How to improve Bayesian reasoning without instruction : frequency formats

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_285729DDD792
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
How to improve Bayesian reasoning without instruction : frequency formats
Journal
Psychological Review
Author(s)
Gigerenzer G., Hoffrage U.
ISSN
0033-295X
Publication state
Published
Issued date
1995
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
102
Number
4
Pages
684-704
Language
english
Notes
Reprinted in: N. Chater (Ed.) (2009). Judgment and decision making. Vol 3. London: SAGE Publications
Abstract
Is the mind, by design, predisposed against performing Bayesian inference? Previous research on base rate neglect suggests that the mind lacks the appropriate cognitive algorithms. However, any claim against the existence of an algorithm, Bayesian or otherwise, is impossible to evaluate unless one specifies the information format in which it is designed to operate. The authors show that Bayesian algorithms are computationally simpler in frequency formats than in the probability formats used in previous research. Frequency formats correspond to the sequential way information is acquired in natural sampling, from animal foraging to neural networks. By analyzing several thousand solutions to Bayesian problems, the authors found that when information was presented in frequency formats, statistically naive participants derived up to 50% of all inferences by Bayesian algorithms. Non-Bayesian algorithms included simple versions of Fisherian and Neyman-Pearsonian inference.
Web of science
Create date
24/02/2009 14:34
Last modification date
20/08/2019 13:07
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