chapter 12

Question 1

deductive reasoning

Answer 1

you begin with some speciic premises that are true, and you need to judge whether those premises allow you to draw a particular conclusion, based on the principles of logic

Question 2

conditional reasoning task

Answer 2

describes the relationship between conditions. Here’s a typical conditional reasoning task:

If a child is allergic to peanuts, then eating peanuts produces a breathing problem.

A child has a breathing problem.

Therefore, this child has eaten peanuts.

Question 3

syllogism

Answer 3

consists of two statements that we must assume to be true, plus a conclusion.

Question 4

propositional calculus

Answer 4

a system for categorizing the four kinds of reasoning used in analyzing propositions or statements.

Question 5

antecedent

Answer 5

the irst proposition or statement; the antecedent is contained in the “if…” part of the sentence.

Question 6

consequent

Answer 6

the proposition that comes second; it is the consequence. The consequent is contained in the “then…” part of the sentence.

Question 7

Afirming the antecedent

Answer 7

Afirming the antecedent means that you say that the “if…” part of the sentence is true. This kind of reasoning leads to a valid, or correct, conclusion.

Question 8

afirming the consequent

Answer 8

means that you say that the “then…” part of the sentence is true. This kind of reasoning leads to an invalid conclusion.

Question 9

denying the antecedent

Answer 9

means that you say that the“if…”part of the sentence is false. Denying the antecedent also leads to an invalid conclusion.

Question 10

Denying the consequent

Answer 10

means that you say that the “then…” part of the sentence is false. This kind of reasoning leads to a correct conclusion.

Question 11

heuristic

Answer 11

a general strategy that usually works well.

Question 12

dual-process theory

Answer 12

which distinguishes between two types of cognitive processing, type 1 and 2.

Question 13

Type 1 processing

Answer 13

Type 1 processing is fast and automatic; it requires little conscious attention.

Question 14

Type 2 processing

Answer 14

is relatively slow and controlled. It requires focused attention,and it is typically more accurate.

Question 15

belief-bias effect

Answer 15

occurs in reasoning when people make judgments based on prior beliefs and general knowledge, rather than on the rules of logic.

Question 16

confirmation bias

Answer 16

they would rather try to conirm or support a hypothesis than try to disprove it. want to confirm antecedent, hesitant to deny consequent.

Question 17

decision making

Answer 17

you must assess available information and choose among two or more alternatives.

Question 18

Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky

Answer 18

proposed that a small number of heuristics guide human decision making. The same strategies that normally guide us toward the correct decision may sometimes lead us astray

Question 19

representative

Answer 19

if it is similar in important characteristics to the population from which it was selected.

Question 20

representativeness heuristic

Answer 20

we judge that a sample is likely if it is similar to the population from which this sample was selected. we believe random looking outcomes are more likely than orderly

Question 21

small-sample fallacy

Answer 21

they assume that a small sam- ple will be representative of the population from which it is selected

Question 22

base rate

Answer 22

how often the item occurs in the population.

Question 23

base-rate fallacy

Answer 23

paying too little attention to important information about base rate.

Question 24

conjunction rule

Answer 24

the probability of the conjunction of two events cannot be larger than the probability of either of its constituent events.

Question 25

conjunction fallacy

Answer 25

they judge the probability of the conjunction of two events to be greater than the probability of either constituent event.

Question 26

how we use the representativeness heuristic.

Answer 26

1. We use the representativeness heuristic when we make decisions based on whether a sample looks similar in important characteristics to the population from which it is selected.
2. The representativeness heuristic is so appealing that we tend to ignore other important characteristics that we should consider, such as sample size and base rate.
3. We also fail to realize that the probability of two events occurring together (e.g., bank teller and feminist) needs to be smaller than the probability of just one of those events (e.g., bank teller).

Question 27

availability heuristic

Answer 27

You use the availability heuristic when you estimate frequency or probability in terms
of how easy it is to think of relevant examples of something

Question 28

remembering heuristics

Answer 28

1. If the problem is based on a judgment about similarity, you are dealing with the representativeness heuristic.
2. If the problem requires you to remember examples, you are dealing with the availability heuristic.

Question 29

recency and availability

Answer 29

we recall recent items, people judge recent items to be more likely than they really are.

Question 30

recognition heuristic

Answer 30

typi- cally operates when you must compare the relative frequency of two categories; if you recognize one category, but not the other, you conclude that the recognized category has the higher frequency.

Question 31

illusory correlation

Answer 31

occurs when people believe that two variables are statistically related, even though there is no actual evidence for this relationship.

Question 32

social cognition approach

Answer 32

stereotypes can be traced to our normal cognitive processes. In the case of illusory correlations, an important cognitive factor is the availability heuristic.

Question 33

framing effect

Answer 33

demonstrates that the outcome of your decision can be inlu- enced by two factors: (1) The background context of the choice and (2) the way in which a question is worded—or framed

Question 34

Overconidence

Answer 34

means that your conidence judgments are higher than they should be, based on your actual performance on the task.

Question 35

crystal-ball technique

Answer 35

asks decision makers to imagine that a completely accurate crystal ball has determined that their favored hypothesis is actually incorrect; the decision makers must, therefore, search for alternative explanations for the outcome

Question 36

The beliefs that gay people tend to have psychological problems, that blondes tend
not to be very intelligent, and that paranoid people draw faces with exaggerated
eyes are all mainly examples of:

Answer 36

illusory correlation.

Question 37

A person estimates the population of Tokyo, based on what she knows about the
population of New York City, taking into account that she thinks Tokyo is a slightly
larger city. Which heuristic is she using?

Answer 37

anchoring and adjustment.

Question 38

The planning fallacy is the common tendency to:

Answer 38

a) underestimate the amount of time or money needed to complete a project.

Question 39

People are overconfident in what they could have predicted had they made a judgment
before knowing an actual outcome. That is, they overestimate the accuracy
with which they would have predicted an event had they been asked to do so. This
is called the:

Answer 39

hindsight bias.

Question 40

One important factor that sometimes leads to distortions in frequency estimates based on the availability heuristic is:

Answer 40

The amount of media coverage of a topic.

Question 41

Suppose you are going to buy a new car and the first price that is mentioned is $21,499. According to the anchoring heuristic, the most likely final price is

Answer 41

$21,273

Question 42

Research on the framing effect reveals that people:

Answer 42

Are influenced by background context, as well as the way in which a question is worded.

Question 43

People use anchoring and adjustment processes when they estimate confidence intervals. This may lead them to:

Answer 43

Give confidence intervals that are overly narrow.

Question 44

A person estimates the population of Tokyo, based on what she knows about the population of New York City, taking into account that she thinks Tokyo is a slightly larger city. Which heuristic is she using?

Answer 44

Anchoring and adjustment.

Question 45

In one study, people were asked to estimate the length of the Mississippi River after they answered a question: “Is it longer than 500 miles?” or “Is it longer than 5,000 miles?” Estimates were much smaller in the former case than in the latter case, suggesting that the estimate was influenced by:

Answer 45

An anchor.

Question 46

The beliefs that gay people tend to have psychological problems, that blondes tend not to be very intelligent, and that paranoid people draw faces with exaggerated eyes are all mainly examples of:

Answer 46

Illusory correlation.

Question 47

The availability heuristic can be biased by

Answer 47

Both recency and familiarity

Question 48

With the representativeness heuristic, we

Answer 48

Judge a sample to be more likely if it is similar to the population from which it was selected.

Question 49

Our problem-solving ability is biased, as described by

Answer 49

Both the belief-bias and the confirmation- bias effects.

Question 50

Consider the following reasoning: “If Frank’s car started, then he went to town. Frank’s car did not start. Therefore, Frank did not go to town.” Many people will accept the conclusion as being logical because they committed an error called:

Answer 50

Denying the antecedent.

Question 51

In the dual-process theory of problem solving,

Answer 51

Type 1 processing requires little conscious attention.

Question 52

A major way in which tasks requiring decision making differ from tasks requiring deductive reasoning is that the decision-making area:

Answer 52

Is much more ambiguous.

Cannot be handled by using heuristics.

Is much less common in real life.