Midterm 2 Cog Psych Quiz 5 Problem Solving
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
"Did you hear how well Goodman answered that question on job creation?"
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
40%
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 and 13
Which of the following statements does NOT apply to the results of research on differences between how experts and novices solve problems?
Being an expert in one field can transfer to better problem solving in another field
. ____ identified people's tendency to focus on a specific characteristic of a problem that keeps them from arriving at a solution as a major obstacle to successful problem solving
Gestalt psychologists
Which of the following statements would most likely invoke the operation of a permission schema?
If I get an A on my cog psych, I can go out with my friends saturday night
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
Lydia is a U.S. Congresswoman
Gick and Holyoak consider which of the following to be the most difficult step to achieve in the process of analogical problem solving?
Noticing that there is an analogous relationship between problems because most participants need prompting before they notice a connection
Which of the following is an operator for the acrobat problem?
Only one acrobat may jump at a time
The analogy that makes the solution to the mutilated checkerboard problem obvious is the ____ problem
Russian marriage
Consider the following argument: Observation: Here in Nashville, the sun has risen every morning. Conclusion: The sun is going to rise in Nashville tomorrow
The argument is strong because there are a large number of observations
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?
The conclusion is valid
Amber lives in a housing development between two parallel streets that both connect to a freeway. She usually takes the street to the south when heading southbound on the freeway to work, but that street is closed for repairs for three months. Amber takes the street to the north during that time. After the street to the south is re-opened, she continues to take the street to the north, even though it is a slightly longer route. Continuing to take the street to the north represents
a mental set
Ill-defined problems are so named because it is difficult to specify _____ for the problems
a single correct answer
The evolutionary approach proposes that the Wason problem can be understood in terms of people's
ability to detect characters
Consider the following syllogism: If p then q. p q This syllogism is a(n) ____ syllogism
abstract conditional
For which type of syllogism do people exhibit the best performance in judging validity
affirming the antecedent
An omission bias would be most likely to occur when deciding whether to
allow your pre-teen nephew to attend an unsupervised pool party
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
an illusory correlations
Physiological research on problem solving has concluded that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is important in problem solving because damage to this area causes
an increase in preservation
The ability to transfer experience from one problem solving situation to a similar problem is known as
analogical transfer
Dr. Curious is doing a follow-up study to the mutilated checkerboard problem experiment. In this new study, participants solve the following shoe problem before tackling the checkerboard problem. By doing this, Dr. Curious is studying the effect of _____ on problem solving. The shoe problem: A first-grade class is using a trampoline in gym class, so all the children have removed their shoes, which are all jumbled in a large pile. One of the students, Miguel, is leaving early, so the teacher tells him to grab his shoes and report to the lobby. In his hurry, Miguel grabs two identical left-footed, size 6 red sneakers and runs to his mother still sock-footed. Will the remaining students be able to shoe-up with the remaining shoes without getting a foot-ache?
analogies
The text's discussion of the research on in vivo problem solving highlighted that ____ play(s) an important role in solving scientific problems
analogies
The radiation problem was used in your text to illustrate the role of ____ in problem solving
analogy
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)
availability heuristic
The finding that people tend to incorrectly conclude that more people die from tornados than from asthma has been explained in terms of the
availability heuristic
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)
availability heuristic
In Kaplan and Simon's experiment, they presented different versions of the mutilated checkerboard problem. Participants in the ____ group had the fastest response time
bread and butter
The typical purpose of subgoals is to
bring the problem solver closer and closer to the goal state
Given its definition, expected utility theory is most applicable to deciding whether to
buy first class or coach tickets for a spring break trip
Of the following real-world phenomena, the confirmation bias best explains the observation that people
can cite several reasons for their position on a controversial issue but none for the opposing side.
The similarity-coverage model demonstrates the influence of _____ on the strength of inductive arguments
categorizations
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
conclusion; conditional
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
confirmation bias
When the process of analogical problem solving was applied to the fortress and radiation problems, which of the following represented the mapping step of this process?
connecting the fortress with the tumor
Intermediate states can be created by
creating subgoals
Phoenix Decorating Company is responsible for designing and building many of the floral floats seen in the Tournament of Roses Parade every New Year's Day. Phoenix's designers start preparing the floats for the next year's parade soon after the first of the year. For each corporate sponsor, Phoenix submits a variety of sketches as possible designs. In each design, it describes the concept as well as the floral materials that will be involved. This design process represents
creative cognition
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
deductive
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
deductive
Metcalfe and Wiebe gave participants problems to solve and asked them to make "warmth" judgments every 15 seconds to indicate how close they felt they were to a solution. The purpose of this experiment was to
demonstrate a difference between how people solve insight and non-insight problems
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
denying the antecedent
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
denying the antecedent
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
denying the antecedent
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
descriptive information that is inconsistent with base rate info
Ali works for Citrus Squeeze, a company that makes orange juice. Sales of their calcium-enhanced OJ have been poor, and the product was cancelled. His factory still had three cases of cartons, and Ali was told he could take them if he wanted them. With the cartons, Ali made several birdfeeders for his backyard and also planted tree seedlings in some of them; he used the remaining ones to build a "fort" for his four-year-old son. Ali's use of the cartons represents
divergent thinking
The creative cognition approach that Finke used to get people to "invent" useful objects, is an example of
divergent thinking
Glinda is sure that if her boyfriend proposes, she will feel elation. This is an example of an
expected emotion
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
familiarity
In its discussion of expertise and problem solving, your text identifies the kind of scientists who are most likely to make revolutionary discoveries in their fields. This particular discussion suggests that _____ may be more important than _____ in creative thinking
flexibility; experience
PFC-damaged patients have trouble with reading comprehension tasks. They are unable to
follow the order of events in the story
Holyoak and Koh presented different versions of the lightbulb problem to assist in solving the radiation problem. They found the ____ version to be more effective, because it had ____ fea-tures in common with the radiation problem
fragile-glass; structural
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
framing
Holly was in her mother-in-law's kitchen preparing lunch for the family. When she was ready to dish up the soup, she searched all the cupboards and drawers for a ladle but couldn't find one. She decided to wait until her mother-in-law returned to ask her where the ladle was, leaving the soup in the stove pot. Her mother-in-law later explained that the ladle had been broken, so she told Holly to use a coffee mug to "spoon" the soup into bowls. Holly's ability to solve the "dish up the soup" problem was hindered by which of the following obstacles?
functional fixedness
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
gains; risk-aversion
Experts categorize problems based on
general principles that problems share
Convergent thinking
has a correct answer
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,
he should use his coin in the small machine
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
if they were told the results of the exam, regardless of passing or failing
One reason that most people do not easily solve the original (abstract) version of the Wason four-card problem is that they
ignore the falsification principle
Divergent thinking is most closely associated with ____ problems
ill-defined
A researcher records a brainstorming session in an industrial research and development department. Later, she analyzes the recorded discussions, identifying certain problem-solving techniques. This research is an example of ____ research.
in vivo problem-solving
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
incidental immediate emotion
Making probable conclusions based on evidence involves _____ reasoning
inductive
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
inductive reasoning
Newell and Simon called the conditions at the beginning of the problem the
initial state
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
integral immediate emotion
In the two-string problem, tying the pliers to one of the strings best represents a(n) ____ state
intermediate
It is difficult to apply means-end analysis to an insight problem because it is difficult to define ____ for an insight problem
intermediate states
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
invalid
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
invalid
Sanfey and coworkers' "ultimatum game" experiment revealed that people tended to make the ____ decision of ____.
irrational; accepting only high offers
The validity of a syllogism depends on
its form
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
justification
The analogical paradox refers to problem-solving differences between
laboratory and real-world settings
. In Belilock and Carr's study of the relationship between working memory capacity and problem solving, individuals with high working memory capacity performed best in the condition
low-pressure
Finke's creating an object studies show that people were more likely to come up with creative uses for preinventive objects if they
made the objects themselves
The solution to the candle problem involves realizing that the
match box can be used as a shelf
To reduce the likelihood of design fixation when completing a creative design task, you should
not present a sample design
Gick and Holyoak proposed that analogical problem solving involves the following three steps
noticing, mapping, and applying
Functional fixedness would be LOWEST for a(n)
novel object
Finke's "creating an object" experiment had participants create a novel object by combining parts. Once they created an object, they were given the name of an object category and instructed to interpret their creation as a practical object or device within that category. Finke used the term preinventive forms to describe the
novel objects before a function was described
Inductive reasoning involves
observational premises
Actions that take the problem from one state to another are known as
operators
The elements of the problem space include all of the following EXCEPT
operators
By using a(n) , a country could increase the percentage of individuals agreeing to be organ donors dramatically
opt-out procedure
Utility refers to
outcomes that achieve a person's goals
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),
performance is better for the concrete task
The application of a(n) ____ makes it easier to solve the "drinking beer" version of the Wason problem
permission schema
The permission schema is an example of a(n)
pragmatic reasoning schema
The radiation problem can be solved using
representation and reconstructing
The circle problem, in which the task is to determine the length of a line inside a circle, was proposed to illustrate
representation and restructuring
Gestalt psychologists consider problem solving as a process involving
restructuring
Warmth judgments on nearness to a solution ____ prior to the solution of an insight problem and ____ prior to the solution of a non-insight problem
rise suddenly just; gradually rise
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
sample size
Newell and Simon were early pioneers in designing computer programs that could solve problems. Their research program was based on the idea that problem solving is a process that involves
search
The information processing approach describes problem solving as a process involving
search
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, re-marking, "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
search her memory for instances when she did get her exam back first and for instances when she did not
The water-jug problem demonstrates that one consequence of having a procedure that does provide a solution to a problem is that, if well-learned, it may prevent us from
seeing more efficient solutions to the problem
Perseveration represents difficulty in
shifting to new behavior
Which concept below is most closely associated with the evolutionary perspective to solving the Wason four-card problem
social-exchange theory
Considering the fortress and the radiation problems together, the fortress problem represents the _____ problem
source
People are most successful at noticing an analogous relationship between problems if they focus on
structural features
Gentner and coworkers' studies show that analogical encoding causes problem solvers to pay attention to ____ features that ____ their ability to solve other problems
structural, enhance
The fortress problem involves a fortress and marching soldiers, while the radiation problem involves a tumor and rays. Therefore, the two problems have very different
surface features
. A _____ string led to a restructured representation in the two-string problem
swinging
Experts_____ than novices
take a more effective approach to a problem
In analogical problem solving, the _____ problem has higher difficulty than the _____ problem
target; source
. Omission bias involves
tending to do nothing rather than making a decision that could be interpreted as causing harm
Illustrative of functional fixedness, people are more likely to solve the candle problem if
the box is empty
A syllogism is valid if
the conclusion follows logically from the two premises
According to your text, the key to solving the Wason four-card problem is
the falsification principle
Stereotypes are reinforced by all of the following EXCEPT
the falsification principle
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
the people who are home to answer the phone in the early afternoon are not an appropriate cross-section of the U.S. population
The conjunction rule states that
the probability of two events co-occurring is equal to or less than the probability of either event occurring alone
Failing to consider the law of large numbers most likely results in errors concerning
the representative heuristic
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
the representative heuristic
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
the same for accepted and rejected offers
Janet is alone in a room that contains a chair and a shelf with a book resting on top. She attempts to retrieve the book, but the shelf is a foot above her reach. How will Janet retrieve the book? Psychologists would NOT classify this scenario as a problem because
the solution is immediately obvious
insight refers to
the sudden realization of a problem's solution
Kaplan and Simon's experiment presented different versions of the mutilated checkerboard problem. The main purpose of their experiment was to demonstrate that
the way the problem is represented can influence the ease of problem solving
Which problem provides an example of how functional fixedness can hinder solution of a problem?
two-string problem
Which of the following provides the best example of functional fixedness
using a juice glass as a container for orange juice
Consider the following syllogism: All cats are birds. All birds have wings. All cats have wings. This syllogism is
valid
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
valid because this conclusion is believeable
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
well with Relationship #1 only
The Tower of Hanoi problem is an example of a(n) ____ problem that has been analyzed using the ____ approach
well-defined; information processing
The best description of the purpose of think-aloud protocols is that they are used to determine
what information a person is attending to while solving a problem
People tend to overestimate
what negative feelings will occur following a decision more so than positive feelings