Module 8.2 - Problem Solving, Judgement, and Decision Making

Question 1

cognitive schema

Answer 1

an integrated mental network of knowledge, beliefs and expectations concerning a particular topic or aspect of the world

Question 2

true or false: once established, schemas are fairly resistant to change (particularly if they are personal)

Answer 2

true

Question 3

problem solving

Answer 3

accomplishing a goal when the solution or the path to the solution is not clear

Question 4

algorithms

Answer 4

problem-solving strategies based on a series of rules

Question 5

heuristics

Answer 5

problem-solving strategies that stem from prior expriences and provide an educated guess as to what is the most likely solution

Question 6

heuristics are like _______ that are usually accurate and allow us to find solutions and to make decisions quickly

Answer 6

“rules of thumb”

Question 7

true or false: the first information learned about a subject can anchor a persons judgement about that subject.

Answer 7

true. subsequent judgements are related to this initial anchor point

Question 8

representativeness heuristic

Answer 8

“representativeness is an assessment of the degree of correspondence ebtween a sample and a population, an instance and a category, an act and an actor or, more generally, betwee an outcome and a model

Question 9

true or false: representativeness heuristic are often correct but not always

Answer 9

true

Question 10

gamblers fallacy

Answer 10

refers to the false belief that when a sequence of coincidental events occur in a nonrandom pattern, subsequent events are more likely to deviate from the pattern than to continue in it

Question 11

availability heuristic

Answer 11

the tendency to judge the probability of an event by how easy it is to think of examples or instances

Question 12

how is 9/11 an example of availablility heuristic?

Answer 12

following it most people overestimated their odds of dying in a plane crash even though they continued to take higher risks by driving their cars

Question 13

avoiding loss

Answer 13

people try to minimize risks and losses when making decisions

Question 14

mental set

Answer 14

a cogntive obstacle thast occurs when an individual attempts to pply a routine solution to what is actually a new type of problem

Question 15

_________ make learning and problem solving more efficient

Answer 15

mental sets

Question 16

true or false: mental sets are helpful when a problem calls for fresh insights or a new approach

Answer 16

FALSE: mental sets are not helpful when a problem calls for fresh insights or a new approach

Question 17

functional fixedness

Answer 17

when an individual identifies an object or technique that could potentially solve a problem, but can think of only its most obvious function

Question 18

the hindsight bias

Answer 18

the tendency to overestimate ones ability to have predicted an event once the outcome is known

Question 19

the hindsight bias is also known as the ________ phenomenon

Answer 19

I knew it all along phenomenon