La procédure de reconnaissance heuristique des villes

Four hundred ninety eight students (26.9% men and 73.1% women, M=20.50, SD=6.51) were selected at the Australian Catholic University. All from different campuses: Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Strathfield. No outside students were recruited. They were demanded to answer a questionnaire about capital cities in the United States of America. Participants haven’t received any compensation for the study. All of them were asked to bring a pen for the experiment.

Materials

The heuristic recognition task has been adapted from Goldstein and Gigerenzer (2002). The study has been conducted thanks to a « State Capital Questionnaire ». The researchers of the University created it. The participants were asked to answer twenty questions capital cities of each states located in the United States of America. Each question contains two different choices. Ten questions where the capital city was the largest (and likely most recognized) city and ten others for the condition where the capital city was not the largest (and likely not recognized) city (see appendix 1.1).

Procedure

The trial began with a briefing about the study. Any ethical approval was needed for this task and participants were volunteers. The “State capital questionnaire” was give to the students. All the participants were instructed to complete it, with as much time as they want. Once they finished, the subjects were demanded to provide the answers for the two conditions established previously. They were also solicited to provide their age and gender. The results were collected thanks to Excel software. The experiment achieved, the participants were debriefed and thanked for their participation.

Results

The mean number of correct responses was calculated for the condition where the capital city was the largest (and likely most recognized) city and for the condition where the capital city was not the largest (and likely not recognized) city. The mean number of correct responses was higher in the condition where the capital city was the largest city (M = 8.57, SD= 1.52) than in the condition where the capital city was not the largest city (M=3.09, SD =1.93). An independent groups t-test revealed that this difference across the conditions was significant: t (497)=43.70, p<.001.

Discussion

As outlined previously this study aimed to test recognition heuristic in a precise context: identifying capital cities of states in America.

It has shown that the answers given by the participants were correct. Participants have picked between two choices of cities, the one that they recognize the most. The significant difference between the two variables make evident that their recognition is based on heuristic. This findings support the initial hypothesis that the participants will have a higher number of correct responses where the most recognize city is the capital than where the most recognized city was not the capital. The answers provided were correct so that support the hypothesis. Moreover, the findings are clearly consistent with the recognition heuristic theory. As Goldstein and Gigerenzer (2002) has supported, participants choose the city that they recognize because they simply recognize it. Also, people unconsciously may notice that recognition is often

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