Heuristic

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For other uses, see Heuristic (disambiguation).

A heuristic (/hjʊˈrɪstɪk/; from Ancient Greek εὑρίσκω (heurískō) 'to discover, method of discovery, serving to guide, reveal'),[1] or heuristic technique,[2] is any approach to problem solving that employs a practical method that is not fully optimized, perfected, or rationalized, but is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate, short-term goal or approximation.[3] Where finding an optimal solution is impossible or impractical, heuristic methods can be used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution.[4] Heuristics can be mental shortcuts that ease the cognitive load of making a decision.[5][6]

Overview[edit]

For broader coverage of this topic, see Trial and error, Rule of thumb, and Guessing.

A heuristic is a strategy that ignores part of the information, with the goal of making decisions more quickly, frugally, and/or accurately than more complex methods (Gigerenzer and Gaissmaier [2011], p. 454; see also Todd et al. [2012], p. 7).[7]

— S. Chow, "Many Meanings of 'Heuristic'", The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science

Heuristics are the strategies derived from previous experiences with similar problems. These strategies depend on using readily accessible, though loosely applicable, information to control problem solving in human beings, machines and abstract issues.[8][9] When an individual applies a heuristic in practice, it generally performs as expected. However it can alternatively create systematic errors.[10]

The most fundamental heuristic is trial and error, which can be used in everything from matching nuts and bolts to finding the values of variables in algebra problems. In mathematics, some common heuristics involve the use of visual representations, additional assumptions, forward/backward reasoning and simplification. Here are a few commonly used heuristics from George Pólya's 1945 book, How to Solve It:[11]

  • If you are having difficulty understanding a problem, try drawing a picture.
  • If you can't find a solution, try assuming that you have a solution and seeing what you can derive from that ("working backward").
  • If the problem is abstract, try examining a concrete example.
  • Try solving a more general problem first (the "inventor's paradox": the more ambitious plan may have more chances of success).

In psychology, heuristics are simple, efficient rules, either learned or inculcated by evolutionary processes. These psychological heuristics have been proposed to explain how people make decisions, come to judgements, and solve problems. These rules typically come into play when people face complex problems or incomplete information. Researchers employ various methods to test whether people use these rules. The rules have been shown to work well under most circumstances, but in certain cases can lead to systematic errors or cognitive biases.[12]

History[edit]

The study of heuristics in human decision-making was developed in the 1970s and the 1980s, by the psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman,[13] although the concept had been originally introduced by the Nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon. Simon's original primary object of research was problem solving that showed that we operate within what he calls bounded rationality. He coined the term satisficing, which denotes a situation in which people seek solutions, or accept choices or judgements, that are "good enough" for their purposes although they could be optimised.[14]

Rudolf Groner analysed the history of heuristics from its roots in ancient Greece up to contemporary work in cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence,[15] proposing a cognitive style "heuristic versus algorithmic thinking", which can be assessed by means of a validated questionnaire.[16]

Adaptive toolbox[edit]

Gerd Gigerenzer and his research group argued that models of heuristics need to be formal to allow for predictions of behavior that can be tested.[17] They study the fast and frugal heuristics in the "adaptive toolbox" of individuals or institutions, and the ecological rationality of these heuristics; that is, the conditions under which a given heuristic is likely to be successful.[18] The descriptive study of the "adaptive toolbox" is done by observation and experiment, while the prescriptive study of ecological rationality requires mathematical analysis and computer simulation. Heuristics – such as the recognition heuristic, the take-the-best heuristic and fast-and-frugal trees – have been shown to be effective in predictions, particularly in situations of uncertainty. It is often said that heuristics trade accuracy for effort but this is only the case in situations of risk. Risk refers to situations where all possible actions, their outcomes and probabilities are known. In the absence of this information, that is under uncertainty, heuristics can achieve higher accuracy with lower effort.[19] This finding, known as a less-is-more effect, would not have been found without formal models. The valuable insight of this program is that heuristics are effective not despite their simplicity – but because of it. Furthermore, Gigerenzer and Wolfgang Gaissmaier found that both individuals and organisations rely on heuristics in an adaptive way.[20]

Cognitive-experiential self-theory[edit]

Heuristics, through greater refinement and research, have begun to be applied to other theories, or be explained by them. For example, the cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST) is also an adaptive view of heuristic processing. CEST breaks down two systems that process information. At some times, roughly speaking, individuals consider issues rationally, systematically, logically, deliberately, effortfully, and verbally. On other occasions, individuals consider issues intuitively, effortlessly, globally, and emotionally.[21] From this perspective, heuristics are part of a larger experiential processing system that is often adaptive, but vulnerable to error in situations that require logical analysis.[22]

Attribute substitution[edit]

In 2002, Daniel Kahneman and Shane Frederick proposed that cognitive heuristics work by a process called attribute substitution, which happens without conscious awareness.[23] According to this theory, when somebody makes a judgement (of a "target attribute") that is computationally complex, a more easily calculated "heuristic attribute" is substituted. In effect, a cognitively difficult problem is dealt with by answering a rather simpler problem, without being aware of this happening.[23] This theory explains cases where judgements fail to show regression toward the mean.[24] Heuristics can be considered to reduce the complexity of clinical judgments in health care.[25]

Psychology[edit]

Main article: Heuristic (psychology)
For broader coverage of this topic, see Social heuristics and Social rationality.

A heuristic is stored in the memory.[26]

Philosophy[edit]

A heuristic device is used when an entity X exists to enable understanding of, or knowledge concerning, some other entity Y.

A good example is a model that, as it is never identical with what it models, is a heuristic device to enable understanding of what it models. Stories, metaphors, etc., can also be termed heuristic in this sense. A classic example is the notion of utopia as described in Plato's best-known work, The Republic. This means that the "ideal city" as depicted in The Republic is not given as something to be pursued, or to present an orientation-point for development. Rather, it shows how things would have to be connected, and how one thing would lead to another (often with highly problematic results), if one opted for certain principles and carried them through rigorously.

Heuristic is also often used as a noun to describe a rule of thumb, procedure, or method.[27] Philosophers of science have emphasised the importance of heuristics in creative thought and the construction of scientific theories.[28] Seminal works include Karl Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery and others by Imre Lakatos,[29] Lindley Darden, and William C. Wimsatt.

Law[edit]

In legal theory, especially in the theory of law and economics, heuristics are used in the law when case-by-case analysis would be impractical, insofar as "practicality" is defined by the interests of a governing body.[30]

The present securities regulation regime largely assumes that all investors act as perfectly rational persons. In truth, actual investors face cognitive limitations from biases, heuristics, and framing effects. For instance, in all states in the United States the legal drinking age for unsupervised persons is 21 years, because it is argued that people need to be mature enough to make decisions involving the risks of alcohol consumption. However, assuming people mature at different rates, the specific age of 21 would be too late for some and too early for others. In this case, the somewhat arbitrary delineation is used because it is impossible or impractical to tell whether an individual is sufficiently mature for society to trust them with that kind of responsibility. Some proposed changes, however, have included the completion of an alcohol education course rather than the attainment of 21 years of age as the criterion for legal alcohol possession. This would put youth alcohol policy more on a case-by-case basis and less on a heuristic one, since the completion of such a course would presumably be voluntary and not uniform across the population.

The same reasoning applies to patent law. Patents are justified on the grounds that inventors must be protected so they have incentive to invent. It is therefore argued that it is in society's best interest that inventors receive a temporary government-granted monopoly on their idea, so that they can recoup investment costs and make economic profit for a limited period. In the United States, the length of this temporary monopoly is 20 years from the date the patent application was filed, though the monopoly does not actually begin until the application has matured into a patent. However, like the drinking age problem above, the specific length of time would need to be different for every product to be efficient. A 20-year term is used because it is difficult to tell what the number should be for any individual patent. More recently, some, including University of North Dakota law professor Eric E. Johnson, have argued that patents in different kinds of industries – such as software patents – should be protected for different lengths of time.[31]

Stereotyping[edit]

Stereotyping is a type of heuristic that people use to form opinions or make judgements about things they have never seen or experienced.[32] They work as a mental shortcut to assess everything from the social status of a person (based on their actions),[6] to classifying a plant as a tree based on it being tall, having a trunk, and that it has leaves (even though the person making the evaluation might never have seen that particular type of tree before).

Stereotypes, as first described by journalist Walter Lippmann in his book Public Opinion (1922), are the pictures we have in our heads that are built around experiences as well as what we are told about the world.[33][34]

Artificial intelligence[edit]

A heuristic can be used in artificial intelligence systems while searching a solution space. The heuristic is derived by using some function that is put into the system by the designer, or by adjusting the weight of branches based on how likely each branch is to lead to a goal node.

Behavioural economics[edit]

Heuristics refers to the cognitive shortcuts that individuals use to simplify decision-making processes in economic situations. Behavioral economics is a field that integrates insights from psychology and economics to better understand how people make decisions.

Anchoring and adjustment is one of the most extensively researched heuristics in behavioural economics. Anchoring is the tendency of people to make future judgements or conclusions based too heavily on the original information supplied to them. This initial knowledge functions as an anchor, and it can influence future judgements even if the anchor is entirely unrelated to the decisions at hand. Adjustment, on the other hand, is the process through which individuals make gradual changes to their initial judgements or conclusions.

Anchoring and adjustment has been observed in a wide range of decision-making contexts, including financial decision-making, consumer behavior, and negotiation. Researchers have identified a number of strategies that can be used to mitigate the effects of anchoring and adjustment, including providing multiple anchors, encouraging individuals to generate alternative anchors, and providing cognitive prompts to encourage more deliberative decision-making.

Other heuristics studied in behavioral economics include the representativeness heuristic, which refers to the tendency of individuals to categorize objects or events based on how similar they are to typical examples,[35] and the availability heuristic, which refers to the tendency of individuals to judge the likelihood of an event based on how easily it comes to mind.[36]

Types[edit]

See also: Heuristic (computer science) and Heuristic evaluation

Availability heuristic[edit]

According to Tversky and Kahneman (1973), the availability heuristic can be described as the tendency to consider events that they can remember with greater facilitation as more likely to occur than events that are more difficult to recall.[37][38]

Representative heuristic[edit]

The representativeness heuristic refers to the cognitive bias where people rely on their preconceived mental image/prototype of a particular category or concept rather than actual probabilities and statistical data for making judgments.[39][40] This behavior often leads to stereotyping/generalization with limited information causing errors as well as distorted views about reality.[41]

For instance, when trying to guess someone's occupation based on their appearance, a representative heuristic might be used by assuming that an individual in a suit must be either a lawyer or businessperson while assuming that someone in uniform fits the police officer or soldier category. This shortcut could sometimes be useful but may also result in stereotypes and overgeneralizations.

Further types[edit]

See also[edit]

Look up heuristic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikibooks has more on the topic of: Heuristic

Notable figures[edit]

Historical works[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hughes, Barnabas (1974). "Heuristic Teaching in Mathematics". Educational Studies in Mathematics. 5 (3): 291–99. Retrieved 5 May 2024. The word heuristic is taken directly from the Greek verb, heuriskein, 'to discover'. As a noun it is defined as 'a technique of discovery' and as an adjective, it means 'serving to guide, discover, or reveal'. The more common designation for all of this is 'the discovery method'.
  2. ^ Chow, Sheldon (2015). "Many Meanings of 'Heuristic'". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 66 (4): 977–1016. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Not only is 'heuristic' used in diverse ways across and within disciplines, but its meaning has evolved over the years.
  3. ^ Gigerenzer, Gerd (2005). "I Think, Therefore I Err". Social Research. 72 (1): 195–218. Retrieved 5 May 2024. A good error is a consequence of the adaptation of mental heuristics to the structure of environments. This ecological view is illustrated by visual illusions. Not making good errors would destroy human intelligence.
  4. ^ Chow, Sheldon (2015). "Many Meanings of 'Heuristic'". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 66 (4): 977–1016. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Heuristics are commonly understood as economical shortcut procedures that may not lead to optimal or correct results, but will generally produce outcomes that are in some sense satisfactory or 'good enough'.
  5. ^ Myers, David G. (2010). Social psychology (Tenth ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-07337-066-8. OCLC 667213323.
  6. ^ a b "Heuristics—Explanation and examples". Conceptually. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  7. ^ Chow, Sheldon (2015). "Many Meanings of 'Heuristic'". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 66 (4): 977–1016. Retrieved 5 May 2024. In a recent review article written with Wolfgang Gaissmaier, the following definition is proposed:
  8. ^ Pearl, Judea (1983). Heuristics: Intelligent Search Strategies for Computer Problem Solving. New York, NY: Addison-Wesley. p. vii. ISBN 978-0-201-05594-8.
  9. ^ Emiliano, Ippoliti (2015). Heuristic Reasoning: Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-3-319-09159-4. Archived from the original on 2019-07-11. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  10. ^ Sunstein, Cass (2005). "Moral Heuristics". The Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 28 (4): 531–542. doi:10.1017/S0140525X05000099. PMID 16209802. S2CID 231738548.
  11. ^ Pólya, George (1945) How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02356-5 ISBN 0-691-08097-6
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  13. ^ Kahneman, Daniel; Slovic, Paul; Tversky, Amos, eds. (30 April 1982). Judgment Under Uncertainty. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511809477. ISBN 978-0-52128-414-1.
  14. ^ Heuristics and heuristic evaluation. Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2013. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  15. ^ Groner, Rudolf; Groner, Marina; Bischof, Walter F. (1983). Methods of Heuristics. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  16. ^ Groner, Rudolf; Groner, Marina (1991). "Heuristische versus algorithmische Orientierung als Dimension des individuellen kognitiven Stils" [Heuristic versus algorithmic orientation as a dimension of the individual cognitive style]. In K. Grawe; N. Semmer; R. Hänni (eds.). Über die richtige Art, Psychologie zu betreiben [About the right way to do psychology] (in German). Göttingen: Hogrefe. ISBN 978-3-80170-415-5.
  17. ^ Gigerenzer, Gerd; Todd, Peter M.; and the ABC Research Group (1999). Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19512-156-8.
  18. ^ Gigerenzer, Gerd; Selten, Reinhard, eds. (2002). Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-26257-164-7.
  19. ^ Gigerenzer, Gerd; Hertwig, Ralph; Pachur, Thorsten (15 April 2011). Heuristics: The Foundations of Adaptive Behavior. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199744282.001.0001. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0024-F172-8. ISBN 978-0-19989-472-7.
  20. ^ Gigerenzer, Gerd; Gaissmaier, Wolfgang (January 2011). "Heuristic Decision Making". Annual Review of Psychology. 62: 451–482. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-120709-145346. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0024-F16D-5. PMID 21126183. SSRN 1722019.
  21. ^ De Neys, Wim (18 October 2008). "Cognitive experiential self theory". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 7 (1): 28–38. doi:10.1177/1745691611429354. PMID 26168420. S2CID 32261626. Archived from the original on 31 July 2013.
  22. ^ Epstein, S.; Pacini, R.; Denes-Raj, V.; Heier, H. (1996). "Individual differences in intuitive-experiential and analytical-rational thinking styles". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 71 (2): 390–405. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.71.2.390. PMID 8765488.
  23. ^ a b Kahneman, Daniel; Frederick, Shane (2002). "Representativeness Revisited: Attribute Substitution in Intuitive Judgment". In Thomas Gilovich; Dale Griffin; Daniel Kahneman (eds.). Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 49–81. ISBN 978-0-52179-679-8. OCLC 47364085.
  24. ^ Kahneman, Daniel (December 2003). "Maps of Bounded Rationality: Psychology for Behavioral Economics" (PDF). American Economic Review. 93 (5): 1449–1475. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.194.6554. doi:10.1257/000282803322655392. ISSN 0002-8282. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 February 2018.
  25. ^ Cioffi, Jane (1997). "Heuristics, servants to intuition, in clinical decision making". Journal of Advanced Nursing. 26 (1): 203–208. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2648.1997.1997026203.x. PMID 9231296.
  26. ^ Chen, Serena; Duckworth, Kimberly; Chaiken, Shelly (1999). "Motivated Heuristic and Systematic Processing". Psychological Inquiry. 10 (1): 44–49. Retrieved 5 May 2024. [T]he heuristic mode is constrained by basic principles of knowledge activation and use—namely, availability, accessibility, and applicability (e.g., Higgins, 1996). That is, heuristic processing requires that heuristics are stored in memory (i.e., available), are retrieved from memory (i.e., accessible), and are relevant (i.e., applicable) to the judgmental task at hand.
  27. ^ Jaszczolt, K. M. (2006). "Defaults in Semantics and Pragmatics". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ISSN 1095-5054. Archived from the original on 2021-06-08. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
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  29. ^ Kiss, Olga (2006). "Heuristic, Methodology or Logic of Discovery? Lakatos on Patterns of Thinking". Perspectives on Science. 14 (3): 302–317. doi:10.1162/posc.2006.14.3.302. S2CID 57559578.
  30. ^ Gigerenzer, Gerd; Engel, Christoph, eds. (2007). Heuristics and the Law. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-07275-5.
  31. ^ Johnson, Eric E. (2006). "Calibrating Patent Lifetimes" (PDF). Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal. 22: 269–314. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-05.
  32. ^ Bodenhausen, Galen V.; et al. (1999). "On the Dialectics of Discrimination: Dual Processes in Social Stereotyping". In Chaiken, Shelly; Trope, Yaacov (eds.). Dual-process Theories in Social Psychology. New York, NY: Guilford Press. pp. 271–292. ISBN 978-1-57230-421-5.
  33. ^ Kleg, Milton (1993). Hate Prejudice and Racism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-79141-536-8. Archived from the original on 2023-10-28. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
  34. ^ Gökçen, Sinan (20 November 2007). "Pictures in Our Heads". European Roma Rights Centre. Archived from the original on 14 July 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  35. ^ Bhatia, Sudeep (2015). "Conceptualizing and studying linguistic representations across multiple levels of analysis: The case of L2 processing research" (PDF). Cognitive Science. 39: 122–148. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-06-14. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  36. ^ Dale, Sarah (2015). "Heuristics and biases: The science of decision-making". Business Information Review. 32 (2): 93–99. doi:10.1177/0266382115592536.
  37. ^ Tversky, Amos; Kahneman, Daniel (1973-09-01). "Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability". Cognitive Psychology. 5 (2): 207–232. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(73)90033-9. ISSN 0010-0285. Archived from the original on 2023-10-28. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  38. ^ Chow, Sheldon (2015). "Many Meanings of 'Heuristic'". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 66 (4): 977–1016. Retrieved 5 May 2024. [T]he availability heuristic[:]The frequency of a class or the probability of an event is assessed according to the ease with which instances or associations can be brought to mind (Tversky and Kahneman [1974])
  39. ^ Chow, Sheldon (2015). "Many Meanings of 'Heuristic'". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 66 (4): 977–1016. Retrieved 5 May 2024. [T]he representativeness heuristic[:]Probabilities are evaluated by the degree to which one thing or event is representative of (resembles) another; the higher the representativeness (resemblance) the higher the probability estimation[.]
  40. ^ Lu, Yun; Vasko, Francis; Drummond, Trevor; Vasko, Lisa (2014). "Probability & Perception: The Representativeness Heuristic in Action". The Mathematics Teacher. 108 (2): 126–31. Retrieved 5 May 2024. The belief that a sequence such as 11111111111111111111 is less probable than a sequence such as 66234441536125563152 is often referred to as the representativeness heuristic (Kahneman and Tversky 1972; Shaughnessy 1977, 1992).
  41. ^ Kahneman, Daniel; Tversky, Amos (July 1973). "On the psychology of prediction". Psychological Review. 80 (4): 237–251. doi:10.1037/h0034747. ISSN 1939-1471. Archived from the original on 2023-10-28. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  42. ^ Wacquant, Loic (1985). "Heuristic Models in Marxian Theory". Social Forces. 64 (1): 17–45. Retrieved 6 May 2024. In building social theory, Marx used not one (as generally regarded) but three heuristic models: base-superstructure, organic totality, and dialectical development.
  43. ^ Hey, Spencer (2016). "Heuristics and Meta-Heuristics in Scientific Judgement". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 67 (2): 471–95. Retrieved 5 May 2024. The continuum limit heuristic is one member of a more general class of heuristics for variable reduction (Wilson [2007], pp. 184-92).
  44. ^ Gigerenzer, Gerd (2008). "Why Heuristics Work". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 3 (1): 20–29. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Recognition heuristic (Goldstein & Gigerenzer, 2002). If one of two alternatives is recognized, infer that it has the higher value on the criterion.
  45. ^ Chow, Sheldon (2015). "Many Meanings of 'Heuristic'". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 66 (4): 977–1016. Retrieved 5 May 2024. However, a different meaning of 'heuristic' was invoked in psychology with the Gestalt theorists, and later with Simon's notion of 'satisficing'.
  46. ^ Gigerenzer, Gerd (2008). "Why Heuristics Work". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 3 (1): 20–29. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Satisficing (Simon, 1955; Todd & Miller, 1999). Search through alternatives, and choose the first one that exceeds your aspiration level.
  47. ^ Gigerenzer, Gerd (2008). "Why Heuristics Work". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 3 (1): 20–29. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Fluency heuristic (Schooler & Hertwig, 2005). If one alternative is recognized faster than another, infer that it has the higher value on the criterion.
  48. ^ Gigerenzer, Gerd (2008). "Why Heuristics Work". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 3 (1): 20–29. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Take the best (Gigerenzer & Goldstein, 1996). Infer which of two alternatives has the higher value by (a) searching through cues in order of validity, (b) stopping the search as soon as a cue discriminates, (c) choosing the alternative this cue favors.
  49. ^ Gigerenzer, Gerd (2008). "Why Heuristics Work". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 3 (1): 20–29. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Default heuristic (Johnson & Goldstein, 2003). If there is a default, do nothing about it.
  50. ^ Gigerenzer, Gerd (2008). "Why Heuristics Work". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 3 (1): 20–29. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Tit-for-tat (Axelrod, 1984). Cooperate first, keep a memory of Size 1, and then imitate your partner's last behavior.
  51. ^ Gigerenzer, Gerd (2008). "Why Heuristics Work". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 3 (1): 20–29. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Imitate the majority (Boyd & Richerson, 2005). Look at a majority of people in your peer group, and imitate their behavior. Imitate the successful (Boyd &Richerson, 2005). Look for the most successful person and imitate his or her behavior.
  52. ^ Petersen, Michael (2015). "Evolutionary Political Psychology: On the Origin and Structure of Heuristics and Biases in Politics". Political Psychology. 36 (1): 45–78. Retrieved 5 May 2024. One of the political heuristics that has been most studied from an evolutionary perspective is the deservingness heuristic.[...] the deservingness heuristic is the psychological tendency of people to base their opinions about welfare programs on the efforts of the recipients. Specifically, the heuristic motivates people to support welfare benefits to recipients who are represented as victims of bad luck and reject benefits to recipients who are represented as lazy.
  53. ^ a b c Hart, Sergiu (2005). "Adaptive Heuristics". Econometrica. 73 (5): 1401–30. Retrieved 6 May 2024. Adaptive heuristics commonly appear in behavioral models, such as reinforcement, feedback, and stimulus-response.
  54. ^ Nickles, Thomas (1987). "Lakatosian Heuristics and Epistemic Support". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 38 (2): 181–205. Retrieved 5 May 2024. As Popperians and Lakatosians use the term, a 'justificationist' theory of knowledge is one committed to the existence of foundations of knowledge, at least probabilistic foundations.
  55. ^ a b Webster, Colin (2015). "Heuristic Medicine: The Methodists and Metalepsis". Isis. 106 (3): 657–68. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
  56. ^ Chow, Sheldon (2015). "Many Meanings of 'Heuristic'". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 66 (4): 977–1016. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Rather, as rules, heuristics are procedures that can be specified and applied in a given situation.
  57. ^ a b c d e Chow, Sheldon (2015). "Many Meanings of 'Heuristic'". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 66 (4): 977–1016. Retrieved 5 May 2024. [I]nfluential heuristics researchers, including George Polya, Herbert Simon, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, and Gerd Gigerenzer.
  58. ^ a b c Hughes, Barnabas (1974). "Heuristic Teaching in Mathematics". Educational Studies in Mathematics. 5 (3): 291–99. Retrieved 5 May 2024. The most important work in heuristic teaching has been done by George Polya. His How To Solve It has been a best seller since its first printing in 1945-copies sold number in the hundreds of thousands. Complementary to How To Solve It are two other works, each in two volumes: Mathematical Discovery and Mathematics And Plausible Reasoning.
  59. ^ Hey, Spencer (2016). "Heuristics and Meta-Heuristics in Scientific Judgement". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 67 (2): 471–95. Retrieved 5 May 2024. It is difficult to overstate the influence of Tversky and Kahneman's work and the so-called 'heuristics-and-biases research programme' that followed.
  60. ^ Chow, Sheldon (2015). "Many Meanings of 'Heuristic'". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 66 (4): 977–1016. Retrieved 5 May 2024. 'To choose a ripe cantaloupe, press the spot on the candidate cantaloupe where it was attached to the plant and smell it; if the spot smells like the inside of a cantaloupe, it's probably ripe' (Pearl [1984])
  61. ^ Chow, Sheldon (2015). "Many Meanings of 'Heuristic'". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 66 (4): 977–1016. Retrieved 5 May 2024. 'Start in the centre square when beginning a game of tic-tac-toe' (Dunbar [1998])
  62. ^ a b c d e Hughes, Barnabas (1974). "Heuristic Teaching in Mathematics". Educational Studies in Mathematics. 5 (3): 291–99. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Mauritz Johnson (1966) observes that the idea is hardly new, and that, ignoring the classical accreditation of its use to Socrates in the Meno, one finds an early discussion of discovery learning by David P. Page in his Theory and Practice of Teaching in 1847 as well as by later writers, Herbert Spencer in 1860, Frank and Charles McMurry in 1897, and William Chandler Babley in 1905.
  63. ^ Zalcman, Lawrence (1975). "A Heuristic Principle in Complex Function Theory". The American Mathematical Monthly. 82 (8): 813–18. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
  64. ^ Hey, Spencer (2016). "Heuristics and Meta-Heuristics in Scientific Judgement". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 67 (2): 471–95. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Lakatos ([1965]) also adopted the term to characterize his methodology of scientific research programmes, which would lead researchers to either avoid or pursue certain lines of inquiry 'negative' and 'positive' heuristics, respectively).
  65. ^ Hey, Spencer (2016). "Heuristics and Meta-Heuristics in Scientific Judgement". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 67 (2): 471–95. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Wimsatt's ([1980], [1981], [2006], [2007]) work on reductionist modelling strategies - also built upon Simon's programme of bounded rationality - provides an alternative starting point that is more useful for understanding the role that heuristics play in science.
  66. ^ Schaffner, Kenneth (2008). "Theories, Models, and Equations in Biology: The Heuristic Search for Emergent Simplifications in Neurobiology". Philosophy of Science. 75 (5): 1008–21. Retrieved 5 May 2024. In a series of papers beginning in 1980 and represented in his 2007 book, Bill Wimsatt analyzed a series of 'heuristics,' thought of as guides or 'rules of thumb,' which are employed when scientists proceed in a reductionist manner (1980, 2007).
  67. ^ a b Schaffner, Kenneth (2008). "Theories, Models, and Equations in Biology: The Heuristic Search for Emergent Simplifications in Neurobiology". Philosophy of Science. 75 (5): 1008–21. Retrieved 5 May 2024. In summary, Hodgkin and Huxley use heuristics in the Wimsatt sense, and the heuristics fall both into what Wimsatt calls reductionistic heuristics and also nonreductionistic heuristics.

Further reading[edit]

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