View source for Cue validity

'''Cue validity''' is the probability that a given cue — a feature, a sign, a piece of information — correctly predicts a criterion when it discriminates between alternatives. In the context of the [[take-the-best heuristic]], cue validity is the ranking principle: cues are searched in order of their validity, and the search stops at the first cue that discriminates. A cue with high validity is one that, when it points to one alternative, is usually right. A cue with low validity is one that is unreliable even when it discriminates.

Cue validity is not a property of the cue alone. It is a property of the relationship between the cue and the criterion in a specific environment. A cue that is highly valid for predicting city population may be useless for predicting stock price. The ecological rationality of a heuristic depends on the match between the cue validities and the heuristic's search strategy. The [[ecological rationality]] program argues that the rationality of a decision strategy cannot be evaluated in the abstract; it must be evaluated relative to the cue structure of the environment in which it operates.

The concept of cue validity is central to the debate between the [[heuristics and biases]] program and the fast-and-frugal program. The heuristics-and-biases program treats cues as inputs to a general-purpose reasoning system; the fast-and-frugal program treats cues as tools matched to specific environments. The difference is not merely theoretical. It determines whether the appropriate response to a bias is to train the decision maker or to redesign the environment. If the problem is cue validity mismatch, the solution is not better reasoning but better cue structures — clearer signals, more salient valid cues, less noise from invalid ones. The [[cognitive engineering]] of decision environments begins with the analysis of cue validity, not with the diagnosis of cognitive failure.

[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Cognition]]
[[Category:Systems]]