Chapter 11: Student Review Questions
1. Which of the following theories assumes that people are rational, logical thinkers and decision makers?
a. Prospect Theory
b. Expected Value Theory
c. Subjective Values Theory
d. Heuristics and Biases view
2. Sam is an avid skateboarder and swimmer. However, after a recent well-publicized shark attack, he refuses to get in the water and instead spends more time skateboarding (and with no helmet). This tendency to make decisions about his recreational activities because of one dramatic event, which then leads him to engage in an even riskier behavior, is probably due to:
a. the framing effect.
b. the representativeness heuristic .
c. anchoring and adjustment .
d. the availability heuristic.
3. Which of the following scenarios illustrates the Confirmation (or Myside) Bias? [Chooseall that apply.]
a. Jacob is politically conservative and will listenonly to Fox News.
b. People who believe in the death penalty are more likely to remember incriminating evidence if chosen for a jury, and to vote to convict a defendant, than do those who do not believe in the death penalty.
c. Aspen thinks all people in Math Club are geeky, socially inept, and wear pocket protectors.
d. Roxy has a morbid fear of flying in airplanes since 9/11, and will drive only when on vacations.
4. Imagine you are a college athleticrecruiter and want to lure a pitcher to your softball team. According to information in the chapter, which of the following should you be most confident about offering a scholarship?
a. Erin, who has struck out 70% of batters over the last 4 games she's played
b. Heidi, who struck out 70% of batters in her last game
c. Gabrielle, who has struck out 70% of batters over the last 20 games she's played
d. Josephine, who has struck out 70% of batters over the last 10 games she's played
5. Dr. Sanchez runs a small U.S. health charity and has to make recommendations about where money is spent for prevention and cure of diseases. He does some research and finds out that there are 40,000 deaths from breast cancer each year, and 10,000 deaths from AIDs. If Dr. Sanchez pays attention to the base rate of the mortality rate from each disease, which of the following options is most rational?
a. Spend most of the organization’s money on breast cancer prevention & cures
b. Spend most of the organization’s money on HIV/AIDs prevention & cures
c. Spend equal amounts of the organization's money on breast cancer AND HIV/AIDs prevention & cures
6. Your elderly grandmother's doctor recommends that she have a heart transplant to increase the likelihood of her living another 10 years. According to the framing effect, which statement from the doctor is most likely to cause your grandmother to accept his advice and have the heart transplant?
a. “I must be honest; there is a 30% chance of not making it through the heart transplant surgery, but if you do make it, you’ll have better health afterward.”
b. “There is a 70% chance of making it through the surgery and you'll have better health afterward.”
c. “Talk to your friends to see if any of them have had heart transplant surgery.”
d. “Some patients worry about the mortality rate from transplant surgery, but I have better survival rates than average.”
7. Considerthe statement, "If the weather is good, we'll go boating on the river this Saturday and take a picnic lunch." Which of the following best depicts the antecedent?
a. Taking a picnic lunch
b. Going boating on the river
c. BOTH going boating on the river AND taking a picnic lunch
d. The weather is good
8. If you are better at reasoning about the Drinking Rule problem (If someone is drinking alcohol, they must be 21) because you think back to a situation in which you (or someone you knew) violated the drinking laws, which theory would best explain your performance?
a. Formal Rules Theory
b. Abstract Rules and Content Effects
c. Memory Cuing
d. Heuristics and Biases
9. Gigerenzer and Sedlmeier have found that training people on ______facilitates long-term decision making in people.
a. Bayesian formulas
b. deductive reasoning
c. expected value formulas
d. frequency formats
10. Herbert Simon believed that in many decision making contexts we don't try to optimize our choice, but merely to choose an option which meets our given goals. This strategy is known as:
a. Satisficing.
b. Expected Value.
c. Take the Best Heuristic.
d. Subjective Utility.