Deck 12: Reasoning and Decision Making

Question 1

Manuel is debating with his mother about the best way to build their new shed. Manuel is a very traditional person who likes to employ tried-and-true logic. What kind of reasoning would Manuel be most likely to use?

A) deductive reasoning
B) inductive reasoning
C) conditional reasoning
D) intuitive reasoning

Answer 1

deductive reasoning

Question 2

______ is a process by which a conclusion follows necessarily from a series of premises.

A) Conditional reasoning
B) Syllogistic reasoning
C) Heuristic reasoning
D) Causal reasoning

Answer 2

Syllogistic reasoning

Question 3

______ approaches propose that errors arise from general biases against making particular conclusions.

A) Surface
B) Representation explanation
C) Synaptic
D) Conclusion interpretation

Answer 3

Conclusion interpretation

Question 4

Forrest Gump's famous quote, "Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get," is an example of ______.

A) surface approaches
B) category induction
C) causal reasoning
D) analogical reasoning

Question 5

______ approaches propose that reasoning relies primarily on general heuristics focused on the surface properties of the quantifiers in the argument rather than on reasoning analytically.

A) Representation explanation
B) Synaptic
C) Conclusion interpretation
D) Surface

Question 6

Evans (1984, 2006) suggests that when we reason we use one system based on heuristic processes and another based on ______ processes.

A) dual-process
B) inductive
C) analytic
D) rapid-decision

Question 7

______ developed the logical rules of syllogistic reasoning.

A) Plato
B) Hippocrates
C) Aristotle
D) Freud

Question 8

______ reasoning concerns making and evaluating arguments from general information to specific information, while ______ reasoning concerns making and evaluating arguments from specific information to general information.

A) Inductive; deductive
B) Conditional; deductive
C) Conditional; inductive
D) Deductive; inductive

Question 9

______ statements are those that are either true or false.

A) Syllogistic
B) Relevant
C) Propositional
D) Conditional

Question 10

According to Johnson-Laird et al. (2010), reasoning proceeds through three stages, which are ______.

A) idea-formation, model-validation, and model construction
B) model construction, conclusion-formation, and conclusion-validation
C) model-validation, idea construction, and conclusion-formation
D) synapse-formation, conclusion-formation, and conclusion-validation

Question 11

"All dogs are mammals. All mammals have hair. All dogs have hair." This is an example of ______.

A) heuristic reasoning
B) conducive reasoning
C) conditional reasoning
D) syllogistic reasoning

Question 12

______ focus on how we represent arguments.

A) Synaptic approaches
B) Surface approaches
C) Conclusion interpretation approaches
D) Representation explanation approaches

Question 13

______ is about absolute truth, while ______ examines the likelihood of a conclusion being true.

A) Deductive reasoning; inductive reasoning
B) Inductive reasoning; deductive reasoning
C) Heuristic reasoning; analytical reasoning
D) Heuristic reasoning; syllogistic reasoning

Question 14

Sometimes it feels as though we use logic to reason, while at other times we use other methods, like making a split-second decision without any time to think. This best illustrates ______.

A) rapid-decision framework
B) dual-process framework
C) multidecision framework
D) inductive reasoning

Question 15

Philip Johnson-Laird and his colleagues proposed a theory of reasoning that proceed through three stages. The first stage in this theory is ______.

A) model conclusion formulation
B) model propositional formulation
C) model conclusion validation stage
D) model construction of the premises

Question 16

Ming discovers that her boyfriend is dating another woman. She goes to his apartment and finds her diary, in which she has written about her interest in other men. Ming reasons that her boyfriend is cheating on her based on what he has read. What kind of reasoning is Ming using?

A) syllogistic reasoning
B) deductive reasoning
C) analytical reasoning
D) inductive reasoning

Question 17

Propositional reasoning is another name for ______.

A) relevant reasoning
B) conditional reasoning
C) syllogistic reasoning
D) heuristic reasoning

Question 18

"If my mother visits today, I am not going to cook dinner. She has just arrived. I am not going to cook dinner." This is an example of ______.

A) propositional reasoning
B) a syllogism
C) counterfactual thinking
D) an unconditional statement

Question 19

______ reasoning is a process by which "if" statements lead to conclusions.

A) Deductive
B) Conditional
C) Inductive
D) Syllogistic

Question 20

______ processes are largely automatic, rapid, and unconscious as ______ processes are controlled, slow, and conscious.

A) System 1; system 2
B) System 2; system 1
C) Analytic; heuristic
D) Rational; intuitive

Question 21

Roberts (2005) classifies deductive reasoning into three general approaches. Which of the following are included?

A) surface (or heuristic)
B) representation explanations
C) conclusion heuristic
D) conclusion interpretation

Question 22

______ are mental shortcuts that we use to reduce the processing burden on our cognitive systems.

A) Resources
B) Algorithms
C) Heuristics
D) Notes

Question 23

One of the major differences between laboratory reasoning tasks and everyday reasoning tasks is that ______.

A) everyday reasoning tasks are solved for their own sake
B) laboratory reasoning tasks are often solved as a means of achieving other goals
C) laboratory reasoning tasks typically have specified procedures
D) everyday reasoning tasks typically have one correct answer

Question 24

A bias in reasoning where stereotypes are relied on to make judgments and solve problems is called ______ bias.

A) representativeness
B) availability
C) heuristic
D) framing

Question 25

The availability bias is a bias in reasoning where examples easily brought to mind are relied on to ______.

A) help overcome representativeness bias
B) make judgments and solve problems
C) help randomize your decision making
D) create a normative model of judgments

Question 26

Which of the following does deductive reasoning involve?

A) understanding and representing the premises
B) examining the likelihood of a conclusion being true
C) combining these representations
D) drawing a conclusion

Question 27

Imagine that you attend a party with a group of friends, where you all eat a delicious four-course meal. However, that night, you all end up sick, and you conclude that you must have all gotten sick from the food you ate. This is an example of ______.

A) representation explanation approaches
B) causal reasoning
C) analogical reasoning
D) category induction

Question 28

The ideal model of decision making involves listing all the options and rating each option according to the list of criteria. What should come next?

A) discussing all options with peers
B) ranking criteria in terms of importance
C) choosing the option with the highest score
D) describing an idealized decision model

Question 29

Wason (1960, 1972) identified three general strategies that his participants used for hypothesis testing. What are they?

A) correlation
B) verification
C) thinking about alternatives
D) falsification

Question 30

In Kahneman and Tversky's prospect theory, they hypothesized that people tend to ______ low-probability outcomes and ______ high-probability outcomes.

A) focus on; ignore
B) ignore; focus on
C) underweight; overweight
D) overweight; underweight

Question 31

The ideal model of decision making involves ______.

A) discussing options with peers
B) ranking criteria in terms of their importance
C) following your instinct
D) deciding only when the outcome is certain

Question 32

Imagine you are watching the news, and you see there was a fire at a club you were planning to go to that same night. You realize that if you had not been too tired to go out, you might have been there. This is an example of ______.

A) counterfactual thinking
B) hypothesis testing
C) verification
D) causal reasoning

Question 33

To be able to do category induction, our cognitive system must be able to ______.

A) organize a set of things into as many different groups as possible
B) organize and recognize a group of things as members of the same category
C) find similarities between groups of things that are members of different categories
D) find differences between groups of things that are members of the same categories

Question 34

Research suggests that several factors impact how likely we are to correctly follow the rules of logic. Which of the following are included?

A) phrasing of the premises
B) the time of day we try to reason
C) the content of the arguments
D) who told us the content

Question 35

You decide that you are going to join the air force and that you want to serve for four years and then go to college. First, you look up literature on the air force to find the information you need, and you contact your local enlistment office. You receive word that you have your choice of a few different programs. To aid in your decision of which program you should pursue, you list the pros and cons for each. Then, you sleep on it and decide the next morning. A year into your enlistment, you conclude that this was the best decision you could have made and that you cannot wait to see how this experience affects your life. This conclusion reflects what stage of decision making?

A) evaluation
B) making a final choice
C) structuring the decision
D) gathering information

Question 36

One of the best ways to establish causal relationships is ______.

A) thinking about it for a while
B) doing experiments that require an independent and dependent variable
C) discussing possibilities with peers
D) doing correlational experiments that rely on the use of analogies

Question 37

Imagine that you are taking your dog on a walk along a trail in the woods, and you see an unfamiliar animal. You immediately recognize that it is a bird due to its features, but it is one you have never seen before. Your ability to recognize it as a bird is due to ______.

A) analogical reasoning
B) causal reasoning
C) surface approaches
D) category induction

Question 38

The two factors that are important when we draw causal conclusions are ______.

A) identifying the covariation between the two events and believing there is a mechanism for the causal relationship
B) identifying the dual process involved in the two events and realizing there is no mechanism for the causal relationship
C) identifying the dual decision between the two events and believing there is a mechanism for the causal relationship
D) identifying the category induction between the two events and realizing there is no mechanism for the causal relationship

Question 39

Imagine you are out at a bar, trying to make new friends. You see a blonde woman who appears to be nice, but you think, "I don't think I'll approach her; blondes tend to be ditzy." This is an example of ______ bias.

A) availability
B) framing
C) representativeness
D) comprehension

Question 40

Which of the following are types of inductive reasoning?

A) analogical reasoning
B) category induction
C) representation-explanation approaches
D) causal reasoning

Question 41

Compare and contrast deductive vs. inductive reasoning.

Question 42

Conclusion interpretation approaches propose that errors arise from general biases against making particular conclusions.

Question 43

The dual-process framework details the idea that cognitive tasks can be performed using two separate and distinct processes.

Question 44

Discuss the five stages of Galotti's (2002) model of general decision making. Discuss an example to illustrate all five stages.

Question 45

Scientific experiments rely on causal reasoning.

Question 46

Compare and contrast syllogistic and conditional reasoning. Give an example of each.

Question 47

Inductive reasoning involves making and evaluating arguments from general information to specific information.

Question 48

There are rarely established procedures for solving a problem in a laboratory setting.

Question 49

Conditional reasoning is a process by which conditional statements follow from a conclusion.

Question 50

Correlation implies causation.

Question 51

Explain why everyday decisions can be more difficult to reason about than the formal arguments presented in textbooks.

Question 52

The probability heuristics model proposes that everyday reasoning is not based on probability but rather on logic.

Question 53

We are very good at logical reasoning.

Question 54

The general model of decision making suggests that we spend time structuring our decision before making a final decision.

Question 55

Discuss the different types of heuristics biases we face when making decisions, and give an example of each.