mind and brain lecture 8 - reasoning and decision making

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  • Created by: Cruick96
  • Created on: 29-03-17 14:18
who were the first people to investigate the laws of thought?
philosophers and mathematicians - aristotle, leibniz, boole - proposed human thought functions like laws of logic
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what are the types of reasoning research?
inductive and deductive reasoning
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what is inductive reasoning?
probable conclusions derived from available statements
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what is deductive reasoning?
the conclusions necessarily follow from the premises
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what is decision making research?
do humans think using the laws of probability? researchers describe a problem then provide a few solutions, the participants choose from these solutions
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what is problem solving research?
need to generate the solutions to the problems yourself, ie how are novel products and ideas created?
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what is research on analogy making?
to what extent can knowledge from one domain be transferred in a different domain?
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what conclusions do decision making, problem solving and analogy making research have in common?
long term memory knowledge is essential to thinking, limits in attention and short term memory make simple problems hard to solve, whether attention directed to key aspects of problem predicts whether will find good solution
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what is the weak version of rationality?
do we make decisions that allow us to reach our goals?
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what is the strong version of rationality?
do we make the best decisions possible?
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what is wason's selection task?
cards have number on one side, letter on other. presented with e, k, 4 & 7. is this rule correct?: of a card has a vowel on one side, has even number on other side. e and 4 would be the best choices.
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why was e a good choice in wason's selection task?
if other side does not show an even number we can be sure that the rule doesn't apply for this set of cards. if was an even number then would need to proceed further to be certain the cards follow the rule
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why was 4 often chosen?
if no vowel on back of 4, can be certsain the cards do not follow the rule. but we have already examined a similar instance with the e card. if get vowel upon turning 4 we don't get any addition info as already obtained the info from e
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why was 7 the right choice?
need to try falsify the rule. presence of a vowel on back of 7 would immediately falsify the rule. offers fastest way (in conjunction with e) to finding out whether the rule is correct
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what does wason's task illustrate?
confirmation bias - human tendency to confirm views held, rather than falsify them
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what are conditional problems?
if-then problems (selection tasks belong to these)
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what 2 rules of logic do conditional problems use?
modus ponens (intuitive - if p then q), and modus tollens (less intuitive, if not p then not q)
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what is an example of modus ponens?
if psychology is a science, then the moon is blue - psychology is a science, therefore the moon must be blue (in this case, researchers only interested in way people think, not reality)
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what is an example of modus tollens?
if atkinson and shiffrin's model is correct, then blocking rehearsal stops LTM encoding - blocking rehearsal does NOT stop LTM encoding, therefore their theory must be wrong
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what conditional problems does modus ponens face?
error in affirming the consequent - if i take a shower i am wet, but i am wet it doesn't mean i have had a shower
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what condition problems does modus tollens face?
denying the antecedent - take a shower, i am wet. but i didn't take a shower, i can't conclude that i am not wet
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what is karl popper's falsification?
only valid way to test validity theories.
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what is hume's problem of induction?
it is not poss to prove a scientific theory. future empirical research may refute the theory. like the swan problem - all swans white, but found a black swan
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what is john stuart mill's rule of agreement?
if x is followed by y, then x is sufficient for y, and could also be the cause of y
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what is john stuart mill's rule of difference?
if y does not occur when x does not occur, then x is necessary for y to occur
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what is an issue of john stuart mill's definitions?
can't infer causation - x doesn't cause y, it is a correlation/relationship
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what is the concrete version of wason's task?
if sum1 at bar drinking beer, must be over 18. 1.drinking beer, 2. drinking coke, 3. obv over 18, 4. looks under 18. would choose beer and under 18.
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what does rips argue?
people use universal logical rules when solving wason's 2 tasks (abstract and real life)
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what is the big difference between doing abstract task and real life task?
use previous knowledge in the pub version (real life), in abstract we have no previous experience to fall back on
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what did cheng and holyoak propose?
people use pragmatic reasoning schemas based on experience to accommodate abstract knowledge structures. emphasis on role of experience rather than universal rules of logic
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how is the pragmatic reasoning seen in wason's 2 tasks?
use permission schema in pub task as know about not being allowed to drink alcohol. no schema for the abstract task, therefore do not perform as well. pub task - 3/4 participants get it correct
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what are johnson-laird's mental models?
said condition probs difficult cos we try to decode the meaning of every statement to form internal represenations of statements = these are mental models we use to deduce whether statements are correct
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what is an example of mental models?
john is taller than paul. paul is taller than dave. is john taller than dave - obv yes.
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what is an example of mental models applied to syllogisms?
all artists beekeepers. some beekeepers chemists. are all artists also chemists? no - other possibilities exist = artist could be a beekeeper that is not a chemist
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what are the strengths of the mental model theory?
accounts for difference of difficulty of different types of syllagisms, highlights role of working memory
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what are the weaknesses of the mental model theory?
little direct evidence that people build the proposed mental models, little support for hypothesis that people try to find counter examples
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what is wasons 2-4-6 task (pos evidence for confirmation bias)?
ps given sequence 246. task to find rule behind sequence. can produce as many sequences of 3 numbers as want and receive yes or no feedback. most ps formed rule: sequence of going up in 2s. actual rule was increasing by any number. didnt disprove rul
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what is lord et al's study on death penalty?
pro and anti death penalty groups. ps read 2 studies w/ 2 indep variables. longitudinal or cross & support or not of death penalty. flaws of 2 types of design highlighted. attitude scale at end.
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what were the findings of lord et al's study?
ps thought that the study consistent with their own view had a better design and was more convincing. they failed to notice the weaknesses of the study supporting their view. in spite of reading neg evidence, ps increased their original belief
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what has been found about astrology, barnum statements and the confirmation bias?
24% brits believe astrology. indivs give high ratings to description of personality based on astrology. but they are barnum statements (vague, general to fit almost anyone). statements work due to confirmation bias and selective memory
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what is expected utility according to classical economics?
ppl take all available info & weight importance using numbers. attribute value to each option and estimate probability it will occur. take sum of utilities of each poss outcome, each multiplied by probability, one gets expected utility.
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what is the best solution in expected utility?
option with the largest expected utility. people = maximiser - always select optimal option
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what is bounded rationality (simon)?
people don't consider all options, do no weight the info and don't search for optimal solution. can't cos of limitations of cog system. instead carry out highly selective search.
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what does bounded rationality assume about people?
people are satisficers - they choose an option if it leads to good enough results, use heuristics (strategies, shortcuts, rules of thumb)
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what is the availability heuristic?
flying safer than travelling by car. 10,000x more likely to die in car crash than plane. millions prefer travelling by car. explain - car crash usually has few casualties, planes make headlines w/ gruesome coverage. plane accidents more available mem
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what is the representativeness heuristic?
gamblers fallacy - decisions on probability based on availalbe instances, degree of similarity w/ instances used. often consider jst a few instances. sometimes just single one. base conc on small samples - no. heads and tails will even out
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what is kahneman & tversky's neglect of base rates?
disregard base rate info. ie, small, timid man - think he is a chinese tutor but actually a psych one as more common in base rate.
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what is bayes theorum?
describes how to update probabilities of hypotheses when given new evidence, uses base rates. requires good knowledge of prob tho. most people poor at this.
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what did gigeranzer et al propose about heuristics?
opposes idea that humans are prone to errors. heuristics very useful - availability. it is rational to use previous experiences and recognition shortcuts.
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what is gigeranzer et al's recognition heuristic?
say cologne has bigger population than herne cos have heard of it from football. over 90% used this. simple, intuitive and effective
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what are the types of reasoning research?

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inductive and deductive reasoning

Card 3

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what is inductive reasoning?

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Card 4

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what is deductive reasoning?

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Card 5

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what is decision making research?

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