What are heuristics? How do they help us make decisions or solve problems? How do they hinder decision making and problem solving? What does the study of heuristics tell us about how our mind works?

The nature of heuristics and the role that they play in the interpretation and explanation of human behaviour can not be overlooked in the study of cognitive psychology. Heuristics, put in simple terms, can be recognised and defined as shortcuts employed by humans to draw up potential solutions to a task, or problem at the beginning of the problem and are widely recognised as highly effective, remarkably good methods for making spontaneous and rapid decisions or judgements even under heavy time constraints. As for how they can be considered as either helpful or as a hindrance in the decision making process and in problem solving, there are obvious implications from the very nature of the concept of heuristics, such as the time saving and convenience of such shortcuts and the possible drawback of making…(short extract)