If the focus is on specific subgroups, such as the very old, it is useful to rely on (ex ante) stratified sampling with oversampling of the subpopulations with relatively fewer individuals.
That is, perceivers may find it particularly useful to rely on associations formed through past experiences as they generate predictions about what another person may be thinking or feeling in ambiguous or uncertain situations (Mitchell forthcoming).
Sports like baseball and basketball generate all sorts of metrics that observers can use to fact-check their suppositions; fight fans, faced with tiny sample sizes and a paucity of useful data, are left to rely upon unfalsifiable theories and unscientific anecdotes.
In the ecological literature on learning, there is a growing body of evidence indicating that, in many tasks, humans have to learn to rely on the useful informational patterns (e.g., Fajen, 2008; Fajen & Devaney, 2006; Jacobs et al., 2001, 2009; Kayed & van der Meer, 2000, 2007; Michaels & de Vries, 1998; Runeson & Andersson, 2007; van Hof, van der Kamp, & Savelsbergh, 2006).
First, earlier studies have revealed that when provided with feedback, perceivers can learn to rely on more useful, or even specifying, mechanical variables in their estimation of length (Arzamarski, Isenhower, Kay, Turvey, & Michaels, 2010; Menger & Withagen, 2009; Michaels, Arzamarski, Isenhower, & Jacobs, 2008; Wagman, Shockley, Riley, & Turvey, 2001; Withagen & Michaels, 2005).
11 12 13 14 15 And journalists seem to find press releases useful; 13 15 in fact, some appear to rely on them.
These are useful considerations, but ultimately you'll want to rely on an expert opinion.
Indeed, perception and action can improve by learning to rely on the more useful information (Gibson & Gibson, 1955).
This means that a perceiver can improve the accuracy of the judgment by learning to rely on the more useful variables.
Although these tools were useful, they often lacked rigor and marketing decisions tended to rely on a mixture of intuition and experience, rather than robust data and analysis.
"We have to rely on the voters".
