Psych 100.1H Focus QuestionsChapter 10 (pg. 351-374) – Class 2110/14/20131. What is an analogy and how do we use it in scientific and political/judicial reasoning? How do analogy problems test reasoning ability? How is reasoning by analogy a type of inductive reasoning?reasoning- the way we use stored memories to problem-solve intelligence- the general capacity to problem solve analogy- similarity in behavior, function, or relationship between situations that are different from each other Ex. use of the baseball glove and butterfly net how we use it in scientific reasoning- - used with biologists, neuroscientists for study of human-made devices such as computers, natural selection, and the role of gravity in planetary motion *Experiment- researchers tested high school/college students with little training on electric circuits. - Students made analogies to water moving through pipes or crowds of people. - Those with plumbing analogies answered the questions better, best for thinking about batteries and voltage a. in scientific reasoning- comparing different functions. Ex. plumbing and traffic to electrical components(batteries and resistors) how we use it in political/judicial reasoning- - research has found that good analogies are generated by students who defend political view points ex. made analogies about finance issues when discussing government’s debt Ex. Miller Analogy Test made up of all analogy problems Ex. PLANE is the AIR as BOAT is to a)submarine b)water c) oxygen d) pilot - evidence first moves through the second, so correct paring would be BOAT to water b. in judicial and political reasoning- imagery often sways emotions analogy problems test reasoning ability- c. as tests of reasoning ability- connecting subtle relationships Miler Analogies test and Raven’s Progressive Matrices test Raven’s Progressive Matrices Test- used by psychologists as a measure of fluid intelligence - items are visual patterns rather than words - ex. three patterns in each of the top two rows and figure out the rule that relates the first two patterns in each row to the third pattern reasoning by analogy a type of inductive reasoning- Inductive reasoning- attempt to infer some new principle/proposition fromobservations/facts that serve as clues (also referred to as hypothesis construction)Ex. detectives solving a crime - reasoning that is founded on perceived analogies or other similaritiesinduction- using instances to produce a generalization ex. wet sidewalk, dripping eyes indicating raining 2. Differentiate between the availability bias, the confirmation bias, and the predictable-world bias, providing evidence for the existence of each.availability bias- availability bias- when we reason we tend to rely on information that is available to us and ignore information that is less available Ex. students asked if letter “d” was more likely to occur in first position or third position of a word, most people said the first confirmation bias- natural tendency of people to confirm rather than disconfirm their current hypotheses *Experiment- subjects were to discover the experimenter’s rule for sequencing numbers - subjects began to choose sequences consistent with their hypothesis, which they believe to be correct. Ex. hypothesis was even numbers increasing by twos but actual rulewas any increasing sequence of numberspredictable-world bias- superstitions arise because people fail to realize that coincidencesare often just coincidences - most often seen in games of pure chance. Ex. gambling - maximizing- best strategy to choose the same color or number on every trial, so over the long run you will win (blank percentage) of that trial. matching- vary their guesses over trials in a way that matches the probability of the selectcolor/number Ex. rats are rewarded more often for pressing a “red” bar than a “green” one , they learn to press the red one - bias is a tendency to engage in inductive reasoning in situations where reasoning is pointless because the relationship in question is random 3. Define deductive reasoning. What do we know about humans’ bias toward content indeductive problems, and their use of models to solve these problems?Deductive Reasoning(deduction)- attempt to derive logically the consequences that mightbe true if premises are accepted as true ( also known as logical proof) Ex. mathematics - inferring instances from a general principle Ex. Major premise: If A=B minor premise: and C= AConclusion: thus C= B? true But if A=B, and C=B, thus C= A (wrong) series problem- requires you to organize items into a series on the basis of comparisonstatements and then arrive at a conclusion that was not contained in any single statement - syllogism- presents a major proposition and a minor proposition that you must combine mentally to see if the conclusion is true, false, or indeterminate humans’ bias toward content in deductive problems- Ex. All living things need water Roses need water Therefore, roses are living things All insects need oxygen. Mice need oxygen. Therefore, mice are insects.- conclusion is not valid, both syllogisms is “indeterminate”- only 30% of subjects got the problem correct, but got the second one right - proves we cannot resist being influenced by real world knowledge The Concrete Nature of Deductive Reasoning: Logic more dependent upon actual (concrete) experiences than abstract principles, like mathematics - refutes Piaget’s strict Stage of Formal(logical) Operations a. bias toward content rather than formal logic- indicates natural tendency more toward inductive reasoning b. aids for deductive problems- Euler diagrams- drawing visualizing relationships (fig. 10.2) - mental images ex. Einstein “thought experiments” using clocks and trains use of models to solve these problems- - deductive reasoning makes much use of diagrams diagrams allow the individual to “see” the solution - Euler circles- can be used to represent major premise of the syllogism - mental models- reasoner must understand the premises and find a way to represent the information mentally in an easily accessible form - content of problem is more linked to mental models than euler circles - people with large working memory spans are better at solving syllogisms (requiring more than one model) - performance on syllogisms correlates strongly with visuospatial ability than with verbal ability 4. How are
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