Learning & Decision Making Flashcards
Positive reinforcement
Positive outcome follows a desired behavior
Ex: extra credit if you do well on quiz
Negative Reinforcement
Unwanted outcome is removed following a desired behavior
Ex: you get less homework if you participate in class discussion
Punishment
Unwanted outcome follows an unwanted behavior
Ex: have to bring food if you use your phone in class
Extinction
The removal of a consequence following an unwanted behavior
Ex: 10 points off if you don’t submit group project on time
Which types of reinforcement are good for managers?
Positive reinforcement, extinction
Partial reinforcement
Time/interval based
Ratio/behavior based
Fixed/variable ratio schedules
Social learning
You learn by watching others and imitating them
Goal orientation
Attitudes toward learning and performance that influence how you learn
Learning orientation
Building competence is deemed more important than demonstrating competence
Performance-prove orientation
Focus on demonstrating their competence so that others think favorable of them
Performance-avoid orientation
Focus on demonstrating their competence so that others will not think poorly of them
What type of goal orientation is the best for learning? Which is the worst?
Best: learning orientation
Worst: performance-avoid
Bounded rationality
Decision makers do not have the ability or resources to process all available info and alternatives to make an optional decision
Satisficing
Selection the first acceptable alternative considered
Heuristics
Mental shortcut or efficient rule of thumb
- helps make decisions easily
- bias towards inaccurate decisions
Bias
Faulty perception
Selective perception
Tendency for people to see their environment only as it affects them and as it is consistent with their expectations
- see what you want to see
Confirmation bias
Tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories
Projection Bias
Tendency to project our own thoughts, attitudes, and motives onto other people
Availability bias
Tendency to base our judgements on info that is easier to recall
Anchoring and adjustment
The tendency to rely too heavily or anchor on one trait or piece of info when making decisions even when the anchor might be unreliable or irrelevant
Fundamental attribution error
Tendency to judge other people’s behaviors as due to internal factors
- fail to consider situational factors
- uneccesary evaluations of employees
Self serving bias
Tendency to attribute our own failures to external factors and our own success to internal factors
- leads to ignorance of important external factors
Escalation of commitment
Decision to continue to follow a failing course of action
- sunk cost fallacy: escalation of commitment in investment
