Experienced Ease of Recall as a Source of Information

intermediate2 min readpsychology

How easily examples come to mind can influence judgments about how common something is. People may give that feeling less weight if another cause made recall easy, or more weight if recall remained easy despite an obstacle.

THE IDEA

EXPERIENCED EASE OF RECALL AS A SOURCE OF INFORMATION

If subjective experiences of ease or difficulty of recall serve as a source of information in their own right, their impact should vary as a function of the perceived diagnosticity of the experience, as has been observed for other types of experiential information, such as moods (e.g., Schwarz & Clore, 1983; Schwarz, Chapter 29, this volume) or arousal (e.g., Zillman, 1978). According to the availability heuristic, we should infer, for example, that there are many words that begin with the letter t if we find it easy to bring relevant examples to mind. This inference is based on the generally correct assumption that it is easier to recall exemplars of a frequent than of an infrequent category. Suppose, however, that you have reason to assume that a temporary situational factor renders words beginning with t more accessible than might otherwise be the case. If so, the experienced ease of recall may reflect this irrelevant influence rather than the actual frequency of words beginning with t. Hence, you may discount the subjective experience as a relevant source of information. Conversely, if you had reason to assume that a temporary situational factor inhibits the recall of words beginning with t but you find them easy to bring to mind nevertheless, the experienced ease of recall should seem particularly diagnostic. The emergence of such discounting and augmentation effects (Kelley, 1972) would provide compelling evidence for the role of experiential information in frequency judgments.

When to use it

Estimating the frequency of events after exposure to vivid news reports.
Judging how many friends have a particular first name based on ease of recall.
When supporting examples come to mind quickly, check whether their availability reflects strong evidence or repeated exposure to the same claim.
Making a decision about future planning by recalling past successes or failures.

FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE

In practice

Words beginning with 't'

Suppose words beginning with 't', such as table, tree, and time, come to mind easily. That ease may suggest the category is frequent. If a recent conversation specifically rehearsed those words, however, the ease has another explanation and is less informative about their actual frequency.

Crime frequency judgments

Repeated coverage of a crime can make examples easy to recall. Before treating that ease as evidence of frequency, ask whether coverage increased, the underlying rate changed, or both.

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A MOMENT TO REFLECT

Put it to work.

When have you judged something as more common because it was easy to recall? How might you adjust for irrelevant factors?
How could the ease of recall influence your decisions in everyday life, such as estimating risk or making purchases?
What situational factors might make recall easier or harder, and how should you account for them to avoid bias?