Decision Making

Question 1

People make decisions that maximize ___ and minimize ___.

Answer 1

Benefit, Risk.

Question 2

Prospect Theory.

Answer 2

Argues that people choose to take on risk when evaluating potential losses and avoiding risks when evaluating potential gains. Tversky and Kahneman.

Question 3

Identify and describe the two phases of decision making:

Answer 3

Phase 1: Simplify available information.

Phase 2: Choose the prospect (what offers best value).

Question 4

Certainty Effect.

Answer 4

When making a decision, people give greater weight to outcomes that are a sure thing. Certainty over expected payoffs. Choosing discount over payoffs.

Question 5

Frequency Format Hypothesis.

Answer 5

Our minds evolved to notice how frequently things occur, not how likely they are to occur.

Question 6

Means-End Analysis.

Answer 6

Developed by Karl Dunker, refers to a process searching for the means or steps to reduce the differences between the current situation and the desired goal.

Question 7

Analogical problem solving states that successful problem solving depends on…

Answer 7

Learning the underlying principles.

Question 8

Flashes of insight help us…

Answer 8

Reconstruct the problem.

Question 9

Gestalt psychologists believed a flash of insight meant the…

Answer 9

Spontaneous reconstructing of a problem.

Question 10

What did Metcalfe and Wiebe find regarding flashes of insight?

Answer 10

People are more likely to solve an insight problem if they felt they were gradually getting closer, but incremental steps did not predict the likelihood of solving the ptoblem.

Question 11

What did Bowers, Regehr, Balthazard, and Parker find regarding flashes of insight?

Answer 11

Insightful problem solving is an incremental process (priming leads to flash of insight).

Question 12

What are the steps leading up to flashes of insight?

Answer 12

1. Activation of relavent information.
2. Recruiting of additional information.
3. Activating sufficient information.
4. Crosses awareness threshold.
5. Flash of Insight.

Question 13

Functional Fixedness.

Answer 13

When we see something one way, it is hard for us to imagine it can be used in another way (candle, matchbox, and tacks).

Question 14

Reasoning.

Answer 14

A mental activity that consists of organizing information or beliefs into a series of steps to reach conclusions.

Question 15

Practical Reasoning.

Answer 15

Figuring out what to do, or reasoning directed towards action.

Question 16

Theoretical Reasoning.

Answer 16

Reasoning directed towards arriving at a belief.

Question 17

Belief Bias.

Answer 17

People’s judgements about whether to accept conclusions depends more on how believable the conclusions are than on whether the arguments are logically valid.

Question 18

Syllogic Reasoning.

Answer 18

Determining whether a conclusion follows from two statements that are assumed tto be true.
Major Premise- All mortals die.
Minor Premise- All humans are mortals.
Conclusion- All humans die.

Question 19

Belief-Laden Syllogism.

Answer 19

Syllogism provides opportunity to use knowledge to influence believability of conclusion.

Question 20

Belief-Neutral Syllogism.

Answer 20

Syllogism did not provide opportunity to use knowledge to influence believability of conclusion.