Chapter 10: Solving problems: Reasoning and intelligence

Question 1

availability bias

Answer 1

tendency to rely too strongly on already available information, to ignore less available information

Question 2

confirmation bias

Answer 2

tendency to seek evidence that confirms rather than disconfirms the hypothesis

Question 3

predictable-word bias

Answer 3

tendency to believe that events are more predictable than they are

Question 4

maximizing

Answer 4

to guess the highest probability

Question 5

matching

Answer 5

to vary the guesses to match the probabilities

Question 6

analogy

Answer 6

similarity in behaviour, function, or relationship between entities or situations that are in other respects quite different from each other

Question 7

deductive reasoning (series problem, syllogism)

Answer 7

logical reasoning from the general to specific; the reasoner begins by accepting the truth one or more general premises or axioms and uses them to assert whether a specific conclusion is true/false/indeterminate

Question 8

incubation theory

Answer 8

to solve insight problems best after time off

Question 9

Inspection time

Answer 9

Minimal time that subjects need to look at or listen to a pair of stimuli to detect the difference between them

Question 10

functional fixedness

Answer 10

failure to see an object as having a function other than its usual one

Question 11

broaden-and-build theory

Answer 11

positive emotions tend to broaden one’s focus, perception of thought and increase creativity (Barbara Friedrickson)

Question 12

crystallized intelligence

Answer 12

variety of intelligence that derives directly from previous experience (e.g accumulated knowledge, verbal skills)

Question 13

fluid intelligence

Answer 13

variety of intelligence that enables one to percieve relationships independent of previous specific practice or institution concerning those relationships

Question 14

Flynn effect

Answer 14

systematic increase in IQ points (about 3 per decade) observed over the 20th century

Question 15

general intelligence (g)

Answer 15

underlying mental ability that affects performance on a wide variety of mental tests and accounts for the statistical correlation among scores on such tests

Question 16

heritability

Answer 16

proportion of the variability in a particular characteristic, in a particular group of individuals, that is due to genetic rather than environmental differences among the individuals

Question 17

inductive reasoning

Answer 17

logical reasoning from specific to general; reasoner begins with a set of specific observations or facts and uses them to infer a more general rule to account for those those observations or facts; also called hypothesis construction

Question 18

insight problems

Answer 18

problem that is difficult to solve until it is viewed in a new way, involving a different mental set from that originally taken

Question 19

intelligence

Answer 19

variable mental capacity that underlines individual differences in reasoning, solving problems, and acquiring new knowlegde

Question 20

IQ

Answer 20

intelligence quotient; defined as a score on a test of intelligence that is standardized in such a way that the average score of the population is 100 and the distribution of scores around the average matches a normal distribution

Question 21

mental set

Answer 21

habit of perception or thought, stemming from previous experience, that can either help or hinder a person in solving a new problem