Gualtieri Samantha, Denison Stephanie
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2018 Oct;174:60-76. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.05.006. Epub 2018 Jun 15.
In classic examinations of the representativeness heuristic, Kahneman and Tversky (1973) presented adult participants with a description of an individual who fit their stereotype of a typical engineer. Importantly, even when participants were told that the individual was drawn from a sample of 70 lawyers and 30 engineers, they estimated that the individual was an engineer at very high levels, showing that they relied almost exclusively on the personality description. Relying on the representativeness heuristic can lead to base-rate neglect and, thus, biased judgments. Two experiments provide insight into the development of the representativeness heuristic in young children using an adaptation of the classic lawyer-engineer problem. Experiment 1 (N = 96) established that 3- to 5-year-olds can use base-rate information on its own, and 4- and 5-year-olds can use individuating information on its own, to make inferences. Experiment 2 (N = 192) varied the relevance of the individuating information across conditions to assess the pervasiveness of this bias early in development. Here 5- and 6-year-olds, much like adults, continue to attempt to rely on individuating information when making classifications even if that information is irrelevant. Together, these experiments reveal how the representativeness heuristic develops across the preschool years and suggest that the bias may strengthen between 4 and 6 years of age.
在对代表性启发法的经典研究中，卡尼曼和特沃斯基（1973年）向成年参与者描述了一个符合他们对典型工程师刻板印象的人。重要的是，即使参与者被告知这个人是从由70名律师和30名工程师组成的样本中抽取的，他们仍以很高的概率估计这个人是工程师，这表明他们几乎完全依赖于人物描述。依赖代表性启发法会导致忽视基础概率，从而产生有偏差的判断。两项实验通过改编经典的律师 - 工程师问题，深入探究了幼儿代表性启发法的发展情况。实验1（N = 96）确定3至5岁的儿童能够单独使用基础概率信息，4岁和5岁的儿童能够单独使用个性化信息来进行推理。实验2（N = 192）在不同条件下改变个性化信息的相关性，以评估这种偏差在发展早期的普遍性。结果发现，5岁和6岁的儿童与成年人一样，在进行分类时即使个性化信息不相关，仍会试图依赖它。这些实验共同揭示了代表性启发法在整个学前阶段的发展情况，并表明这种偏差可能在4至6岁之间增强。
