PSYC 305 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Prospect Theory, Flashlight, Psychophysics
Ch 11 Decision Making
• Pg 388-400
o Chocolate or strawberry? Life or death?
o We make tons of quick decisions unconsciously; others we hem and
haw over in agony.
o We choose actions and form opinions via mental processes which
are influenced by biases, reason, emotions, and memories.
What is decision making?
o Decisions about differences
▪ Physical, symbolic, # magnitude, imagery, semantic ordering,
geographical distances
o Reasoning under uncertainty….
▪ Algorithms, heuristics, prospect theory
Decisions about Physical Differences
o Psychophysics
▪ Psychological experience of physical stimulation
▪ Percept versus sensation
o Just noticeable difference (JND)
▪ ∆ (amt. of change) need to detect a ∆ in physical stimulus (Weber’s law)
o JND increases as physical stimulus more intense
Distance Effect
o The greater the distance between two stimuli, the faster to decide
they’re different
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find more resources at oneclass.com
o Which is brighter?
▪ A bic lighter or a flashlight
▪ A bic lighter or a spotlight
Symbolic Distance Effect
o Which of two dots higher?
o Which number bigger?
o Decision faster when spacing of two dots differs by a lot versus a
little
Symbolic Comparisons
o Semantic congruity effect
▪ Faster decisions when dimension matches semantic context
▪ Which balloon higher? vs. which balloon lower?
▪ Which yo-yo lower? vs. which yo-yo higher?
o Symbolic Distance, Symbolic Comparisons
o A
o B
o A
o B
Number Magnitude
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Life or death: we make tons of quick decisions unconsciously; others we hem and haw over in agony, we choose actions and form opinions via mental processes which are influenced by biases, reason, emotions, and memories. What is decision making: decisions about differences, physical, symbolic, # magnitude, imagery, semantic ordering, geographical distances, reasoning under uncertainty , algorithms, heuristics, prospect theory. Decisions about physical differences: psychophysics, psychological experience of physical stimulation, percept versus sensation, just noticeable difference (jnd, (amt. of change) need to detect a in physical stimulus (weber"s law, jnd increases as physical stimulus more intense. Distance effect: the greater the distance between two stimuli, the faster to decide they"re different, which is brighter, a bic lighter or a flashlight, a bic lighter or a spotlight. Symbolic distance effect: which of two dots higher, which number bigger, decision faster when spacing of two dots differs by a lot versus a little.
