Thinking and decision making Flashcards
(26 cards)
What distinguishes human thinking from other species?
Ability to use knowledge for planning, interpreting the world, and solving problems.
What is Dual Process Theory (Stanovich & West, 2000)?
Humans use two cognitive systems for decision-making: System 1 (intuitive) and System 2 (rational).
Features of System 1 thinking?
Fast, automatic, emotional, subconscious, evolutionarily older.
Characteristics of System 2?
Slow, deliberate, logical, conscious.
What is Haidt’s (2001) social intuitionism?
Moral judgments are made by intuition (System 1) and justified afterward using reasoning (System 2).
What is a heuristic?
A mental shortcut used to simplify complex decisions and judgements.
Downside of heuristics?
They can lead to cognitive biases.
What is anchoring bias?
Relying heavily on the first piece of information (the anchor) when making decisions.
Tversky & Kahneman (1974) Anchoring and Adjustment Aim
To investigate how initial numerical information (anchors) influences subsequent numerical estimates.
Tversky & Kahneman (1974) Anchoring and Adjustment Method
Laboratory experiment.
Tversky & Kahneman (1974) Anchoring and Adjustment Procedure
Participants were given one of two questions involving estimation:
Group 1: “What is the product of 1 × 2 × 3 × 4 × 5 × 6 × 7 × 8?”
Group 2: “What is the product of 8 × 7 × 6 × 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1?”
Each group had 5 seconds to estimate the answer.
Both groups had the same numbers, but in different orders — leading to different anchors.
Tversky & Kahneman (1974) Anchoring and Adjustment Results
Estimates were significantly influenced by the initial number in the sequence. Those who started with 1 estimated the product as 512, while those who started with 8 estimated it as 2,250. The correct answer was 40,320.
Tversky & Kahneman (1974) Anchoring and Adjustment conclusion
People rely heavily on an initial value when making estimates, and then make insufficient adjustments away from that anchor.
Tversky & Kahneman (1974) strengths and limitations
Lab experiment with replicable results. Low ecological validity , sample bias.
What is the framing effect?
Cognitive bias where people react differently to a choice depending on whether it is presented as a gain or a loss—even if the outcomes are the same.
What does the framing effect suggest about human decision-making?
It suggests that human decisions are influenced by how information is presented, rather than just the content itself.
What was the aim of Tversky & Kahneman’s (1981) “Asian Disease” study?
To investigate how different presentations of the same problem affect decision-making.
What was the method of Tversky & Kahneman’s (1981) “Asian Disease” study?
Laboratory experiment with 152 university students
What was the procedure of the “Asian Disease” study?
Participants were presented with a hypothetical scenario about an outbreak of a disease expected to kill 600 people. They were given two options framed either in terms of lives saved (gain frame) or lives lost (loss frame).
What were the results of the “Asian Disease” study?
When the problem was framed in terms of lives saved, 72% of participants chose a certain option that saved 200 lives. When framed in terms of lives lost, 78% chose a riskier option that had a one-third probability of saving all 600 people.
What is the evaluation from the “Asian Disease” study?
This study demonstrates the framing effect, where the presentation of information influences decision-making, highlighting that people are risk-averse when options are framed as gains and risk-seeking when framed as losses.
What is the main conclusion from the “Asian Disease” study?
The way information is framed (gain vs. loss) significantly affects decision-making, revealing that people do not always make rational choices.
When is System 1 effective?
In domains with rich, repetitive experience (e.g., social situations, driving).
When is System 2 better?
In unfamiliar tasks, or those involving numbers, logic, and abstract reasoning.
