chapter 8.2

Question 1

what is problem solving?

Answer 1

accomplishing a goal when the solution or the path to the solution is not clear

Question 2

what are the 2 kinds of problem solving?

Answer 2

algorithms
heuristics

Question 3

what are algorithms?

Answer 3

problem solving strategies based on a series of rules

Question 4

what are heuristics?

Answer 4

problem solving strategies that stem from prior experiences and provide and educated guess as to what is the most likely solution

Question 5

what are the overall goals of both algorithms and heuristics?

Answer 5

to find an accurate solution to the problem as efficiently as possible

Question 6

what are cognitive problems?

Answer 6

problems that it is difficult to use algorithms or heuristics to solve

Question 7

what is a mental set?

Answer 7

a cognitive obstacle that occurs when an individual attempts to apply a routine solution to what is actually a new type of problem

Question 8

what is functional fixedness?

Answer 8

occurs when an individual identifies an object or technique that could potentially solve a problem

Question 9

what is the conjunction fallacy?

Answer 9

reflects the mistaken belief that finding a specific member in 2 overlapping categories is more likely than finding any member of one of the larger, general categories

Question 10

linda is a 31 your old single outspoken woman who takes an interest in women’s issues, is it more likely that she is a bank teller or a bank teller and a feminist?

Answer 10

a bank teller, because it is more likely that she is part of the larger group of bank tellers instead of apart of the group of bankrollers who are also feminists, this is an example of the conjunction fallacy

Question 11

what does the conjunction fallacy demonstrate?

Answer 11

the use of the representativeness heuristic

Question 12

what is the representativeness heuristic?

Answer 12

making judgments of the liklihood on how well an example represents a specific category

Question 13

what is an example of representativeness heuristic?

Answer 13

in the bank teller question, there are no characteristics that seem typical of a bank teller so you think she would be a feminist because she has traits of a feminist

Question 14

what is the availability heuristic?

Answer 14

entails estimating the frequency of an event based on how easily examples of it comes to mind

Question 15

what is an example of availability heuristic?

Answer 15

researchers asked volunteers which was more frequent in the English language: A) words that start with K
B) words that have K as the third letter

most chose A because they could think of more words that began with K

Question 16

is the method of “availability heuristic” always accurate?

Answer 16

no it is sometimes incorrect but it is quick and mostly correct

Question 17

what is the anchoring effect?

Answer 17

occurs when an individual attempts to solve a problem involving numbers and uses previous knowledge to keep the response within a limited range

Question 18

what is an example of the anchoring effect?

Answer 18

imagine that you are asked to name the year that British Columbia became part of canada, you would think when canada became a country in 1867 and that would become an anchor for your answer

Question 19

is the anchoring effect more effective when it is done artificially through the question or if the individual does it?

Answer 19

when the individual does it

Question 20

what is belief perseverance?

Answer 20

when an individual remains committed to their decision or belief even in the face of evidence against it

Question 21

what is an example of belief perseverance?

Answer 21

trump fans not believing anything negative about trump

Question 22

what is the conformation bias?

Answer 22

when individuals search for or pay attention to only evidence that will conform their beliefs instead of evidence that might disconfirm them

Question 23

what are the 2 kinds of cognitive bias?

Answer 23

belief perseverance
conformation bias

Question 24

what is an example of conformation bias?

Answer 24

a trump fan only listening to fox or right with media outlets