PSYC3030 Exam 4

CHAPTER 11

LANGUAGE

What is an inference?

using knowledge to go beyond the information explicitly given

What is anaphoric inference?

connects people/objects across sentences

examples of anaphoric inference

• Susan dropped the plate. It shattered, and she was upset.

  • Susan & she

  • plate & it

• I take the kids out and we fish. And then, of course, we grill them!

  • fish & them

What is instrument inference?

assumptions about tools or methods

examples of instrument inference

• Shakespeare wrote Hamlet while was sitting at his desk.

  • assumption of using a feather quill

• John was trying to fix the birdhouse. He was pounding a nail when his father came out to help him do the work.

  • assumption of using a hammer

What is casual inference?

assumptions about causation

examples of casual inference

• Mary poured the water on the bonfire. The fire went out.

  • assumption that pouring the water caused the fire to go out

• Sharon took an aspirin. Her headache went away.

  • assumption that taking an aspiring removed the headache

• Sharon took a shower. Her headache went away.

  • assumption that taking a shower removed the headache

  • may or may decide to infer

What is a situation model?

• multi-modal mental representation of what a text is about

  • multi-modal: sight, sounds, smell

• mental representation of the “state of affairs” described in a text

What evidence do situation models include information about the space of the relevant narrative?

• faster mental access to rooms and objects closer to a protagonist’s current “location”

• faster processing of concepts that are present versus absent in a situation

What evidence do situation models include information about the time of the relevant narrative?

• the more recently something “happened”, the more mentally accessible it is

What evidence do situation models include information about the item properties of the relevant narrative?

• objects are processed more quickly when in the same orientation implied by a text

Describe research findings from even-related potentials that support the idea that people make predictions during language processing.

• signals recorded from electroencephalogram (EEG)

  • measures small electrical changes at the scalp that reflect the firing of large populations of neurons

What is N400?

• semantic violation

• sensitive to meaning-based predictions about text

What types of prediction violations influence the N400 component?

• non-anomalous ending

• semantic anomaly

• orthographic anomaly

What is a non-anomalous ending?

nothing unexpected occurs in a text

What is a semantic anomaly?

violates predictions based on meaning in a text

What is an orthographic anomaly?

unexpected appearance of text, but nothing to do with meaning

What types of prediction violations influence the P600 component?

• syntactic violations

• sensitive to grammatical predictions about text

Describe the experiment by Metusalem and colleagues (2012) that examined N400 amplitudes to words that were consistent with the sentence, the situation model, or neither.

• The best way to see unusual animals is to go to the zoo. Sometimes, however, kids are scared by the roar of the (lion/cages/dress) and scream in terror.

  • lion: expected

  • cages: related

  • dress: unrelated

What do the findings from Metusalem and colleagues (2012) suggest about how predictions are made during language comprehension?

based on the global situation model, not just the local sentence

CHAPTER 12

PROBLEM SOLVING

Describe the results of Metcalfe & Weibe’s study of “warmth” judgements during insight and analytic problem solving.

What is an insight problem?

solution tends to be discovered suddenly, all at once

examples of insight problem

• “aha!” or “eureka!” moment

What is an analytic problem?

solved methodologically through a series of steps

examples of analytic problem

• algebra

What is the first stage of the Gestalt approach to problem solving?

constructing a representation of a problem

What is the second stage of the Gestalt approach to problem solving?

restructuring or reorganizing the representation until a solution becomes clear

What is functional fixedness?

tendency to see an object as having only a fixed, familiar set of functions

How is functional fixedness demonstrated by Duckner’s candle problem and the two-string problem?

• success rate when up when Maier provided a hint by “accidentally” setting one of the strings in motion

  • may have triggered restructuring of the representation of the problem

What is a mental set?

preconceived notion about how to approach a problem determined by past experiences

How are the effects of mental sets on problem solving demonstrated by the water jug problem?

• 64% to 83% of participants who solved problems 1 thru 5 used the same methods to solve problems 6 thru 8

• only 5% of participants used the same methods from problems on problems 6 thru 8 if exposed to 1 thru 5 previously

Describe the Newell & Simon information-processing approach to problem solving, which uses means-end analyses.

What is an initial state?

conditions at the beginning of the problem

examples of an initial state

What is a goal state?

conditions once the problem is resolved

examples of a goal state

What is an intermediate state?

states between the initial state created by operators

examples of an intermediate state

What is a problem space?

examples of a problem space

What is an operator?

steps or actions that take the problem from one state to another

examples of an operator

What is a subgoal?

examples of a subgoal

What is rules?

restrictions or criteria set for a specific problem

examples of rule

In analogical problem solving, what is the source problem?

already-solved problem that serves as an analogy

In analogical problem solving, what is the target problem?

new problem that needs to be solved

In analogical problem solving, what is the analogical paradox?

people often struggle to apply analogies in laboratory experiments

What are three steps to analogical problem solving according to Glick & Holyoak?

1. noticing

2. mapping

3. applying

Describe the research on Duncker’s radiation problem and the analogous fortress story.

What did Glick & Holyoak conclude from this work about which step of analogical problem solving was most difficult?

In analogies, what are surface features?

objects that must be mapped to each other

examples of surface features

In analogies, what are structural features?

principles that underlie the solution

examples of structural features

What did Holyoak & Koh’s “lightbulb problem” experiments illustrate about the role of surface and structural features in analogical problem solving?

Describe Chi et al.’s work on how experts and novices organize physics problems.

How do the finding from Chase & Smith’s work and Chi et al.’s work illustrate beneficial effects of expertise on problem solving?

How can expertise impeded problem solving?

• knowledge can lead to mental sets or functional fixedness

• knowledge can lead to more fixations on specific, unnecessary details or information

What is divergent thinking?

thinking that is open-minded and involves generation of larger number of potential solutions

examples of divergent thinking

What is convergent thinking?

thinking that is centered on finding a solution to a specific problem

examples of convergent thinking

Describe the study by Smith et al. (1993) about the effects of viewing example solutions on divergent thinking.

Define Finke’s creative cognition procedure.

technique to train people to think creatively

What are preinventive forms?

ideas that precede the creation of a finished creative product

What is incubation?

getting “unstuck” by putting a problem aside for a while

Describe evidence from research using the remote associates test that incubation can help problem solving.

CHAPTER 13

JUDGEMENT, DECISION, REASONING

What did the coin flip study by Kermer and colleagues tell us about people’s ability to accurately estimate expected emotions?

What is inductive reasoning?

reasoning that begins with specific observations to draw conclusions from them

What is deductive reasoning?

reasoning that begins with a general statement or premise to figure out what specific claims reasonably follow

examples of inductive reasoning

examples of deductive reasoning

What does it mean to say that inductive reasoning is probabilistic?

it draws conclusions about what is probably true, but not what is definitely true

What does it mean to say that deductive reasoning is deterministic?

must be true assuming that its starting premises are true

What are three factors that affect the strength of an inductive argument?

• number of observations

• representativeness of observations

• quality of evidence

What is availability heuristic?

How can availability heuristics cause errors in inductive reasoning?

What is representative heuristic?

What is base rate neglect?

What is the conjunction rule?

How does the representativeness heuristic lead to base rate neglect?

How does the representativeness heuristic lead to ignoring the conjunction rule?

What is confirmation bias?

tendency to seek out and attend to information that conforms to a belief and to overlook information that argues against it

examples of confirmation bias

What is the myside bias?

confirmation bias specific to one’s opinions and attitudes

examples of myside bias

What is the basic assumption of the expected utility approach to decision making?

In the context of decision-making, what are expected emotions?

In the context of decision-making, what are incidental emotions?

examples of how expected emotions influence decisions

examples of how incidental emotions influence decisions

In deductive reasoning, what is a syllogism?

basic unit of deductive reasoning composes of two premises and a conclusion

What are categorical syllogisms?

What are conditional syllogisms?

What is the difference between truth and validity in syllogisms?