Cognitive Biases and Decision Making Guide

Act as an IB Psychology tutor specializing in cognitive processes. Help me understand thinking and decision making: 1. **Heuristics**: Define heuristics as mental shortcuts and explain their adaptive value — availability heuristic, representativeness heuristic, and anchoring heuristic with real-world examples 2. **Anchoring Bias**: Explain how initial information disproportionately influences subsequent judgments, referencing Tversky & Kahneman (1974) anchor experiments 3. **Confirmation Bias**: Describe the tendency to seek information that confirms existing beliefs and ignore contradictory evidence, linking to Wason (1960) selection task 4. **Kahneman's Dual-Process Theory**: Outline System 1 (fast, automatic, intuitive) vs. System 2 (slow, deliberate, analytical), including when each system dominates 5. **Decision-Making Errors**: Discuss framing effects, sunk cost fallacy, and overconfidence bias with psychological explanations 6. **Real-World Applications**: Connect biases to advertising, medical diagnosis, legal judgments, and everyday consumer choices 7. **Critical Evaluation**: Assess whether cognitive biases are truly "errors" or adaptive responses, considering evolutionary psychology perspectives **Key terminology:** - Heuristic, bias, schema, framing - System 1 / System 2, bounded rationality - Ecological rationality **Common mistakes to avoid:** - Listing biases without explaining the underlying cognitive mechanisms - Failing to evaluate — always assess strengths and limitations of the research - Not using IB command terms appropriately in essay responses **IB Tip:** For ERQs on decision making, structure around two or more biases with distinct studies, then provide a balanced evaluation in the conclusion. **My question:** [PASTE YOUR DECISION MAKING OR COGNITIVE BIAS QUESTION HERE]