Ecologically rational strategy selection [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Julian Nicolas Marewski

Marewski

Sujets

• Wissenschaft
• Philosophie
• Soziologie

Informations

• Publié par: freie_universitat_berlin
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 29
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Fachbereich Erziehungswissenschaften und Psychologie
der Freien Universität Berlin

Ecologically Rational Strategy Selection


Dissertation
zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades
Doktor der Philosophie
(Dr. Phil.)

vorgelegt von
Dipl. Psych.
Julian Nicolas Marewski

Datum der Disputation 30.01.2009


Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Gerd Gigerenzer
Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Arthur M. Jacobs

Berlin, 2010






Nothing that we have discovered about memory requires us to revise our basic verdict about the
complexity or simplicity of human cognition. We can still maintain that,
Human beings, viewed as behaving systems, are quite simple. The apparent complexity of our behavior over
time is largely a reflection of the complexity the environment in which we find ourselves …
provided that we include in what we call the human environment the cocoon of information, stored in
books and in long-term memory, that we spin about ourselves.

(Herbert A. Simon, 1996, pp. 109–110.)











Acknowledgements
This dissertation is the result of research I carried out as a predoctoral research fellow at the
Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition (ABC), located at the Max Planck Institute for Human
Development.
Some people are special. Lael Schooler, my main advisor for all these years, is one such
person. I want to thank Lael for being an incredible source of knowledge and intellectual stimulation,
and for all his patience with my unpredictable requests for advice. Lael has been a tolerant and
generous teacher, investing a great deal of effort and brainpower in our joint projects. I have learned
an enormous amount about science from him, ranging from how to ask good questions to how to
build models to try to answer them. (At least I hope I have improved in this regard.) Another special
person is ABC director Gerd Gigerenzer. Over the years, Gerd has planted many ideas in my mind
that have found their way into this dissertation, and I hope there will be many more to come. He is a
tremendous source of inspiration. His door is always open, and he always takes the time to listen to
and teach his students. I would like to thank him for all the feedback and input he has provided me
during my time at ABC. I would also like to thank him for creating this very exciting research
environment here at ABC and, particularly, for giving me the opportunity to work here.
Two colleagues deserve special recognition. I would like to thank Wolfgang Gaissmaier for
being a great colleague in my years at ABC. Wolfgang, I hope that we will continue to work on many
more projects together. Maybe one day we will also publish one of those Science papers we
envisioned! I would like to thank Henrik Olsson, as well. Henrik, it has been great fun to write a
paper with you. When will we write the next one?
There are many more special people. In particular, I would also like to thank those colleagues
who commented on earlier drafts of the chapters of this dissertation, and on the papers that are based
on them. Once more, I would like to mention here Wolfgang Gaissmaier, Gerd Gigerenzer, and Lael
Schooler, who, together with Mirta Galesic, Daniel Goldstein, and Henrik Olsson, have been my
coauthors on one or another of the papers on which this dissertation is based. Moreover, I am
indebted to Uwe Czienskowski, Nadine Fleischhut, Bettina von Helversen, Konstantinos
Katsikopoulos, Christiane Marewski, Dieter Marewski, Hansjörg Neth, Magnus Persson, Jose
Quesada, Jeffery Stevens, and Jenny Volstorf for many constructive comments on earlier drafts of the
chapters and papers of this dissertation, and to all my former and current colleagues at ABC for many
stimulating conversations! I would also like to thank Christel Fraser, Julia Schooler, and Anita Todd
for editing this dissertation and/or the papers that are based on it. I would like to thank Gregor

Caregnato for helping me run almost a thousand subjects, some of them through more than a
thousand trials—thank you, Gregor! I would like to thank Christian Elsner for helping me out with
any computer problems I may have had, and, importantly, for being around, contributing to making
ABC a wonderfully friendly and fun workplace.
On a more personal note, I would like to dearly thank my family. How could I have gotten to
the point of being able to submit a dissertation thesis without you? The most special person in this
long list of special people is Begoña Mera del Cabo. Bego, I would like to apologize to you for all the
suffering you went through, for instance, when I—once more—worked late. Thank you for giving me
all your support throughout the past years, and for repeatedly reminding me that there is a life beyond
science. Without you, Bego, this dissertation would not exist.


Julian Marewski, Berlin, November 2008







QUE LE SORPRENDE MÁS DE LA HUMANIDAD?

LOS HOMBRES PORQUE PIERDEN
LA SALUD PARA GANAR DINERO;
DESPUÉS PIERDEN EL DINERO
PARA RECUPERAR LA SALUD...

Y POR PENSAR ANSIOSAMENTE
EN EL FUTURO NO DISFRUTAN EL PRESENTE,
POR LO QUE NO DISFRUTAN,
NO VIVEN NI EL PRESENTE NI EL FUTURO

Y VIVEN COMO SI NO TUVIESEN
QUE MORIR NUNCA...
Y MUEREN COMO SI NUNCA HUBIERAN VIVIDO.
DALAI LAMA



Table of Contents

Chapter 1
Introduction: The Goal and Contents of This Dissertation ….1
ECOLOGICALLY RATIONAL HEURISTICS….2
ACT-R: A UNIFIED THEORY OF COGNITION….5
ORGANIZATION OF THE DISSERTATION….8

Chapter 2
Methodological Preliminaries….10
INTRODUCTION….10
OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTER AND INTRODUCTORY DEFINITIONS….11
HOW TO SELECT BETWEEN FORMAL MODELS: A SHORT OVERVIEW ….12
CONCLUSION….18

Chapter 3
How Memory Aids Strategy Selection….19
ABSTRACT….19
INTRODUCTION….19
HOW MEMORY AIDS STRATEGY SELECTION: THE HYPOTHESIS OF NON-OVERLAPPING
COGNITIVE NICHES….21
JUDGMENTS FROM THE ACCESSIBILITY OF MEMORIES….22
THE ADAPTIVE TOOLBOX….23
OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTER….25
AN ACT-R MODEL OF NON-OVERLAPPING COGNITIVE NICHES….26
OVERVIEW OF SIMULATION STUDIES 1 AND 2….33
HOW I CALIBRATED THE MODEL TO PREDICT MEMORY RETRIEVAL
(SIMULATION STUDY 1) …. 33
TESTS OF THE TARTLE NICHE AND TARTLE–KNOWLEDGE NICHE HYPOTHESES
(SIMULATION STUDY 2) …. 42

WHEN WOULD A PERSON USING THE FLUENCY HEURISTIC MAKE ACCURATE INFERENCES?
(EXPERIMENTS 1–6; SIMULATION STUDIES 3, 4) ….44
ACCURACY AS A DETERMINANT OF STRATEGY SELECTION (EXPERIMENT 7) ….53
EFFORT AS A DETERMINANT OF STRATEGY SELECTION (EXPERIMENT 8) ….58
TIME AS A DETERMINANT OF STRATEGY SELECTION (EXPERIMENT 9) ….62
GENERAL DISCUSSION….67
CONCLUDING REMARKS: EMERGING COGNITIVE NICHES….72

Chapter 4
Models of Recognition-based Multi-alternative Inference….74
ABSTRACT….74
INTRODUCTION ….74
GENERALIZING THE RECOGNITION HEURISTIC: ELIMINATION BY RECOGNITION….75
ALTERNATIVE MODELS OF INFERENCE: A COMPETITION….76
TOWARD A THEORY OF STRATEGY SELECTION BY DEFAULT….79
OVERVIEW OF THE EXPERIMENTS: RECOGNITION IN POLITICAL ELECTIONS….82
DO CONFLICTING CUES OVERRULE THE RELIANCE ON RECOGNITION?
(EXPERIMENT 11; REANALYSIS OF EARLIER ELECTION STUDY) ….83
GENERALIZING THE RECOGNITION HEURISTIC: HOW EPISODIC KNOWLEDGE AIDS USING
RECOGNITION (EXPERIMENT 12) ….89
IS A LACK OF KNOWLEDGE INFORMATIVE ABOUT THE PREDICTIVE ACCURACY OF
RECOGNITION? (EXPERIMENT 13) ….98
HOW WELL DO COMPENSATORY MODELS PREDICT INDIVIDUAL INFERENCES?
(EXPERIMENT 14; REANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENT 7) …. 102
DO PEOPLE USE THE BEST CUES RATHER THAN RECOGNITION? (EXPERIMENT 15) ….109
DOES TIME PRESSURE FOSTER THE DEFAULT OF RELYING ON THE RECOGNITION HEURISTIC?
(EXPERIMENT 16) ….112
GENERAL DISCUSSION….116

Chapter 5
Summary and Conclusion….129
HOW MEMORY AIDS STRATEGY SELECTION…. 130
MODELS OF RECOGNITION-BASED MULTI-ALTERNATIVE INFERENCE….132

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO STUDY HEURISTICS COMPARATIVELY, GUIDED BY THEORIES OF
STRATEGY SELECTION? ….134
CONCLUSION: ECOLOGICALLY RATIONAL STRATEGY SELECTION….138

References….140

Appendices….160
APPENDIX A - LISTS OF STIMULI USED IN THE EXPERIMENTS….160
APPENDIX B - HOW TO PREDICT HUMAN MEMORY RETRIEVAL FROM THE WEB:
DERIVATIONS OF THE ACT-R MODEL EQUATIONS….170
APPENDIX C - NON–RETRIEVAL TIME PRODUCTION RULES IMPLEMENTED IN ACT-R….173

Deutsche Zusammenfassung….174

Erklärung…. 183

Currriculum Vitae….185


Chapter 1: Introduction 1

Chapter 1
Introduction: The Goal and Contents of This Dissertation
At the time of writing this dissertation, international financial markets are in turmoil. Large
banks are going bankrupt almost daily. Today, September 3