Effects of fame on the estimated frequency of
male and female names.
Psychology Higher Level Internal Assessment
Word count: 2,195
Submission date: 03/2019
Table of contents
pg. 1
,Introduction 3
Exploration 5
Design 5
Participants 5
Materials 6
Procedure 6
Analysis 6
Descriptive Statistics 7
Inferential Statistics 8
Evaluation 9
References 11
Appendices 12
pg. 2
, Introduction
Thinking (Newell and Simon, 1972)1 is the process of paying attention to our
surrounding stimuli, processing the collected knowledge and drawing
decisions and interpretations from it. The Two System Model (Daniel
Kahneman, 20032) best describes how we think and make decisions through
two systems. System one is based on intuition, being unconscious,
automatic, and requiring low effort and cognitive awareness. An example of
this is the monotone greeting responses we tend to give. The second system
is quite the opposite. It is conscious, controlled, slow and demands higher
effort and cognitive awareness than the first one. For instance, solving a
mathematics problem. J. Ridley Stroop (1935)3 and Peter C. Watson (1966)4
both conducted successful studies supporting said model.
However, System one is can be prone to errors due to its assumption based
nature. Said assumptions are referred to as heuristics. Heuristics are mental
short-cuts that allow people to solve problems and make judgements quickly.
It is not guaranteed to be optimal but suffices immediate goals.
When estimating the frequency of events, one can give accurate results if the
number is small, yet, if the circumstances differ, said estimation can be
biased. This distortion is due to the availability heuristics, a type of heuristics
that bases decisions on how easy it is to bring something to mind, estimating
frequency.
According to Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman (1973)5, relying on
availability leads to biases due to the retrievability of instances. When the
1
Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon. "Human Problem Solving."
Pdfs.semanticscholar.org. N.p., 1970. Web. 4 Dec. 2018.
2
Kahneman, Daniel. "A Perspective On Judgment And Choice."
Www2.econ.iastate.edu. N.p., 2003. Web. 4 Dec. 2018.
3
Stroop, J.R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of
Experimental Psychology, 18, 643-662
4
K. Bye, J. (2012). Psychology Classics: Wason Selection Task (Part I). Retrieved from
https://www.psychologyinaction.org/psychology-in-action-1/2012/10/07/classic-
psychology-experiments-wason-selection-task-part-i
5
Tversky, A., Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A Heuristic for Judging Frequency
and Probability [Ebook] (5th ed.). The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and The
Oregon Research Institute. Retrieved from
https://msu.edu/~ema/803/Ch11-JDM/2/TverskyKahneman73.pdf
pg. 3
