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