Deck 7: The Powers and Perils of Intuition

Question 1

Each semester you repeatedly underestimate how long it will take you to complete a research paper that is due at the end of the term.Your behavior is an example of the

A) perseverance bias.
B) fundamental attribution error.
C) correspondence bias.
D) overconfidence phenomenon.

Answer 1

overconfidence phenomenon.

Question 2

Overconfidence remains after mistaken judgments due to the belief that

A) "I'll do better next time."
B) "I was almost right."
C) "It wasn't my fault that I was wrong."
D) "Others were also wrong."

Answer 2

"I was almost right."

Question 3

You used to envy your brother because he was always so confident when talking to others.Yet the older you become,the more you realize that your brother is more often convinced of things rather than accurate about things.Your brother's behavior can be explained by the

A) perseverance bias.
B) fundamental attribution error.
C) correspondence bias.
D) overconfidence phenomenon.

Answer 3

overconfidence phenomenon.

Question 4

Your immediate recognition of your friends' face or her voice on the phone is an example of

A) controlled processing.
B) illusory correlation.
C) automatic processing.
D) attributional error.

Question 5

Your best friend is a master chess player,and has won numerous awards.When you play chess with her,you notice that she seems to be aware of strategies almost immediately after your move.Her awareness of these strategies reflects what type of thinking?

A) controlled processing
B) automatic processing
C) internal processing
D) intentional processing

Question 6

found that those students who scored lowest on tests of grammar and logic were _______ to overestimating their grammar and logic skills.

A) least prone
B) most prone
C) sometimes prone
D) never prone

Question 7

Describe the strengths and the weaknesses of both controlled and automatic processing.

Question 8

Thinking that is effortless,impulsive,and without awareness is called

A) controlled processing.
B) automatic processing.
C) internal processing.
D) intentional processing.

Question 9

Which of the following strategies might be helpful in reducing the overconfidence bias?

A) Get people to think about why their judgments might be wrong.
B) Delay feedback regarding the accuracy of their judgments.
C) Inform people about the overconfidence bias.
D) Tell people that there is no remedy for the overconfidence bias.

Question 10

According to the text,people in psychotherapy and self-improvement programs who showed only modest improvements claimed that they

A) did not improve at all.
B) experienced considerable change.
C) experienced rapid improvement, then a steady decline.
D) experienced change.

Question 11

Thinking that is deliberate,reflective,and conscious is called

A) controlled processing.
B) automatic processing.
C) external processing.
D) intentional processing.

Question 12

When we are eager to seek information that verifies our beliefs but less inclined to seek evidence that might disprove our beliefs,the _______ has occurred.

A) hindsight bias
B) confirmation bias
C) overconfidence phenomenon
D) fundamental attribution error

Question 13

One reason people are overconfident is that they are not inclined to seek out information

A) from experts.
B) that is objective and factual.
C) that involves judging estimates and comparisons.
D) that might disprove what they believe.

Question 14

Your summer vacation was perhaps not an overwhelmingly positive event,but during the finals week of August,you remember it as being a fantastic time.This is an example of

A) the perseverance bias.
B) the fundamental attribution error.
C) the correspondence bias.
D) rosy retrospection.

Question 15

Jumping out of your seat as a result of an unexpected scene in a movie is what type of thinking?

A) controlled processing
B) automatic processing
C) internal processing
D) intentional processing

Question 16

Marcia thought that she would have enough time to write her paper after she bought groceries and cleaned the house,but she ran out of time.This is an example of

A) belief perseverance.
B) the planning fallacy.
C) confirmation bias.
D) heuristic problems.

Question 17

The tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs is called the

A) perseverance bias.
B) fundamental attribution error.
C) correspondence bias.
D) overconfidence phenomenon.

Question 18

Researchers had students write essays opposing student control over university curricula.When asked to recall how they had felt about the same issue a week earlier,most of the students

A) remembered having held a very different attitude.
B) could not remember how they had felt.
C) mistakenly "remembered" having felt the same as they do now.
D) admitted they had always supported student control of university curricula but pretended to oppose it in their essays.

Question 19

Sharon typically watches televised news stations that support her existing political beliefs.She is less inclined to watch the news on other stations,as it may disprove her preconceptions.Sharon's approach illustrates the

A) confirmation bias.
B) misinformation effect.
C) base-rate fallacy.
D) I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon.

Question 20

When trying to recall the definition of the fundamental attribution error during an exam,you think back to what the professor was wearing when he was talking about the fundamental attribution error in class.What type of thinking is this?

A) controlled processing
B) automatic processing
C) internal processing
D) intentional processing

Question 21

Compare and contrast overconfidence and the confirmation bias.

Question 22

Provide an example of the overconfidence phenomenon in the workplace.

Question 23

Explain how journalists can fall prey to cognitive bias in news-making.