Overview: The traditional view of rationality is based upon abstract, content-independent rules for behavior. People sometimes violate these rules in a laboratory setting, but the violations are often systematic and appear to reflect adaptation to the environment outside the laboratory. Such findings raise questions about what it means to be rational. Readings will be empirically oriented and cover the areas of deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and choice.

Requirements: Thoughtful reading and discussion are required. Participants must do the reading each week and come to class prepared to discuss it. Grades will be based on class participation. Short papers might also be required (in which case they will also influence grades).

Week 1: Organizational Meeting (Mar 28)

Week 2: Overview I (April 4)

Shafir, E., & LeBoeuf, R. A. (2002). Rationality. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 491-517. [pdf]

McKenzie, C. R. M. (2005). Judgment and decision making. In K. Lamberts and R. L. Goldstone (Eds.), Handbook of Cognition (pp. 321-338). London: Sage. [pdf]

Week 3: Overview II (April 11)

Stanovich, K. E., & West, R. F. (2000). Individual differences in reasoning: Implications for the rationality debate? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, 645-726. [pdf]

Funder, D. C. (1987). Errors and mistakes: Evaluating the accuracy of social judgment. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 75-90. [pdf]

Week 4: Hypothesis Testing (April 18)

Wason, P. C. (1960). On the failure to eliminate hypotheses in a conceptual task. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12, 129-140. [pdf]

Klayman, J., & Ha, Y.-W. (1987). Confirmation, disconfirmation, and information in hypothesis testing. Psychological Review, 94, 211-228. [pdf]

Week 6: Rational Analysis (April 25)

Anderson, J. R. (1991). Is human cognition adaptive? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 14, 471-517. [pdf]

Week 6: The Selection Task (May 2)

Wason, P. C. (1968). Reasoning about a rule. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 20, 273-281. [pdf]

Oaksford, M., & Chater, N. (1994). A rational analysis of the selection task as optimal data selection. Psychological Review, 101, 608-631. [pdf]

Week 7: Framing Effects (May 9)

Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1986). Rational choice and the framing of decisions. Journal of Business, 59, 251-278. [pdf]

Sher, S., & McKenzie, C. R. M. (2005). Information leakage from logically equivalent frames. Unpublished manuscript. [pdf]

Week 8: Covariation Assessment (May 16)

Smedslund, J. (1963). The concept of correlation in adults. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 4, 165-173. [pdf]

McKenzie, C. R. M., & Mikkelsen, L. A. (in press). A Bayesian view of covariation assessment. Cognitive Psychology. [pdf]

Week 9: Ecological Rationality (May 23)

Gigerenzer, G., & Goldstein, D. G. (1996). Reasoning the fast and frugal way: Models of bounded rationality. Psychological Review, 103, 650-669. [pdf]

Todd, P. M., & Gigerenzer, G. (2000). Precis of "Simple heuristics that make us smart". Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, 727-780. [pdf]

Week 10: Rationality vs. Accuracy (May 30)

Dreyfus, H. L. (1992). What computers still can't do: A critique of artificial reason. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Introduction to the revised edition, pp. 1-66) [pdf]