Familiarity heuristic

Familiarity heuristic

In psychology, a mental heuristic, or rule of thumb in which current behavior is judged to be correct based on how similar it is to past behavior and its outcomes. Individuals assume that the circumstances underlying the past behavior still hold true for the present situation and that the past behavior thus can be correctly applied to the new situation. The familiarity heuristic was developed based on the discovery of the availability heuristic by Tversky and Kahneman. It can be applied to various situations that individuals experience in real life when these situations appear similar to previous situations, especially if the individuals are experiencing a high cognitive load. This heuristic is useful in most situations and can be applied to many fields of knowledge including medicine, psychology, sports, marketing, outdoor activities, and consumer choices.

Definition and History

The Familiarity heuristic stems from the availability heuristic which was studied by Tversky and Kahneman. The availability heuristic suggests that the likelihood of events is estimated based on how many examples of such events come to mind. Thus the familiarity heuristic shows how "bias of availability is related to the ease of recall." []

Current Criticisms

There is some criticism of the concept of familiarity heuristic. It mainly focuses on the point that past behavior does influence present behavior but that this is based on a different cognitive model than the familiarity heuristic. One study examining multiple possible mechanisms of how previous behavior influences present behavior found little support for the familiarity heuristic. [cite journal|title=Albarracin, D., Wyer, R. (2000). "The cognitive impact of past behavior: influences on beliefs, attitudes, and future behavioral decisions." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, p. 5-22.] The study showed that the influence of past behavior on a present one decreased when subjects were distracted. However, in order for a heuristic to be valid, its effect should be more prevalent when individuals are distracted and their cognitive capacity is highly strained. This result indicates that it is unlikely that a familiarity heuristic was applied during the experiment.

Another limit of familiarity heuristic according to a study by Quellette and Wood is that it might not always be applicable [cite journal|title=Quellette, J., Wood, W. (1998). "Habit and intention in everyday life: the multiple processes by which pas behavior predicts future behavior." Psychological Bulletin, 124, p. 54-74.] . This study showed that the familiarity heuristic might only occur in situations where the target behavior is habitual and occurs in a stable context within the situation. Thus, the familiarity heuristic could be limited to habits and behaviors in routine situations.

References

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Heuristic — (hyu̇ ˈris tik) is a method to help solve a problem, commonly an informal method. It is particularly used to rapidly come to a solution that is reasonably close to the best possible answer, or optimal solution . Heuristics are rules of thumb ,… …   Wikipedia

  • Backcountry snowboarding — is a unique sport that is rapidly growing in popularity. The sport of backcountry snowboarding is characterized by the fresh tracks and deep powder that only the slopes of a remote mountainside can offer. The sport is a completely separate… …   Wikipedia

  • Memory errors — Memory gaps and errors refer to the incorrect recall, or complete loss, of information in the memory system for a specific detail and/or event. Memory errors may include remembering events that never occurred, or remembering them differently from …   Wikipedia

  • Metamemory — Metamemory, one component of metacognition, is about one’s memory capabilities and strategies that can aid memory, as well as the processes involved in memory self monitoring.[1] This self awareness of memory has important implications for how… …   Wikipedia

  • List of cognitive biases — A cognitive bias is a pattern of poor judgment, often triggered by a particular situation. Identifying poor judgment, or more precisely, a deviation in judgment, requires a standard for comparison, i.e. good judgment . In scientific… …   Wikipedia

  • Scientific method — …   Wikipedia

  • Social psychology (psychology) — Social psychology is the scientific study of how people s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others (Allport, 1985). By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of… …   Wikipedia

  • historiography — historiographic /hi stawr ee euh graf ik, stohr /, historiographical, adj. historiographically, adv. /hi stawr ee og reuh fee, stohr /, n., pl. historiographies. 1. the body of literature dealing with historical matters; histories collectively. 2 …   Universalium

  • Subadditivity effect — The subadditivity effect is the tendency to judge probability of the whole to be less than the probabilities of the parts.For instance, subjects in one experiment judged the probability of death from cancer in the United States was 18%, the… …   Wikipedia

  • Science (Philosophies of) — Philosophies of science Mach, Duhem, Bachelard Babette E.Babich THE TRADITION OF CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE If the philosophy of science is not typically represented as a ‘continental’ discipline it is nevertheless historically rooted in… …   History of philosophy

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”