Environments That Make Us Smart
Current Directions in Psychological SciencePublished 1 June 2007Open access
Peter M. Todd, Gerd Gigerenzer
Citations362
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Abstract
Traditional views of rationality posit general-purpose decision mechanisms based on logic or optimization. The study of ecological rationality focuses on uncovering the “adaptive toolbox” of domain-specific simple heuristics that real, computationally bounded minds employ, and explaining how these heuristics produce accurate decisions by exploiting the structures of information in the environments in which they are applied. Knowing when and how people use particular heuristics can facilitate the shaping of environments to engender better decisions.
Keywords
Computer ScienceDecision Sciences
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