Amos Tversky: biography of a cognitive psychologist and mathematician

Amos Tversky was a pioneering psychologist who introduced a novel term, cognitive biases. But what can we know more about this author?

Amos Tversky was born in 1937 in Haifa, a city in Israel; He is known for being a cognitive psychologist and mathematician who introduced a completely new term in the field of psychology: cognitive biases. In addition, he is considered a pioneer of cognitivism, an area that deals with the study of the mental processes that are involved in knowledge.

Throughout his professional career, Amos Tversky maintained a deep friendship with Daniel Kahneman, one of the psychologists who enjoys great recognition for having won a Nobel Prize of which Tversky was also a collaborator. For all this, we are going to discover more about this psychologist by delving into his biography.

Biography of Amos Tversky

As we mentioned, Amos Tversky was born in Haifa. His father was a veterinarian and his mother was a social worker. who would become, over the years, a member of parliament for the workers’ party (Mapai). Tversky also had an older sister with whom he was married for about 13 years.

During his adolescence, Tversky not only became interested in literary criticism, but also became a leader of the Nahal, a youth movement that fought against military service. Later, Amos Tversky would serve as a paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces in which he won a decoration for bravery.

“It’s scary to think that you don’t know something. It’s scarier to think that the world is run by people who think they know what they’re doing.”

-Amos Tversky-

After these experiences, in 1961, Tversky managed to graduate from Hebrew University. A few years later, 4 to be exact, pursues his doctorate at the University of Michigan and works as a professor and researcher in psychology and economics.

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His latest work was carried out at the Advanced Center for Studies in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He remained there until his death in 1996. Amos Tversky died of melanoma at the age of 59.

Work with Daniel Kahneman

The friendship that Amos Tversky maintained with Daniel Kahneman did not go unnoticed; both psychologists worked together on various occasions. The first publication they made was an article titled “Belief in the law of small numbers.” which had a great influence in the field of economics. However, the two published numerous subsequent publications, such as: “Judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases” or “In the psychology of prediction.”

He work they did together was so important who, 6 years after Tversky’s death, when Daniel Kahneman received his Nobel Prize, pronounced: “the prize is awarded to me largely for the work I did many years ago with my close friend and colleague Amos Tversky, who died in nineteen ninety six”. The full text of his speech is collected in Daniel Kahneman: Nobel Prize in Economics 2002.

Daniel Kahman

Amos Tversky Awards

The contributions that Tversky made to the field of cognitive psychology were very important. For this reason, he was presented with various awards and recognitions for his research career. Among them, the fact of having been elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Another award he received was from the APA (American Psychological Association), due to the distinguished scientific contribution he had made. Finally, Amos Tversky He was recognized as a doctor with honors in several universities, among which are the universities of: Chicago, Tale, Gothenburg and New York State.

“Intelligence is not only the ability to reason, it is also the ability to find relevant material in memory and focus attention when needed.”

-Amos Tversky-

As we can see, Amos Tversky was a pioneer in cognitive psychology who made very interesting contributions with his great friend Daniel Kahneman. Furthermore, Tversky launched an intelligence test that bears his name and whose important aspects are included in the article Uncertainties of the dimensional analysis of intelligence.

All of Amos Tversky’s publications are truly interesting and can be understood both by an audience familiar with psychological issues and by a broader audience. The concept of cognitive biases and how psychology and mathematics came together was and is, without a doubt, something amazing. However, you We recommend reading The Undo Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds. It was written by Michael Lewis and it is a reading that will help you delve deeper into the friendship and all the work that Amos Tversky did with his friend Daniel Kahneman.

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All cited sources were reviewed in depth by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, validity and validity. The bibliography in this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.

Fernández León, Ángel Manuel, De Guevara Cortés, Rogelio Ladrón, & Madrid Paredones, Rosa Marina. (2017). Behavioral finance in decision making. Fides et Ratio – Magazine of Cultural and Scientific Diffusion of the La Salle University in Bolivia, 13(13), 127-144. Retrieved on August 12, 2019, from http://www.scielo.org.bo/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2071-081X2017000100009&lng=es&tlng=es.Fonseca Patrón, Ana Laura. (2016). The debate about heuristics. A dispute over the criteria of good reasoning between the Heuristics and Bias Tradition and Ecological Rationality. Valenciana, 9(17), 87-115. Retrieved on August 12, 2019, from http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2007-25382016000100087&lng=es&tlng=es.Lewis, M. (2016). The undoing project: A friendship that changed the world. Penguin UK.Pascale, R., & Pascale, G. (2007). Economic decision making: the cognitive contribution in the Simon, Allais and Tversky and Kahneman route. Psychological Sciences, 1(2), 149-170.