Editing Recognition heuristic (section)

== Neuropsychological evidence ==
The recognition heuristic can also be depicted using neuroimaging techniques. A number of studies have shown that people do not automatically use the recognition heuristic when it can be applied, but evaluate its ecological validity. It is less clear, however, how this evaluation process can be modeled. A functional magnetic resonance imaging study tested whether the two processes, recognition and evaluation, can be separated on a neural basis.<ref name="Volz">{{cite journal | last1 = Volz | first1 = KG | last2 = Schooler | first2 = LJ | last3 = Schubotz | first3 = RI | last4 = Raab | first4 = M | last5 = Gigerenzer | first5 = G | last6 = von Cramon | first6 = DY | year = 2006 | title = Why you think Milan is larger than Modena: neural correlates of the recognition heuristic | journal = J. Cogn. Neurosci. | volume = 18 | issue = 11| pages = 1924–36 | pmid = 17069482 | doi = 10.1162/jocn.2006.18.11.1924 | hdl = 11858/00-001M-0000-0025-8060-3 | s2cid = 15450312 | hdl-access = free }}</ref> Participants were given two tasks; the first involved only a recognition judgment ("Have you ever heard of Modena? Milan?"), while the second involved an inference in which participants could rely on the recognition heuristic ("Which city has the larger population: Milan or Modena?"). For mere recognition judgments, activation in the precuneus, an area that is known from independent studies to respond to recognition confidence,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Yonelinas | first1 = AP | last2 = Otten | first2 = LJ | last3 = Shaw | first3 = KN | last4 = Rugg | first4 = MD | year = 2005 | title = Separating the brain regions involved in recollection and familiarity in recognition memory | url = http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/175800/1/yonelinas_jnsci_2005.pdf | journal = J. Neurosci. | volume = 25 | issue = 11 | pages = 3002–8 | doi = 10.1523/jneurosci.5295-04.2005 | pmid = 15772360 | pmc = 6725129 | access-date = 2023-02-27 | archive-date = 2023-02-27 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230227055828/http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/175800/1/yonelinas_jnsci_2005.pdf | url-status = live }}</ref> was reported. In the inference task, precuneus activation was also observed, as predicted, and activation was detected in the anterior frontomedian cortex (aFMC), which has been linked in earlier studies to evaluative judgments and self-referential processing. The aFMC activation could represent the neural basis of this evaluation of ecological rationality.

Some researchers have used [[Event-related potential|event-related potentials (ERP)]] to test psychological mechanisms behind the recognition heuristic. Rosburg, Mecklinger, and Frings used a standard procedure with a city-size comparison task, similar to that used by Goldstein and Gigerenzer. They used ERP and analyzed familiarity-based recognition occurring 300-450 milliseconds after stimulus onset in order to predict the participants’ decisions. Familiarity-based recognition processes are relatively automatic and fast so these results provide evidence that simple heuristics like the recognition heuristic utilize basic cognitive processes.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Rosburg | first1 = T. | last2 = Mecklinger | first2 = A. | last3 = Frings | first3 = C. | year = 2011 | title = When the brain decides: A familiarity-based approach to the recognition heuristic as evidenced by event-related brain potentials | journal = Psychological Science | volume = 22 | issue = 12| pages = 1527–1534 | doi = 10.1177/0956797611417454 | pmid = 22051608 | s2cid = 41101972 }}</ref>