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Fluency heuristic : a model of how the mind exploits a by-product of information retrieval

Hertwig, R. and Herzog, S. M. and Schooler, L. J. and Reimer, T.. (2008) Fluency heuristic : a model of how the mind exploits a by-product of information retrieval. Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory and cognition, 34 (5). pp. 1191-1206.

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Abstract

Boundedly rational heuristics for inference can be surprisingly accurate and frugal for several reasons. They can exploit environmental structures, co-opt complex capacities, and elude effortful search by exploiting information that automatically arrives on the mental stage. The fluency heuristic is a prime example of a heuristic that makes the most of an automatic by-product of retrieval from memory, namely, retrieval fluency. In 4 experiments, the authors show that retrieval fluency can be a proxy for real-world quantities, that people can discriminate between two objects' retrieval fluencies, and that people's inferences are in line with the fluency heuristic (in particular fast inferences) and with experimentally manipulated fluency. The authors conclude that the fluency heuristic may be one tool in the mind's repertoire of strategies that artfully probes memory for encapsulated frequency information that can veridically reflect statistical regularities in the world.
Faculties and Departments:07 Faculty of Psychology > Departement Psychologie > Ehemalige Einheiten Psychologie > Cognitive and Decision Sciences (Hertwig)
UniBasel Contributors:Hertwig, Ralph and Herzog, Stefan M
Item Type:Article, refereed
Article Subtype:Research Article
Publisher:American Psychological Association
ISSN:0096-1515
Note:Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Journal article
Language:English
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Last Modified:30 Oct 2017 13:16
Deposited On:22 Mar 2012 13:43

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