Human Nature
Our organic brain can be quite mechanical.
By nature, we seek explanations and tend to see things through patterns. Although such innate functions have helped us to survive and progress, they do tend to lead us to wrong conclusions. This section will talk more about how our cognitive tendencies can throw us off at times.
After decades of research on human psychology, researchers have discovered that we have innate cognitive tendencies that help in some situations but also cause judgmental errors at times. According to the researchers (especially those in evolutionary psychology), humans possess heuristics, which are mental shortcuts that allow people to solve problems and make judgments. In a sense, they are like the constituent tools of a Swiss Army knife, which allows one to tackle diverse problems in unfamiliar situations. When we need to come up with a solution quickly, such fast, automatic, and frugal mechanisms of our mind help us greatly.
However, the merits of heuristics come at certain prices. As heuristics decrease the amount to time and the level of complexity involved in problem-solving, simplifications and generalizations can lead to errors. It is worth noting that a solution for a problem may not work for others.
Overcoming such shortcomings require extensive effort and training, which at times can be quite demanding for everyday life. Nevertheless, heuristics do have their solid roles in our lives.
Here a few well-known heuristics. There are also other various heuristics being studied in various fields concerning human cognition and education:
After decades of research on human psychology, researchers have discovered that we have innate cognitive tendencies that help in some situations but also cause judgmental errors at times. According to the researchers (especially those in evolutionary psychology), humans possess heuristics, which are mental shortcuts that allow people to solve problems and make judgments. In a sense, they are like the constituent tools of a Swiss Army knife, which allows one to tackle diverse problems in unfamiliar situations. When we need to come up with a solution quickly, such fast, automatic, and frugal mechanisms of our mind help us greatly.
However, the merits of heuristics come at certain prices. As heuristics decrease the amount to time and the level of complexity involved in problem-solving, simplifications and generalizations can lead to errors. It is worth noting that a solution for a problem may not work for others.
Overcoming such shortcomings require extensive effort and training, which at times can be quite demanding for everyday life. Nevertheless, heuristics do have their solid roles in our lives.
Here a few well-known heuristics. There are also other various heuristics being studied in various fields concerning human cognition and education:
Ex. 1: Representativeness Heuristic
Is he a doctor or a clean and precise wielder of scalpels?
The representative heuristic refers to our mental tendency to estimate the likelihood of an event by comparing it to a preexisting prototype that we already know. This is very economical because using what we already know eliminates the need to make new series of thoughts for reaching conclusions. However, this can lead to problems like the following example.
Let's say that we are in an unfamiliar town and we have to guess the job of a man who is a resident of the town. The only thing that we know about the man is that he is very concerned with hygiene and that he enjoys talking about human anatomy and physiology. With such details, we might guess that the man is a doctor, and our estimation will gain more confidence as we have more details that 'represent' our 'idea of a doctor'. However, we can be wrong, as the man can turn out to have a different occupation. He could be a baker with a keen interest in human anatomy (which might sound somewhat bizarre).
Thus, the representative heuristic functions around the relationship between information that corresponds to a representative idea. It saves many costs, but at a certain price.
For a more detailed explanation, check out the following article:
Let's say that we are in an unfamiliar town and we have to guess the job of a man who is a resident of the town. The only thing that we know about the man is that he is very concerned with hygiene and that he enjoys talking about human anatomy and physiology. With such details, we might guess that the man is a doctor, and our estimation will gain more confidence as we have more details that 'represent' our 'idea of a doctor'. However, we can be wrong, as the man can turn out to have a different occupation. He could be a baker with a keen interest in human anatomy (which might sound somewhat bizarre).
Thus, the representative heuristic functions around the relationship between information that corresponds to a representative idea. It saves many costs, but at a certain price.
For a more detailed explanation, check out the following article:
Ex. 2: Availability Heuristic
It may take more than a net to get the biggest catch.
The availability heuristic refers to our mental tendency to rely on immediate examples that come into mind when making judgments or decisions. When we need to make quick inferences, we tend to 'throw a net' that contains ideas or memories that quickly come into our mental picture. In this case, our thoughts are based on such 'set' of information. This mechanism is also very practical because it quickly provides a group of related idea that can lead to multiple inferences and generalizations.
However, this heuristic can limit our ability to see the bigger picture because some problems may be far beyond the scope of what we are already aware of. For example, after reading several news reports on political scandals, one might immediately conclude that the current administration greatly lacks ethical integrity. However, this might be proven to be incorrect via detailed investigation over a long period of time. Unfortunately, we usually lack the time and resources needed to see the bigger picture for every single event.
For a more detailed explanation, check out the following article:
However, this heuristic can limit our ability to see the bigger picture because some problems may be far beyond the scope of what we are already aware of. For example, after reading several news reports on political scandals, one might immediately conclude that the current administration greatly lacks ethical integrity. However, this might be proven to be incorrect via detailed investigation over a long period of time. Unfortunately, we usually lack the time and resources needed to see the bigger picture for every single event.
For a more detailed explanation, check out the following article:
Ex. 3: Familiarity Heuristic
Well said, Doctor.
This is a simple heuristic which refers to our tendency to favor the familiar over the strange. In other words, it is a tendency to approach a new problem in a manner similar or identical the way we have dealt with previous problems. Again, this saves a lot of resources when the new problem shares many characteristics with the older problems. However, it may be ineffective if the new problem demands 'thinking out of the box'.
This interesting article further explores this heuristic:
This interesting article further explores this heuristic:
Concluding Remarks
As the discussion so far has shown, we have our useful mind tools that help us go through the day quickly and efficiently. However, they are not always foolproof, which brings out the valuable lesson that we should always be aware of where our minds can take us.
Here is a good list of common cognitive errors that occur often everyday:
Here is a good list of common cognitive errors that occur often everyday: