110 likes | 227 Views
ACH: Analysis of Competing Hypotheses. Presented by: Jingshan Huang. Background: Problems with Intuitive Analysis. Human working memory limits the amount of information that can be simultaneously heeded
E N D
ACH: Analysis of Competing Hypotheses Presented by: Jingshan Huang
Background: Problems with Intuitive Analysis Human working memory limits the amount of information that can be simultaneously heeded • Human perception is biased towards interpretation of information into existing schemas and existing expectations • Reasoning is subject to a variety of well-documented heuristics and biases • People typically fail to generate hypotheses • Fail to consider the diagnosticity of evidence • Fail to focus on disconfirmation of hypotheses
So, here comes ACH! ACH is designed to ameliorate these problems with intuitive intelligence analysis that arise from human psychology.
8 steps in ACH approach • Identify possible hypotheses • Make a list of significant evidence for/against • Prepare a Hypothesis versus Evidence matrix • Refine matrix. Delete evidence and arguments that have no diagnosticity
8 steps in ACH approach – cont. • Draw tentative conclusions about relative likelihoods. Try to disprove hypotheses • Analyze sensitivity to critical evidential items • Report conclusions • Identify milestones for future observations
Summary • The ACH method offers benefits for systematically considering multiple hypotheses and avoiding confirmation bias. • It is easy to use and provides a basis for documenting the evidence used and the hypotheses considered • It supports a process for generating and comparing hypotheses under circumstances when accurate probabilistic scoring is not feasible
One more comment • There is no guarantee that ACH or any other procedure will produce a correct answer • However, ACH DOES guarantee an appropriate process of analysis