Chapter 12 Improving Decision Making
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following biases did the Oakland Athletics baseball team overcome by
implementing linear models in the team’s management decisions?
a. Overweighting observed player performances.
b. Overgeneralizing from personal experiences.
c. Overweighting recent data.
d. All of the above.
Ans: d
Response: p. 206-208
2. Which of the following has the lowest predictive power of a graduate student’s future
performance?
a. The student’s score in the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).
b. The student’s undergraduate Grade Point Average.
c. The student’s performance in an interview.
d. The quality of the student’s undergraduate school.
Ans: c
Response: p. 211-212
3. The most successful debiasing strategies tend to be:
a. Counter-intuitive.
b. Context-specific.
c. Good only for the short term.
d. Useful only for detecting bias.
Ans: b
Response: p. 217
4. An affective impression of an interviewee is NOT:
a. Made very quickly.
b. Likely to change many times during the interview.
, c. Based on superficial features of the interviewee.
d. Falsely claimed to be instrumental in assessing personal fit.
Ans: b
Response: p. 212
5. Intuition often leads us to believe that extroverted people who can speak coherently about their
goals and their jobs are more likely to perform well. Which bias is characteristic of this belief? a.
Availability
b. Affect heuristic
c. Representativeness
d. Confirmation heuristic
Ans: c
Response: p. 212-213
Fill-in-the-Blank
6. Research has found that complex linear models produce _____________ improvements to
simple linear models.
Ans: marginal/small.
Response: p. 209
7. The statistical principle that dictates that extreme performances are subsequently likely to
move closer to the group’s average performance is known as ________________.
Ans: regression to the mean
Response: p. 224
8. A formula that weights and adds up the relevant predictor variables in order to make a
quantitative prediction is known as a __________ __________.
Ans: linear model.
Response: p. 208
9. One of the most general debiasing strategies, which forces people to explicitly consider
alternatives to what they believe is the correct answer, is known as “consider the _________.”
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following biases did the Oakland Athletics baseball team overcome by
implementing linear models in the team’s management decisions?
a. Overweighting observed player performances.
b. Overgeneralizing from personal experiences.
c. Overweighting recent data.
d. All of the above.
Ans: d
Response: p. 206-208
2. Which of the following has the lowest predictive power of a graduate student’s future
performance?
a. The student’s score in the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).
b. The student’s undergraduate Grade Point Average.
c. The student’s performance in an interview.
d. The quality of the student’s undergraduate school.
Ans: c
Response: p. 211-212
3. The most successful debiasing strategies tend to be:
a. Counter-intuitive.
b. Context-specific.
c. Good only for the short term.
d. Useful only for detecting bias.
Ans: b
Response: p. 217
4. An affective impression of an interviewee is NOT:
a. Made very quickly.
b. Likely to change many times during the interview.
, c. Based on superficial features of the interviewee.
d. Falsely claimed to be instrumental in assessing personal fit.
Ans: b
Response: p. 212
5. Intuition often leads us to believe that extroverted people who can speak coherently about their
goals and their jobs are more likely to perform well. Which bias is characteristic of this belief? a.
Availability
b. Affect heuristic
c. Representativeness
d. Confirmation heuristic
Ans: c
Response: p. 212-213
Fill-in-the-Blank
6. Research has found that complex linear models produce _____________ improvements to
simple linear models.
Ans: marginal/small.
Response: p. 209
7. The statistical principle that dictates that extreme performances are subsequently likely to
move closer to the group’s average performance is known as ________________.
Ans: regression to the mean
Response: p. 224
8. A formula that weights and adds up the relevant predictor variables in order to make a
quantitative prediction is known as a __________ __________.
Ans: linear model.
Response: p. 208
9. One of the most general debiasing strategies, which forces people to explicitly consider
alternatives to what they believe is the correct answer, is known as “consider the _________.”
