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The Frequency Hypothesis and Evolutionary Arguments

Amitani, Yuichi (2008) The Frequency Hypothesis and Evolutionary Arguments. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

Gerd Gigerenzer's views on probabilistic reasoning in humans have come under close scrutiny. Very little attention, however, has been paid to his evolutionary component of his argument. According to Gigerenzer, reasoning about probabilities as frequencies is so common today because it was favored by natural selection in the past. This paper presents a critical examination of this argument. It will show first, that, _pace_ Gigerenzer, there are some reasons to believe that using the frequency format was not more adaptive than using the standard (percentage) format and, second, that Gigerenzer's evolutionary argument and his other arguments such as his historical description of the notion of probability are in tension with each other.


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Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Amitani, Yuichi
Keywords: Bounded rationality, Probabilistic reasoning, Information representation, Ecological rationality, Evolutionary psychology
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology
Depositing User: Yuichi Amitani
Date Deposited: 06 Nov 2008
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 15:17
Item ID: 4312
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology
Date: 2008
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/4312

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