Confirmation and Matching Biases in Hypothesis Testing

1988 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Beattie ◽  
Jonathan Baron
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Hypothesis Testing ◽  
Confirmation Bias ◽  
First Year ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
Thinking Aloud ◽  
Bias Model ◽  
Reasoning Tasks ◽  
Definition Of

A number of investigators have claimed that subjects show confirmation bias on a variety of reasoning tasks. However, subjects who were classified as “confirming” had often selected evidence that could have falsified their hypothesis. In this study we present a novel task in which each piece of evidence is either falsifying or confirming, but not both. This task is similar in structure to Wason's (1966) 4-card task and its negated variant (Evans & Lynch, 1973); hence subjects were asked to perform these two tasks for comparison purposes. Some subjects also provided thinking-aloud protocols, allowing a test of the Johnson-Laird and Wason (1970) information processing model. Subjects were found who showed severe confirmation bias by selecting only evidence that could corroborate, but not falsify, their hypotheses. Several subjects even retained their hypotheses when presented with clearly falsifying evidence. The tendency to show confirmation bias was significantly greater in first-year undergraduates than in more educated subjects. A revised definition of confirmation bias is offered to clarify subjects’ reasons for their selections. In addition to evidence of confirmation bias, support was found for the matching bias model (Wason & Evans, 1975; Evans, 1977), emphasizing the need for sensitivity to individual differences.

A Neural Networks, Information-Processing Model of Joint Attention and Social-Cognitive Development

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Mundy
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Joint Attention ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
First Year ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
Symbolic Thought ◽  
First Year Of Life

A neural networks approach to the development of joint attention can inform the study of the nature of human social cognition, learning, and symbolic thought process. Joint attention development involves increments in the capacity to engage in simultaneous or parallel processing of information about one’s own attention and the attention of other people. Infant practice with joint attention is both a consequence and an organizer of a distributed and integrated brain network involving frontal and parietal cortical systems. In this chapter I discuss two hypotheses that stem from this model. One is that activation of this distributed network during coordinated attention enhances the depth of information processing and encoding beginning in the first year of life. I also propose that with development joint attention becomes internalized as the capacity to socially coordinate mental attention to internal representations. As this occurs the executive joint attention network makes vital contributions to the development of human social cognition and symbolic thinking.

An Information-Processing Approach to Personal Problem Solving

1987 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Paul Heppner ◽  
Charles J. Krauskopf
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Information Process ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
Personal Problems ◽  
Personal Problem ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Information Processing Approach

An information-processing view of personal problem solving is presented, involving the way people take in information, process that information into plans for solutions to personal problems and carry out those plans. An abbreviated view of how we view the effect of some important individual differences is presented. We present a definition of problem, which we see as allowing research that can use methods analogous to those employed in research informal problem solving and in the study of 'experts.' We hope that such research will allow us to target interventions according to particular client weaknesses. We suggest some research directions that have promise of future pay off. Suggestions for counseling are made that derive from our experience in counseling college students.

Organization as an Object of Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 597-605
Author(s):  
E. M. Shironina
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Conceptual Models ◽  
Organizational Management ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Biological Organization ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
Joint Activities ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Reproductive Processes

There is an understanding in the scientific community and business circles that the pace of change has never been as high as it is now, and organizational changes affect all organizations in all sectors of the economy. Change management involves creating appropriate representations of the organization as an object of change – hence the relevance of examining the conceptual models of organization.Aim. The presented study aims to examine the development and evolution of the conceptual models of organization in management theory and practice, with the definition of the type of organizational culture serving as a reflection of the dominant worldview that defines organizational management.Tasks. The authors systematize the conceptual models of organization, identify features and trends in the development of the conceptual models of organization, propose an information processing model for the formation of organizational management that would substantiate the diversity of the conceptual models of organization.Methods. This study uses general scientific methods of cognition and analysis of scientific works of foreign and Russian authors on management.Results. The conceptual models of organization are examined, and the type of organizational culture characteristic of each model is identified. An information processing model for the formation of organizational management is proposed, substantiating the genesis of the diversity of the conceptual models of organization. The study shows that there is no single universal model of organization.Conclusions. The concepts of “human-oriented” organizations are developing within the framework of the “entity – management entity” paradigm. The essence of “human-oriented” organizations is reflected in the following conceptual models: the learning organization (P. Senge, M. Pedler, J. Burgoyne, T. Boydell), the requisite organization (E. Jaques), the horizontal organization (F. Ostroff), the biological organization (F. Gouillart, J. Kelly), the yellow organization (C. Graves, D. Beck, C. Cowan), the green organization (C. Graves, D. Beck, C. Cowan, F. Laloux), the teal organization (C. Graves, D. Beck, C. Cowan, F. Laloux). Each organization creates its own organizational model and the corresponding organizational type of management of joint activities based on its history, cultural environment, and worldview of the organization’s members. The developed conceptual models of organization emphasize the transformative role of the organization’s members and the influence of transformative rather than reproductive processes.

Individual Differences in Cognitive Functioning in the Elderly — Phenomena and Interpretation

1980 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvin J. North ◽  
Hanna K. Ulatowska
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
Motor Patterns ◽  
Marked Individual ◽  
Organic Brain Syndrome ◽  
Sequential Memory ◽  
Organic Brain

Residents (N = 27) of a Jewish home for the aged were given a battery of twenty-five tests of cognitive abilities. Participants included people carrying a diagnosis of organic brain syndrome. Subsets of tests were designed to measure immediate sequential memory, ability to handle categories, and ability to execute motor patterns. There were marked individual differences among participants. Poorer performance was associated with carrying a diagnosis of organic brain syndrome and with a number of other background variables. There was empirical evidence that immediate sequential memory and ability to handle categories can be discriminatively measured. A wide variety of qualitative behavioral phenomena was described. The findings were interpreted in terms of an information-processing model.

How Preliminary Are Preliminary Decisions?

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Schrackmann ◽  
Margit E. Oswald
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Confirmation Bias ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Need For Closure ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Decision Consistency ◽  
The Status ◽  
Biased Information

The present research focuses on the question of whether even a preliminary decision causes a confirmation bias in order to maintain the status quo and examines individual differences in consistency between the preliminary and final decision and biased information processing. Dispositional Need for Closure (NFC, Webster & Kruglanski, 1994 ) was expected to predict revision or maintenance of the preliminary decision (decision consistency) after additional information on the issue was searched for and evaluated. Participants higher on dispositional NFC were less likely to change their preliminary decision than participants lower on dispositional NFC. Furthermore, the effect of NFC on decision consistency was fully mediated by biased information evaluation following the preliminary decision.

The Need to Belong and the Relationship Between Loneliness and Health

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 194-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freda-Marie Hartung ◽  
Britta Renner
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
First Year ◽  
Health State ◽  
Need To Belong ◽  
First Year University ◽  
Perceived Social Isolation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Humans are social animals; consequently, a lack of social ties affects individuals’ health negatively. However, the desire to belong differs between individuals, raising the question of whether individual differences in the need to belong moderate the impact of perceived social isolation on health. In the present study, 77 first-year university students rated their loneliness and health every 6 weeks for 18 weeks. Individual differences in the need to belong were found to moderate the relationship between loneliness and current health state. Specifically, lonely students with a high need to belong reported more days of illness than those with a low need to belong. In contrast, the strength of the need to belong had no effect on students who did not feel lonely. Thus, people who have a strong need to belong appear to suffer from loneliness and become ill more often, whereas people with a weak need to belong appear to stand loneliness better and are comparatively healthy. The study implies that social isolation does not impact all individuals identically; instead, the fit between the social situation and an individual’s need appears to be crucial for an individual’s functioning.

Attachment and Field Dependence: Individual Differences in Information Processing

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizia Vermigli ◽  
Alessandro Toni
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Field Dependence ◽  
Attachment Styles ◽  
Close Relationships ◽  
Adult Age ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Figure Test ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Measure Field

The present research analyzes the relationship between attachment styles at an adult age and field dependence in order to identify possible individual differences in information processing. The “Experience in Close Relationships” test of Brennan et al. was administered to a sample of 380 individuals (160 males, 220 females), while a subsample of 122 subjects was given the Embedded Figure Test to measure field dependence. Confirming the starting hypothesis, the results have shown that individuals with different attachment styles have a different way of perceiving the figure against the background. Ambivalent and avoidant individuals lie at the two extremes of the same dimension while secure individuals occupy the central part. Significant differences also emerged between males and females.

scholarly journals Less Illusion of a Just World in People with Formally Diagnosed Autism and Higher Autistic Traits

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Bertrams
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Locus Of Control ◽  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Autism Diagnosis ◽  
Just World ◽  
External Locus ◽  
General Belief ◽  
Autistic People

AbstractPeople differ in how strongly they believe that, in general, one gets what (s)he deserves (i.e., individual differences in the general belief in a just world). In this study (N = 588; n = 60 with a formal autism diagnosis), whether or not autistic people and those with high autistic traits have a relatively low general belief in a just world is examined. The results revealed the expected relationship between autism/higher autistic traits and a lower general belief in a just world. In a subsample (n = 388), personal belief in a just world, external locus of control, and self-deception mediated this relationship. These findings are discussed in terms of autistic strengths (less biased information processing) and problems (lowered well-being).

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