Cognitive Psychology Chapter 13

Illusory Correlation

Relationship that appears to exist between two events, when in reality there isn't a connection

Base Rate

Relative proportion of different classes in a population

Ultimatum Game

Activity used to study people's decision-making strategies

Belief Bias

Tendency to think a syllogism is valid if its conclusion is credible

Myside Bias

Tendency for people to test hypotheses in a way that confirms their own opinions

Status Quo Bias

Tendency to do nothing when faced with making a decision

Risk Aversion

Tendency to make decisions that minimize the likelihood of unsatisfactory outcome

Confirmation Bias

Tendency to selectively look for information that validates our hypothesis

Risk-taking Strategy

Decision-making plan that can potentially lead to an unsatisfactory result or a rewarding outcome

Incidental Emotion

Feeling that is not directly caused by the act of having to make a decision

Syllogism

Form of reasoning that includes three statements: two premises followed by a conclusion

Conditional Syllogism

Form of reasoning whose first premise is an if then statment

Framing Effect

Idea that decisions are influenced by how the choices are stated

Availability Heuristic

Idea that events that are more easily remembered are more probable than those less easily remembered

Social Exchange Theory

Idea that human relationships are formed by people cooperating in a mutually beneficial way

Evolutionary Perspective on Cognition

Idea that many properties of our minds can be traced to principles of natural selection

Expected Utility Theory

Idea that people are basically rational and will make decisions to attain the best results

Dual Systems Approach

Idea that there are two mental processes that have different capabilities and serve different functions

Inductive Reasoning

Logical process in which a conclusion follows from a consideration of evidence

Mental Model Approach

Method of determining of syllogisms are valid by creating representation of situations in your mind

Permission Schema

Model stating that if a person satisfies condition A, they can carry out action B

Opt-in Procedure

Process in which individuals must take an active step to choose a course of action

Utility

Outcome that achieves a person's goals

Conjunction Rule

Probability of co-occurrence of two events cannot be higher than that of single constituents

Representativeness Heuristic

Probability that event A comes from class B can be determined by degree of similarity

Opt-out Procedure

Process in which individuals must take an active step to avoid a course of action

Heuristic

Shortcut or rule of thumb that provides a best-guess solution to a problem

Mental Model

Specific situation that is represented in a person's mind

Falsification Principle

Theory that testing a rule involves looking for situations that would make the rule untrue

Law of Large Numbers

Theory that the bigger your sample is, the closer average the result will be

Deductive Reasoning

Thought process that involves syllogisms in which a conclusion logically follows from premises