If you see a woman enter your classroom on the first day of class that is wearing a suit, carrying a briefcase, and is over 40 years old, you might quickly (and possibly erroneously) decide that she is the professor because she fits your prototype of a professor. If so, you've used the mental shortcut known as the .

The representativeness heuristic.

Explanation:

As shown in the example given, the representativeness heuristic is a process in which an individual compares the similarity of certain objects and organizes them according their category, similitudes, etc. In this case, being a student in a classroom, one would expect that if a person has a certain outfit and age to be a teacher, and enters the classroom, the faster assumption would be to think of her as a teacher.

A representativeness heuristic

Explanation:

A representativeness heuristic is a cognitive bias in which an individual categorizes a situation based on a pattern of previous experiences or beliefs about the scenario. It can be useful when trying to make a quick decision but it can also be limiting because it leads to close-mindedness such as in stereotypes. The question is a typical example of a cognitive bias based on the scenario, she fits the prototype of a professor an assumption is taken immediately.