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Original Article

Measuring Age-Related Differences in Using a Simple Decision Strategy

The Case of the Recognition Heuristic

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000283

Abstract. According to the recognition heuristic, decision makers base their inferences on recognition alone, assuming that recognized objects have larger criterion values than unrecognized ones. Knowing that recognition is a valid cue and thus using the recognition heuristic should increase with age. This was tested in two experiments with preadolescents (N = 140), adolescents (N = 186), and adults (N = 78). The results show, as expected, a monotonic age-related trend in the improvement of domain-specific knowledge but, unexpectedly, a non-monotonic one for using the recognition heuristic. More specifically, use of the recognition heuristic increased from preadolescents to adolescents, but then dropped for adults.

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