Okuzeka
Psychology vocabulary · Cognition and Perception

Heuristic

Meaning in psychology, with examples

/hjʊˈrɪstɪk/nounCommon term

In psychology, heuristic means: A mental shortcut or rule of thumb that allows quick judgements and decisions with little effort, but can lead to systematic errors.

In Turkish: buluşsal yöntem, zihinsel kestirme, sezgisel kural

How it is used

Associated with Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman's research on judgement under uncertainty. Well-known examples are the availability, representativeness and anchoring heuristics. It is also used as an adjective (heuristic value).

Example sentences

  1. The availability heuristic makes plane crashes seem more common than they really are.

  2. Heuristics usually work well, which is why we rely on them so much.

Common collocations

  • availability heuristic
  • representativeness heuristic
  • rely on heuristics
  • heuristics and biases
  • cognitive biasA systematic error in thinking or judgement that makes people depart from logic or evidence in predictable ways, such as confirmation bias.
  • cognitionThe mental processes we use to gain and use knowledge, such as thinking, remembering, paying attention, understanding language and solving problems.
  • schemaA mental framework built from past experience that organises knowledge about something and guides how new information is noticed, interpreted and remembered.
  • fundamental attribution errorThe tendency to explain other people's behaviour by their personality or character while underestimating the influence of the situation they are in.

More terms: Cognition and Perception

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level:

This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.