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2018 ; 102
(ä): 127-144
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Heuristics as Bayesian inference under extreme priors
#MMPMID29500961
Parpart P
; Jones M
; Love BC
Cogn Psychol
2018[May]; 102
(ä): 127-144
PMID29500961
show ga
Simple heuristics are often regarded as tractable decision strategies because
they ignore a great deal of information in the input data. One puzzle is why
heuristics can outperform full-information models, such as linear regression,
which make full use of the available information. These "less-is-more" effects,
in which a relatively simpler model outperforms a more complex model, are
prevalent throughout cognitive science, and are frequently argued to demonstrate
an inherent advantage of simplifying computation or ignoring information. In
contrast, we show at the computational level (where algorithmic restrictions are
set aside) that it is never optimal to discard information. Through a formal
Bayesian analysis, we prove that popular heuristics, such as tallying and
take-the-best, are formally equivalent to Bayesian inference under the limit of
infinitely strong priors. Varying the strength of the prior yields a continuum of
Bayesian models with the heuristics at one end and ordinary regression at the
other. Critically, intermediate models perform better across all our simulations,
suggesting that down-weighting information with the appropriate prior is
preferable to entirely ignoring it. Rather than because of their simplicity, our
analyses suggest heuristics perform well because they implement strong priors
that approximate the actual structure of the environment. We end by considering
how new heuristics could be derived by infinitely strengthening the priors of
other Bayesian models. These formal results have implications for work in
psychology, machine learning and economics.