heuristic

Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts that operate by retrieving stored patterns — a 'recognize-then-act' heuristic needs recognition memory, a take-the-best heuristic needs stored cue validity. Remove memory and heuristics have no patterns to shortcut.

Heuristics are practical problem-solving shortcuts that operate by recognizing patterns. Removal test (Law 8): remove pattern-recognition and heuristics cannot function — they are shortcut judgments that require recognizing recurring patterns to apply the right shortcut. This is a real operating dependency.

Heuristic is a specific kind of rule — a practical rule-of-thumb for decision-making under uncertainty. Law 9: specific→general. A competent speaker calls a heuristic 'a rule (of thumb).' Direction: heuristic IS rule, not the reverse.

A heuristic IS a specific kind of cognitive tool — a practical method or mental shortcut designed to extend problem-solving capacity. Direction: specific (heuristic) → general (cognitive tool). A competent speaker calls a heuristic 'a cognitive tool' (Law 9a test). Direction: specific → general.

A heuristic is a specific kind of decision-making method: a rule-of-thumb shortcut that enables decisions without full analysis. The which-sense is 'kind of' — a competent speaker calls a heuristic 'a kind of decision-making approach.' Removal test not needed for INSTANCE_OF (Law 9).

A heuristic IS a specific kind of rule of thumb — a practical method sufficient for reaching an immediate goal, not guaranteed optimal. A competent speaker calls a heuristic 'a rule of thumb'. Nearest kind: rule-of-thumb.

Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts designed and maintained for the sake of decision-making - their purpose is to enable fast decisions under constraint. Law 8d: servant(heuristic)->master(decision-making). Removes need for exhaustive analysis in decision contexts.

Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts designed specifically to serve decision-making under constraints (time, information, computation). Remove the heuristic and decision still occurs, but the heuristic's designed purpose is to make decisions faster or more robust. Servant→master: heuristic→decision.

A nudge operates by exploiting existing cognitive shortcuts — without heuristics, nudges cease to function as the mechanism that defines them. Remove heuristics (make people perfectly rational) and a nudge is no longer a nudge but either information or a prohibition. This is constitutive, not merely facilitative.

Framing-effect (epoch 0.99) is a newer, more specialized construct that emerged from the study of heuristic-based decision-making. Heuristic (epoch 0.31) is the older, more foundational concept. Framing effects describe how the presentation of options influences choices through heuristic processing — the concept of heuristics preceded and enabled the concept of framing effects.

satisficing IS a specific kind of heuristic: a decision shortcut that selects the first acceptable option rather than optimizing. Satisficing maps to 'a heuristic' per competent speaker usage. Specific→general per Law 9.

The affect heuristic is a specific kind of heuristic — a cognitive shortcut where emotional valence replaces analytical processing. The specific-to-general test: a competent speaker would call it 'a heuristic.' Files against the nearest accepted kind.

Reasoning-bias operates THROUGH heuristic processing — systematic errors in reasoning emerge from heuristic mental shortcuts overriding analytical processing. Removal test: remove heuristic processing (the fast, automatic pattern-matching system) and reasoning-bias ceases to operate because there is no shortcut mechanism to produce systematic deviations. Pinned sense per Law 11d: heuristic as Kahneman's System 1 fast-processing, not any generic shortcut.

Heuristic evaluation needs heuristics (usability principles) to operate now. Remove the heuristic set — the criteria by which evaluators judge interfaces — and the method collapses entirely: it has no framework for assessment. This passes the removal test (Law 8) as a constitutive dependency, not a meta-level 'as a concept needs language' loss (Law 2b). Heuristic-evaluation is defined by its application of heuristics; without them, it ceases to function.

The availability heuristic IS a specific kind of heuristic — a mental shortcut where people judge frequency/probability by how easily examples come to mind. The competent-speaker test passes: 'availability is a kind of heuristic.'

A decision-heuristic is a specific kind of heuristic: a simplified rule of thumb used for judgments under constraints. Files against nearest kind — heuristic is the established category.

Parsimony IS a specific kind of heuristic: Ockham's razor is a rule-of-thumb principle for choosing between explanations. A competent speaker would call parsimony a heuristic — it is a specific kind of reasoning shortcut, not a formal law.

Tested: which came first? heuristic is older/more general, cognitive-bias is a specific kind (a heuristic that leads to systematic error). INSTANCE_OF: a competent speaker would say 'cognitive bias is a kind of heuristic.' The direction is bias→heuristic, specific→general.

The Pareto principle (80/20 rule) is a specific heuristic about uneven distribution of inputs to outputs. A competent speaker would call it 'a heuristic.' Direction: specific→general.

Biases (systematic errors in judgment) DERIVED_FROM heuristics (mental shortcuts). Kahneman and Tversky established that heuristics produce specific biases. Heuristics existed first and fed into biases as their error pattern. Historical-causal per Law 7.

A default is a specific kind of heuristic: a simple rule or preset choice that suffices for decision-making without computation. The nearest accepted kind is heuristic — a competent speaker would call a default 'a heuristic' in the context of decision-making and choice architecture.

Availability heuristic was coined by Tversky and Kahneman 1973 as a specific type of heuristic — a mental shortcut for judging probability and frequency. Under Law 7, which-came-first: the general concept of heuristic predates the specific availability heuristic. The heuristic is a mental shortcut; availability heuristic is a specific named heuristic derived from the broader heuristic concept.