for 17 of the past 28 days. Which location should you choose?
a. South Beach
b. North Beach
c. Both beaches are equally good choices
d. Neither beach is a good choice

Question 7

If you are asked whether or not more Americans are buying hybrid cars this year than last year, and you respond "yes" because five of your closest friends recently purchased hybrid cars, which of the following heuristics are you utilizing?
a. Availability
b. Representativeness
c. Simulation
d. Anchoring

Question 8

Imagine you are a very shy person. You meet someone new and judge that person to be extremely loud and extraverted. Your friend, who tends to be loud and boisterous, judges that same new person to be rather quiet and reserved. These judgments are likely an example of which of the following?
a. Correspondence bias
b. Anchoring and adjustment
c. Mental simulation
d. None of the above

Question 9

If you were an Olympic sprinter, wanting to improve your performance in an upcoming race, which of the following mental techniques would be the best way to do so?
a. Focusing on the other runners and imagining how competitive they will be
b. Focusing on yourself, emphasizing your very best athletic qualities
c. Imagining yourself training, working hard to build up your fitness and speed
d. Seeing yourself crossing the finish line first and being handed a big trophy

Question 10

A student completing a psychology study

Question 11

Imagine you see a person who is extraverted, personable, skilled at leading groups, excellent at public speaking, and good at raising money. You quickly judge this person to be a politician. Which of the following processes are you most likely to be using as a basis for your judgment?
a. Availability heuristic
b. Base rate estimates
c. Representativeness heuristic
d. Simulation heuristic

Question 12

Which of the following is the best example of a manifold heuristic?
a. Color-coding incoming emails based on urgency
b. Deciding not to go to unknown Italian restaurants, because most of the ones in the area are not very good
c. Guessing how someone would react in a situation by imagining yourself and how you would react in that situation
d. Reading the headlines of a newspaper and reading the full articles for only the most interesting topics

Question 13

If you are familiar with national statistics showing that 95% of students with your qualifications eventually end up with a tenured position, but you still feel like your own chances of tenure are slim, which of the following might best describe your decision processes?
a. Failure to adequately adjust from an initial anchor
b. Ignoring base-rate information
c. Conjunction fallacy
d. None of the above

Question 14

After receiving numerous resumes for an open position, a human resources manager evaluates resumes only until she has found a suitable candidate, even though she has not looked over all of the resumes submitted. Which of the following would best describe the manager?
a. Optimizer
b. Satisficer
c. Risk seeker
d. Both B and C

Question 15

Which of the following best describes what is meant by counterfactual reasoning?
a. Mental simulation of how events might have occurred differently
b. Assessments of the statistical probability of possible outcomes
c. Reasoning based on affective states and not logical deduction
d. Anticipating how one will feel after taking a particular action

Question 16

Which of the following best describes why objective information can be interpreted differently based on the way it is framed?
a. The framing affects the degree to which individuals adjust from their initial interpretive anchor
b. Individuals interpret base-rates differently depending on the salience of the information being interpreted
c. The research on these framing effects is mixed - there is not strong evidence to support consistent differences
d. Researchers do not yet know what psychological mechanisms underlie framing effects

Question 17

According to temporal construal theory, which of the following would be most likely to be considered in abstract terms?
a. Hypothetical events
b. Events that are currently happening
c. Events in the recent past
d. Events in the distant future

Question 18

Which of the following is an incorrect statement about heuristics, the shortcuts that people use for judgments under uncertainty to reduce complex problem solving to simpler judgmental operations?
a. Heuristics were first detailed by Tversky and Kahneman, who created a profile of primary heuristics that all people use.
b. Though heuristics function to reduce complex problem solving to simpler judgmental operations, these shortcuts are inherently fallible and generally produce incorrect, biased

Question 19

Which of the following would best describes what is meant by "utility," according to the expected utility model?
a. The value of an outcome and the likelihood of it happening
b. The amount of money to be gained by a behavior
c. The usefulness of a given behavioral pattern
d. The product of an individual's goals and expectations

Question 20

Bayes' theorem is based primarily on which of the following?
a. Representativeness of particular exemplars
b. Statistical base rates
c. Salience of colorful examples
d. Anchoring and adjustment

Question 21

Which of the following describes an advantage of counterfactual thoughts?
a. Serves a preparatory function for future instances
b. Helps people in stressful situations feel better by imaging how much worse their situation could be
c. Provides meaning for pivotal life events via finding benefits and crediting fate
d. All of the above

Question 22

Which of the following is NOT an explanation for conjunction effects?
a. Conjunction explanations provide more detailed information about goals, which tends to be seen as more informative
b. Conjunction explanations fit well-developed ideas that we have already constructed, making those ideas seem more likely
c. Conjunction explanations rule out alternative explanations for behavior
d. None of the above

Question 23

If a commercial advertises a prescription drug by emphasizing the possible benefit of this drug rather than the numerous side-effects of its use, which of the following would best describe the effect that the advertisers are utilizing?
a. Framing
b. Anchoring and adjustment
c. Illusory correlation
d. Wishful thinking

Question 24

Which of the following describes the type of illusory correlation that results from seeing two items as belonging together because they fit prior experiences?
a. Paired distinctiveness
b. Prior significance
c. Associative meaning
d. None of the above

Question 25

Which of the following is NOT addressed through the use of the simulation heuristic?
a. Predicting whether or not your parents will approve of your new boyfriend
b. Questioning which of your roommates is to blame for the dishes in the sink
c. Narrowly missing your flight and regretting the fact that you stopped for a cup of coffee on the way to the airport
d. Deciding to buy several shares in a particular stock after reading about someone who got rich by investing in the same company

Question 26

Which of the following best explains the results of the Asian disease problem that was presented in this chapter?
a. Framing
b. Reference point
c. Subjective value function
d. All of the above

Question 27

Which of the following NOT required to assess covariation?
a. Sampling cases
b. Classifying instances as to type of evidence
c. Understanding what data are relevant
d. Procuring the proper graphing calculator

Question 28

Research to support this phenomenon includes that which shows 3-5 year olds to substitute the correct

Question 29

Which of the following most accurately how people tend to test hypotheses about a relationship between variables?
a. By gathering evidence that does not support the hypothesis
b. By gathering evidence that supports the hypothesis
c. By gathering as much evidence as possible that either supports or does not support the hypothesis
d. By neglecting to gather evidence and following intuition

Question 30

When interviewing for a job, your potential employer asks what you would like your starting salary to be. You respond with a high number, and you eventually agree on a salary that is much higher than you anticipated. What heuristic did you hope that your employer would utilize?
a. Representativeness
b. Anchoring and adjusting
c. Availability
d. Simulation