Lecture 10

Question 1

Decisions

Answer 1

-making choices between alternatives
—ex. Which college to attend

Question 2

Reasoning

Answer 2

-thought process that yields a conclusion from premises
—percepts, thoughts or assertions
-reasoning often leads to decisions
—also involved in other situations too
—problem solving and reading

Question 3

Deductive reasoning

Answer 3

We can make definite conclusions from sequences of statements

Question 4

Syllogisms

Answer 4

-consist of 2 premises and a conclusion
—each premise specifies a relationship between 2 categories (categorical syllogisms)

Question 5

Validity

Answer 5

-a syllogism is valid when it’s conclusions follow logically
—depends on the form of syllogism

Question 6

Truth

Answer 6

Refers to content of the 2 premises
-premises must be evaluated to determine whether they are consistent with the facts

Question 7

4 types of categorical syllogisms

Answer 7

1. Universal affirmative
   -all A are B
2. Universal negative
   -no A are B
3. Particular affirmative
   -some A are B
4. Particular negative
   -some A are not B

Question 8

Quantifies

Answer 8

Ex. every, all, one, some
-semantic scope ambiguity
—every student speaks 2 languages
-influence of world knowledge
—every hundred killed a duck (different ducks)
-continuations resolve scope, sometimes creating humour
—every 15 seconds a man is arrested in the US, poor guy!

Question 9

Logicism

Answer 9

-belief that logical reasoning is an essential part of human nature
—practical syllogisms have 2 premises that point to a conclusion that calls for action

Question 10

Conditional syllogism

Answer 10

1st premise has form “if. . ,then. . .”
-if is the antecedent
-then Is the consequent

Question 11

Watson card selection task

Answer 11

-4-card problem based on conditional reasoning
-participants need to choose cards that disconfirm the rule
—falsification principle: to test a rule, it is necessary to look for situations that would falsify the rule

Question 12

Inductive reasoning

Answer 12

-we arrive at conclusions about what is probably true based on evidence
—we make probable conclusions that are suggested with varying degrees of certainty
-premises are based on observation of one or more specific cases
—we generalize from these cases to a more general conclusion

Question 13

In evaluating inductive arguments, we decide how strong the argument is based on. . .

Answer 13

1. Representativeness of observations
2. Number of observations
3. Quality of the evidence

Question 14

Heuristics

Answer 14

-when we are forced to go beyond given info and make judgments between possible, often uncertain outcomes
—when we use past experiences to guide present behavior, we use shortcuts to reach conclusions rapidly
—may work in some situations, but may mislead us in others

Question 15

Availability heuristics

Answer 15

-events that are easily remembered are judged as being more probable than events that are less easily remembered

Question 16

Representativeness heuristics

Answer 16

-making inferences on the assumption that small samples resemble one another and the population from which they are drawn

Question 17

Law of large numbers

Answer 17

-the larger the sample, the closer the statistic will be to the true value

Question 18

Law of averages

Answer 18

-fallacy based on assumption that events of one kind are always balanced by events of another kind

Question 19

Confirmation bias

Answer 19

Tendency to selectively look for info that conforms to our hypothesis and to overlook info that argues against it

Question 20

Gamblers fallacy

Answer 20

Mistaken belief that an event that hasn’t occurred on several independent trials is more likely to happen on future trials

Question 21

Decision making

Answer 21

-involves both inductive and deductive reasoning
-how people make judgments that involve choices between different courses of actions
—benefits and costs

Question 22

Expected utility theory

Answer 22

If people have all relevant info they will a,Lena decision that results in maximum expected utility
-utility refers to outcomes that align with that persons goals