Decision making and Reasoning Reasoning is a thought process that brings us to a conclusion. It is influenced by other cognitive processes (memory, attention, language etc .... ) Are we logical reasoners? A Are we born to think logically? I Infants watched animations of two objects with similar tops [ The two objects were placed behind a screen; one was 'scooped' up and placed in a bucket with only the top visible 2 The screen was lowered to show the other object Potential Deduction Infant should use logic to infer that the non-shown object was in the bucket phase To test this, the object in the bucket was shown Infants looked longer at the object during this test phase ONLY when it was inconsistent with logical deduction Cerana-Arotti st al, 2018 Consistent vi-2 Inconsistent However, once we are convinced of a belief, we stick to it. We make faulty links between event (superstitious actions). We consider complex ideas to "this" or "that". -> illogical reasoning. Deductive reasoning: making judgements through logic Top-down reasoning that depends on the truth of the statements. Inductive reasoning: bottom-up form of reasoning. The scientific method of forming hypotheses from data. Valid versus invalid syllogisms D Validity depends on whether the conclusion follows those premises The logical form and not the content Different than everyday use of the term validity Valid syllogisms · All A are B · All C are A Coffee is a beverage Lattes are coffee I Therefore, lattes are beverages . Therefore, all C are B Invalid syllogisms · All A are B · All C are B Coffee is a beverage A milkshake is a beverage Therefore, milkshakes are coffee . Therefore, all C are A People tend to have more trouble reasoning with negative information which explains the omission bias about the negative statements. People also do not reason the same way with syllogisms that have an unbelievable conclusion. There is a belief bias when evaluating the validity of a syllogism Conditional reasoning tasks: If Q then P
Wason's four card task show that we seem to seek to confirm what we know. Familiar information (legal drinking age) seems to help overcome that tendency Left frontal lobe damage seems to impair ability to apply schemas that are familiar for reasoning The social contract theory: we have strong schemas of how people should behave. This contract includes a cheat-detection module that is hard-wired (universal) Mental logic: Using if-then rules to guide behavior Mental models: Reasoners construct models of the premises with context to help with deductive reasoning. We use logical rules that represent expressions of truth to reason. We reason in a way that is inaccurate or imperfect. Heuristics and biases that affect reasoning Biases in "everyday" thinking affect how we interpret information, how we judge frequency and how we make predictions. Representativeness bias: using categorical information to make judgements. Matching what we perceive to our existing representation. Leads to stereotypes. You randomly select one male from the Canadian population and