Deck 10: Reasoning and Decision Making

Question 1

Which of the following is not a reason why people make mistakes in syllogistic
Reasoning?

A)errors in interpreting the premises
B)errors in remembering the premises
C)errors in considering all possible combinations of meanings
D)errors in assuming the conclusion is negative if the premises are negative

Answer 1

errors in remembering the premises

Question 2

In syllogistic reasoning, a valid conclusion is __________ true, given that the
Premises are true.

A)sometimes
B)never
C)necessarily
D)conditionally

Answer 2

necessarily

Question 3

Which of the following contends that people make no attempt at analysis in syllogistic reasoning tasks?

A)premise conversion
B)atmosphere hypothesis
C)partial combination
D)confirmation bias

Answer 3

atmosphere hypothesis

Question 4

If concealed guns are legal, then the violent crime rate will go up.One valid way to confirm this conditional statement is to:

A)show that when concealed guns are illegal, violent crime goes down
B)show that when unconcealed guns are legal, violent crime goes up
C)show that when violent crime goes down, concealed guns are illegal
D)show that when violent crime goes up, unconcealed guns are illegal

Question 5

College students judge that death by tornado is more frequent than death from asthma.In fact, asthma is 20 times more likely to kill.Which of the following judgment heuristics explains this result?

A)means-end
B)probability
C)representativeness
D)availability

Question 6

Which of the following is an invalid form of conditional reasoning?

A)modus ponens
B)denial of consequent
C)affirming the antecedent
D)affirming the consequent

Question 7

Jane test drove three new cars and discovered that each had different acceleration and braking features.She chose to buy the car with the fastest acceleration and the fastest braking.This best illustrates a decision ______________________.

A)under certainty
B)under risk
C)under uncertainty
D)none of the above

Question 8

Jane planned a picnic the following weekend for 25 people at a park without a covered shelter.The long-term weather report called for a slight to moderate chance of rain.This plan best illustrates a decision

A)under certainty
B)under risk
C)under uncertainty
D)none of the above

Question 9

Jane went to the Kentucky Derby and bet on Lucky Lady, whose odds were 10 to 1.This bet best illustrates a decision

A)under certainty
B)under risk
C)under uncertainty
D)none of the above

Question 10

Which of the following is a valid form of conditional reasoning?

A)denial of antecedent
B)denial of the consequent
C)affirming the consequent
D)none of the above

Question 11

Which of the following is not a heuristic for problem solving or decision-making?

A)means end analysis
B)availability
C)simulation
D)maintenance rehearsal

Question 12

People have a strong tendency to seek evidence that upholds their beliefs.This is called

A)undirected thinking
B)confirmation bias
C)functional fixedness
D)prejudice

Question 13

Suppose you are testing the truthfulness of this statement: "If a 5-year old boy plays with guns, then he will grow up to be a murderer." Which type of evidence logically disproves the statement?

A)a 5 year old girl who plays with guns and grows up to be a murderer
B)a 5 year old boy who plays with dolls, not guns, and grows up to be a murderer
C)a 5 year old boy who plays with guns, and does not grow up to be a murderer
D)a 5 year old girl who plays with dolls, not guns, and does not grow up to be a murderer

Question 14

Joe went to the riverboat and bet on the craps shooter hitting seven as the total of the two dice.Joe won with this bet six times in a row.He then shifted his bet against the shooter on the seventh roll.This decision was probably

A)influenced by probability theory
B)influenced by the atmosphere hypothesis
C)influenced by the gambler's fallacy
D)influenced by the shooter's luck

Question 15

_________ refers to when a person converts "All A are B" into "All B are A".

A)syllogistic reasoning
B)inductive reasoning
C)atmosphere hypothesis
D)illicit conversion

Question 16

If you interpret "All A are C" to imply that "All C are A," then you are guilty of

A)partial combination
B)response bias
C)a slip of the tongue
D)premise conversion

Question 17

Cross-cultural work on human reasoning suggests that

A)all human beings reason deductively
B)conditional, but not deductive reasoning, is universal
C)reasoning can be based on personal knowledge, not abstract rules
D)reasoning can be based on innate rules that are based on language

Question 18

People judge this sequence of coin tosses-- heads-heads-heads-heads-heads -- as less likely than this sequence -- heads-tails-heads-heads-tails-tails-heads -- because of _______.

A)the confidence heuristic
B)the representativeness heuristic *
C)the availability heuristic
D)the expected-utility model

Question 19

If concealed guns are legal, then the violent crime rate will go up.One valid way to disconfirm this conditional statement is to

A)show that when concealed guns are illegal, violent crime goes up
B)show that when concealed guns are legal, violent crime goes down
C)show that when violent crime goes down, concealed guns are illegal
D)show that when violent crime goes up, concealed guns are illegal

Question 20

Which is true of this syllogism?
All cats are dogs.
All dogs have whiskers.
Therefore, all cats have whiskers.

A)The conclusion is valid.
B)The conclusion is invalid because the major premise is false.
C)The conclusion is false because invalid reasoning was used to derive it.The minor premise is invalid.
D)It is impossible to say whether the conclusion is valid or not.

Question 21

What is a good technique to use in solving the Wason 4-card experiment?

A)turn over the card specified first (antecedent), then turn over the card specified second (consequent)in the statement
B)confirm the events that the statement describes
C)think of an analogous sentence based on a real-life situation
D)turn over the cards that are not specified in the statement

Question 22

After the NCAA championship game in college basketball, Joe tells Jane that he just knew Florida would win, as indeed they did that year.Joe's assertion reflects the

A)hindsight bias
B)law of small numbers
C)gambler's fallacy
D)law of ESP

Question 23

Suppose more people who watch television news daily believe they are personally at risk for violent crime compared to people who never watch the news.Which concept might explain this difference?

A)the gambler's fallacy
B)decisions under certainty
C)the representativeness heuristic
D)the availability heuristic

Question 24

When people are required to make judgments based on probabilities,

A) they do worse than when using absolute frequencies
B)they do better than when using absolute frequencies
C)they perform the same as when using absolute frequencies
D)they perform as predicted by Baye's theorem

Question 25

If you reasoned that since it rained for three weeks straight when the sun was out, and on the 22ⁿᵈ day the sun came out, so it will probably rain that day also, what type of reasoning did you use?

A)inductive reasoning
B)deductive reasoning
C)reasoning under certainty
D)reasoning with representativeness

Question 26

Suppose an executive creates a model of her business, including such factors as product demand, trade restrictions, and labor costs.Then she imagines how these factors will play out in the coming year.She uses the predictions as a way of making decisions about whether to hire or fire workers.The executive is relying on the

A)representativeness heuristic
B)availability heuristic
C)simulation heuristic
D)means end heuristic

Question 27

The skill of evaluating the validity of syllogism conclusions correctly cannot be improved with training.

Question 28

The premises made in a syllogism are certain, even though they may not be true in the real world.

Question 29

Animals are as capable of reasoning as humans are.

Question 30

According to the somatic marker hypothesis, injuries to the _______________cortex can
Disrupt the ability to use emotional information in making good decisions.

A)occipital
B)temporal
C)parietal
D)prefrontal

Question 31

If you mistakenly conclude that if "all A are not B" then "some B are not C" because one or more premises contain a negative, it is called

A)atmosphere hypothesis
B)illicit conversion
C)ill-defined problems
D)belief bias

Question 32

The belief bias occurs

A)when reasoners accept the conclusion as valid, even when the premises are not true in the real world
B)when reasoners deny the conclusion when the premises are not true in the real world
C)when reasoners accept conclusions after ignoring the premises
D)when reasoners accept a valid conclusion after considering the premises

Question 33

What does the availability heuristic suggest?

A)the probability of two united events cannot be greater than the probability of one or the other separately
B)events that are typical of a class are assigned a high probability of occurrence
C)the probabilities of states of nature are unknown
D)if relevant examples can readily be retrieved from memory, then the class of events must occur with a high probability

Question 34

If a hypothesis is tested, and a theory is drawn, is the hypothesis proven?

A)no; it is supported
B)no; it is suggested but very unstable
C)maybe; it depends on how much testing was done
D)yes; theories are basically laws of nature that are proven

Question 35

Research conducted in rural Central Asia showed that people in some cultures base their response to reasoning tasks on

A)deduction
B)induction
C)personal experience
D)illicit conversion

Question 36

If, every day for three weeks, it rained when the sun was out and on the 22ⁿᵈ day the sun came out, one might be led to believe it will rain that day also.This is due to the

A)decision under risk
B)representative heuristic
C)gambler's fallacy
D)meteorologist report

Question 37

_______ and _______ are the two valid forms of reasoning.

A)Denying the consequent; affirming the consequent
B)Affirming the consequent; denying the antecedent
C)Affirming the consequent; affirming the antecedent
D)Affirming the antecedent; denying the consequent

Question 38

Theories, science, laws, and public policy are derived through

A)deductive reasoning
B)hypothesis testing
C)inductive reasoning
D)models

Question 39

All "A are B"."Some B are C".It then necessarily follows that

A)all A are C
B)some A are C
C)no A are C
D)nothing certain can be determined

Question 40

What valid conclusion could you arrive at given these premises -
All plants are alive.
Some rocks are plants.
Therefore,

A)all rocks are alive
B)some rocks are alive
C)all plants are rocks
D)all rocks can be plants

Question 41

Decisions made under uncertainty are the most realistic and common.

Question 42

Humans prefer to reject their beliefs rather than confirm them.

Question 43

Deductive reasoning was useful in the evolution and natural selection of humans.

Question 44

All syllogisms can have a valid conclusion based on the given premises.

Question 45

Describe two psychological phenomena that illustrate the influence of one's beliefs on human reasoning performance.

Question 46

The belief that one "can't lose" is known as the gambler's fallacy.

Question 47

Decisions under risk refer to cases in which probabilities of nature are unknown, while
decisions under certainty are made when probabilities are known.

Question 48

Confirmation bias occurs when evidence that disconfirms our beliefs is actively avoided.

Question 49

Describe the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning.

Question 50

Conditional reasoning is deductive reasoning using if-then statements.