Simple Heuristics that Help Us Win

Will M. Bennis, Thorsten Pachur

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the fast-and-frugal-heuristics (FFH) approach to judgment and decision making, particularly as it applies to sports. The aim is to provide a framework through which current sports psychologists may apply this approach to better understand sports decision making. FFH are studied using a variety of methods, including (1) computer simulations and mathematical analysis of heuristic performance as it depends on environmental structure (what we call the ecological rationality of heuristics); (2) empirical analysis of the heuristics' performance in naturally occurring environments; and (3) experimental research examining whether people actually use the identified heuristics. Simulations and analysis have shown that FFH can perform as well as complicated optimizing models while using less information and without integrating this information. Furthermore, in many cases FFH are more robust than optimizing models, outperforming these models when generalizing to new cases. FFH depart from many models of human decision making in that they set a reasonable standard of rationality based on real-world constraints such as limited time, information, and cognitive capacity; decision tasks that may have no calculable optimal solution; and the structured environments within which humans have learned and evolved. These simple heuristics are particularly appropriate in the sports domain, in which athletes often have to make rapid, high-stakes decisions with limited information and divided attention.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHeuristics
Subtitle of host publicationThe Foundations of Adaptive Behavior
PublisherOxford University Press
ISBN (Electronic)9780199894727
ISBN (Print)9780199744282
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 May 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Ecological rationality
  • Judgment and decision making
  • Recognition heuristic
  • Sport psychology and leisure
  • Take-the-best
  • Take-the-first

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