Dual processing & baises review

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.

Answer explanation

System 1 thinking does not transfer well to new situations.  It is possible that Mary is doing well in mathematics, but she may not really understand the maths that she is studying.  Instead, she has developed strategies for solving problems in a way that produces low effort cognitive processing - that is, System 1 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

• heuristic

• matching bias

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 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.

According to Goel et al (2000), which part of the brain may be responsible for processing abstract problems?

• The temporal lobe

• The prefrontal lobe

• The hypothalamus

• The amygdala

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 of the following statements is true regarding the framing effect?

• We prefer more certain outcomes when information is framed in negative language.

• We prefer more certain outcomes to less certain outcomes.

• We prefer less certain outcomes when information is framed in negative language.

• We prefer less certain outcomes when information is framed in positive language.

Which of the following is not a valid criticism of Tversky and Kahneman's (1981) study of loss aversion?

• The study lacks any personal connection to the participants - making the task artificial.

• The results are not reliable.

• The two questions in each condition although having the same potential outcome, are not actually the same choice.

• The study had a sampling bias.

Answer explanation

The study has actually be replicated many times, so the results are reliable.  But there is a question whether the two options given in each condition are really the same - and whether it is the language used, rather than the frame itself, that leads to the results that are obtained.