PHIL 183 Canvas Quizzes Midterm
Questions and Correct Answers 2026
Updated.
QUIZ 1: - Answer
We are primarily using System 1 (effortless, automatic) processes in the following tasks:
(Choose every answer that applies.)
- Recognizing faces
- Deciding how we feel about someone the moment we first see them
- Questioning whether our side of an argument is actually correct
- Interpreting sounds in our native language as meaningful words
- Using reasoning skills to justify our initial inclinations
- Calculating a 17% tip at a restaurant
- Knowing where to put our hand in order to catch a baseball coming at us
- Planning a vacation - Answer - Recognizing faces
- Deciding how we feel about someone the moment we first see them
- Interpreting sounds in our native language as meaningful words
- Knowing where to put our hand in order to catch a baseball coming at us
--> Some people missed the baseball example. The physics involved are complicated and this is
an incredibly difficult calculation to make through effortful reasoning. Baseball players just 'have
a sense' of where the ball is going to land, using cognitive modules dedicated to interpreting
visual information and building causal models of movement through space that estimate its
velocity vector, incorporate the effect of gravity, and arrive at its parabolic path.
Which of the following statements are true?
(Choose every answer that applies.)
- The distinction between System 1 and System 2 is a matter of degrees, because cognitive
processes can be more or less controlled, transparent, and effortful
- Overall, it is an unfortunate weakness of System 1 that it does not operate transparently
, - Each system 1 process is typically very good at a specific task, but tends to be somewhat
slower at those tasks that System 2 would be
- Some cognitive activities are performed by System 1 on some occasions and System 2 on
others
- Some cognitive activities are performed by a mix of System 1 and System 2 processes. - Answer
- The distinction between System 1 and System 2 is a matter of degrees, because cognitive
processes can be more or less controlled, transparent, and effortful
- Some cognitive activities are performed by System 1 on some occasions and System 2 on
others
- Some cognitive activities are performed by a mix of System 1 and System 2 processes.
The cognitive reflection test is best characterized as a test of:
- the ability to reflect the evidence with our degrees of belief
- the tendency to question one's initial inclination
- how well our cognition is reflected in our actions
- the degree to which our beliefs reflect our desires
- how capable or advanced a person's system 1 is - Answer - the tendency to question one's
initial inclination
Which of the following might be an example of (or a result of) confirmation bias:
(Choose every answer that applies.)
- just happening to notice evidence that supports ones view more often than evidence that
discredits it
- directing one's attention in such a way that one ignores contrary evidence
- reading an opposing study very critically in order to find problems with it
- finding an argument in favor of one's own view especially convincing - Answer ALL
CORRECT
--> Some people missed "reading an opposing study very critically". In one of the examples we
discussed in the text, where people are given studies on both sides about capital punishment,
the main mechanism at work for myside bias was not that people would ignore studies that
challenged their view, but instead they would pay special attention to any possible flaws. This is
selectively searching for problems with any sources of evidence for the opposing view.
asmine thinks that more gun control in her state would reduce the number of gun deaths. She
encounters an argument offering evidence that gun deaths are likely to remain the same after
Questions and Correct Answers 2026
Updated.
QUIZ 1: - Answer
We are primarily using System 1 (effortless, automatic) processes in the following tasks:
(Choose every answer that applies.)
- Recognizing faces
- Deciding how we feel about someone the moment we first see them
- Questioning whether our side of an argument is actually correct
- Interpreting sounds in our native language as meaningful words
- Using reasoning skills to justify our initial inclinations
- Calculating a 17% tip at a restaurant
- Knowing where to put our hand in order to catch a baseball coming at us
- Planning a vacation - Answer - Recognizing faces
- Deciding how we feel about someone the moment we first see them
- Interpreting sounds in our native language as meaningful words
- Knowing where to put our hand in order to catch a baseball coming at us
--> Some people missed the baseball example. The physics involved are complicated and this is
an incredibly difficult calculation to make through effortful reasoning. Baseball players just 'have
a sense' of where the ball is going to land, using cognitive modules dedicated to interpreting
visual information and building causal models of movement through space that estimate its
velocity vector, incorporate the effect of gravity, and arrive at its parabolic path.
Which of the following statements are true?
(Choose every answer that applies.)
- The distinction between System 1 and System 2 is a matter of degrees, because cognitive
processes can be more or less controlled, transparent, and effortful
- Overall, it is an unfortunate weakness of System 1 that it does not operate transparently
, - Each system 1 process is typically very good at a specific task, but tends to be somewhat
slower at those tasks that System 2 would be
- Some cognitive activities are performed by System 1 on some occasions and System 2 on
others
- Some cognitive activities are performed by a mix of System 1 and System 2 processes. - Answer
- The distinction between System 1 and System 2 is a matter of degrees, because cognitive
processes can be more or less controlled, transparent, and effortful
- Some cognitive activities are performed by System 1 on some occasions and System 2 on
others
- Some cognitive activities are performed by a mix of System 1 and System 2 processes.
The cognitive reflection test is best characterized as a test of:
- the ability to reflect the evidence with our degrees of belief
- the tendency to question one's initial inclination
- how well our cognition is reflected in our actions
- the degree to which our beliefs reflect our desires
- how capable or advanced a person's system 1 is - Answer - the tendency to question one's
initial inclination
Which of the following might be an example of (or a result of) confirmation bias:
(Choose every answer that applies.)
- just happening to notice evidence that supports ones view more often than evidence that
discredits it
- directing one's attention in such a way that one ignores contrary evidence
- reading an opposing study very critically in order to find problems with it
- finding an argument in favor of one's own view especially convincing - Answer ALL
CORRECT
--> Some people missed "reading an opposing study very critically". In one of the examples we
discussed in the text, where people are given studies on both sides about capital punishment,
the main mechanism at work for myside bias was not that people would ignore studies that
challenged their view, but instead they would pay special attention to any possible flaws. This is
selectively searching for problems with any sources of evidence for the opposing view.
asmine thinks that more gun control in her state would reduce the number of gun deaths. She
encounters an argument offering evidence that gun deaths are likely to remain the same after
