Reasoning

Question 1

what is delay discounting / temporal discounting

Answer 1

the phenomena where people are impatient and prefer immediate benefits over larger future rewards
–> value of future gains decreases the more we have to wait for them

Question 2

when do we start to see issues with delay discounting?

Answer 2

at childhood
–> Mischel’s marshmallow experiment

Question 3

what did reserachers see with children who were unable to wait?

Answer 3

showed lower standardized test scores and higher rates of behavioural problems

Question 4

what is self control

Answer 4

= crucial executive function of the self that involves initiating, sustaining and inhibiting behaviour.

Question 5

what is the issue with self control?

Answer 5

it takes up some of our limited cognitive energy
–> ego depletion

Question 6

what are some real life examples of delay discounting?

Answer 6

lack of patience, addiction

Question 7

do self control and delay discounting vary with age?

Answer 7

yes, a lot!

Question 8

what happens during our teen years?

Answer 8

tend to have worse self control
–> act more impulsively, worse at inhibiting inappropriate desires, riskier choices with high reward incentives

Question 9

what happens when we’re 65+?

Answer 9

WM, attention, and control all start to decline, which leads to worse decision making abilities
–> HOWEVER they are more patient and tend to make better choices in delayed reward cases

Question 10

what is reasoning?

Answer 10

a process that allows us to gain new knowledge and understanding from existing info

Question 11

what are the 2 types of reasoning?

Answer 11

• inductive
• deductive

Question 12

inductive reasoning

Answer 12

Using specific observations, experiences, and real examples to infer general theories about the world

Question 13

deductive reasoning

Answer 13

Moving from general knowledge and principles to more specific knowledge and examples

Question 14

what is induction? what is it based on?

Answer 14

Logic or thought proceeding from specific examples or observations to a general principle
–> always based on probabilistic reasoning

Question 15

what is property induction?

Answer 15

When we generalize properties or features of one exemplar (example) of a category to another member (or all members) of a category

Question 16

do we see property induction often?

Answer 16

yes, most reasoning in everyday falls under this
–> and is critical for learning about the world during childhood

Question 17

what factors make us more likely to accept a conclusion?

Answer 17

• premise-conclusion similarity
• premise typicality
• premise diversity
• premise monotonicity

–> these are seen even in children!

Question 18

premise conclusion similarity

Answer 18

more likely to accept a conclusion if the premise is similar to the conclusion

–> Accepting that gorillas have property x after being told that orangutans have it

Question 19

premise typicality

Answer 19

more likely to accept a conclusion if the premise is about a typical representative of a category

–> Accepting that birds have property x bc crows have it and are typical of birds

Question 20

premise diversity

Answer 20

more likely to accept a conclusion if the premise includes aspects of diversity

–> if you are told that the French and Chinese both celebrate thanksgiving, you’re more likely to generalize this to the world than if told the French and Belgians

Question 21

premise monotonicity

Answer 21

more likely to accept a conclusion if the premise includes many different examples

Question 22

what does deductive reasoning typically lead to?

Answer 22

TRUE conclusions, assuming the premises themselves are true and we’re utilizing logic correactly

Question 23

what are 2 valid arguments in deductive reasoning?

Answer 23

• modus ponens
• modus tollens

Question 24

modus ponens

Answer 24

affirming the antecedent
If P then Q; P; Then Q

Question 25

modus tollens

Answer 25

denying the consequent If P then Q; not Q; Then not P

Question 26

what are 2 common pitfalls related to modus ponens tollens?

Answer 26

- denial of the antecedent - affirmation of the consequent

Question 27

denial of the antecedent

Answer 27

assuming that, if P is false, then Q must also be false

Question 28

affirmation of the consequent

Answer 28

assuming that if Q, then P

Question 29

syllogisms

Answer 29

Logical system devised by Aristotle, in which a conclusion is drawn from 2 given propositions called premises

Question 30

when do we find these types of syllogistic arguments easier?

Answer 30

when they're placed in semantically rich and realistic contexts --> our brain is wired to hire this type of problems --> not abstract ones

Question 31

what is a main limit to deductive reasoning?

Answer 31

the premises themselves might be wrong

Question 32

what is the wason selection task

Answer 32

you have 4 cards: E, K, 4 and 7 --> conditional rule: if there is a vowel on one side of the card, then there is an even number on the other side of the card

Question 33

what are the 2 approaches to the wason task?

Answer 33

1. confirmatory approach --> turn over E or 4 and assume to see either a vowel or even # 2. disconfirmation approach --> turn over the 7 and if you get a vowel, the rule is wrong --> this is the actual logical way to do it

Question 34

what approaches do people typically take with the wason task?

Answer 34

confirmatory approach --> confirmation bias

Question 35

confirmation bias

Answer 35

Favoring of evidence that supports one’s beliefs, expectations or hypotheses --> happens unconciously and often leads to polarization

Question 36

causal reasoning

Answer 36

= Ability to understand why something happens, to determine the causes of specific effects --> must estimate the likelihood of causes given evidence

Question 37

what do causal relationships typically have?

Answer 37

directionality --> cause preceeds effects --> we know this intuitively --> and are able to identify causal relationships when in cause-effect order

Question 38

what is causal launching?

Answer 38

causation related to one direction --> one object is responsible for the other moving --> even infants recognize this

Question 39

motion bounce illusion

Answer 39

sound affects vision --> The exact same motion is interpreted differently based on the sound cue

Question 40

does the presence of a cause guarantee an effect?

Answer 40

nope --> this makes them hard to determine --> If you’re exposed to someone who is sick, whether or not you get sick depends on a bunch of factors, not just the sick person --> causes are also typically unobservable which just makes our life harder

Question 41

how do we represent cause-effect relationships?

Answer 41

A causes B = A --> B → Strength of the relation can be listed as probabilistic weight (0, weak - 1, strong) → can be organized into causal models

Question 42

what are causal models

Answer 42

networks of interconnected relationships

Question 43

what does causal learning / induction entail?

Answer 43

learning cause-effect relationships from observations

Question 44

what are some cues that we use to determine causal relationships (4)

Answer 44

1. covariation 2. temporal order 3. intervention 4. prior knowledge

Question 45

covariation

Answer 45

the likelihood of two events occurring together --> necessary but not sufficient for causality

Question 46

temporal order

Answer 46

the arrangement of events over time --> doesn't guarantee a causal relationship tho

Question 47

intervention

Answer 47

actually intervening in one variable and seeing if the other is affected --> only way to 100% determine causality --> this is literally just our experiments

Question 48

prior knowledge

Answer 48

also called causal mechanism --> influences causal reasoning

Question 49

what type of features do we consider more important in a relationship between 2 varaibles?

Answer 49

causal features as more important --> IF A causes B which causes C, we view A as more central than C

Question 50

what are illusory correlations

Answer 50

= When people make connections between variables that have no relation to each other --> ppl are very sensitive to covariation

Question 51

when are illusory correlations most present?

Answer 51

with statistically infrequent events, as they stand out

Question 52

when are illusory correlations least common?

Answer 52

when the reason behind a fact or event is obvious

Question 53

counterfactual reasoning

Answer 53

Considering alternative outcomes, contrary to what has already occurred in reality

Question 54

why is counterfactual reasoning important?

Answer 54

- people use mental replay to understand the causes of events - important for disciplines where we can't conduct experiments like economics - helps us understand past events and plan for future behaviour - also important for coping in the clinical setting

Question 55

Bayesian reasoning

Answer 55

= The process of inferring new knowledge under uncertain circumstances. Estimating the probability of a hypothesis being true based on the evidence at hand and our knowledge of the world

Question 56

what is always present in Bayesian reasoning?

Answer 56

uncertainty, sparse input, probabilism

Question 57

is Bayesian reasoning flexible?

Answer 57

yes, 100% --> it happens for all kinds of problems --> and helps capture the essence of how we reason

Question 58

what is one real world example of Bayesian reasoning

Answer 58

woman has a 0.8% chance of having breast cancer if she does, there is a 90% change of positive result in mamogram if she does not, there is a 7% chance of a positive result what is the approximate likelihood that a positive mamogram actually denotes breast cancer? people, even doctors, tend to estimate way too high due to the conditional variable the actual answer is 9%

Question 59

how can we improve our ability with conditional probabilities?

Answer 59

by using frequencies instead of probabilities

Question 60

what is categorization

Answer 60

learn labels for objects and must infer what other objects can be named with the same label