psych week 13

Which of the following is an example of the hindsight bias? A new car costs $30,000 but you get it for $24,000, having gotten "a great deal." Alex was uncertain about his interview but when he gets the job, he states that "he knew he would get it all along." You believe you are a great businessperson and you relish in the positive feedback you receive while neglecting any negative feedback. The new person at your job works through his lunch and you assume it is because he doesn't have anyone to eat his lunch with. You [mistakenly] believe that more words start with the letter "K" than have "K" as their third letter.

Alex was uncertain about his interview but when he gets the job, he states that "he knew he would get it all along."

Which of the following is FALSE regarding heuristics? Heuristics often lead to errors. Heuristics may result in decisions being made more quickly. They are mental short-cuts used to make decision-making easier. Heuristics are the "gold standard" for how to solve problems. Heuristics are more commonly used in situations with little time or when you have little interest.

Heuristics are the "gold standard" for how to solve problems.

Believing that plane crashes kill more people annually than car crashes may occur because you are more likely to hear about every plane crash on the news, a bias known as: representative hindsight availability anchoring confirmation

availability

Crystal is a very liberal young woman. She selectively chooses to pay attention to news outlets that are strongly liberal, one of the many ways that she controls her input of information to be consistent with her current political beliefs. Her behaviour is most consistent with which of the following biases? confirmation representative availability hindsight anchoring

confirmation

Ronald needs to use a stapler as a paperweight to solve a problem but he just can't think about a stapler in a way that differs from its primary purpose. It seems like Ronald is suffering from a mental heuristic. false memories. functional fixedness. a lack of insight. usage of a script

functional fixedness.

Cognitive psychologists make inferences about how mental processes work, which means they employ biological psychologists to link brain regions with those mental processes they subserve. make educated guesses about how these processes work, informed by behaviour. ignore phenomena they can't see and instead focus on what they can observe. insist that attention is required for any cognitive process to work. use a person's behaviour to tell us exactly what a person is thinking at a given moment.

make educated guesses about how these processes work, informed by behaviour.

The process of working backwards is best considered a type of ________________. trial and error processing group-based problem-solving strategy algorithm insight mental heuristic

mental heuristic

The field of cognitive psychology is concerned with the study of how the mind helps us to survive and pass on our genes. the interaction between the soul and the mind. mental processes. behaviour. brain regions and the functions they serve.

mental processes.

In a research study examining schemas and memory, Brewer and Treyens (1981) gave participants a surprise memory test about the contents of their waiting room, which happened to be an office. It was concluded that schemas must be deliberately activated to influence memory. schemas increased false memories for office materials. schemas appear to hurt memory more than they help it. memory for all non-schema items was significantly better than anyone expected. schemas impaired memory for the office materials, but improved memory for non-office materials.

schemas increased false memories for office materials.

Lisa knows that when she goes out to dinner on a blind date, she can expect dinner to proceed in a way that it would any other evening (i.e., salad first, entrée, dessert). Her expectation of what constitutes dinner is guided by a: phonological dictionary script natural concept role schema false memory

script

A prototypical concept refers to the average member in a given category. how an abstract idea is likely to be associated with other abstract ideas. the type of learning acquired through our typical, everyday experience. exemplars in a category that are particularly unusual. a concept that arises during typical proactive interventions.

the average member in a given category.

Following the itemized instructions for exactly how to do something involves the use of a heuristic. functional fixedness. an algorithm. trial-and-error processing. hypothesis generation and testing.

an algorithm.

Wade sees that the new car that he wants is $20,000 and that feels like a huge amount of money to him. When he notices that the car is on sale for $16,000 for this weekend only, he is far more likely to purchase it compared to when he saw the original price of $20,000. His behaviour appears to be motivated by which of the following biases? confirmation anchoring hindsight representative availability

anchoring

Using a cognitive-psychology lens, which of the following would be the least relevant component for making a decision between two compelling options? The subjective value of each option for that person. Distractions in the environment that you are currently not paying attention to. Past memories associated with each of the two options, where available and appropriate The object value of each option for that person How the options are framed to us by an individual

Distractions in the environment that you are currently not paying attention to.

Which of the following is not an example of hypothesis generation and testing? Testing whether baking soda will actually do a better job at removing a stain on your carpet. Following a recipe to make chicken noodle soup from scratch. Examining whether short-answer questions are a better reflection of students knowledge than other forms of testing (e.g., multiple-choice). Trying a different type of infant formula to see if it helps your baby have less gas. Seeing whether group work is a better way to solve a particular problem compared to doing it by yourself.

Following a recipe to make chicken noodle soup from scratch.

Which of the following is FALSE regarding mental sets? People can realize when a mental set is unhelpful and may discard it accordingly. A mental set is a way of thinking about a problem. Mental sets are inspired by the previous encounters that you have had solving problems. It is always more adaptive to have mental sets when solving a given problem. Functional fixedness refers to difficulty thinking beyond a mental set.

It is always more adaptive to have mental sets when solving a given problem.

Which of the following is false regarding event schemas? Well-developed event schemas help us generate expectations about future situations. Our event schemas may not be appropriate in other cultures. People feel most comfortable in situations that depart significantly from their event schemas. Event schemas are not innate, they are learned through experience. Event schemas may inadvertently help to generate false memories.

People feel most comfortable in situations that depart significantly from their event schemas.

Which of the following is an example of the availability bias? The new person at your job works through his lunch and you assume it is because he doesn't have anyone to eat his lunch with. Alex was uncertain about his interview but when he gets the job, he states that "he knew he would all along." You [mistakenly] believe that more words start with the letter "K" than have "K" as their third letter. You believe you are a great businessperson and you relish in the positive feedback you receive while neglecting any negative feedback A new car costs $30,000 but you get it for $24,000, having gotten "a great deal."

You [mistakenly] believe that more words start with the letter "K" than have "K" as their third letter.

Why can functional fixedness complicate our ability to effectively problem-solve? Functional fixedness makes it impossible to solve any problem effectively. You may be blinded from other ways of thinking needed to solve a problem. It isn't a problem actually; functional fixedness really helps us solve all of our problems. You are using an algorithm as opposed to a heuristic. You are using a mental set to approach a problem.

You may be blinded from other ways of thinking needed to solve a problem.

Given limited time and resources, the most efficient way to solve low-level problems is with the use of a group-based problem-solving strategy. trial-and-error processing. a mental heuristic. insight. an algorithm.

a mental heuristic.

When working on the nine dot problem (i.e., a 3x3 grid of lines where you need to cross through all of the dots using only four connected lines), people may struggle because: they assume the problem is easy and when they realize it isn't, they tend to give up. these sort of problems can only be solved in groups. the problem is physically impossible to solve. they assume they cannot go outside the lines, when indeed they must. they are not used to working with dots and lines in the context of problem-solving

they assume they cannot go outside the lines, when indeed they must.

Cognitive psychology is best articulated as the science of understanding: why disorders of the mind alter behavior and cognition. thinking and mental processes. how culture can potentially shape how we see and interact with the world. how it is that the brain gives rise to the mind. why the presence of other individuals may influence our behavior.

thinking and mental processes.