Cognitive Reflection Test Overriding Intuitive Errors 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: If 5 printers take 5 seconds to print 5 pages, how long do 100 printers take to print 100 pages?
- 100 seconds
- 20 seconds
- 5 seconds (Correct answer)
- 1 second
Correct answer: 5 seconds
Each printer prints one page in 5 seconds, so equal numbers of printers and pages take 5 seconds.
Question 2: A lily patch doubles in size each day and fills a lake in 48 days. When is the lake one-quarter covered?
- Day 12
- Day 24
- Day 46 (Correct answer)
- Day 47
Correct answer: Day 46
Half coverage is day 47, so quarter coverage is two doublings back on day 46.
Question 3: A shirt and a tie cost $22 in total, and the shirt costs $20 more than the tie. What is the tie's price?
- $1 (Correct answer)
- $2
- $11
- $20
Correct answer: $1
The tie is $1 and the shirt is $21, giving a $20 gap and $22 total.
Question 4: What is the best strategy for overriding an intuitive CRT error?
- Pause and check whether the first answer actually satisfies all conditions (Correct answer)
- Answer as fast as possible
- Trust your gut feeling
- Skip the arithmetic entirely
Correct answer: Pause and check whether the first answer actually satisfies all conditions
Deliberately verifying the tempting answer against the problem's constraints catches the error.
Question 5: The tempting wrong answers on CRT items are examples of what kind of thinking bias?
- Attribute substitution, answering an easier question than asked (Correct answer)
- Confirmation bias only
- Hindsight bias
- The sunk-cost fallacy
Correct answer: Attribute substitution, answering an easier question than asked
People substitute a simpler computation for the real one, producing the intuitive error.
Question 6: A snail climbs a well doubling its height each hour and reaches the top in 10 hours. At which hour was it at half the well's height?
- Hour 5
- Hour 8
- Hour 9 (Correct answer)
- Hour 10
Correct answer: Hour 9
With hourly doubling, half height occurs one hour before reaching the top, at hour 9.
Question 7: Higher CRT scores are most associated with which tendency?
- A disposition to question and recheck one's first impressions (Correct answer)
- Faster typing speed
- Greater risk-taking in all areas
- Stronger verbal fluency alone
Correct answer: A disposition to question and recheck one's first impressions
High scorers habitually doubt and verify intuitions rather than accepting them.
Cognitive Reflection Test Overriding Intuitive Errors 3
If 5 printers take 5 seconds to print 5 pages, how long do 100 printers take to print 100 pages?