Deck 13: Reasoning and Decision Making

Question 1

Consider the following conditional syllogism:
Premise 1: If I don't eat lunch today, I will be hungry tonight.
Premise 2: I ate lunch today.
Conclusion: Therefore, I wasn't hungry tonight.
This syllogism is

A) valid.
B) invalid.

Answer 1

invalid.

Question 2

Consider the following conditional syllogism:
Premise 1: If I study, then I'll get a good grade.
Premise 2: I didn't study.
Conclusion: Therefore, I didn't get a good grade.
This syllogism is an example of

A) affirming the antecedent.
B) denying the consequent.
C) denying the antecedent.
D) affirming the consequent.

Answer 2

denying the antecedent.

Question 3

If you are given the information that in order to vote in a presidential election, you must be at least 18 years of age, and that Will voted in the last presidential election, you can logically conclude that Will is at least 18 years old. This is an example of using _____ reasoning.

A) inductive
B) deductive
C) conjunctive
D) descriptive

Answer 3

deductive

Question 4

An experiment measures participants' performance in judging syllogisms.Two premises and a conclusion are presented as stimuli, and participants are asked to indicate (yes or no)if the conclusion logically follows from the premises.Error rates are then calculated for each syllogism.This experiment studies _____ reasoning.

A) deductive
B) intuitive
C) falsification
D) inductive

Question 5

A syllogism is valid if

A) the conclusion follows logically from the two premises.
B) the two premises and the conclusion are true.
C) there is evidence to support the two premises.
D) there is no more than one exception to the conclusion.

Question 6

Consider the following syllogism:
All cats are birds.
All birds have wings.
All cats have wings.
This syllogism is

A) valid.
B) invalid.
C) true.
D) both valid and true.

Question 7

Mr.Huff always passes back exams to his algebra class in descending order (the highest grade is handed out first).Today, Maddelyn was the first to receive her exam.Joy complained, remarking, "Maddelyn, you always get the highest grade in algebra.It was true all last year and so far this year." Maddelyn was not sure if this was correct.To figure out if this was true, Maddelyn should

A) search her memory for instances when she did get her exam back first and for instances when she did not.
B) search her memory for instances when she did not get her exam back first.
C) search her memory for instances when she did get her exam back first.
D) wait until the next exam is passed back to see if she gets hers back first.

Question 8

According to your text, the key to solving the Wason four-card problem is

A) a mental model.
B) a categorical syllogism.
C) the law of large numbers.
D) the falsification principle.

Question 9

Consider the following syllogism:
Premise 1: All dogs are cats.
Premise 2: All cats say "meow."
Conclusion: Therefore, all dogs say "meow."
Which statement below describes this syllogism?

A) Both premises are valid
B) The conclusion is valid
C) The conclusion is not valid
D) The conclusion is true

Question 10

The rule of the Wason four-card problem is, "If there is a vowel on one side, then there is an even number on the other side." Let's say you are presented with A, 8, M, and 13, each showing on one of four cards.To see if the rule is valid, you would have to turn over the cards showing

A) 8 and M.
B) A and M.
C) A and 13.
D) 8 and 13.

Question 11

If it is raining, then I will take my umbrella.It is not raining.Therefore, I didn't take my umbrella.
This syllogism is an example of

A) denying the antecedent.
B) denying the consequent.
C) affirming the antecedent.
D) affirming the consequent.

Question 12

One reason that most people do not easily solve the original (abstract)version of the Wason four-card problem is that they

A) ignore the falsification principle.
B) are influenced by the atmosphere effect.
C) confuse the ideas of validity and truth.
D) incorrectly apply the permission schema.

Question 13

For which type of syllogism do people exhibit the best performance in judging validity?

A) Denying the antecedent
B) Denying the consequent
C) Affirming the antecedent
D) Affirming the consequent

Question 14

Consider the following conditional syllogism:
Premise 1: If I don't eat lunch today, I will be hungry tonight.
Premise 2: I ate lunch today.
Conclusion: Therefore, I wasn't hungry tonight.
This syllogism is an example of

A) affirming the consequent
B) denying the antecedent.
C) affirming the consequent.
D) denying the antecedent

Question 15

Consider the following syllogism:
If it's a robin then it is a bird.
It is a bird.
Therefore, it is a robin.
In the example above, "Therefore, it is a robin" is a ____ of a ____ syllogism.

A) premise; categorical
B) conclusion; categorical
C) premise; conditional
D) conclusion; conditional

Question 16

Consider the following conditional syllogism:
Premise 1: If I study, then I'll get a good grade.
Premise 2: I got a good grade.
Conclusion: Therefore, I studied.
This syllogism is

A) invalid.
B) valid.

Question 17

The validity of a syllogism depends on

A) the truth of its premises.
B) the truth of its conclusion.
C) its form.
D) both the truth of its premises and the truth of its conclusion.

Question 18

Consider the following syllogism:
All of the students are tired.
Some tired people are irritable.
Some of the students are irritable.
It is likely that most people will judge this syllogism as

A) invalid because of the influence of the atmosphere effect.
B) invalid because this syllogism does not involve a pragmatic reasoning schema.
C) valid because this is indeed a valid syllogism and the logic is apparent.
D) valid because this conclusion is believable.

Question 19

Making probable conclusions based on evidence involves _____ reasoning.

A) deductive
B) syllogistic
C) inductive
D) connective

Question 20

Consider the following syllogism:
If p then q.
p
q
This syllogism is a(n)____ syllogism.

A) abstract conditional
B) concrete conditional
C) abstract categorical
D) concrete categorical

Question 21

Stereotypes are reinforced by all of the following EXCEPT

A) the availability heuristic.
B) illusory correlations.
C) selective attention.
D) the falsification principle.

Question 22

One hundred students are enrolled in State University's course on introductory physics for math and science majors.In the group, 60 students are math majors and 40 are science majors.Sarah is in the class.She got all As in her high school science courses, and she would like to be a chemist someday.She lives on campus.Her boyfriend is also in the class.There is a ____ chance that Sarah is a science major.

A) 40%
B) 50%
C) 60%
D) 100%

Question 23

At a lunch meeting with a client, the CEO of Gossip Polls, Inc., was asked to determine America's favorite day of the week.Hundreds of Gossip employees across the U.S.started collecting data immediately, calling people at their residences.One hour later, the attitudes from 10,000 Americans, across all 50 states, were collected.A staff member called the CEO, still at her lunch meeting, to tell her the results of the poll: America's favorite day of the week is Monday.Given your text's discussion of inductive reasoning in science, we might suspect that the observations in this poll are not representative because

A) the participants were only asked one question for this poll.
B) the participants were not sufficiently geographically diverse.
C) the people who are home to answer the phone in the early afternoon are not an appropriate cross-section of the U.S. population.
D) everyone in America was not asked their opinion.

Question 24

The evolutionary approach proposes that the Wason problem can be understood in terms of people's

A) innate language abilities.
B) ability to work well with a group of others.
C) innate reasoning abilities.
D) ability to detect cheaters.

Question 25

Mia has lived in New York City all her life.She has noticed that people from upper Manhattan walk really fast, but people from lower Manhattan tend to walk slowly.Mia's observations are likely influenced from a judgment error based on her using

A) the law of large numbers.
B) an atmosphere effect.
C) an illusory correlation.
D) the falsification principle.

Question 26

The permission schema is an example of a(n)

A) pragmatic reasoning schema.
B) subjective utility.
C) opt-in procedure.
D) illusory correlation.

Question 27

Which of the following statements would most likely invoke the operation of a permission schema?

A) No artists can be beekeepers, but some of the beekeepers must be chemists.
B) All A are B. All B are C. Therefore, all A are C.
C) I forgot to charge my cell phone last night, therefore I missed an important call today.
D) If I get an A on my cognitive psychology exam, I can go out with my friends Saturday night.

Question 28

Wally and Sharon are out on a date.When Sharon asks Wally where they should go for dinner, Wally says "My coworkers keep telling me about that new Japanese place downtown, so it must be a great place to eat." Wally's response illustrates the use of a(n)

A) availability heuristic.
B) confirmation bias.
C) conjunction rule.
D) permission schema.

Question 29

When the "abstract" version of the Wason four-card problem is compared to a "concrete" version of the problem (in which beer, soda, and ages are substituted for the letters and numbers),

A) performance is better for the concrete task.
B) performance is better for the abstract task.
C) performance is the same for both tasks.
D) performing the abstract task improves performance of the concrete task.

Question 30

Bonnie has ordered her monthly supply of medicines through the mail for the past five years. Except for one order, all orders have arrived within two business days.Bonnie placed an order yesterday, and she expects to receive her order tomorrow.Bonnie is using

A) an omission bias.
B) inductive reasoning.
C) the conjunction rule.
D) the similarity-coverage model.

Question 31

Consider the following argument:
Observation: Here in Nashville, the sun has risen every morning.
Conclusion: The sun is going to rise in Nashville tomorrow.

A) The argument is weak because there is only one specific case.
B) The argument is strong because the premise includes scientific evidence.
C) The argument is weak because the observation does not consider other cities.
D) The argument is strong because there are a large number of observations.

Question 32

Derrick purchased a new car, a Ford Mustang, less than a month ago.While sitting in traffic, Derrick says to his girlfriend, "Mustangs must be the best-selling car now.I can't remember seeing as many on the road as I have recently." Derrick's judgment is most likely biased by a(n)

A) atmosphere effect.
B) availability heuristic.
C) focusing illusion.
D) permission schema.

Question 33

Greg was recounting a fishing tale of the one that got away: "I had a huge ahi on my line.I fought for it for a few minutes, then my line snapped.The ahi swam away across the pond." Greg's friend, Matt, didn't believe his story because Matt knew that ahi are salt-water fish and aren't found in ponds.Greg's account contains

A) descriptive information that is inconsistent with base rate information.
B) a belief bias.
C) inductive reasoning based on observations of multiple, specific cases.
D) a focusing illusion.

Question 34

Which concept below is most closely associated with the evolutionary perspective to solving the Wason four-card problem?

A) Permission schemas
B) Falsification principle
C) Social-exchange theory
D) Availability heuristic

Question 35

Inductive reasoning involves

A) definite conclusions.
B) logical certainty.
C) factual premises.
D) observational premises.

Question 36

Cosmides and Tooby tested participants' ability to solve variations of the Wason problem, including ones containing stories about a particular culture.Their results showed that ____ is not always necessary for conditional reasoning.

A) familiarity
B) a premise
C) validity
D) using a heuristic

Question 37

Gabrielle is blonde, extremely attractive, and lives in an expensive condo.If we judge the probability of Gabrielle's being a model quite high because she resembles our stereotype of a model, we are using

A) the representative heuristic.
B) the availability heuristic.
C) framing.
D) the law of small numbers.

Question 38

The finding that people tend to incorrectly conclude that more people die from tornados than from asthma has been explained in terms of the

A) representativeness heuristic.
B) availability heuristic.
C) falsification principle.
D) belief bias.

Question 39

The application of a(n)____ makes it easier to solve the "drinking beer" version of the Wason problem.

A) conjunction rule
B) permission schema
C) atmosphere effect
D) availability heuristic

Question 40

Lydia is 48 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright.She majored in philosophy as an undergraduate.As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and she participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.Which of the following alternatives is most probable?

A) Lydia is a U.S. Congresswoman.
B) Lydia is a U.S. Congresswoman and active in the feminist movement.
C) Lydia is a U.S. Senator.
D) Lydia is a U.S. Senator and active in the feminist movement.

Question 41

Imagine that your friend James has just taken up the habit of smoking cigars because he thinks it makes him look cool.You are concerned about the detrimental effects of smoking on his health, and you raise that concern to him.James gets a bit annoyed with your criticism and says "George Burns smoked cigars, and he lived to be 100!" You might point out that a major problem with his "George Burns" argument involves

A) framing.
B) the conjunction rule.
C) sample size.
D) none of these

Question 42

Utility refers to

A) outcomes that achieve a person's goals.
B) how useful a reasoning process is.
C) the validity of a syllogism.
D) degree of risk aversion one has.

Question 43

Cecile has dreamed of owning her own home for years, and she can finally afford a small cottage in an older neighborhood.She notices that she feels more positive about her home when she drives home by the abandoned shacks, but she hates her home when driving past the fancy mansions with their large lawns.Cecile's emotions are influenced by

A) the principle of diversity.
B) confirmation bias.
C) framing.
D) the law of large numbers.

Question 44

Given its definition, expected utility theory is most applicable to deciding whether to

A) break up or stay involved with a current girlfriend.
B) go out for junior varsity hockey or junior varsity basketball.
C) buy first class or coach tickets for a spring break trip.
D) take astronomy or geology as a physical science elective course.

Question 45

Juanita is in a convenience store considering which soda to buy.She recalls a commercial for BigFizz she saw on TV last night.BigFizz is running a promotion where you look under the bottle cap, and one in five bottles has a voucher for a free soda.If Juanita decides to purchase a BigFizz based on this promotion, which is framed in terms of _____, she will use a _____ strategy.

A) losses; risk-taking
B) gains; risk-taking
C) losses; risk-aversion
D) gains; risk-aversion

Question 46

Of the following real-world phenomena, the confirmation bias best explains the observation that people

A) do not always make decisions that maximize their monetary outcome.
B) are more likely to purchase meat advertised as 80% fat free than 20% fat.
C) misjudge homicide as more prevalent in the U.S. than suicide.
D) can cite several reasons for their position on a controversial issue but none for the opposing side.

Question 47

Failing to consider the law of large numbers most likely results in errors concerning

A) confirmation bias.
B) utility.
C) the falsification principle.
D) the representativeness heuristic.

Question 48

Perseveration represents difficulty in

A) automatic processing.
B) performing a task repeatedly.
C) shifting to a new behavior.
D) organizing perceptual information coherently.

Question 49

There are two gumball machines outside the local grocery store, one large machine and one small machine.Both machines have only yellow and orange gumballs, and each machine contains 50 percent of each color.For each coin, the large gumball machine dispenses 15 gumballs, while the small machine dispenses 5.Tim is a young genius whose interests include probability and sound decision-making.His "probability project of the day" is to get a greater percentage of either of the colors, but not an equal amount of each color.Given this, and presuming Tim has only one coin,

A) he should use his coin in the large machine.
B) he should use his coin in the small machine.
C) it doesn't make a difference which machine he uses.
D) he should wait for other people to use the machines and see what they get.

Question 50

Kirk is a generally anxious person.His anxiety sometimes gets in the way when he tries to make decisions.The anxiety Kirk feels is an example of an

A) expected emotion.
B) immediate emotion.
C) integral immediate emotion.
D) incidental immediate emotion.

Question 51

In a study by Tversky and Shafir, college students were asked to read a scenario and make a decision regarding the purchase of a vacation package following a difficult end-of-semester exam.The independent variable was whether or not students were told the results of the exam (some were told "pass," others "fail")or that the final scores were not yet known.This study found that participants were more likely to purchase the vacation package if they were

A) told they passed the exam.
B) told they failed the exam.
C) did not know the results of the exam.
D) if they were told the results of the exam, regardless of passing or failing.

Question 52

Glinda is sure that if her boyfriend proposes, she will feel elation.This is an example of an

A) expected emotion.
B) immediate emotion.
C) integral immediate emotion.
D) incidental immediate emotion.

Question 53

The conjunction rule states that

A) the probability of two events co-occurring is the sum of the probabilities of each event occurring.
B) the probability of two events co-occurring is equal to or less than the probability of either event occurring alone.
C) people make decisions based upon both the costs and benefits of the choices.
D) people make decisions based upon possible benefits when the choices are framed positively and based upon possible costs when the choices are framed negatively.

Question 54

If a motorcycle cop believes that young female drivers speed more than other drivers, he will likely notice young female drivers speeding in the fast lane but fail to notice young male or older drivers doing the same.In this case, the police officer's judgments are biased by the operation of the

A) permission schema.
B) confirmation bias.
C) falsification principle.
D) typicality principle.

Question 55

People tend to overestimate

A) what negative feelings will occur following a decision more so than positive feelings.
B) what positive feelings will occur following a decision more so than negative feelings.
C) what positive and negative feelings will occur following a decision to the same degree.
D) subjective utility values following a decision.

Question 56

Josiah is trying to decide whether or not to take a new job in a new city.The decision is creating a lot of anxiety in him, which is an example of an

A) expected emotion.
B) immediate emotion.
C) integral immediate emotion.
D) incidental immediate emotion.

Question 57

The similarity-coverage model demonstrates the influence of _____ on the strength of inductive arguments.

A) utility
B) self-referencing
C) categorization
D) none of these

Question 58

By using a(n) , a country could increase the percentage of individuals agreeing to be organ donors dramatically.

A) opt-out procedure
B) opt-in procedure
C) pragmatic reasoning schema
D) permission schema

Question 59

The study by Tversky and Shafir, in which college students decided whether or not to purchase a vacation package after taking a difficult end-of-semester exam, showed the influence of ____ in decision making.

A) positive vs. negative outcomes
B) opt-in vs. opt-out procedures
C) justification
D) utility

Question 60

Donovan volunteers his time to campaign for Joel Goodman.He spent all afternoon putting up "Goodman for Congress" signs around his town and arrived back at Goodman headquarters just in time to watch the Goodman-Hernandez debate on TV.Donovan was eager to watch the candidates debate each other, even though he was 100% sure he was going to vote for Goodman.Donovan's first response to the debate will most likely be

A) "I noticed that Goodman and Hernandez agreed on the new environmental policy."
B) "Did you hear how well Goodman answered that question on job creation?"
C) "I wonder why Goodman was so vague on the school tax issue when I know he has a clear idea about that."
D) "Hernandez is really going to make this a tight race."

Question 61

Describe the Wason four-card problem.Explain what the results of experiments that have used abstract and concrete versions of the problem illustrate about how solving this problem is influenced by concreteness, knowledge of regulations, permission schemas, and an evolutionary perspective on cognition.

Question 62

Let's say you are testing a patient with damage to the prefrontal cortex.You present the patient with relationships such as the following:
Relationship #1: Alia is taller than Ian, who is taller than Mandy.
Relationship #2: Margy is taller than Michelle.Lisa is taller than Margy.
The patient's task is to arrange the names in order of the people's heights.The patient will perform

A) well with Relationship #1 only.
B) well with Relationship #2 only.
C) well with both relationships.
D) poorly with both relationships.

Question 63

Physiological research on problem solving has concluded that the prefrontal cortex (PFC)is important in problem solving because damage to this area causes

A) difficulty in people developing expertise in a certain area of knowledge.
B) people to lose their memory for facts that might aid in finding a solution.
C) an increase in perseveration.
D) an inability to recognize analogies.

Question 64

PFC-damaged patients have trouble with reading comprehension tasks.They are unable to

A) identify events that were described in the story.
B) understand individual words.
C) follow the order of events in the story.
D) all of these

Question 65

Define the utility approach to decisions.Explain how emotions affect decisions from this perspective.

Question 66

Describe and give examples of how each of the following cause errors in reasoning: availability heuristic, illusory correlations, representative heuristic, and confirmation bias.

Question 67

Sanfey and coworkers' "ultimatum game" experiment revealed that people tended to make the ____ decision of ____.

A) irrational; accepting any offer
B) irrational; accepting only high offers
C) rational; accepting any offer
D) rational; accepting only high offers

Question 68

An omission bias would be most likely to occur when deciding whether to

A) include your ethnicity when filling out a job application.
B) send a belated happy birthday card to your favorite aunt whose birthday you forgot last month.
C) allow your pre-teen nephew to attend an unsupervised pool party.
D) tell your boyfriend that there is a football game on TV at the same time he agreed to watch a romantic comedy with you.

Question 69

Define both deductive and inductive reasoning and explain how they are different.What does it mean to say that the conclusion to a syllogism is "valid"?

Question 70

Describe the four types of conditional syllogisms.For each type, identify which are valid and how well people judge the validity of each.

Question 71

Discuss how a person's judgments are affected by the way choices are framed.Give an example of a choice framed in terms of gains.Give another example of a choice framed in terms of losses.Which decision-making strategy is likely used in each case? Why?

Question 72

Omission bias involves

A) misjudging a syllogism as valid because the conclusion agrees with our beliefs.
B) ignoring the importance of sample size on which an observation is based.
C) selectively looking for evidence that conforms to our beliefs while ignoring the rest.
D) tending to do nothing rather than making a decision that could be interpreted as causing harm.

Question 73

What is a categorical syllogism? How well can people judge the validity of categorical syllogisms, and what is the difference between validity and truth in syllogistic reasoning?

Question 74

In an experiment that combined both physiological and behavioral approaches to the study of decision making, PFC activity was recorded while participants accepted or rejected proposals to split a sum of money ($10).PFC activation was

A) greatest for accepted offers.
B) greatest for rejected offers.
C) the same for accepted and rejected offers.
D) dependent on how much money the responder was offered.

Question 75

Explain the evidence from neuropsychology and brain imaging studies showing how the prefrontal cortex is involved in problem solving and reasoning.