1. Marewski et al. (2010) discuss three approaches of human rationality. Name and
explain these visions.
- Views of human rationality: determine what kind of models of cognition one believes
constitute humans’ cognitive machinery
- Unbounded rationality: assumes you know all the relevant information
- You Have all the knowledge, you are rational
- Unlimited cognitive capacity and unfailing memory irrespective of
context
- (yet an unrealistic description of how people make decisions)
- Bounded rationality: rely on simple strategies, more efficient
- You make reasoning errors
- Limited cognitive capacities
- People rely on shortcuts or heuristics that make people vulnerable to
systematic and predictable reasoning errors
- Ecological rationality: the adaptive toolbox of heuristics
- Fitting to the structure of environment, suitable for the context
- You possess a certain repertoire of some heuristics that you can choose
to use
- You have a toolbox of heuristics that you can choose
- Bounded rationality but ecological
2. Explain the idea Marewski et al, put forward as to why simple strategies might
outperform complex strategies.
- Thought experiment: species simplicissimus (boundedly rational) vs. species
complexes (rely on complex and highly sophisticated strategies)
- A model can end up overfitting the data: the problem of overfitting
- The complex model can capture the variance due to the variables of interest,
but it also captures random error (which is something that organisms are likely
to encounter in an uncertain world)
- Complex model overfits existing data
- Ability of a model to predict new data: generalizability
- Generalizability is the degree to which it is capable of predicting all potential
samples generated by the same process
- Degree to which a model is susceptible to overfitting: about model’s
complexity
- Consists of the number of parameters it has and how parameters are
combined in it, so its functional form
- All potential samples generated by the same process, instead of a particular
sample of existing data
3. What is the difference between implicit and explicit attitude measurements?
What are flaws of both?
, - Implicit attitude measurements:
- Evaluative priming (EP) task (Fazio); Implicit association test (IAT)
(Greenward)
- Some non-friendly behavior is predicted better with implicit attitudes than
explicit attitudes
- Implicit attitudes: spontaneous behavior
- Disadvantage: problem of social desirability
- Explicit attitude measurements:
- Likert items; EV (expectancy value)
- Measures what is visible
- Disadvantage: association doesn’t often imply attitudes
- People can be unaware of their attitudes
- Impression management (political/social appropriateness)
4. What four factors foster likeability?
- We like people who resemble us
- Familiarity
- Helpfulness and compliments
- Physical attractiveness
5. A researcher wants to look at the effect of emotions on self-regulation in snacking
behaviour. She is thinking about using pride and doubting between experienced
pride and anticipated pride. What would you advise and why?
- Anticipated pride: leads people show more restraint
- Experienced pride: leads people make indulgent choices
- Effect of emotions on self-regulation (so anticipated pride) in snacking behavior
6. Giel outlined a scarcity-is-good heuristic. What two things was this heuristic
dependent on and can you explain the effect here?
- Scarcity-is-good: depends on the product and the type of scarcity
- Product: low or high conspicuous products
- Conspicuous products: supply low, better attitude
- Non-conspicuous products: high demand, better attitude
- Scarcity: due to supply or demand
- Due to demand: because a lot of people want the product, it implies it is
good
- For high conspicuous products, scarcity-is-good heuristic work better
7. What were the 4 factors determining the efficacy for punishments and rewards?
- Temporal aspects (timing): immediate>delayed
- Variation/variety: more variety → more efficacy
- Consistency: greater frequency → greater efficacy
- Intensity/extremity: more extreme → more effective
explain these visions.
- Views of human rationality: determine what kind of models of cognition one believes
constitute humans’ cognitive machinery
- Unbounded rationality: assumes you know all the relevant information
- You Have all the knowledge, you are rational
- Unlimited cognitive capacity and unfailing memory irrespective of
context
- (yet an unrealistic description of how people make decisions)
- Bounded rationality: rely on simple strategies, more efficient
- You make reasoning errors
- Limited cognitive capacities
- People rely on shortcuts or heuristics that make people vulnerable to
systematic and predictable reasoning errors
- Ecological rationality: the adaptive toolbox of heuristics
- Fitting to the structure of environment, suitable for the context
- You possess a certain repertoire of some heuristics that you can choose
to use
- You have a toolbox of heuristics that you can choose
- Bounded rationality but ecological
2. Explain the idea Marewski et al, put forward as to why simple strategies might
outperform complex strategies.
- Thought experiment: species simplicissimus (boundedly rational) vs. species
complexes (rely on complex and highly sophisticated strategies)
- A model can end up overfitting the data: the problem of overfitting
- The complex model can capture the variance due to the variables of interest,
but it also captures random error (which is something that organisms are likely
to encounter in an uncertain world)
- Complex model overfits existing data
- Ability of a model to predict new data: generalizability
- Generalizability is the degree to which it is capable of predicting all potential
samples generated by the same process
- Degree to which a model is susceptible to overfitting: about model’s
complexity
- Consists of the number of parameters it has and how parameters are
combined in it, so its functional form
- All potential samples generated by the same process, instead of a particular
sample of existing data
3. What is the difference between implicit and explicit attitude measurements?
What are flaws of both?
, - Implicit attitude measurements:
- Evaluative priming (EP) task (Fazio); Implicit association test (IAT)
(Greenward)
- Some non-friendly behavior is predicted better with implicit attitudes than
explicit attitudes
- Implicit attitudes: spontaneous behavior
- Disadvantage: problem of social desirability
- Explicit attitude measurements:
- Likert items; EV (expectancy value)
- Measures what is visible
- Disadvantage: association doesn’t often imply attitudes
- People can be unaware of their attitudes
- Impression management (political/social appropriateness)
4. What four factors foster likeability?
- We like people who resemble us
- Familiarity
- Helpfulness and compliments
- Physical attractiveness
5. A researcher wants to look at the effect of emotions on self-regulation in snacking
behaviour. She is thinking about using pride and doubting between experienced
pride and anticipated pride. What would you advise and why?
- Anticipated pride: leads people show more restraint
- Experienced pride: leads people make indulgent choices
- Effect of emotions on self-regulation (so anticipated pride) in snacking behavior
6. Giel outlined a scarcity-is-good heuristic. What two things was this heuristic
dependent on and can you explain the effect here?
- Scarcity-is-good: depends on the product and the type of scarcity
- Product: low or high conspicuous products
- Conspicuous products: supply low, better attitude
- Non-conspicuous products: high demand, better attitude
- Scarcity: due to supply or demand
- Due to demand: because a lot of people want the product, it implies it is
good
- For high conspicuous products, scarcity-is-good heuristic work better
7. What were the 4 factors determining the efficacy for punishments and rewards?
- Temporal aspects (timing): immediate>delayed
- Variation/variety: more variety → more efficacy
- Consistency: greater frequency → greater efficacy
- Intensity/extremity: more extreme → more effective
