Abstract

We conducted a thorough investigation of the impact of representativeness on reasoning and metacognitive processes by employing the Linda problem. In congruent versions, the more representative response choice was also the correct one which was not the case in conflict versions. We manipulated the level of representativeness of the responses by making the component statements more or less representative of presented descriptions. The main findings revealed that higher levels of representativeness led to lower accuracy, faster responses and higher confidence. Detailed analysis revealed that certain reasoning processes heavily depend on representativeness and metacognitive assessments based on it (e.g., decoupling from a representative but incorrect response need not lead to lower confidence though it may be computationally expensive). Finally, responses remained mostly stable after rethinking, while answer changes towards the more representative choice were more likely than the opposite which implies Type 2 processes may support both normative and heuristic thinking.

摘要

我们通过使用Linda问题对代表性对推理和元认知过程的影响进行了深入研究。在一致的版本中，更具代表性的响应选择也是正确的选择，而冲突版本则不是这种选择。我们通过使组件陈述或多或少地代表所呈现的描述来操纵响应的代表性水平。主要发现表明，较高的代表性导致较低的准确性，较快的响应和较高的置信度。详细的分析表明，某些推理过程在很大程度上取决于代表性和基于其的元认知评估（例如，与代表脱钩，但错误的回答虽然可能会导致计算量大，但不一定会导致置信度降低）。最后，