Thinking, Problem Solving, Judgements and Decision-Making

Daniela has been seeing a lot of social media ads about an exciting new board game. While several of her friends say that the game is their ideal example of a board game, others who have played the game complain that it was too expensive and not as fun as they expected. Daniela buys the game.  When her mother asks her why she chose that game, Daniela only mentions the advice she heard about the game being the best one they’ve ever played. 

Which of the following cognitive processes explains why Daniela can justify her purchase of the expensive game and ignore her concerns over the cost?

• Mental set

• Schemas

• Priming

• Confirmatio bias

A group of 25 Ecuadorian high school students who were taking AP psychology during their senior year participated in a study about cognition. Participants were first asked to read a story about a Russian battle from the 19th century. Later, participants were asked to write down as many details as they could remember from the story. Twenty-two out of 25 of the students changed some of the details of the story, such as referring to a “house” instead of using the Russian word “dacha” that was used in the story.

Which of the following best describes the type of sample used in this study?

• It was a study that involved a sample from a case study.

• It was a study that involved random assignment.

• It was a study that involved convenience sampling.

• It was a study that involved random sampling.

A group of 25 Ecuadorian high school students who were taking AP psychology during their senior year participated in a study about cognition. Participants were first asked to read a story about a Russian battle from the 19th century. Later, participants were asked to write down as many details as they could remember from the story. Twenty-two out of 25 of the students changed some of the details of the story, such as referring to a “house” instead of using the Russian word “dacha” that was used in the story.

If this study were to run as an experiment, which of the following would be necessary?

• The study must examine at least 200 participants to be valid.

• There must be a predictable relationship between the variables examined in the study.

• The results of the study must be significant.

• The participants must be randomly assigned to a control or experimental condition.

A group of 25 Ecuadorian high school students who were taking AP psychology during their senior year participated in a study about cognition. Participants were first asked to read a story about a Russian battle from the 19th century. Later, participants were asked to write down as many details as they could remember from the story. Twenty-two out of 25 of the students changed some of the details of the story, such as referring to a “house” instead of using the Russian word “dacha” that was used in the story.

Which of the following would explain why the students changed details in their recall of the study?

• Confirmation bias

• Bottom-up processing

• Hindsight bias

• Availability heuristic

Fernanda tries out for the debate team at her school because she believes that debate team members are the smartest kids in school. She is not chosen as a team member. After failing to make the debate team, Fernanda remembers that the students who made the team last school year were 11th graders and members of the Model UN. She now decides that she knew she should not have tried out since she is a 10th grader and not a member of the Model UN. 

Which of the following cognitive processes is Fernanda using to justify her failure to make the team?

• Hindsight bias

• The representativeness heuristic

• Accommodation

• Assimilation

A researcher evaluated over 300 studies where algorithms were used to predict the future of the stock market. This study determined that algorithms accurately predicted the stock market within a margin of error of three percentage points on average. These findings were later provided to individuals who follow the market to inform them about when to sell or buy stocks. 

Which of the following research techniques best represents the research described?

• Experiment

• Case Study

• Meta-analysis

• Correlational Study