Judgment and Decision Making as a Skill: Learning, Development and Evolution

This book presents a comprehensive review of both theories and research on the dynamic nature of human judgment and decision making (JDM). Leading researchers in the fields of JDM, cognitive development, human learning and neuroscience discuss short-term and long-term changes in JDM skills. The authors consider how such skills increase and decline on a developmental scale in children, adolescents and the elderly; how they may be learned; and how JDM skills can be improved and aided. In addition, beyond these behavioral approaches to understanding JDM as a skill, the book provides fascinating new insights from recent evolutionary and neuropsychological approaches. The authors identify opportunities for future research on the acquisition and changing nature of JDM. In a concluding chapter, eminent past presidents of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making provide personal reflections and perspectives on the notion of JDM as a dynamic skill.

Table of Contents:
Part I. Evolutionary and Neural Bases of JDM: 1. The evolved foundations of decision making Andreas Wilke and Peter M. Todd; 2. Neural bases of judgment and decision making Oshin Vartanian and David R. Mandel; Part II. Developmental Approaches to JDM: 3. Judgment and decision making in young children Anne Schlottmann and Friedrich Wikening; 4. Judgment and decision making in adolescents Wändi Brunie de Bruin; 5. Aging and decision skills Ellen Peters and Wändi Brunie de Bruin; Part III. Learning JDM: 6. Learning of judgment and decision-making strategies Rui Mata and Jörg Rieskamp; 7. Casual models in judgment and decision making York Hagmayer and David A. Lagnado; 8. Learning judgment and decision making from feedback Nigel Harvey; Part IV. Improving and Aiding JDM: 9. Improving judgment and decision making through communication and representation Peter Sedlmeier and Denis J. Hilton; 10. Aiding judgment and decision making J. Frank Yates and Andrea M. Angott; Conclusion: 11. Perspectives on judgment and decision making as a skill Mandeep K. Dhami, Anne Schlottmann, Michael R. Waldman, James Shanteau, Thomas S. Wallsten, Baruch Fischhoff, Irwin P. Levin (with Joshua A. Weller and Elaine A. Bossard), Valerie F. Reyna, Jonathan Baron, Robin M. Hogarth, Joshua Klayman and Michael H. Birnbaum.

About the Author :
Mandeep K. Dhami received her Ph.D. in Psychology from City University, London, in 2001. Before joining the University of Cambridge in 2005, she held academic appointments at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany, the University of Maryland, USA, and the University of Victoria, Canada. Anne Schlottmann studied at the Ruhr Universität Bochum, then went on a Fulbright scholarship to the University of California, San Diego, where she received her Ph.D. in 1991. Since then she has been at University College London where she is now a Senior Lecturer in the Developmental Science Department. Michael Waldmann was a graduate student at the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research, Germany, and obtained his Ph.D. in 1988 from the University of Munich. Since 1998 he has been Professor of Psychology at the University of Göttingen.

Review :
'Research on judgment and decision-making has been limited by a narrow focus on the content-blind rules of probability and utility with their assumptions of certainty. Exploring far beyond these limits, this informative volume demonstrates that there is more to good judgment than probability: it investigates rules of conversation, evolved capacities, smart heuristics, and other skills that can deal effectively with the uncertainty in our world.' Gerd Gigerenzer, Director of the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition (ABC) and Director of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy, Max Planck Institute for Human Development 'This work presents pioneering chapters on an emerging perspective of Judgment Decision as a learned skill that begins early in childhood and keeps developing throughout the life span. This conceptual liberation from the long-dominant static concepts of rationality and biases leads into the real world of Judgment Decision - motivated and dynamic.' Norman Henry Anderson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of California, San Diego '… Dhami, Schlottmann and Waldmann have produced an important [book]. There is a lot of original thinking and new evidence here that has the potential to move the field of JDM into the front line of psychological science …' Joachim I. Krueger, American Journal of Psychology