psych ch 7 study objectives

Name two barriers to reasoning logically. Tell how you might overcome these barriers.

Two potential barriers to logical reasoning are hindsight bias and confirmation bias. You can overcome these barriers by considering multiple sources of information, to use critical thought, and to not make assumptions about your own knowledge or abilities.

Give one example of deductive reasoning and one example of inductive reasoning.

1- Deductive reasoning (A=B and B=C) EX: my dog is a border collie and border collies herd, therefore, my dog can her. 2- Inductive reasoning ( valid when premises apply to all examples which is not always true) EX: The food at Prime Table was great the last time I went , therefore the food at Prime Table is always good.

Deductive and inductive reasoning are used to solve formal problems, what two methods of reasoning are used to solve informal problems? Why can't we use formal problem solving to solve all the world's problems?

1- the two methods used to solve informal problems are heuristic reasoning ( rules of thumb that have proven useful in the part when solving similar problems) and dialectical reasoning (examining both sides of the issue like pros and cons). 2- We can't use formal problem solving to solve all problems because formal reasoning problems provide the information necessary reach a conclusion or solution and we may not always have that information needed to solve the problem.

What does research show about the effects of environment on "intelligence"? Your example may be related to the Terman study or one of the other examples from the book.

A healthy and stimulating environment can raise IQ scores. In the Abecedarian Project, inner-city children who got lots of mental enrichment at home or in school, showed significant IQ gains.

Provide the definitions of both heuristics and dialectical reasoning.

A heuristic is a rule of thumb that suggests a course of action or guides problem solving but does not guarantee an optimal solution. Dialectical reasoning is a process in which opposing facts or ideas are weighed and compared with a view to determine the best solution or to resolve differences.

What can we learn from the outcome of the Asian/American study that could help us improve educational outcomes in this country?

Americans tend to think that if you have an ability, you don't have to work hard, and if you don't have it, there is no point in trying. If Americans held higher standards for themselves, their educational outcome would improve.

Give the definition and an example of an algorithm

An algorithm is a problem solving strategy guaranteed to produce a solution even if the user does not know how it works. An example is the order of steps you must follow in order to complete a long division problem correctly.

Give one example of both deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning.

An example of deductive reasoning would be to think, "I like fruit. Papayas are a fruit. Therefore, I must like papayas." An example of inductive reasoning would be, "I like fruit. Papayas are fruit that most people like. Therefore, I probably would like papayas."

Compare and contrast the definitions of deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning.

Both terms describe a type of reasoning, but their definitions are different. Deductive reasoning is when a conclusion must be true given true premises for that conclusion. On the other hand, inductive reasoning is when the premises provide support for a conclusion; however, there is some chance that the conclusion is false.

Fully reflective reasoning is pretty much the same as

Critical thinking

Use pre-reflective, quasi-reflective and reflective judgment to explain your view on nuclear power (or any other issue). Label each argument separately.

Pre reflective: I've always been taught that spanking is the best way to discipling kids Quasi reflective: I think spanking is okay for some parents but maybe not for others, it depends on your POV Reflective: Evidence shows that spanking leads to higher levels of aggression and it not effective in unwanted behavior.

There are three approaches to intelligence. Two were outlined in your book and one I gave you in class. What are they, what is their main focus and what do they each say the nature of intelligence is?

Psychometric: written and verbal testing, you cant make an unbiased test for everyone Cognitive: verbal reports of strategies used, how you solve a problem Behavioral: performance based, test could be standardized

Use dialectical thinking to solve the problem of where to go to college (once you've narrowed it down to Western or Eastern or any two schools)?

Should I attend college at Western University or Grand Valley State University? WESTERN PROS: has my preferred major , good acceptance rate, not super far from home WESTERN CONS: a few people have said campus is shady GVSU PROS: good acceptance rate, cheaper than Western GVSU CONS: I don't know that much about their psychology program SOLVE: go to Western

Subconscious thought is that which we use to do things "automatically". What does this mean? It might help to use an example and make sure you talk about how the behavior came to be automatic.

Subconscious thought is fluent thought used for activities we do so often and so quickly we don't realize we're thinking, but we are. EX: When you first tie your shoes you have to think through the steps, eventually you learn and it becomes one step which is much faster and easier allowing us to think about other things at the same time. This creates the illusion of "not thinking".

Compare and contrast the book's definition of thought with the one given in class (during lecture pp presentation). Which makes more sense to you and why? (4)

The book defines thought as the mental manipulation of internal representations of objects, activities, and situations. It is different from the definition provided in class which defined thought as intraverbal behavior. The main difference is that the class definition calls thought a behavior while the book definition does not necessarily define thought as a behavior.

What is the main difference between human animal and other animal intelligence? How could we measure non-human intelligence?

The main difference is that human animals have greater cognitive abilities. We could measure non-human intelligence by using visual symbol systems or American sign language.