Question

After viewing the video by Daniel Kahneman, consider discuss his concepts of associative memory and intuitive errors and his position on the weakness of subjective confidence. Are these ideas more closely related to system one or system two thinking? Support your position. Do you agree or disagree with Kahneman? Why? Kahneman, D. (2011, November 10). Daniel Kahneman: Thinking, fast and slow [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjVQJdIrDJ0

Answer 1

In my opinion the ideas are closely related to system one of thinking because what comes to our mind is what we want to see. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; it operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control. System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. It allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it.

You have been introduced to the stranger in you, which may be in control of much of what you do, although you rarely have a glimpse of it. System 1 provides the impressions that often turn into your beliefs, and is the source of the impulses that often become your choices and your actions.

The division of labor between System 1 and System 2 is highly efficient: it minimizes effort and optimizes performance. The arrangement works well most of the time because System 1 is generally very good at what it does: its models of familiar situations are accurate, its short-term predictions are usually accurate as well, and its initial reactions to challenges are swift and generally appropriate.

You have to think of [your associative memory as a huge repository of ideas, linked to each other in many ways, including causal links and other links, and activation spreading from ideas to other ideas until a small subset of that enormous network is illuminated, and the subset is what’s happening in the mind at the moment. You’re not conscious of it, you’re conscious of very little of it.