judgment Flashcards
what is judgement?
deciding the likeliness of various events with incomplete evidence
what is decision-making?
select one option from several different possibilities
what helps inform decision-making?
judgements
what is dual process theory (Kahneman, 2003)?
we have 2 cognitive subsystems for thinking
system 1 - fast and emotionally-charged (gut feeling/intuition) that uses little conscious effort = everyday decisions
system 2 - slow and effortful where we weigh up different concepts and reach a logical decision = complex decisions
what system are you most likely to use when you’re tired?
system 1 - automatic
what evidence supports dual process theory?
fMRI & MRI studies
- found that content based reasoning used the left hemisphere temporal system and abstract formal problems used a parietal system
- it depends on the use of semantic context
what are the limitations of dpt?
oversimplification
- a flexible processing
- less confident in their answers so they use system 1
- found the conflict detection area shows activation which shows systems can work simultaneously
too reliant on system 1
what is (expected) utility theory?
how people should make big decisions when there is uncertainty
what does utility refer to?
individuals will choose the outcomes that achieve a person’s goal at maximum utility
where is eut used to predict behaviour?
economics
what theory directly challenged utility theory?
prospect theory? (tversky & kahneman, 1979)
what is prospect theory?
accurately described how decisions are made:
- assume losses and gains are valued differently
- make decisions based on perceived gains
what is a reference point?
risky choice -> gains -> risk averse behaviour -> solutions with a lower expected utility theory -> higher certainty
OR
risky choice -> losses -> risk seeking behaviour -> solutions with a lower expected utility as long as it can avoid losses
what is an example of prospect theory?
we feel the gain of £100 less than the loss of £100
what is an example of prospect theory?
end result = £25
- given £25 outright
- given £50 and have to give £25 back
- utility = same
-more likely to choose option 1 as a single gain is seen as more favourable than a loss
how do we make judgements?
base rate information -frequency an event occurs within a population
= info we need to make a decision
why do we ignore base rate information?
we see it as irrelevant
what are heuristics?
judgements based on shorts cuts (rule of thumb) rather than the full knowledge
-needs less effort
-quick
-accurate
what are the different heuristics types?
availability
representativeness
what is availability heuristics?
events that are more easily remembered are judged as more probable (more afraid of things on the news than other things we haven’t heard even tho they are worse)
what are the different types of information that we use in the availability heuristic to make a decision?
recent
frequent
extreme
vivid
negative
what is salience bias?
individuals focus on items that are more prominent/emotional and ignore unremarkable even though the difference is irrelevant