Timeline of Amos Tversky
Amos Tversky's life and work, 1937–1996, from mathematical measurement and similarity to heuristics, framing, and prospect theory with Daniel Kahneman.
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- 17 events 1937 – 1996
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1937: Tversky is born in Haifa
Amos Tversky was born in Haifa in Mandatory Palestine. His later work combined mathematical approaches to measurement with experiments on how people compared options, judged probabilities, and made choices under uncertainty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Tversky1961: Tversky graduates from the Hebrew University
Amos Tversky completed his undergraduate degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He continued his training in the United States, developing the mathematical and experimental approach that characterized his subsequent research.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Tversky1965: Tversky completes his doctorate in Michigan
Amos Tversky earned his doctorate in psychology at the University of Michigan under Clyde Coombs. His research on preferences and measurement preceded the judgment experiments that later made his collaboration with Daniel Kahneman widely known.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Tversky1969: Tversky reports intransitive preferences
Amos Tversky published "Intransitivity of Preferences," examining choices that could cycle rather than form a consistent ranking. The experiments challenged a standard assumption of decision models and developed an account based on how alternatives were compared.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intransitivity1969: Tversky begins working with Kahneman
Amos Tversky's visit to Daniel Kahneman's seminar began a sustained collaboration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Their early discussions focused on whether researchers themselves understood the uncertainty inherent in small samples.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kahneman1971: Tversky coauthors "Foundations of Measurement"
Amos Tversky, R. Duncan Luce, David Krantz, and Patrick Suppes published the first volume of "Foundations of Measurement". The work examined conditions under which qualitative relations could be represented numerically, giving measurement a rigorous mathematical foundation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_conjoint_measurement1971: Tversky and Kahneman question small-sample reasoning
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman described a tendency to treat small samples as excessively representative of their populations. Their first joint paper connected intuitive statistical errors with experimental design and the interpretation of research results.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insensitivity_to_sample_size1972: Tversky proposes elimination by aspects
Amos Tversky developed a model in which people selected an attribute and eliminated options lacking it, repeating the process until one remained. Elimination by aspects offered an alternative to choosing through a complete numerical comparison of every option.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristic_(psychology)1973: Tversky and Kahneman describe the availability heuristic
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman studied how ease of recall or construction influenced judgments of frequency and probability. The work explained how a useful mental shortcut could also make vivid or accessible examples disproportionately influential.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic1977: Tversky models similarity through shared features
Amos Tversky published "Features of Similarity," proposing that judgments depended on common and distinctive features rather than only geometric distance. The model could accommodate asymmetries that conventional distance-based accounts treated as problematic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tversky_index1978: Tversky joins Stanford's psychology faculty
Amos Tversky joined Stanford University's faculty after an earlier visiting appointment. Stanford became his institutional base for research on judgment, choice, and negotiation during the remainder of his career.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Tversky1979: Tversky and Kahneman publish prospect theory
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced a descriptive account of risky choice based on gains and losses around a reference point. Prospect theory became a central bridge between experimental psychology and economic models of decision-making.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_theory1981: Tversky and Kahneman demonstrate framing effects
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman showed that equivalent consequences could produce different choices when described as gains or losses. Their experiments challenged the assumption that preferences remained unchanged when only the presentation of a problem changed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_effect_(psychology)1983: Tversky and Kahneman investigate conjunction judgments
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman used problems including the fictional Linda to examine probability judgments. Many participants rated a conjunction as more likely than a constituent event, revealing a conflict between representative descriptions and the rules of probability.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjunction_fallacy1984: Tversky receives a MacArthur fellowship
The MacArthur Foundation selected Amos Tversky for a fellowship recognizing his work on human judgment and choice. The recognition accompanied a research program that connected psychology with economics, law, and other fields concerned with decisions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Tversky1992: Tversky and Kahneman refine prospect theory
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced cumulative prospect theory, modifying how decision weights were assigned to uncertain outcomes. The revised framework addressed problems in the original theory and broadened the range of prospects it could represent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulative_prospect_theory1996: Tversky dies at fifty-nine
Amos Tversky died on June 2 in Stanford, California. His work on measurement, similarity, and choice remained influential alongside the joint research for which Daniel Kahneman later received the economic sciences prize.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Tversky