J. Cogn. Neurosci.
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(Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2006;18:1924-1936.)
© 2006 The MIT Press

Why You Think Milan is Larger than Modena: Neural Correlates of the Recognition Heuristic

Kirsten G. Volz1, Lael J. Schooler2, Ricarda I. Schubotz1, Markus Raab3, Gerd Gigerenzer2 and D. Yves von Cramon1

1 Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany, 2 Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany, 3 University of Flensburg, Germany

Reprint requests should be sent to Kirsten G. Volz, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences P.O. Box 500 355, D-04303 Leipzig, Germany, or via e-mail: volz{at}cbs.mpg.de, www.cbs.mpg.de.

When ranking two alternatives by some criteria and only one of the alternatives is recognized, participants overwhelmingly adopt the strategy, termed the recognition heuristic (RH), of choosing the recognized alternative. Understanding the neural correlates underlying decisions that follow the RH could help determine whether people make judgments about the RH's applicability or simply choose the recognized alternative. We measured brain activity by using functional magnetic resonance imaging while participants indicated which of two cities they thought was larger (Experiment 1) or which city they recognized (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, increased activation was observed within the anterior frontomedian cortex (aFMC), precuneus, and retrosplenial cortex when participants followed the RH compared to when they did not. Experiment 2 revealed that RH decisional processes cannot be reduced to recognition memory processes. As the aFMC has previously been associated with self-referential judgments, we conclude that RH decisional processes involve an assessment about the applicability of the RH.






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