6C - Heuristics

Question 1

What are heuristics?

Answer 1

The information processing strategies or ‘mental shortcuts’ that enable individuals to form judgements, make decisions, and solve problems quickly and efficiently.
- heuristics can help explain why we make certain decisions or solve problems the way we do.

Question 2

Why do we have heuristics?

Answer 2

To help us make ‘mental shortcuts’ to keep up with the environment that we are in. Our brain is constantly processing a lot information, so heuristics are a way to make a quick shortcut so that we don’t have to dwell on things all the time.

Question 3

What are three things that heuristics can be?

Answer 3

1. Rapid
2. Instinctive
3. An automatic process

Question 4

Who proposed that we use heuristics when a certain condition is met?

Answer 4

Anthony R. Pratkins (1989)

Question 5

Why are heuristics used?

Answer 5

1. When one is faced with too much information.
2. When the time to make a decision is limited
3. When the decision to be made is unimportant
4. When there is access to very little information to use in decision making
5. When an appropriate heuristics happens to come to mind in the same moment

Question 6

Examples of heuristics applied in different contexts

Answer 6

• Occupations
• Health care
• Economics
• Law
• Business
• Everyday life

Question 7

What are the four different types of heuristics?

Answer 7

1. Anchoring heuristics
2. Availability heuristic
3. Affect heuristic
4. Representative heuristic

Question 8

Anchoring heuristics definition

Answer 8

Information-processing strategy that involves forming judgements based on the first information (the anchor - holding you down from seeing anything else) received about an idea or concept.

Question 9

Anchoring heuristics effect on problem solving or decision making

Answer 9

Anchoring may cause the brain to make adjustments when processing additional information based on an initial judgement. These adjustments can lead to misinterpretation, but they can also save time or reduce cognitive load.

Question 10

Example of Anchoring heuristics
- misdiagnosis in the medical field?

Answer 10

Imagine visiting your doctor with some sort of ailment. They chat with you for less than 5 minutes and send you home with antibiotics. Then, about a week later, you find yourself back there and it turns out you originally had a different ailment. Doctors may in fact be anchoring - forming judgements based on initial observations and information regarding their patients.

Question 11

Availability heuristic definition

Answer 11

Information-processing strategy that enables individuals to form a judgement, solve a problem, or make a decision based on information that is easily accessible.

Question 12

Availability heuristic effect on problem solving or decision making

Answer 12

• when you are required to make decisions quickly it will retrieve information that is readily available.
• at times the information that is readily available might not always be the best for that moment.

Question 13

Example of Availability heuristic
- we’re going on a bear hunt!

Answer 13

Imagine you’re on a hike and it is a bear zone. You encounter a bear. Luckily you are able to remember what the tour guide had told you to do if you ever encountered one.
So, you begin to wave your arms like a mad person and you also start screaming at the top of your lungs.
Due to the information being given to you earlier you were able to use availability heuristic in a situation that required you to make a fast decision.

Question 14

Representative heuristic definition

Answer 14

Information-processing strategy that involves making a categorical judgement about an idea, event, or person based on their similarity to other items in that category.

Question 15

Representative heuristic effect on problem solving or decision making

Answer 15

• an information-processing strategy that involves comparing an idea, event, object or person to something that we already stored (represented) in our minds.
• can be helpful when making decisions as it allows us to be adaptive in different situations.

Question 16

Example of Representative heuristic
- hiring new people

Answer 16

At work, if you are hiring a new team member, you have particular traits in mind about what makes a good worker. This may lead you to ignore other possible candidates. When we are meeting people for the first time the comparisons we make lead us to form inaccurate judgements.

Question 17

Affect heuristic definition

Answer 17

Information-processing strategy that involves using emotions to make a judgement, decision or problem solve.

Question 18

Affect heuristic effect on problem solving or decision making

Answer 18

Using emotions to make decisions can seem like a bad thing. However, the affect heuristic can actually influence how we assess risks, and therefore positively impact our decision making and problem solving process.

Question 19

Example of Affect heuristic
- skydiving!

Answer 19

If you are afraid (emotion) of heights you may choose not to engage in skydiving, and this decision may potentially save you from injury.

Question 20

Positive influence

Answer 20

• Save time when making decisions and solving problems
• Can be adaptive and protects an individual from dangerous situations
• Reduce cognitive load

Question 21

Negative influence

Answer 21

• Decisions that are made quickly are prone to error and biassed decisions
• They can lead to base-rate fallacy, a bias in which decisions are influenced more by memories and experiences, rather than statistical facts