However, for the other two I ‘just see’ the correct answer. Is this common for other people, or do you have a different split?
I think I figured out and verified the answer to all 3 questions in 5-10 seconds each, when I first heard them (though I was exposed to them in the context of “Take the cognitive reflection test which people fail because the obvious answer is wrong”, which always felt like cheating to me).
If I recall correctly, the third question was easier than the second question, which was easier than bat & ball: I think I generated the correct answer as a suggestion for 2 and 3 pretty much immediately (alongside the supposedly obvious answers), and I just had to check them. I can’t quite remember my strategy for bat & ball, but I think I generated the $0.1 ball, $1 bat answer, saw that the difference was $0.9 instead of $1, adjusted to $0.05, $1.05, and found that that one was correct.
This is pretty much the same for me. I think the solution to bat and ball of “10cents, oh no, that doesn’t work. Split the difference evenly for 5 cents? yup that’s better” is all done on system 1.
Kahneman’s examples of system 1 thinking include (I think) a Chess Grandmaster seeing a good chess move, so he includes the possibility of training your system 1 to be able to do more things. In the case of the OP, system 1 has been trained to really understand exponential growth and ratios. I think that for me both “quickly check that your answer is right” and “try something vaguely sensible and see what happens” are both ingrained as general principles that I don’t have to exert effort to apply them to simple problems.
A problem which I would volunteer for a CRT is the snail climbing out of a well. Here there’s an obvious but wrong answer but I think if you realise that it’s wrong then the correct answer isn’t too hard to figure out.
I think I figured out and verified the answer to all 3 questions in 5-10 seconds each, when I first heard them (though I was exposed to them in the context of “Take the cognitive reflection test which people fail because the obvious answer is wrong”, which always felt like cheating to me).
If I recall correctly, the third question was easier than the second question, which was easier than bat & ball: I think I generated the correct answer as a suggestion for 2 and 3 pretty much immediately (alongside the supposedly obvious answers), and I just had to check them. I can’t quite remember my strategy for bat & ball, but I think I generated the $0.1 ball, $1 bat answer, saw that the difference was $0.9 instead of $1, adjusted to $0.05, $1.05, and found that that one was correct.
This is pretty much the same for me. I think the solution to bat and ball of “10cents, oh no, that doesn’t work. Split the difference evenly for 5 cents? yup that’s better” is all done on system 1.
Kahneman’s examples of system 1 thinking include (I think) a Chess Grandmaster seeing a good chess move, so he includes the possibility of training your system 1 to be able to do more things. In the case of the OP, system 1 has been trained to really understand exponential growth and ratios. I think that for me both “quickly check that your answer is right” and “try something vaguely sensible and see what happens” are both ingrained as general principles that I don’t have to exert effort to apply them to simple problems.
A problem which I would volunteer for a CRT is the snail climbing out of a well. Here there’s an obvious but wrong answer but I think if you realise that it’s wrong then the correct answer isn’t too hard to figure out.