Question

Explain the terms “deductive reasoning” and “decision making”, providing examples from your daily life that illustrates each of these cognitive processes. Make sure you support your discussion with information from the unit’s Readings.

Answer 1

Deductive reasoning is the process by which one reaches or arrives at a conclusion which is logical by considering various reasonable statements. For example, one knows that all apples are fruits scientifically and that honeycrisp is a variety of apple. Therefore, one would conclude that the honeycrisp is a fruit by the process of deductive reasoning. Another example would be the fact that all cats are felines and the ragdoll is a cat. By this, it would mean that the ragdoll cat is also a feline by deductive reasoning.

Decision making refers to the use of using one's cognitive abilities in order to make a selection of an action or belief from a number of various other options or alternatives. This is a process which requires the abiloabto analyse the scenario and use critical thinking abilities to select the decision and arrive at a conclusion which is capable of yeilding the maximum results. An example of decision making in everyday life includes the process of selecting a mode of transport to reach a particular place. One would take into concern various factors such as time, economy,comfort and so on in order to arrive at the most favourable decision.