Cognitive Biases
- Confirmation Bias is the tendency to pay attention to information that confirms existing beliefs and ignore contradictory ideas.
Example
If you meet someone who you don't like on first impression, you may notice their irritating behaviours more than their kind ones.
Case study
Mendel et al. (2011)
Aim
Are mental health professionals affected by confirmation bias?
Method
- A decision task was administered to 75 psychiatrists and 75 medical students.
- They either looked for confirmatory information, contradictory information, or balanced information.
Results
- 25% of medical students and 13% of psychiatrists showed confirmation bias.
- Confirmatory search led to participants insisting on the wrong diagnosis and administering wrong treatment in some case.
Note
Critical Thinking
- The % in Mendel et al. (2011) is a relatively small number, telling us that the issue may not be as big as we are making it seem.
- It is still widely agreed that it is incredibly powerful and increases behaviour.
Conditioning
Classical Conditioning
- Classical conditioning was first researched by Ivan Pavlov and John Watson, both of whom participated in the rise behaviourism in the early 1900s.
- They believed we had no free will (determinism) and that we were a product of our environment.
- They believed we should ignore mental process and focus on observable behaviours.
Note
Key Terms
- Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that triggers an automatic response without learning (e.g. salivating when we see food)
- Unconditioned Response (UCR): The response to the UCS that is not learned.
- Neutral Stimulus (NR): A stimulus that has no behavioural response.
- Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that has been paired with an UCS to cause an UCR.
- Conditioned Response (CR): A previously unconditioned response that has been conditioned to occur in response to a previously neutral stimulus.
- In Pavlov's study, Pavlov repeatedly paired the ringing of a bell with food in front of a dog.
- Eventually, the dog salivated at the sound of the bell.
- The dog associated the bell with the fact that food will come.
Tip
In this case:
- The food is the unconditioned stimulus.
- The salivation is the unconditioned response that became a conditioned response.
- The bell is a neutral stimulus that became a conditioned stimulus.
Example
- An example is in advertising.
- If you associate a footballer with greatness, and they start promoting a soda brand, you may begin to associate that soda brand with greatness.
Operant Conditioning
- If a behaviour is reinforced, it is likely to happen again.
- If a behaviour is punished, it is likely that it will happen less frequently.
Note
Key Terms
- Positive Reinforcement: Something that is added that will increase behaviour (e.g. a good grade in response to studying hard)
- Negative Reinforcement: Something that is removed that will increase behaviour (e.g. pain relief after taking a painkiller)
- Positive Punishment: Something that is added that will decrease behaviour (e.g. getting fined for speeding)
- Negative Punishment: Something that is removed that will decrease behaviour (e.g. getting your phone taken away for misbehaving)
Common Mistake
- Do not mistake positive/negative with increasing/decreasing behaviour.
- Positive means something is added, negative means something is getting removed.
- Look to whether it is reinforcement or punishment to see a consequence's effect on behaviour.
Note
Other Important Terms
- Generalization: Doing a behaviour in different (but still similar) situations (e.g. when a child is being potty trained, they learn to go to the bathroom in all toilets, not just their own)
- Discrimination: Doing a behaviour only in the presence of a certain stimulus (e.g. a child learning to say "dad" in response to only their father and not any older man)
- Extinction: When reinforcement is no longer provided so the behaviour disappears/occurs less frequently.
Case study
Skinner's Box Experiment
- Skinner let pigeons go hungry and then placed them in a puzzle box, which had a button that could be pressed for food to be released.
- In one experiment, Skinner let food come every 5 seconds regardless, and the pigeons associated whatever they were doing before with the food, so that behaviour increased.
- In another, he placed a rat with a lever that would let food down the chute.
- The rats quickly learned to associate the lever with food, and they pulled the lever more often.
- Skinner also shocked the rats with the only way to stop the shocks being to pull the lever, which the rats quickly learned to do.
Note
Critical Thinking
- Widely used in different areas, even outside of psychology.
- We must be wise in the way we administer reinforcements and punishments.
Dual Processing Model
- The dual processing model was proposed by Daniel Kahneman (2011).
- It is a model of thinking and decision making.
Note
System 1
- Quick, intuitive, automatic
- Emotional, requires minimal effort
- Influenced by biases/associations
Note
System 2
- Slower than system 1, purposeful, requires calculation
- Rational, uses proper reasoning to come to sensical decisions.
Example
- System 1: Mental maths (e.g. solving 6 + 7)
- System 2: Using the quadratic formula to solve an equation.
Case study
Kivets & Simonson (2003)
- Asked participants if they would like a 50 USD bottle of wine or 55 USD cash.
- 28% of participants chose the wine over the cash.
- While this seems irrational, the participants reasoned they would probably have spent the 50 USD on a necessity rather than something they liked.
Note
Critical Thinking
- Studies are mainly conducted on Western groups, which raises the question of generalizability.
- Phillips et al. (2016) - meta-analysis that found that system 1 and system 2 thinking did not differ in accuracy of results
Schema Theory
- A schema is a mental representation of a concept.
- It helps us make sense of things.
Example
- Think of the process of going to a restaurant. Being seated, ordering, eating, and paying are a list of events you likely have in your restaurant schema.
- So, when you go to an unfamiliar restaurant, you still automatically know what to do.
Note
Alba and Hasher (1983)
- Selection: Choosing what to store and represent.
- Abstraction: Storing a schema's meaning.
- Interpretation: Using background knowledge to help understanding.
- Integration: Forming mental representations.
- Reconstruction: Using memory and schemas to reconstruct an event in memory.
Case study
Bartlett (1932)
Aim
to investigate schema theory
Method
- Read a north american folk tale to participants and asked them to remember it.
- Because the sample is British, they made little sense of the story, and were asked to recall it after a while, variying from days to years (repeated reproduction)
Results
- Participants changed the story when they tried to remember it.
- The story became more like cultural norms, eg canoe to boat, he called this assimilation.
- He also noticed that the story became shorter, he called this leveling,
- Unfamiliar details that weren’t remembered were alternated, he called this sharpening.
Note
Critical Thinking
- Helps explain situations such as stereotyping and prejudice.
- Schema has been criticized for being too abstract and vague.
Social Learning Theory
- Behaviour is modelled and imitated.
Note
Key Steps
- Identification: Identifying with a model.
- Modeling: Learning through observing the model.
- Attention: Paying attention to the model.
- Retention: Remembering the behaviour of the model.
- Motor Reproduction: Being able to reenact the behaviour physically.
- Motivation: Wanting to carry out the behaviour, based on vicarious reinforcement (observing someone else get reinforced for a behaviour).
Applications of SLT
- Language Learning: Enculturation and learning expectations.
- Changing Behaviour: Modeling conflict resolution when two kids are fighting, for example.
Case study
Bandura et al. (1971)
Aim
To see if children will imitate aggression modeled by an adult
Method
- IV: model. DV: aggression observed.
- Children were put in one of 3 conditions. aggressive, non aggressive, and control.
- They observed someone either being very aggressive or very nice to a Bobo doll, and then let them play on their own.
- They were told the toys did not belong to them (to provoke them), and were taken to a new room that had a bobo doll in it.
- They let them play inside for 20 minutes.
Results
- Children exposed to aggressive behaviour imitated the same physical/verbal aggression, and vice versa.
- Same sex models instigated more aggression, with a more significant difference in boys.
- Girls showed more verbal aggression, boys more physical.
- Boys were more aggressive in all conditions
Note
Critical Thinking
- Has wide applicability
- May not necessarily explain things from a biological perspective
Self review
- How might operant conditioning be used to fix a child's behaviour?
- What are the strengths and limitations of schema theory?
- How might confirmation bias influence diagnosis and treatment?
