Cognitive Biases and Heuristics Overview

These flashcards cover key terminology related to cognitive biases and heuristics discussed in the lecture, providing definitions and explanations to aid in exam preparation.

Anchoring and adjustment

A mental shortcut where individuals rely heavily on the first piece of information (the anchor) when making judgments or estimates.

Heuristic

A mental shortcut that simplifies decision making, often leading to errors in judgment.

Availability heuristic

The tendency to overestimate the likelihood of events based on how easily they come to mind.

Representativeness heuristic

Judging the likelihood of an event based on how similar it is to a prototype or stereotype.

Attribute substitution

When a person cannot access the required information and instead relies on a related piece of information as a proxy.

Affect heuristic

A mental shortcut where decisions are influenced by emotional responses rather than logical reasoning.

Effort heuristic

A mental shortcut where the perceived value of an option is based on the effort required to achieve it.

Type 1 Processing

Fast, intuitive decision-making that relies on heuristics and gut feelings, often prone to errors.

Type 2 Processing

Slow, deliberate decision-making that is logical and evidence-based, useful for complex problems.

Bayes theorem

A mathematical formula used to update the probability of a hypothesis based on new evidence.

Base rates

The general probability of a characteristic within a given population.

Base rate neglect

The tendency to underweight base rate information when making specific judgments about cases.