Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Perception and Cognition > Reason and Decision Making > Flashcards

Reason and Decision Making Flashcards

1
Q

What is problem solving?

A
  • Two states: current position and goal
  • It is purposeful (goal-directed)
  • Want to work out the optimal strategy
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Why do we need to work out the most optimal strategy when problem solving?

A

In the real world there may be repercussions for not taking the most optimal strategy

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

How is the frontal lobe related to planning?

A

Planning involves control processes which is related to the frontal lobe

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What are the two main dichotomies of problem-solving?

A

Well-defined and ill-defined

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

What is well-defined problem solving?

A

Current position, possible moves, and goal well specified

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What is ill-defined problem solving?

A

Current position, possible moves, and goal not well specified

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What are the other two main dichotomies of problem-solving?

A

Knowledge-rich and knowledge-lean

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What are knowledge-rich problems?

A

Only solvable via relevant knowledge e.g. chess

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What are knowledge-lean problems?

A

Can be solved without needing prior knowledge. All information contained in presentation of problem

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What is insight in problem-solving?

A
  • the point at which the solution to the problem is sudddenly seen
  • the ‘ah ha’ moment
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What did Metcalfe & Weibe find about insight?

A
  • PPs rated warmth during problem solving task - proximity to goal/solution
  • For problems that included ‘insight’, sudden increase in warmth - i.e. rapid sudden progress
  • problems that often solved without insight, gradual increase in warmth - slow accumation to goal
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What did Jung-Beeman et al 2004 find about insight?

A
  • Remote Associates Test
  • Fence, Card, Master - Post
  • Indicate insight for particular trials
  • Increased activity in superior temporal gyrus
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Is insight special?

A
  • Ellis et al 2011
  • Insight is real in the sense that people experience it
  • However it may not be a seperate cogntiive process - higher order processes may gradually arrive at a solution but we only become aware once threshold reached
  • However does gradual accumulation concept make sense for all complex problem-solving tasks?
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Is insight special?

A
  • Ellis et al 2011
  • Insight is real in the sense that people experience it
  • However it may not be a seperate cogntiive process - higher order processes may gradually arrive at a solution but we only become aware once threshold reached
  • However does gradual accumulation concept make sense for all complex problem-solving tasks?
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

How is insight facilitated?

A
  • Hints
  • Incubation
  • Sleep
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

How does incubation facilitate insight?

A
  • Stop directly thinking about the problem for a period of time
  • Led to a small but consistent improvement in problem solving, esp for problems that requires more creative solutions
  • Allows people to think of more possible solutions to that question
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

How does sleep facilitate insight?

A
  • ‘Sleep on it’

- Similar to incubation

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

What is the representational change theory?

A
  • Olsen
  • proposes that insight occurs through relaxing self-imposed constraints on a problem and by decomposing chunked items in the problem
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

What did Newell & Simon 1972 find about problem-solving strategies?

A

People solve problems via heuristics because they can’t hold all steps in their mind at once

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What are heuristics?

A
  • Computationally cheap rules of thumb that can produce reasonably accurate answers
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

What heuristics do we use to solve problems?

A
  • Means-end analysis
  • Hill-climbing
  • Planning
  • Progress Monitoring
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

What is the means-end analysis?

A
  • Forming a sub-goal to minimise distance between current location and goal
  • However requires info about the location of the final goal
  • Don’t need to initially worry about the end goal
  • Useful way to compartmentalise the problem
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

What is the hill-climbing heuristic?

A
  • Change present state to one closer to the end goal
  • No explicit -sub-goal’
  • Analogous to climbing hill by always moving to the next highest point caught in local maxima
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

How do we use planning to solve problems?

A
  • Planning before trying to reach a goal

- Useful when reaching goal involves sequence of behaviour - e.g. cup of tea

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

How do we use progress monitoring to solve problems?

A
  • Track progress towards goal and switch strategy if progress is slow
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

What did MacGregor et al 2011 find about progress monitoring?

A
  • Performance worse when PPs thought progress was being made

- When PPs realised progress was slow, they were more likely to switch strategies

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

How does expertise affect problem-solving?

A
  • Lab tasks often knowledge-lean

- Expertise important for solving many real-world problems (problems in real life often knowledge-rich)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

Define expertise.

A
  • High level of knowledge and performance in a given domain acquired through a long period of systematic study/practice
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

How can experience be bad for problem solving?

A
  • Functional fixedness

- Mental Set

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
29
Q

Why is functional fixedness bad?

A
  • Any given object only has a fixed set of uses
  • Can’t see novel use of object to solve problem
  • fixed on typical function of objects
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
30
Q

Why is mental set bad for problem solving?

A
  • Experts don’t always find the quickest route to victory

- Often found longer solution based on familiar strategy

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
31
Q

What is inductive reasoning?

A
  • Drawing general conclusions from premise
  • Probably, but not necessarily true
  • E.g. extrapolation
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
32
Q

What is deductive reasoning?

A
  • Draw definite conclusions if tenets are true
  • Based on formal logic
  • Conclusions drawn will be logically correct
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
33
Q

What is informal reasoning?

A
  • Everyday reasoning

- Relies on knowledge and experience of the real world

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
34
Q

What is a premise?

A

A limited set of data

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
35
Q

Explain hypothesis testing.

A
  • Scientists use inductive reasoning to generate hypotheses based on limited data
  • Falsification of null hypothesis
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
36
Q

Why do we want to falsify hypotheses rather than confirm?

A

Confirmatino can never fully support hypotheses, falsification can prove that the hypothesis is wrong

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
37
Q

What is Wason’s 2-4-6 task?

A
  • Given 3 numbers (2-4-6)
  • Guess the rule that generated these numbers
  • Give three further numbers to test your hypothesis
  • 21% guess correctly on first attempt
  • 28% never guess correctly
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
38
Q

What is the use of Wason’s 2-4-6 task?

A
  • Provides insight in inductive reasoning and how scientists reason
  • However it’s not real world, rule is very general and so confirmation testing is not appropriate
  • Immediate confirmation or falsification is not realistic in the real world
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
39
Q

Do scientists hypothesis test?

A
  • Often, but not always
  • Unusualness heuristic - guided by unusual results
  • What if? - hypothesis generation and stimulation without experimentation
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
40
Q

What is conditional reasoning?

A
  • Propositional logic
  • Logical operators (e.g. if, and, or) applied to reach conclusions
  • e.g. if P then Q
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
41
Q

Explain Modus Ponens

A

If P then Q - P therefore Q

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
42
Q

Explain Modul Tollens

A

If P then Q - not Q therefore not P

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
43
Q

What is denial of the antecedent?

A
  • If P then Q

- Not P therefore not Q

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
44
Q

What is the relationship between formal logic and probability?

A

Formal logic does not care about probability, it’s either 100% true or not

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
45
Q

What is affirming the consequent?

A
  • If P then Q
  • Q therefore P?
  • Alternatives increase correct rejection of invalid conclusions
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
46
Q

Give an example of a conditional reasoning task.

A

Wason Selection Task

47
Q

What is the probability of informal reasoning being correct?

A

80%

48
Q

What is the straw-man fallacy?

A
  • Select weaker points of opponents’ argument and focus on them to decrease probability of their point being correct
  • Your argument becomes RELATIVELY more probable
49
Q

What contributes to informal reasoning?

A
  • Knowledge
  • Experience
  • Cultural values
  • Motivation
50
Q

What is bounded rationality?

A
  • Idea that we are rational, within the limits of our cognitive capacity
  • We produce workable solutions to real-world problems in spite of limited processing resources
  • Hence correlation between performance in reasoning tasks and IQ - more processing capacity = better at reasoning
51
Q

What is the difference between a decision and a judgement?

A
  • Calculating likelihood of events using incomplete information
  • Different from ‘decision’ - actively choosing 1 from number of possible actions
  • Decisions are about consquences but judgements are all about accuracy
52
Q

What is a judgement?

A
  • Selecting one of two possible actions
  • Calculating likelihood of events using incomplete info
  • Knowing exact likelihood with complete info
53
Q

What is a hit in disease diagnoses?

A

Positive result if you have disease

54
Q

What is a miss in disease diagnoses?

A

Negative result if you have disease

55
Q

What is a correct rejection?

A

Negative result if you don’t have the disease

56
Q

What is a false alarm in disease diagnoses?

A

Positive result if you don’t have the disease

57
Q

What is Bayes Theorem?

A

Probability of an event, based on current information and prior beliefs

58
Q

What is Bayes Rule?

A

Posterior ∝ likelihood x prior
prior = probability of having the disease
likelihood = probability of data given prior
posterior = belief that you have a disease

59
Q

What does Bayes theorum provide?

A

The optimal way of calculating probability of events

60
Q

How did Kahneman and Tversky 1973 test whether humans are optimal?

A

Lawyer/Engineer problem

  • 90% said engineer regardless of split
  • Ignored base-rate
61
Q

How did Cascells et al 1978 test whether humans are optimal?

A
  • Real World Harvard Medical Students
  • Answer = 2% but 45% of PPs said 95% (1-false positive rate)
  • Neglected base-rate
62
Q

What is conjunction fallacy?

A

Mistaken assumption that probability of conjunction of two events is higher than the probability of one of them

63
Q

What could be an explanation of conjunction fallacy?

A
  • Maybe we value precision/specificity
  • We may ignore redundant information in answers i.e. bank teller in both answers so it must be true and so we focus on the extra information
64
Q

What evidence is there that we aren’t optimal?

A
  • Base-rate neglect

- Conjunction fallacy

65
Q

What evidence is there that humans ARE optimal?

A
  • Including info about casual structure improves performance
  • Presenting in frequentist terms improves performance
  • Personal relevance of problem improves performance
  • Often when presented in the ‘correct’ format, people do much better
66
Q

What are judgement heuristics?

A
  • Cheap sort of computational rules of thumb that allow us to make reasonably accurate predictions or judgements in the presence of sort of noist information and we can do it quickly.
67
Q

What is the representative heuristic?

A

Assume object/individual belongs to specific category because it’s representative

68
Q

What is the availability heuristic?

A

Frequences of events estimated by ease of retrieval e.g. estimate probability of contracting disease based on no. of people you know with the disease

69
Q

What is the opposite effect of the availability heuristic?

A
  • e.g. which surname is more common - famous or non-famous

- PPs often choose non-famous despite the availability

70
Q

What are the issues with heuristics?

A
  • Somewhat vaguely defined
  • Doesn’t define when specific heuristics are used
  • Not necessarily biased processing, but poor information
  • List of heuristics don’t equate to a theory
71
Q

Why are heuristics important?

A

For explaining possible reasons we aren’t always optimal or logical

72
Q

What theories explain human judgement?

A
  • Dual-process Theory

- Fast-and-frugal heuristics

73
Q

What is the Dual-process Theory?

A
  • Judgements based on 2 distinct systems
  • 1: fast, automatic, effortless, implicit
  • 2: slow, serial, effortful, controlled
74
Q

Explain Dual-process theory.

A
  • Likely to be 2 systems, one faster and more automatic, and one slower and more effortful
  • Conforms to intuitive sense of fast solution vs slow effortful solution
  • Often system 1 is used (heuristics)
75
Q

What are the issues with dual-process theory?

A
  • Emphasises system 1 is not as optimal and prone to errors
  • cognitive misers - we can used system 2 to produce correct answer, but often use system 1 because it is easier
  • System 2 can also lead to errors but it is not clear when
  • Both relatively ill-defined
76
Q

What is the fast-and-frugal heuristic theory?

A
  • If we’re so dumb then how come we’re so smart?
  • Heuristics are useful
  • Allow for rapid processing with little information
  • Correct high percentage of the time but susceptible to errors
  • Trade-off between time and accuracy
77
Q

What is the recognition heuristic?

A

select the object that is recognised

78
Q

What does base-rate neglect refer to?

A

Down weighting the base rate of something occurring

79
Q

What is a decision?

A
  • Choosing a specific option from >1 options
  • Judgements emphasize accuracy - often proceeds decision
  • Decisions emphasise consequences
80
Q

What are normative theories?

A
  • Concerned with how people SHOULD make decisions

- Assumption that people act rationally

81
Q

What are descriptive theories?

A

Concerned with how people ACTUALLY make decisions

82
Q

What is utility theory?

A
  • Assumption that people act rationally to maximise expected utility
  • Expected utility = given outcome x utility of outcome
  • utility = SUBJECTIVE value we attach to a given outcome
83
Q

What do we calculate in utility theory?

A
  • Calculate expected utility of each outcome and choose option with the greatest expected utility
84
Q

What are the main assumptions of prospect theory?

A
  • Individuals identify ‘reference point’ representing current state (starting point critical)
  • Individuals more sensitive to potential loss than gains (loss aversion)
  • Individuals overweight rare events
85
Q

When are indiivduals likely to take a 50-50 bet?

A

When gains are x2 of losses

- Based on how sensitive individuals are to gains/losses, can calculate a value function

86
Q

What is a value function?

A

Relationship between utility and actual gains/losses

87
Q

What is the framing effect?

A

Decisions influenced by irrelevant aspects of situation

88
Q

What is the sunk-cost effect?

A

Tendency for people to pursue a course of action even after it has proved to be suboptimal, because resources have been invested in that course
i.e. throwing good money after bad

89
Q

Explain overweighting a rare event. What is loss aversion?

A

Phenomenon where a real or potential loss is perceived by individuals as psychologically or emotionally more severe than an equivalent gain.

90
Q

What are positives of prospect theory?

A
  • More detailed than utility theory
  • Introduces concept of value function - non-linear mapping between objective and subjective value
  • Predicts ubiquitous phenomena - loss aversion, overweighting
91
Q

What are disadvantages of psopect theory?

A
  • Doesn’t explain why value function exists
  • Many predicted phenomena can disappear/be reversed in specific experimental situations
  • Doesn’t account for individual differences (e.g. high self-esteem, high narcissism
92
Q

What factors may explain loss aversion?

A
  • Emotional

- Social

93
Q

What social factors may explain loss aversion?

A

Omission bias

  • Status-quo bias
  • Accountability
94
Q

Explain omission bias

A

Preference for intaction when engaged in risky decision making

95
Q

Explain status-quo bias

A

Prefer to accept status-quo than change decision

96
Q

Explain accountability as a factor which explains loss aversion

A

Increased accountability -> increased sunk-cost

- Experience greater need to justify initial decision, so stick with it for longer

97
Q

What is the difference between lab-based decisions and real-life decisions in terms of complex decision making?

A

Lab-based often involve selecting between 2 options but in the real world there are many option

98
Q

What steps should we take when making complex decisions?

A
  • identify attributes relevant to decision
  • Decide how to weight attributes
  • List all options under consideration
  • Rate each option on each attribute
  • Obtain total utility -> select option with highest utility
99
Q

What did Simon 1957 say about bounded rationality?

A

Decision making is bounded by:

  • environmental constraints
  • cognitive
  • we are as rationale as permitted within these constraintse constraints
100
Q

What is satisficing?

A

Choosing first option that satisfies individual’s minimum requirements

101
Q

What is elimination-by-aspects theory?

A
  • Serial elimination based on specific criteria until one option remains
  • order can matter
  • cand’t handle trade-offs
102
Q

What is the somatic marker hypothesis (compressed)

A

Suggests we use emotion/stimulation of consequences to make quick judgements about multiple options
- allows us to focus on likely better options and ignore likely worse options

103
Q

What is memory-guided decision making?

A
  • Often use past experience to make rapid, pressured decisions
104
Q

Why are we rational?

A
  • We’re good at reasoning and decision-mak,ing
  • Heuristics are useful and often accurate
  • Do use base-rate info when made explicit
  • Certain tasks artificial and unlike those made in real world
  • Real world rarely binary, but probabilistic in nature
105
Q

Why aren’t we rational?

A
  • Motivation in reasoning tasks leads to modest improvements in performance
  • Complex judgement tasks are performed better by people with higher IQ
  • Even when fully describes, performance in certain tasks are still poor
  • Dunning-Kruger effect
106
Q

What is the Dunning-Kruger effect?

A

People with poor reasoning ability have less insight into their competence (i.e. they think they are good when they are not)

107
Q

What higher-order functions does executive control include?

A

Reasoning, planning, and decision making

108
Q

What parts of the brain are involved in executive control/

A
  • Higher-order functions rely on prefrontal regions
109
Q

What is the somatic marker hypothesis?

A
  • brain stimulates consequences of any possible decision
  • body reacts to stimulation, causing responses (somatic markers)
  • brain interprets somatic markers for possible options
  • attention focussd on good options for further processing
110
Q

What is good about the somatic-marker hypothesis?

A
  • Quick way to assess various response options
  • Provides ‘gut feeling’ about what to do in a given situation
  • mPFC simulates consequences/interprets somatic markers
111
Q

What evidence is there for SMH?

A
  • Skin-conductance responses
  • Iowa Gambling Task
  • Measuring SCRs during the IGT
112
Q

What is the skin conductance response?

A
  • Presented ‘socially charged’ vs neutral visual stimuli + ‘elementary unconditioned’ stimulus
  • mPFC patients had normal SCR
  • mPFC patients had no SCR to socially charged stimuli
113
Q

What is the Iowa Gambling Task?

A
  • Variable reward/loss
  • Decks A&B - high reward
  • Decks C&D - low reward
  • Long term - decks C&D -> higher profit
  • Healthy PPs chose A&B initially but switch to C&D
  • mPFC patients choose A&B but don’t switch
114
Q

What have we found about measuring SCRs during the Iowa Gambling Task?

A
  • Healthy PPs: anticipatory SCRs before picking ‘bad’ decks

- mPFC PPs: no anticipatory SCRs before picking ‘bad’ decks

Perception and Cognition (5 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions