PSYC7321: Cognitive Psychology

• decision - process of choosing between alternatives
• Reasoning


  The process of drawing conclusions
• Inductive reasoning


  Reasoning that's based on observation and being able to reach a conclusion from evidence
• Inductive reasoning


  • Used to make scientific discoveries by forming a hypothesis and coming up with a solution
  • Used in everyday life to predict what will happen based on what we've seen or what's happened in the past
• Heuristics


  Mental shortcuts that are likely to provide the correct answer to a problem, but often lead to incorrect solutions
• Availability heuristic


  Events are more likely to be remembered based on things that are available or easily remembered in our mind
• Example of availability heuristic


  • Gamblers remembering their wins but not their losses
• Illusory correlation


  A correlation that appears to exist but either does not exist or is much weaker than assumed
• Representativeness heuristic


  The probability of A being a member of Class B is determined by how well the properties of A resemble what's normally associated with B
• Example of representativeness heuristic


  • Assuming someone who is 7 feet tall must play basketball
• Conjunction rule


  The probability of conjunction with two events cannot be higher than the probability of the single constituents of that event
• Law of large numbers


  The larger the number of individuals randomly drawn from the population, the more representative the resulting group will be of the entire population
• My-side bias


  Tendency for people to generate and evaluate evidence and test their hypotheses in a way that is biased toward their own opinions and attitudes
• Confirmation bias


  Tendency to selectively look for information that conforms to our hypothesis and overlook information that goes against it
• Example of my-side bias


  • People in favor of capital punishment finding an article convincing, while those against it found it unconvincing
• Deductive reasoning


  Determining whether a conclusion logically follows from a premise
• Validity


  (in deductive reasoning) A conclusion follows logically from its two premises, and if the two premises of a valid syllogism are true, the syllogism's conclusion must also be true
• Belief bias


  Tendency to think a syllogism is valid if its conclusions are believable
• Mental model approach


  A specific situation represented in a person's mind that can be used to help determine the validity of a syllogism in deductive reasoning
• Example of conditional reasoning problem

  • The Wason card problem, where a person has to determine the minimum number of cards to turn over to check if there is a vowel on one side and an even number on the other
• Permission schema


  If A is satisfied, then B can be carried out
• Falsification principle


  To test a rule, you must look for situations that falsify the rule
• Most participants often fail to falsify the principle, but correct responses can be greatly increased when the problem is stated in concrete everyday terms
• In 1992, a study found that people may be more sensitive to situations involving permissions or regulations, and from an evolutionary perspective, being on the lookout for cheaters is important to survival
• Expected utility theory


  People are rational if they have all relevant information and will make a decision that results in maximum expected utility
• Utility


  The outcomes that are desirable because they are in the person's best interest, such as maximum monetary payoff
• Incidental emotions


  Emotions that are not specifically related to the decision-making process, but are related to a person's personality, genetic disposition, recent experiences, or environment
• Opt-in procedure


  Where we step up to do something, such as being an organ donor
• Opt-out procedure


  Where we don't want to do something unless we've requested it, such as not being an organ donor
• Status quo bias


  Tendency to do nothing when faced with making decisions, being okay with the status quo
• Risk aversion strategy


  Used when problems are stated in terms of gains
• Risk-taking strategy


  Used when problems are stated in terms of losses
• Framing effect


  Our decisions are influenced by how a decision is stated, highlighting one aspect of a situation and determining how people make their decision
• Example of framing effect


  • Choosing beef that is 30% lean or 80% lean
• Ultimatum game


  People often reject low offers because they become angry that the offers were unfair
• Neuroeconomics


  Decisions are influenced by emotions associated with activity in specific areas of the brain
• Example of neuroeconomics study


  • More activation of the right anterior insula, connected to emotional states, caused participants to be more likely to reject more offers
• Dual systems approach to thinking

  System 1 thinking is fast, automatic, intuitive, and non-conscious, while System 2 thinking is slow, deliberate, conscious, and controlled
• Much of our day-to-day existence is handled by System 1 thinking, while System 2 takes over when we need to be more thoughtful
• Dual process theory suggests that there are two systems involved in human thinking: System 1 (automatic) and System 2 (controlled).