Intro 1-Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
What was the key part of cognitive psychology in the 1880’s?
Wilhelm Wundt and structuralism
What did Wundt/structuralism look at?
Replication issues and complex cognition. Introspection was used
What is needed for introspection?
Observer must know when experience begins and ends, and must maintain ‘strained attention’. Phenomenon must bear repetition/be capable of variation (experimentation)
What did introspection discover?
It determined the seven ‘qualities’ of sensation
What approach is James associated with?
Functionalism
How did functionalism develop?
Developed out of pragmatism as a philosophy
What does James/functionalism talk about?
To find meaning of an idea, look at its consequences. This led to emphasis on cause-and-effect, prediction and control, observation of environment and behaviour
What was the key part of cognitive psychology in the 1900s-1950s?
Watson, Skinner and behaviourism. Koffka, Kohler and Gestalt approach. Freud, Adler, Jung and psychodynamic approach
What does behaviourism look at?
Focus on observable causes of behaviour, stimulus-response links and applying to psychology. It comes from a reaction to the limits of introspection
What is the Gestalt approach?
It is a reaction to structuralism (human as a ‘whole’). Cannot break into smaller parts. Want to discover meaning and structure
What is the psychodynamic approach?
A reaction to the behaviourist approach. Focuses on unconscious motivations for behaviour
What was the key part of cognitive psychology in the 1950s-present?
Cognitive psychology and information processing. There is a scientific interest in unobservable mental processes. Behaviourism is inadequate and so a new paradigm was developed
What are different branches of the mind-body problem?
Type identity theory, functionalism, token identity theory
What is type identity theory (mind-body problem)?
Mental state is equivalent to specific pattern of neural events
What is functionalism (mind-body problem)?
Draws distinction between structure of mental state (neural activity) and function of mental state (consequences). Cognitive psychology about developing functional explanation of mental processes
What is token identity theory (mind-body problem)?
Mental state maps onto variety of different neural events, but if true, can knowledge of neural events ever help understand mental events?
What is the information processing analogy?
Input, processing, output. Similar to: sensory info, internal representations
What are assumptions of the computational metaphor?
The mind contains symbolic representations (stored in memory), and that cognition is the product of ‘operations’
What are the ‘operations’ that produce cognition?
Internal processes that act on symbolic representations. Operations deployed according to rules that are also stored in memory
What are the three levels of description (Marr)?
Computational theory level (what cognition is), representation and algorithm level (how cognition works), hardware level (how representations play out in real world)
What is modularity 1?
Marr-cognition composed of modules, which each have specific function/processes. Cognitive activity comprised of activation of several, independent modules. Damage to one module doesn’t necessarily affect other modules eg prosopagnosia. Modules correspond to anatomically defined areas and are similar across all humans
What is modularity 2?
Fodor-distinction between input systems (process incoming sensory info, transfer it to central processors, are domain specific), and central processors (make decisions, plan action, not modular)
What are methods for identifying modules?
Dissociations (manipulation that affects one cognitive task but not a different task), and double dissociations (show the opposite)
What is cognitive neuropsychology?
Reverse engineering cognition. Localisation of function less important. Typically investigate single cases, eg HM (Scoville and Milner), and neuropsychology to cure epilepsy
What is the model of object recognition (Ellis and Young)?
Object, initial representation-DF, viewer centred representation-simultanagnosia, object centred representation (NA)-object recognition units-semantic system (AB)
What are the limitations of cognitive psychology?
What is ‘normal’ performance for that patient (pre-injury)?, functional reorganisation of cognition (compensatory strategies), can say anything about time-course of information processing, damage is rarely focal
What is the problem with attention?
Humans have very limited cognitive resources and overwhelming amount of sensory information
What is attention?
Input and central processes. There are filters to limit sensory info to higher cognitive processes. Not a single construct, more like an ‘attentional system’
What is the modular model of attention (Posner and Peterson/Corbetta and Shulman)
Three components: alerting (central process), selection/orienting (input module), and executive (central process)
What is selection?
Modular with distinct anatomical correlates in parietal lobe and premotor cortex
What are filter theories of attention?
Cocktail party effect, shadowing and filter theory
What is the cocktail party effect?
By Cherry
What is shadowing?
Listen with one ear, ignore other. Cannot recall words from unattended ear, didn’t notice language change, didn’t notice talking backwards. Beep was noticed however. Unattended information is not processed
What is filter theory?
Broadbent. Unattended information is lost. Senses, to attention filter (input modules), to limited capacity cognitive system (central processes)
What are the strengths of filter theories?
Accounts for findings of Cherry
What are the limitations of filter theories?
Not all unattended info is lost, cannot account for analysis of info from unattended ear (‘breakthrough’ from unattended ear)
What is attenuation theory (Triesman and Geffen)?
Filter limits amount of stimulus info that cannot be processed. Attended stimuli analysed in detail. Processing attenuated in unattenuated channel but not extinguished. Much less info available to identify the stimulus
When will breakthrough occur?
When stimuli can be identified using limited info eg beep in spoken language, when consistent with ongoing tasks, and when stimuli very easily identified eg own name
What is the spotlight metaphor?
Spothlight moves through space (Posner). Zoom lens (Erikson and St James). Spotlight is flexible: wide focus with little detail or tight focus with lots of detail
what is overt attention?
Movement of eyes to fixate location of interest
What is covert attention?
Orienting attention to location that is nor being fixated
What is the cueing task (Posner)?
Compared central symbolic/peripheral spatial cues. Cost/benefit of attention shifts. How do top down processes affect attention
What are two systems for orienting?
Exogenous and endogenous. Triesman and Gelade say they are the same issues but from different angles
What are exogenous systems?
Orient to salient location
What are endogenous systems?
Orient to task relevant location
What is feature integration theory (Triesman)?
Integrates attention into info processing model of perception. Feature analysis stage roughly analogous to primal sketch. More complex objects need focused attention to bind features together
What is the binding problem?
Visual processing splits objects into component features. Triesman and Gelade visual search tasks
What is feature integration theory?
Two stages of processing: preattentive and attentive. Attention acts like ‘glue’ that binds features into objects
What is preattentive processing?
Objects defined by single, salient feature
What is attentive processing?
When features need to be combined
What are illusory conjunctions (Triesman and Schmidt)?
Identify shapes in briefly presented displays. Incorrectly report letter/colour combinations not present. Triesman-shows attention needs to bind features into objects. Triesman’s glue possibly similar to Posner’s spotlight
What is attention?
Selection of task relevant information. Sensory information and internal information
Is attention a filter, resource, or both?
Selective attention acts as a filter. Attentional resource is used to decide what stimuli are and how to respond
What is the capacity limit of attention?
Attention capacity limited to 3-4 items
What is Sperling’s partial report?
Participants report 3-4 items
What is change blindness’ effect on capacity limits?
No effects when <3 objects present
What is multiple object tracking?
Pylyshyn and Storm: can track up to 5 objects accurately, but only works with objects, not collections of features (Scholl et al)
What did Downing and Dodds find?
In some special cases, capacity us limited to 1 item. Attentional guidance from WM
What is the debate over the number of locations that can be attended?
Some argue multiple loci (up to 4: Baldauf and Dodds), others argue for single invisible loci (Jons/Peters/De Weerd)
What is the early vs late selection debate?
Where does attentional ‘bottleneck’ occur? There is evidence for bottlenecks at several levels of processing. Filter and resource theories have contrasting views
What do filter theories argue about selection?
Bottleneck occurs early in processing. Attention operates at the level of sensory analysis. Unattended stimuli is not processed semantically
What do resource theories argue about selection?
Bottleneck occurs late in processing. All inputs are processed at semantic level. Attention operates at level of response selection
What is the evidence for early selection?
Broadbent argued unfiltered stimuli is not processed at all. Shadowing (Broadbent), selective looking (Neisser and Beckcen), change blindness (Rensink et al), inattentional blindness (Mack and Rock), attentional blink (Raymond, Shorpiro and Amell)
What is evidence that unfiltered stimuli can be processed?
Occasionally words from unattended ear are reported. Links to the attenuated filter
What is the attenuated filter?
Treisman: irrelevant information can pass through filter if capacity is not filled by relevant information
What do ERPs show about visual attention?
Studies suggest attention operates at early stage of processing (Luck, Woodan and Vogel). Attention enhances neurological responses
What is sensory processing?
Attention affects produces signal enhancement. Attention enhances spatial resolution (Yeshurun and Carrasco). Attended locations have higher perceieved contrast (Carrasco, Ling and Reid
What evidence of sensory processing comes from neurophysiology?
Attention modulates responses of early visual areas such as V1-V5. Attention lowers phosphene thresholds in V1 (Bestmann et al)
What is evidence for late selection?
Number of paradigms appear to show late selection. Can occur when meaning of distracting stimulus is processed, resulting in stimulus conflict. Flanker effects (Erikson and Erikson), Stroop effect (Stroop), negative priming (Tipper and Driver). Can also occur when responses must be selected sequentially (psychological refractory period)
What is the psychological refractory period?
Bottlenecks occur at level of response selection. If two stimuli presented in quick succession, reactions to 2nd stimuli is greatly slowed. Suggests only one response to one target can be selected at a time, consistent with the existence of a late bottleneck
What does electrophysiology show about attentional selection?
Hillyard et al: studies of auditory attention. Attend to one ear, ignore the other. Detect occasional probe stimuli. Suggest information can modulate early/late processing
What is the reason behind perceptual load theory?
Attempt to reconcile early and late selection. Lavie/Lavie et al propose passive limited capacity filer and an active central resource
What is the difference between filter and central resource?
Filter=process perceptual properties of stimuli. Central resource=identification and decision making
What does perceptual load theory suggest?
How hard is it to process perceptual features of a display. Low load: all items in a display pass through filter and get analysed (irrelevant items interfere with processing of relevant ones). High load: only task relevant items pass through (irrelevant cannot interfere with processing of relevant stimuli)
What is neurophysiological evidence for perceptual load theory?
Perceptual load modulates activity of early visual areas. Rees et al: low load words=words in upper/lower case. High load=how many syllables. Irrelevant=motion field in background. Muggleton et al: perform letter ID task
What do TMS studies show?
TMS delivered over MT/V5. Higher intensity TMS required during high load. Exp2: no load condition. Exp3: TMS delivered 500ms after array onset
How can attention be seen as a central process?
A capacity for conscious processing of information. Capacity is limited but required for semantic analysis of perceptual information, reasoning and decision making, planning, and response selection and inhibition
What are single resource theories?
One pool of cognitive resources with limited capacity. Used flexibly across tasks. If task demands exceed capacity, performance suffers. Pool of resource=attention or central executive. Resource only needed when we consciously control behaviour
What did Kahneman say about single resource theories?
Attention is limited but flexible. Motivation and arousal increase cognitive resources
What are the strengths of single resource theories?
Explains why dual tasking can lead to poor performance
What are the weaknesses of single resource theories?
No independent assessment of central capacity. Experimental evidence also consistent with multiple resource theory. Tasks in some modality are more disruptive than tasks in different modalities-even when matched for difficulty (Triesman and Davies)
What are multiple resource theories?
Different pools of attentional resource (Wickens). Similar tasks compete for same resources (dissimilar do not). Doesn’t address touch. Ignores co-ordination problems for dual task. Some disruptions for dual task in different modalities
What did Baddelely say about multiple resource theories?
Proposed an integrated model of modules/central processes. Central executive/phonological memory/visuospatial sketchpad/episodic buffer. Focus on processing, not responses or modalities
What is divided attention?
Dual tasks. Can give insight to limits of human information processing. Limits of attentional resource
What are the factors that affect dual task performance?
Similarity, practice and difficulty
How does similarity affect dual task performance?
How similar is the input (stimulus modality). Trying to do two visual tasks at once vs doing a visual and auditory task. How similar is the output (response modality). Verbal response to task A and manual response to task B vs left hand response to task A, right hand response to task B
How does difficulty affect dual task performance?
Harder tasks require more information processing and more attention. May also require extra coordination. Processing requirement more than sum of the two tasks
How does practice affect dual task performance?
More a dual task is practice, the better performance becomes, even on tasks that are similar. Spelke, Hirst and Neisser: taught students to read stories/take dictation. Quicker and neater after 6 weeks training
Why does practice reduce interference?
Develop new strategies that minimise interference, effectively interleave the different tasks. Reduces amount of cognitive resources needed making it easier. Helps to differentiate between tasks, making them less similar
What is automatic processing?
Practiced tasks become automatic and do not require any attention. Automaticity is fast, doesn’t disrupt other tasks, is unconscious and reflexive
What is an example of automatic processing?
The Stroop effect, which is the automatic processing of words
What did Shiffrin and Schneider find?
Theoretical distinction between controlled and automatic processes
What are controlled processes?
Require engagement of limited attentional resources. Conscious. Can be used flexibly in changing circumstances
What are automatic processes?
No capacity limit. Do not require attention. Hard to modify when learned
What did Norman and Shallice find?
Fully automatic processing controlled by schemas. Eg sport stacking (Foerster et al)
What is contention scheduling?
Chooses between simultaneously active schema. Biased by goals but does not require attention
What is deliberate control by Supervisory Attention System?
System for overriding automatically generated behaviours. Generating novel responses. Doing anything for the first time
What is evidence of automatic processing?
Action slips in healthy participants (Reason) diary study found 1 a day. Typically occur when attention is elsehere
What are the strengths of multiple resource theories?
Describes properties of automatic processes. Very influential
What are the weaknesses of multiple resource theories?
Descriptive (doesn’t explain why or how practice makes tasks automatic). Practice could speed processing, or change processing
What is instance theory?
Logan. How does practice lead to automaticity? Each encounter with stimulus produce separate memory trace. Repeated encounters produce greater store of information about stimulus/how to process it. Increase in knowledge means retrieval of relevant info about stimulus is fast. Automaticity occurs when stimulus directly triggers retrieval of a past solution from memory. In other cases solution must be arrived using conscious strategies or heuristics
What is mental imagery?
Internal representations that create the experience of sense-perception in absence of appropriate sensory input
What is functional equivalence?
Kosslyn/Decety. Imagery generated using neural machinery used for sensation/motor control. Visual imagery relies on visual system. Motor imagery relies on motor system
What are propositional codes?
Pylyshyn. Imagery is epiphenomenal produce of propositional codes. Images manipulated by manipulating symbolic representations, not the image itself. Imagery is independent of sensory and motor systems
What is behavioural evidence of mental imagery?
Mental scanning (Kosslyn, Ball and Reiser). Memorise then imagine a map, then asked to inspect it and report whether a feature is present or absent
What is cognitive neuroscience evidence of mental imagery?
Imagery activates visual areas involved in perception (O’Craven and Kanwisher). Activation depends on task:: high resolution imagery tends to activate early visual areas, spatial judgements tend to activate more dorsal visual areas, non-spatial judgements that don’t require high resolution comparisons activate ventral areas. TMS over V1 disrupts visual imagery (Kosslyn et al)
What is neuropsychological evidence of mental imagery?
MS (achromoatopsic) couldn’t imagine colours. Some patients with left neglect and hemianopia cannot generate images (Bisiach and Luzzatti). Making eye movements reduces intensity of visual imagery (Kavanaugh and Baddeley)
What is the problem of tacit knowledge?
Pylyshyn modified mental scanning task.Unconscious knowledge/cannot activate the knowledge. Participants had to report compass bearing of other landmark. Now RT unrelated to distance from starting point
Was tacit knowledge used during the task in Pylyshyn’s study?
Participants asked selves ‘how would I do this in the real word’. Simulate as many details as possible, even irrelevant ones. Participants perform task in same way as would in real world even if don’t have to. Change instructions leads to change in way task is performed
What is the problem of dissociations?
DF shows normal visual imagery abilities (Servos and Goodale). Double dissociations between imagery and visual problems: some hemianopes have no problem with imagery (Bartolomeo). JB has deficit of imagery but not visual perception (Srigu/Duhamel)
What did Pearson and Kosslyn state about imagery?
It may use both depictive and propositional representations
What are the functions of mental imagery?
Two functions with two levels each (Paivio). Functions: cognitive/motivational. Levels: specific/general. Distinguishes between imagery content (what) and imagery function (why)
What is cognitive specific imagery?
Driskell, Copper and Maron. Meta analysis of cognitive specific imagery to enhance skill. Imagery effective but not as effective as real practice. Experts benefit more from mental practice than beginners. Effects of mental practice fafe over time. Probably not an optimum amount of mental practice, more is better
What is cognitive general imagert?
Few controlled studies looking at mental planning. Case reports of athletes using general imagery. Canoe racers (MacIntyre and Maron). American football (Fenker and Lambiotte). Wrestling Rushall). Gymnastics (Marce et al/White and Hardy)
What is motivational specific imagery?
Imagining winning or being praised for good performance. Endorsed by many athletes eg Maron. Novice glofers practice more (Martin and Hall). Imagery may be important for goal-setting (Munroe et al). Few well controlled studies of efficacy of this type of imagery
What is motivational general imagery?
Arousal: imagery can increase physiological arousal (Heeker and Kackzor), used for increasing/controlling arousal (Hanin), useful for limiting effects of anxiety (Munroe et al). Mastery: interventions tend to increase confidence (Callow/Hardy/Hall badminton players), improved self efficacy (Feltz and Riessinger) and fewer negative visualisations about performance
What is the definition of a problem?
Having a goal but not knowing how to reach it (Duncker)
What are the different types of problem?
Well defined (all aspects specified), ill defined (some aspects unspecified), knowledge rich (specific prior knowledge required), and knowledge lean (little prior knowledge required)
What is reproductive thinking?
Re use old experience (trial and error). Behaviourists believe all problem solving is reproductive
What is productive thinking?
Create new responses and strategies. This requires re-structuring of the problem. Gestaltists believe problem solving is about insight and re-structuring
What is evidence for insight and problem solving?
Kohler: Sultan the ape joining sticks to reach banana, though Birch says apes in captivity cannot do this so Sultan may have used trial and error in the wild. Maier: insight in humans (how to tie two strings together task, with hints)
How does experience play a role in problem solving?
It should help if problem solving is trial and error. Duncker: candle problem, and evidence of functional fixity. Luchins water jar study: more experience led to worse performance (functional fixity)
What is Einstellung?
Mental set. Strategy to solve problem even when inappropriate/inefficient. Experience can make you worse
What are the strengths of the Gestaltist approach to problem solving?
Introduced and investigated insight as problem solving method. Restructuring/representational change is very influential. Shows experience does not always help problem solving
What are the weaknesses of the Gestaltist approach to problem solving?
Focus on knowledge-lean, well-specified problems. Insight and restructuring is very vague (describes what, not how it works)
What is representational change theory?
Ohisson. Attempt to integrate gestalt insight theory with information processing. Structure of problem determines what related knowledge can be retrieved from LTM. Blockage when relevant knowledge cannot be retrieved from LTM. Changing structure of problem means different knowledge can be retrieved from LTM and may allow person to solve problem
What are three ways to change representation of problems?
Elaboration (add more information about the problem), constraint relaxation (changing how aspect of problem is interpreted), and re-encoding (changing how aspect of problem is interpreted)
What is evidence of changing representation?
Knoblich, Ohisson et al: constraint relaxation with equations
What are the strengths of representational change theory?
Restructuring appears to help with insight problems. Mechanisms of problem solving better specified
What are the weaknesses of representational change theory?
Doesn’t predict what types of restructuring help problem solving. Constraint relaxation critical but isn’t always required (9 dot problem). No account for individual differences. May be specific to certain types of problem
What is the computational approach?
Newell and Simon developed computer simulation of human problem solving: “General problem Solver” designed to solve well defined problems (problems with clear goal state)
What are the assumptions of the general problem solver?
Information processing is serial. Limited short-term memory capacity. Relevant information can be retrieved
What is problem space?
GPS based on human problem solving. Problem space: representation of problem. Initial state, goal state, all possible moves to change state of problem. All possible problem states between initial state and goal state
What is problem solving in terms of the general problem solver?
Change initial state to goal state via a series of intermediate states, ie processing information. Each operation changes the state of the problem, eg the Tower of Hanoi
What are the two important heuristics identified by Newell and Simon?
Mean-end analysis and hill-climbing
What is mean-end analysis?
Identify differences between current state and goal. Form subgoal to reduce difference. Perform operation that will attain subgoal
What is hill-climbing?
Change current state to one that resembles goal closer. Used if don’t really know how to solve the problem
What are the strengths of the computational approach?
Works well with well defined, knowledge poor problems. Experimental evidence suggests we use heuristics
What are the weaknesses of the computational approach?
General problem solver may not always operate in same way as humans (better at resembling previous states/worse at planning future moves). Only works with well defined problems (most real problems are ill defined). Cannot account for insight. Cannot account for individual differences
What is creativity?
Form of ill-defined problem solving. Original ideas do not have to be useful/worthwhile. Creative ideas are novel and useful/worthwhile
How is creativity judged in the arts?
Set a new style or movement. Notoriously difficult to evaluate ‘worth’ of artistic creations
How is creativity judged in the sciences?
New paradigm, new useful invention, new theory which explain more phenomena with some or fewer assumptions
What are introspective accounts of creativity?
Creative thinkers reflect on their thought processes eg Hermholtz. Wallas defined four stages of thinking based on own introspection, and introspection of great thinkers
What four stages of thinking did Wallas identify?
Preparation, incubation, illumination, verification
What is incubation?
Smith and Blankenship Remote Associations Task. 57% given break solved problem, 27% without break solved problem
Why does incubation work?
Forgetting: allows forgetting of unnecessary constraints (Simon/Woodworth and Scholsberg). Unconscious work: representations related to the problem are still active/interacting with long term memory but not strong enough to reach awareness. Spreading activation: similar to unconscious work
What are the strengths of Wallas’ stages?
Useful framework for describing creativity. Empirical support for concept of incubation
What are the weaknesses of Wallas’ stages?
Descriptive not explanatory. Processes involved in incubation are not specified. Is illumination really a stage? Is there always insight?
What are the types of creativity?
Two types (Guildford): divergent and convergent thinking. Used together for optimal problem solving
What is divergent thinking?
Fluency and novelty. Search for new solutions eg brick test
What is convergent thinking?
Search for ‘optimal’ solution. Remote associations (Mednick). Anagrams/polygon word puzzles
What is the Geneplore model (Fink)?
Creative thought has two stages: generation and exploration
What is generation?
Develop ‘preinventive forms’-ideas that don’t solve the problem but might be useful. Based on prior knowledge. Divergent thinking
What is exploration?
Using preinventive forms to try and solve problem. Convergent thinking. If no solution/idea produced, cycle back to generation
What study did Ward, Smith and Finke do?
Think of uses for new objects. Least creative when participants chose category. Most creative when given category after creating forms
What were the conclusions of Ward, Smith and Finke’s study?
Preinventive forms facilitate creative thinking
What is the path of least resistance?
Generation of new ideas constrained by existing knowledge. Rely heavily on existing knowledge to create new forms
Are novel forms based on existing forms?
Imaginary forms task (Ward). Draw creatures from other planet-not like earth. Animals structured like earth animals: bilateral symmetry/sensory receptors/manipulatory appendages
What are the strengths of the Geneplore model?
Some empirical evidence that generation/exploration are important processes. Deferring evaluations of forms seem to increase novelty
What are the weaknesses of the Geneplore model?
Does not describe processes involved in generating preinventive forms. Focus on originality rathe than creativity. Ignores individual differences in creativity
What are applications of increasing creativity?
Brainstorming and morphological synthesis
How does brainstorming increase creativity?
Osborn: increase idea production. Deferment of judgement/quantity breeds quality. No criticism/free-wheeling is welcome/quantity is encouraged/everyone free to combine and improve ideas
What is evidence of brainstorming increasing creativity?
Meadow et al: uses for broom/coat-hanger. Brihart and Jochem: investigated deferment of judgement
What is a weakness of brainstorming?
Not specific on how to generate ideas
What is morphological synthesis?
Zwicky: 2 or 3d matrix to represent different aspects. New ideas from combining two points in matrix. Ideas evaluated
What is evidence of morphological synthesis increasing creativity?
Warren and Davis: compared three methods for generating ideas. Short checklist of idea-spurring suggestions, long checklist of questions organised in categories, morphological synthesis
What are the evaluation points for morphological synthesis?
Produced most ‘good’ ideas in fastest time. Emphasis on combining old knowledge
What is decision making?
Choosing between various options (focused on consequences)
What is judgement?
Consider info from multiple sources (focused on accuracy)
What are types of decision making?
Risky vs riskless. Single vs multi-attribute. One vs multi-stage
How do you decide between single attribute, risky choices?
Normative approach: assign value to different choices. Rational decision maker: choose greatest value option. Led to development of expected value theory
What is expected value theory?
Calculate expected value and choose most valuable option. Expected value=outcome probability X outcome value
What does expected value theory assume?
Know relevant possibilities, can assign value to outcomes, either decision better than no decision
What is subjective expected utility theory?
When don’t know possibilities. Use subjective estimate of probability. Can be problematic (not good at estimating probability, particularly of rare but emotive events. Utility=subjective value attached to outcome. Expected probability=probability of outcome X outcome utility
What did Tversky and Kahneman test?
They tested SEU theory. Found lots of empirical data, not consistent with EU theory. Looked at loss aversion, risk aversion and risk seeking (take more risks to avoid losses)
What is prospect theory?
Utility function. Framing effects. Omission bias (Ritov and Baron)
What are the strengths of expected utility theory?
Expected utility theory delivers best, most ‘rational’ decisions
What are the weaknesses of expected utility theory?
Loads of biases inconsistent with EU (risk aversion/loss aversion/framing and dominance effects)
What are the strengths of prospect theory?
It accounts for many biases in decision making
What are the weaknesses of prospect theory?
Rarely make decisions based on utility. Difficult to evaluate probability of many outcomes. Doesn’t reflect social/emotional aspects of decision making. Doesn’t account for individual differences in willingness to make risky decisions
What is the social-functionalist approach to decision making?
Tetlock: Understood decision makers’ goals to evaluate and understand. Motivated to justify our decisions to selves and others. Expected value approach assumes we are ‘intuitive economists’ but may adopt other roles
What roles does Tetlock say we may adopt when decision making?
Intuitive politicians (justify decisions to other people). Intuitive theologists (protect ‘sacred values’). Intuitive prosecutors (try to prevent violations of ‘norma’ rules)
What are the strengths of the social-functionalist approach?
Takes account of social factors
What are the weaknesses of the social-functionalist approach?
Descriptive of behaviour. Doesn’t predict why/when people will adopt different roles. Doesn’t explain why these roles affect our decisions
