The limited value of precise tests of the recognition heuristic

The recognition heuristic models the adaptive use and dominant role of recognition knowledge in judgment under uncertainty. Of the several predictions that the heuristic makes, empirical tests have predominantly focused on the proposed noncompensatory processing of recognition. Some authors have emphasized that the heuristic needs to be scrutinized based on precise tests of the exclusive use of recognition. Although precise tests have clear merits, I critically evaluate the value of such tests as they are currently employed. First, I argue that using precise measures of the exclusive use of recognition has to go beyond showing that the recognition heuristic—like every model—cannot capture reality completely. Second, I illustrate how precise tests based on response times can lead to unsubstantiated conclusions if the fact that the recognition heuristic does not model the recognition judgment itself is ignored. Finally, I highlight two key but so far neglected aspects of the recognition heuristic: (a) the connection between recognition memory and the recognition heuristic; and (b) the mechanisms underlying the adaptive use of recognition

Recognition-based inference: When is less more in the real world?

Common wisdom tells us that more information can only help and never hurt. Goldstein and Gigerenzer (2002) highlighted an instance violating this intuition. Specifically, in an analysis of their recognition heuristic, they found a counterintuitive less-is-more effect in inference: An individual recognizing fewer objects than another individual can, nevertheless, make more accurate inferences. Goldstein and Gigerenzer emphasized that a sufficient condition for this effect is that the recognition validity be higher than the knowledge validity, assuming that the validities are uncorrelated with the number of recognized objects, n. But how is the occurrence of the less-is-more effect affected when this independence assumption is violated? I show that validity dependencies (i.e., correlations of the validities with n) abound in empirical data sets, and I demonstrate by computer simulations that these dependencies often have a strong limiting effect on the less-is-more effect. Moreover, I discuss what cognitive (e.g., memory) and ecological (e.g., distribution of the criterion variable, environmental frequencies) factors can give rise to a dependency of the recognition validity on the number of recognized objects. Supplemental materials may be downloaded from http://pbr.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplementa

Rational analysis of the adaptive and predictive nature of memory

In his target article, Klein (2013) makes the important point that many approaches to studying memory neglect the function of memory, in particular its capacity to help predict the future. Here, we complement Klein’s argument in two ways. First, we point to an existing and well-developed research program that formalizes a functional approach to memory, exploring its adaptive nature. Second, we illustrate how this approach can be applied to analyze regularities in social interactions, which memory might exploit to predict future interactions. John R. Anderson and colleagues (Anderson and Milson, 1989, Anderson and Schooler, 1991, Anderson and Schooler, 2000 and Schooler and Anderson, 1997) developed the rational analysis of memory, in which they argued that much of memory performance, including forgetting, might be understood in terms of adaptation to the structure of the environment. The first key assumption of the rational analysis is that environmental stimuli make informational demands on the cognitive system that are met by retrieving memory traces associated with those stimuli. The second assumption is that the memory system acts on the expectation that environmental stimuli tend to reoccur in predictable ways; the pattern of past encounters can, thus, predict the future need of information. The third assumption is that the memory system makes most accessible those traces that it predicts will be most useful in the future. Consequently, memory performance should reflect the patterns with which environmental stimuli occur and reoccur in the environment. For instance, more recently encountered stimuli will likely be encountered again. An adaptive memory system should make information about those stimuli more accessible because it is more likely to be needed. Conversely, the longer time interval since the last encounter, the less likely the information will be needed in the future, and so it can and should be forgotten

The perception of food products in adolescents, lay adults, and experts: A psychometric approach

Almost 40% of global mortality is attributable to an unhealthy diet, and adolescents and young adults are particularly affected by growing obesity rates. How do (young) people conceptualize and judge the healthiness of foods and how are the judgments embedded in people’s mental representations of the food ecology? We asked respondents to rate a large range of common food products on a diverse set of characteristics and then applied the psychometric paradigm to identify the dimensions structuring people’s mental representations of the foods. Respondents were also asked to rate each food in terms of its healthiness, and we used the foods’ scores on the extracted dimensions to predict the healthiness judgments. We compared three groups of respondents: adolescents, lay adults, and nutrition experts. Naturalness levels (e.g., processing, artificial additives) and cholesterol and protein content emerged as the two central dimensions structuring respondents’ mental representations of the foods. Relative to the other two groups, the adolescents’ representations were less differentiated. Judged food healthiness was determined by multiple factors, but naturalness was the strongest predictor across all groups. Overall, the adolescents’ responses showed considerable heterogeneity, suggesting a lack of solid food knowledge and the need for tailored nutrition education on specific food products and content characteristics.publishedVersionPaid open acces

The Recognition Heuristic: A Review of Theory and Tests

The recognition heuristic is a prime example of how, by exploiting a match between mind and environment, a simple mental strategy can lead to efficient decision making. The proposal of the heuristic initiated a debate about the processes underlying the use of recognition in decision making. We review research addressing four key aspects of the recognition heuristic: (a) that recognition is often an ecologically valid cue; (b) that people often follow recognition when making inferences; (c) that recognition supersedes further cue knowledge; (d) that its use can produce the less-is-more effect – the phenomenon that lesser states of recognition knowledge can lead to more accurate inferences than more complete states. After we contrast the recognition heuristic to other related concepts, including availability and fluency, we carve out, from the existing findings, some boundary conditions of the use of the recognition heuristic as well as key questions for future research. Moreover, we summarize developments concerning the connection of the recognition heuristic with memory models. We suggest that the recognition heuristic is used adaptively and that, compared to other cues, recognition seems to have a special status in decision making. Finally, we discuss how systematic ignorance is exploited in other cognitive mechanisms (e.g., estimation and preference)

Ecological Rationality: A Framework for Understanding and Aiding the Aging Decision Maker

The notion of ecological rationality sees human rationality as the result of the adaptive fit between the human mind and the environment. Ecological rationality focuses the study of decision making on two key questions: First, what are the environmental regularities to which people’s decision strategies are matched, and how frequently do these regularities occur in natural environments? Second, how well can people adapt their use of specific strategies to particular environmental regularities? Research on aging suggests a number of changes in cognitive function, for instance, deficits in learning and memory that may impact decision-making skills. However, it has been shown that simple strategies can work well in many natural environments, which suggests that age-related deficits in strategy use may not necessarily translate into reduced decision quality. Consequently, we argue that predictions about the impact of aging on decision performance depend not only on how aging affects decision-relevant capacities but also on the decision environment in which decisions are made. In sum, we propose that the concept of the ecological rationality is crucial to understanding and aiding the aging decision maker

Psychological Factors Shaping Public Responses to COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing Technologies in Germany

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen one of the first large-scale uses of digital contact tracing to track a chain of infection and contain the spread of a virus. The new technology has posed challenges both for governments aiming at high and effective uptake and for citizens weighing its benefits (e.g., protecting others’ health) against the potential risks (e.g., loss of data privacy). Our cross-sectional survey with repeated measures across four samples in Germany ([Formula: see text] ) focused on psychological factors contributing to the public adoption of digital contact tracing. We found that public acceptance of privacy-encroaching measures (e.g., granting the government emergency access to people’s medical records or location tracking data) decreased over the course of the pandemic. Intentions to use contact tracing apps—hypothetical ones or the Corona-Warn-App launched in Germany in June 2020—were high. Users and non-users of the Corona-Warn-App differed in their assessment of its risks and benefits, in their knowledge of the underlying technology, and in their reasons to download or not to download the app. Trust in the app’s perceived security and belief in its effectiveness emerged as psychological factors playing a key role in its adoption. We incorporate our findings into a behavioral framework for digital contact tracing and provide policy recommendations

РОЗРОБКА РЕГІОНАЛЬНОГО ПРОГНОЗУ ЕКОЛОГО-ЕКОНОМІЧНИХ РИЗИКІВ ПРИ ЗАКРИТТІ ШАХТ ЗАХІДНОГО ДОНБАСУ (звіт по темі ГП-412) (заключний)

Рукопис закінчено 5 грудня 2010 р. Результати роботи розглянуто науково-технічною радою, протокол № 4 від 09.12.2010 р.РЕФЕРАТ Звіт про НДР: 98 c, 27 рис., 9 табл., 29 джерело, 3 додатки. Об’єкт дослідження – процес аналізу та прогнозування еколого-економічних ризиків, які викликані гірничовидобувними роботами. Мета проекту – розробка методики регіонального прогнозу еколого-економічних ризиків, можливість виникнення яких зумовлена техногенним впливом вугільних шахт, що функціонують або закриваються. Мета етапу – апробація розробленої методики регіонального прогнозу еколого-економічних ризиків з урахуванням взаємного впливу шахтних ком-плексів Західного Донбасу, що працюють та закриваються. На основі результатів проведення експериментального моделювання еколого-економічного ризику для шахт родовища Західного Донбасу та аналізу розроблених моделей еколого-економічних ризиків отримано якісні й кількісні показники, які дали можливість розробити набор керуючих заходів для мінімізації наслідків функціонування або закриття шахтних комплексів