Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart (Evolution and Cognition Series) - Hardcover

Gigerenzer, Gerd

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195121562 ISBN 13: 9780195121568

Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc, 1999

Synopsis

Fast and frugal heuristics - simple rules for making decisions with realistic mental resources - are presented here. These heuristics can enable both living organisms and artificial systems to make smart choices, classifications, and predictions by employing bounded rationality. But when and how can such fast and frugal heuristics work? What heuristics are in the mind's adaptive toolbox, and what building blocks compose them? Can judgments based simply on a single reason be as accurate as those based on many reasons? Could less knowledge even lead to systematically better predictions than more knowledge? This book explores these questions by developing computational models of heuristics and testing them through experiments and analysis. It shows how fast and frugal heuristics can yield adaptive decisions in situations as varied as choosing a mate, dividing resources among offspring, predicting high school drop-out rates, and playing the stock market.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Gerd Gigerenzer is the Director of the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Dr. Peter M. Todd is Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195121562
• ISBN 13: 9780195121568
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432