Mystery Box!
What is the sunk cost effect?
Investing additional resources to justify a previous commitment that has so far proved unsuccessful
What's the difference between knowledge-rich and knowledge lean problems?
Knowledge-rich problems can only be solved by those with relevant knowledge or expertise, whereas knowledge-lean problems do not require high levels of prior knowledge with most of the required information contained in the initial statement of problem.
Why might people incorrectly assume that more people are killed by sharks than falling aeroplane parts?
Examples of shark attacks are more easily retrieved due to increased media/publicity/awareness, creating an availability heuristic/bias
Christmas is always on the 25th of December; today is the 25th of December, therefore it must be Christmas.
What type of reasoning is this?
Deductive reasoning
What is prospect theory?
Describes how individuals are risk/loss averse and therefore assess their loss and gain asymmetrically, in which losses are greater than their equivalent gain.
What is the difference between well-defined and ill-defined problems?
With well-defined problems all aspects of the problem are clearly specified and the goal is well specified, whereas an ill-defined problem is underspecified, with endless possible strategies.
What heuristic occurs in the Linda problem?
Conjunction fallacy
Give an example of linear syllogistic reasoning.
You are taller than John; John is taller than Bill; Therefore you are taller than Bill.
What does the affect heuristic suggest?
Emotion can influence decision-making
Happy moods can create fast, top-down heuristic processing, whereas sad moods create detail-oriented, critical, bottom-up processing.
If I rely heavily on "rules of thumb" when decision making to avoid the extra effort of using relevant evidence and critically thinking through a problem, what type of cognitive behaviour am I showing?
Cognitive miserliness
Describe the take-the-best heuristic.
A shortcut to quickly decide, based on only one cue, between alternatives with minimal info about each.
Three components:
Search Rule: Look through cues and evaluate which one will allow for fast but accurate decisions
Stopping Rule: Stop when you encounter the first cue that will differentiate between alternatives
Decision rule: Make a decision based on which scores better according to the chosen cue.
Some exams are easy.
Some exams are short.
Therefore some exams are short and easy.
What type of reasoning is this?
Categorical Syllogistic Reasoning - Affirmative Particular
(Also, wishful)
If I am studying, then I am tired. I am not studying, therefore I am not tired.
What type of reasoning is this?
Deduction - conditional reasoning.
Denial of the antecedent (invalid inference)
I plan to become a clinical psychologist, but to do that first I have to finish my third year exams.
What type of problem solving strategy am I using?
Means-end analysis
If there are two candidates in an election, one I have heard of and one I haven't heard of before, and I select the one whose name I know, what heuristic am I likely using?
Recognition heuristic
If I am studying, then I am tired. I am studying, therefore, I am tired.
What type of reasoning is this?
Deduction - Conditional Reasoning
Modus Ponens (valid inference)
If a used car salesman offers a car at a very high price, what is the likely outcome for the sales price and why?
Price will likely end up being higher than it otherwise would, due to anchoring and adjustment bias
What is the difference between reproductive thinking and productive thinking?
Reproductive thinking involves the systematic reuse of previous experiences, whereas productive thinking involves a novel restructuring of the problem and is more complex.
Describe Dual-Process Theory.
Proposes that thinking is characterised by the action of two systems with distinctive cognitive processes.
System/Type 1: fast, automatic, unconscious, implicit and effortless, context dependent and the processes are supposed to run in parallel. Associative/Heuristic based.
System/Type 2: slow, controlled, conscious, explicit, effortful, evidence based and demanding of working memory. Responsive to education, deductive/rule based
How does the Wason Selection task work?
Participant must decide which card to flip to test the rule. Requires modus ponens/modus tollens affirming/denying to solve