Thinking and Decision Making

Which of the following statements is true about thinking, decision making and problem solving?

• Decision making is a part of problem solving - and both decision making and problem solving are examples of thinking.

• Decision making is an aspect of thinking - but not part of problem solving.

• Problem solving is a part of decision making - but only decision making is a true example of thinking.

• Thinking, decision making and problem solving are three distinct cognitive processes with no overlap in what they do.

Mary believes that she is an excellent math student. In fact, her favourite unit is statistics. However, when she is asked to critically evaluate the data of an experiment in psychology class, she does not know how to do it. How does the Dual Process model explain this?

• She has developed the System 2 thinking necessary for math class, but not for psychology class.

• Her knowledge from mathematics is interfering with her knowledge in psychology.

• She is not able to transfer her understanding in mathematics to a new context (situation). So, her approach to solving the problem shows System 1 thinking.

• Mary's self-esteem in psychology class is interfering with her ability to solve the problem. It has nothing to do with System 1 and System 2 thinking.

If I meet two students from your school and they are brilliant psychology students, I may then conclude that your school must have an amazing psychology program. This conclusion follows a simple “rule of thumb” or a mental short-cut called a

• stereotype

• participant bias

• matching bias

• heuristic

When are we more likely to use System 1 thinking?

• When we have not practiced something a lot.

• When we have too much information to process.

• When the problem is highly abstract.

• When we need to transfer information from one situation to another.

Which of the following is not a characteristic of System 1 thinking?

• It is dependent on context - that is, environmental cues - to solve the problem.

• Is able to transfer information from one situation to another.

• Requires little effort.

• Results in creating impressions.

Which of the following statements is true about the Wason selection task?

• When people are trained in how to do the task, they no longer make errors.

• People tend to be able to explain their decisions to the researcher.

• People get better at the task the older they get.

• People make fewer errors when the task is put into a context which they understand, rather than an abstract task.

Which of the following is not a characteristic of System 2 thinking?

• It is the basis for most of our day to day decision making.

• Is able to transfer information from one situation to another.

• It is slow and requires conscious effort.

• Is logical and less prone to error.

Which of the following is not a limitation of the Dual Process Model?

• It does not explain the interaction of the two systems.

• There is no biological support for a two systems approach.

• It is reductionist - it does not explain the role of emotion in decision making.

• The descriptors of the different systems are not well operationalized - for example, not all fast processing is System 1

Which terms would be good to use if you were to answer a question about thinking and decision making?

• Heuristics

• System 1 and System 2

• Dual Processing Model

• All of the above.

What study have we covered that you could use for thinking and decision making?

• Wason (1968)

• Tversky and Khaneman

• Strack and Mussweiller

• Bandura