Introduction

Question 1

Vincennes incident 1988

Answer 1

 USS warship shot down passenger plane
 Context
• Iran-Iraw war had been going on for several years
• US skirmishes with Iranian gunboats and aircraft since 1987
• Iran possessed F-14 Tomcat attack aircraft since day’s of Shah
 During an engagement with Iranian gunboats appeared on the radar screens of the Vincennes either:
• Hypothesis 1 = Passenger aircraft  no threat
• Hypothesis 2 = F-14 Tomcat  probable attack
 Factors/data the captain had to consider:
• Safety of ship and crew – state of hostile action all around
• Intelligence reports assearted that there would be Iranian attacks
• What indicators are there available to me?
 The data available mostly came from the ships electronic systems. These were some of the most sophisticated in the world at the time.
 Thinking and reasoning observations
• Captain and crew in situation of grave threat – emotion high
• Physical systems can/do produce ambiguous data
• Expecting an attack in the midst of gunboat attacks primes for response
 Evaluation
• The captain made the wrong decision but an understandable one
• It was prudent given the nature of the data


Question 2

o Debate concerning the evaluation of human performance and how psychological studies should be applied? Are the results of the studies to be regarded as normative or descriptive?

Answer 2

 If normative then how is performance evaluated? Is it appropriate to label people as irrational if they do not align with normative performance standards?
 If descriptive then are the definitions of rationality in need of revision (constructivist approach)?

Question 3

Define: Thinking

Answer 3

 Action of using one’s mind to produce thoughts, or covert symbolic responses to stimuli. Theories of thought and thought process have concentrated largely on directed thinking, including problem solving. At the beginning of the 20th century, researchers focused on studying mental associations. These elements are often regarded as bits of information undergoing processing.

Question 4

Define: Reasoning

Answer 4

 The definition is the act of using reason to derive a conclusion from certain premises using a given methodology, and two most commonly used explicit methods to reach a conclusion are deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning

Question 5

Define: Judging

Answer 5

 The forming of an opinion, estimate, notion, or conclusion, as from circumstances to the mind

Question 6

Define: Deciding

Answer 6

 To determine or settle/to pronounce a judgement

Question 7

Define: Rational

Answer 7

 Consistent with or based on using reason; “rational behaviour”; “a process of rational inference”; “rational thought” intellectual: of or associated with or requiring the use of the mind; “intellectual problems”; having its source in or being guided by the intellect (distinguished from experience or emotion); a rational analysis

Question 8

Define: Analytical

Answer 8

 Using or skilled in using analysis (i.e. separating a whole-intellectual or substantial into its elemental parts or basic principles); an analytic approach; analytic reasoning; an analytical mind”; Analytic: of a proposition that is necessarily true independent of fact or experience

Question 9

Define: Experiental

Answer 9

 Relating to or resulting from experience: “a personal, experiential reality” derived from experience or the experience of existence;” the rich experiential content of the teachings of the older philosophers

Question 10

Define: Problem Solving

Answer 10

 Forms part of thinking. Occurs if an organism or an artificial intelligence system does not know how to proceed from a given state to a desired goal. It is part of the larger problem process that includes problem finding and problem shaping.