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Psychology / Unit 7   Psych 0769 short lesson, about 20 seconds

The "Heuristics Are Just Guesses" Error

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The idea

It is an error to treat heuristics as failures of reasoning rather than as efficient strategies with predictable costs.

In practice

A doctor's rapid pattern recognition is heuristic and outperforms exhaustive checking under time pressure.

Where people slip

Heuristics are studied through their failures, which makes them look like defects. They are the ordinary mode.

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