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You are placing a bet on an upcoming basketball game. You quickly remember that the green team has won the last three home games. If you use that information to make your decision, you will be using _____________.

User Edward Lee
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Answer:

If you use that information to make your decision, you will be using availability heuristic.

Step-by-step explanation:

A heuristic technique can be defined as any approach used to solve a problem. Even if it hasn't been proved perfect, the approach is considered good enough by the person using it. It helps prevent an overload of cognitive processes by speeding up the finding of a solution. Examples of heuristic are common sense, educated guess, and trial and error, among others.

In the case described in the question, we have an example of availability heuristic. This type of heuristic concerns judging something as likely or unlikely to happen based on the memories that most quickly come to our minds. It can be quite ineffective, since what we remember is usually what causes a stronger impression, not necessarily what really happens. For instance, a person may decide flying oversees is a sure death because she can quickly remember four disasters involving planes she has seen on TV in the past couple of years. What she doesn't realize is that those events are an exception, not the rule, and that the probability for a plane to crash is actually very low.

User Johneth
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