Heuristic -

shortcut

rule of thumb

strategy that relies on part of information rather than processing all of it.

strategy that works in a particular context

Representative heuristic:

tendency to base judgments on assumption that "like goes with like."

Langer & Abelson (1974)
Showed psychoanalysts a film of a student being interviewed.

½ told student had asked for psychotherapy

½ told student was being interviewed as part of a research project

DV: Is the student neurotic?

Therapy student seen as more neurotic than research student by analysts.

baserate neglect: ignoring information about the probability of something across ALL circumstances (baserate) in favor of information specific to a particular set of circumstances.

Fiedler, 1988:

Frequency version of Linda problem-

There are 100 people who fit the description above. How may of them are:

a. bank tellers?

b. bank tellers and feminists?

% showing conjunction fallacy: drops to 22%

(compared to 80-90% in original)

availability heuristic:

tendency to base judgments on ease with which relevant information comes to mind.

Availability heuristic is as biased as our memory ...

1) info never got in there:

2) info less elaborated upon

Limitations of explanation effect?

- hard to explain, envision

- under denial

3) info not recently encountered

Hot hand effect?

Making a basket doesn’t differentially predict that next shot will be a basket

(perception of hot hand may result from our belief that random patterns should look more "random.")