Amanda Penn

What does “representativeness” mean in psychology? What are examples of representativeness heuristics? The representative heuristic is when you organize objects by their similarities and categorize them around a prototype. The representativeness heuristic describes when we estimate the likelihood of an event by comparing it to an existing prototype in our minds. We’ll go more in depth into the above representative heuristic definition and cover multiple representative heuristic examples in psychology.

What is cognitive ease? What is it good for, and when does it hinder you? Cognitive ease is an internal measure of how easy or strained your cognitive load is. In a state of cognitive ease, you’re probably in a good mood, believe what you hear, trust your intuitions, feel the situation is familiar, are more creative, and are superficial in your thinking. We’ll cover the properties of cognitive ease and how to use the concept to get your point across and convince others of its truth.

What is the conjunction fallacy? How can you avoid it? Conjunction fallacy is the belief that the conjunction of two events happening is more probable than one happening. Often, extra details that create a coherent story make the events in that story seem more probable, even though the extra conditions needing to be met make the conjunction less probable. The best way to illustrate this is with a conjunction fallacy example. We’ll cover two examples of the conjunction fallacy and how to counter this bias.

What is Kahneman’s “remembering self”? How does it differ from the “experiencing self”? Which affects happiness more: the remembering self or the experiencing self? The remembering self is the person who reflects on past experiences and evaluates it overall. The concept of the “remembering self” was introduced by Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow. We’ll cover the difference between the remembering self and the experiencing self and learn how the former affects happiness.

What are System 1 and System 2 thinking? How do they work in concert, and when should you rely on one or the other? System 1 and System 2 thinking are two systems of thinking defined by Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow. Generally, System 1 thinking is fast and System 2 thinking is slow. We’ll cover how System 1 and System 2 thinking work together and when you should use one or the other.

What is the peak-end rule? What does it have to do with happiness? The peak-end rule is the theory that the overall rating is determined by the peak intensity of the experience and the end of the experience. It does not care much about the averages throughout the experience. Learn how the peak-end rule applies to happiness and how it alters the way you remember experiences.

What is Daniel Kahneman’s happiness theory? How does it involve the two selves, and what does it have to do with memory? Daniel Kahneman’s happiness theory is the idea that we have two selves, the experiencing self and the remembering self, and that the remembering self influences our overall happiness more than the experiencing self. This theory was introduced in Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow. We’ll cover why happiness depends more on memory of experiences than on the experiences themselves and how this knowledge can help you be happier.

What is overconfidence bias? How do you avoid it? Overconfidence bias is when a person feels more confident in the accuracy of his or her judgment than objective standards would indicate. Overconfidence bias can lead to bad decisions and faulty predictions. Learn what overconfidence bias is, see examples of different types of overconfidence bias, and learn how to avoid the overconfidence effect.