Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:29:23.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

From base-rate to cumulative respect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2007

C. Philip Beaman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Reading – Earley Gate, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AL, United Kingdom. [email protected]://www.personal.rdg.ac.uk/~sxs98cpb/[email protected]://www.psychology.rdg.ac.uk/people/lecturing/Dr_Rachel_McCloy.php
Rachel McCloy
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Reading – Earley Gate, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AL, United Kingdom. [email protected]://www.personal.rdg.ac.uk/~sxs98cpb/[email protected]://www.psychology.rdg.ac.uk/people/lecturing/Dr_Rachel_McCloy.php

Abstract

The tendency to neglect base-rates in judgment under uncertainty may be “notorious,” as Barbey & Sloman (B&S) suggest, but it is neither inevitable (as they document; see also Koehler 1996) nor unique. Here we would like to point out another line of evidence connecting ecological rationality to dual processes, the failure of individuals to appropriately judge cumulative probability.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Gigerenzer, G. & Hoffrage, U. (1995) How to improve Bayesian reasoning without instruction: Frequency formats. Psychological Review 102:684704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koehler, J. J. (1996) The base-rate fallacy reconsidered: Descriptive, normative, and methodological challenges. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 19:153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCloy, R., Beaman, C. P., Morgan, B. & Speed, R. (2007) Training conditional and cumulative risk judgments: The role of frequencies, problem-structure and einstellung. Applied Cognitive Psychology 21:325–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCloy, R., Byrne, R. M. J. & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (submitted) Understanding cumulative risk.Google Scholar
Morton, J. (1968) A singular lack of incidental learning. Nature 215:203204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedlmeier, P., Hertwig, R. & Gigerenzer, G. (1998) Are judgments of the positional frequencies of letters systematically biased due to availability? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 24:754–70.Google Scholar
Sloman, S. A., Over, D. E., Slovak, L. & Stibel, J. M. (2003) Frequency illusions and other fallacies. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 91:296309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar