Reasoning, Decision Making - Cognitive Psychology - Lecture Slides, Slides of Cognitive Psychology

Download Reasoning, Decision Making - Cognitive Psychology - Lecture Slides and more Slides Cognitive Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Ch. 12: Reasoning & Decision-making Docsity.com Reasoning • The process by which we construct our own knowledge • Going beyond the data Docsity.com Determining validity All birds are ants All ants are green All birds know calculus All dogs are mammals Some mammals have hair Some dogs have hair All birds have feathers All birds have beaks All birds are animals All birds are ants All ants are green All birds are green Docsity.com Determining validity • Validity is not the same thing as truth! Docsity.com Determining validity • Principles of validity & truth in syllogisms: • The validity of a syllogism is determined only by its form, not its content • For a syllogism to be valid, the conclusion must follow for every possible case; if not, it is invalid • If the two premises are true, the conclusion of a valid syllogism must be true Docsity.com Euler circles All athletes are people Some people are college students Some athletes are college students Docsity.com All athletes are people Some people are college students Some athletes are college students A A P A,P A P,C A PC A PC A P C ... Docsity.com Normative vs. Descriptive • Euler circles are one correct way to reason: • If applied correctly, will never lead to invalid inference • Called ‘normative’ reasoning • But how do people actually reason? • Called ‘descriptive’ reasoning Docsity.com All of the students are tired Some tired people are irritable Some of the students are irritable All of the men are tired Some people are women Some of the men are women Docsity.com Belief bias The validity of a syllogism is determined only by its form, not its content Docsity.com Mental Models • Mental model: a situation simulated in a person’s mind • Can be used to help determine the validity of information (if it corresponds to the mental model) None of the artists are beekeepers All of the beekeepers are chemists Some of the chemists are not artists Docsity.com Culture & reasoning • Do people in different cultures reason differently? Docsity.com Culture & reasoning In the far north, all bears are white. Novaya Zemyla is in the far north. Q: What color are the bears there? A: “You should ask the people who have been there and seen them.” (Schribner, 1977) Docsity.com Believability, Culture & Reasoning No police dogs are old Some highly trained dogs are old Some highly trained dogs are not police Believable All things made from plants are healthy Cigarettes are made from plants Cigarettes are healthy Not believable Both valid Docsity.com If I try hard I’ll do well in life I didn’t do well in life I didn’t try hard If I try hard I’ll do well in life I try hard I’ll do well in life If I try hard I’ll do well in life I did well in life I tried hard If I try hard I’ll do well in life I don’t try hard I won’t do well in life Modus ponens (Valid, 97%) Modus tollens (Valid, 60%) Denying the antecednet (Invalid, 40%) Affirming the consequent (Invalid, 40%) Conditional reasoning Docsity.com Errors in conditional reasoning How many cards do you need to turn over to verify the rule? (Which ones?) “If one side of the card has a vowel, then the other side has an even number.” Docsity.com Errors in conditional reasoning • Wason card-selection task • People suck at it • Only ~4% of people come up with right answer • Key to solving the problem is the falsification principle: • To test a rule, it is necessary to look for situations that falsify it Docsity.com Understanding conditional reasoning • A lot of arbitrary theories of reasoning • Role of evolution in understanding behavior? • Ability to detect cheaters has enormous survival value • Social-exchange theory: Important aspect of human behavior is ability to cooperate Docsity.com In the end • Nothing really resolved about the mechanisms behind deductive reasoning • Evidence presented both for and against every theory that has been proposed (Johnson-Laird, 1999) • But maybe not too surprising: • The human brain really is the most complex entity in the known universe Docsity.com