reasoning and decision making

Question 1

What is the main difficulty in defining “thinking” and “reasoning”?

Answer 1

It is surprisingly hard to pin down exactly what is meant by these terms, even though we feel conscious of our thoughts.

Question 2

How did E.M. Forster describe the relationship between thinking and speaking?

Answer 2

“How can I know what I think till I see what I say.”

Question 3

What are the key components of decision making and reasoning?

Answer 3

Judgement, decision making, problem solving, and reasoning.

Question 4

What does “judgement” refer to in decision making?

Answer 4

The component that concerns calculating the likelihood of certain events.

Question 5

What is decision making?

Answer 5

Selecting one out of a number of potential options.

Question 6

What is problem solving?

Answer 6

The cognitive processes that take us from recognizing that there is a problem to developing a solution.

Question 7

What is reasoning in problem solving?

Answer 7

Determining what conclusions can be drawn from a set of premises assumed to be true.

Question 8

Do we use the same cognitive system for judgement, decision making, problem solving, and reasoning?

Answer 8

Yes, we use the same cognitive system for all these processes, despite key differences.

Question 9

What part of the brain is particularly involved in decision making and reasoning?

Answer 9

the frontal cortex

Question 10

Why are we bad at estimating the likelihood of things?

Answer 10

Due to cognitive limitations, such as difficulty understanding percentages, fractions, and probabilities.

Question 11

What percentage of people give the wrong answer to the disease test probability question?

Answer 11

Most people give the wrong answer due to misunderstanding probabilities, with the correct answer being 2%.

Question 12

What improves our ability to estimate probabilities?

Answer 12

Reframing problems in terms of frequencies rather than probabilities.

Question 13

What are heuristics?

Answer 13

Cognitive shortcuts or rules of thumb used to make judgments, often due to cognitive or time limitations.

Question 14

What are the main types of heuristics?

Answer 14

Availability, representativeness, and anchoring and adjustment.

Question 15

What is the availability heuristic?

Answer 15

Estimating frequency or probability based on how easily examples come to mind.

Question 16

What does the availability heuristic explain?

Answer 16

It explains why we might overestimate certain events, like thinking we do more washing up than others or overestimating the frequency of some dangers.

Question 17

What is the representativeness heuristic?

Answer 17

Assigning a high probability to events that seem typical of a certain category.

Question 18

What is a classic example of the representativeness heuristic?

Answer 18

The “Tom W.” experiment, where participants incorrectly assume Tom is more likely to have graduated in humanities based on his personality description, despite the base rate of computer science graduates being higher.

Question 19

What is the anchoring and adjustment heuristic?

Answer 19

Making decisions based on an initial estimate (anchor) and then adjusting from there.

Question 20

What example demonstrates anchoring and adjustment?

Answer 20

The study where participants were asked to estimate the percentage of African countries in the UN after being given an anchor number from a spinning wheel.

Question 21

What is utility theory in decision making?

Answer 21

The idea that people should choose the option with the greatest utility (value to them).

Question 22

What is prospect theory?

Answer 22

The theory that explains how people are “loss averse” and tend to weigh potential losses more heavily than potential gains.

Question 23

How does the framing effect relate to prospect theory?

Answer 23

The framing effect occurs when people make different decisions based on how a problem is presented, emphasizing potential losses or gains.

Question 24

What is the somatic marker hypothesis?

Answer 24

The idea that unconscious “gut feelings” based on past experiences influence decision making by associating actions with emotional states.

Question 25

What are the three aspects of problem solving?

Answer 25

It is goal-directed, requires conscious cognitive processes, and an immediate solution is not available.

Question 26

What is a well-specified problem?

Answer 26

A problem where the start state, operators, and goal state are all clearly defined.

Question 27

What is functional fixedness in problem solving?

Answer 27

The tendency to think of objects only in terms of their traditional functions, which can hinder creative problem solving.

Question 28

What is the “Tower of Hanoi” problem?

Answer 28

A problem where discs need to be transferred between pegs with the constraint of only moving one disc at a time and never placing a larger disc on top of a smaller one.

Question 29

What is the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning?

Answer 29

Deductive reasoning leads to certain conclusions if premises are true, while inductive reasoning involves conclusions that are likely but require further evidence.

Question 30

What is an example of deductive reasoning?

Answer 30

A syllogism where “All psychology students are poor” and “No psychology students are stupid” leads to the conclusion that “Some poor people are not stupid.”

Question 31

What is the Wason selection task?

Answer 31

A task where participants must determine which cards to turn over to test a rule about vowels and even numbers.

Question 32

What is confirmation bias in hypothesis testing?

Answer 32

The tendency to search for information that confirms a theory rather than information that could falsify it.

Question 33

What is the key to the Wason selection task?

Answer 33

The correct strategy is falsification, meaning you should turn over cards that could potentially falsify the rule.

Question 34

What are the four broad categories of research in thinking and reasoning?

Answer 34

Judgement, decision making, problem solving, and reasoning.

Question 35

How do cognitive and practical limitations affect thinking?

Answer 35

Due to these limitations, we use heuristics and show systematic biases in our thinking and reasoning.

Question 36

Can education and training improve judgment and decision making?

Answer 36

Yes, but not much; we still need systems designed to account for human cognitive weaknesses