Understanding the Odds in Life
(53:00)
Item#
8927
©1994
The odds are that most people do not fully understand the statistics of probability. In this thought-provoking program, Microsofts Eric Horvitz, baseball great Cal Ripken, a psychologist, a decision theorist, and a handicapper investigate the function and perception of odds in daily life. Scenarios examined range from blind chance, such as a lottery, to chance mitigated by a measure of control, like playing baseball well enough to make it to the major leagues. The odds involved in horse racing and casino games are also explored, along with the "one more race" syndromean update of B. F. Skinners partial reinforcement theoryand applications of Bayes theorem to artificial intelligence. A Discovery Channel Production. (53 minutes)