Cognitive Biases Flashcards
Cognitive biases are concerned with what?
- How we THINK about behaviour.
If we were rational, we wouldn’t become addicted. Why?
- The costs (financial outgoings, effects on relationships) outweigh the benefits (pleasure experienced).
Definite cognitive biases.
- Errors in thinking.
What do cognitive biases explain?
- Why humans initiate and continue with damaging behaviours.
What did Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (1973) find?
heuristics and cognitive biases
- Humans have a particular way if decision-making and making judgements of probabilities.
When making decisions/judgements, we make mental shortcuts. What are these?
(heuristics and cognitive biases)
- Heuristics.
What are heuristics and why are they useful?
- Mental shortcuts.
- Don’t always have time/resources to compare info before making a choice.
- Heuristics are useful because they help reach a decision quickly and efficiently.
Heuristics can be disadvantageous. Why?
- They can lead to deviation from the logical decision that should have been made, and can lead to cognitive biases.
There are 2 heuristics used to explain problem gambling. Name them.
- Representativeness.
- Availability.
If a heuristic is selected on the wrong occasion it can cause problems. Give an example.
(applying to gambling)
- Gambler may continue to gamble even when losing.
Define reprasentativeness.
- The individual estimates the likelihood of an event by comparing it to an existing prototype within the mind.
- Protoype = what we think is most relevant or typical of an event/object.
- Make more errors in decision making and oberestimate the likelihood of something occurring.
Just because an event/object is representative, doesn’t mean it’s (blank) to occur.
- More likely.
Representativeness = tendency to judge (blank) or (blank) of an event by the extent to which it resembles the typical course.
- Frequency.
- Likehlihood.
Give an example of representativeness.
- 1) 10 coin tosses; most judge HHTTHTHTTH as more likely to occur than HHHHHHHHHH as the first series looks more random and so ‘represents’ the idea of a random series, when in reality both are equally likely.
- 2) Random sequence; 20 coin tosses - suggest ratio should be 50/50 when in reality it may take more throws to reach that pattern.
Gamblers Fallacy is a problem regarding heuristics. What is this?
- Something happens more frequently as normal they judge it as happening less frequently in the future.
Give an example of Gambler’s Fallacy.
- Monte Carlo (1913): roulette wheel showed run of black 26 times in a row.
- Gamblers believed red was ‘due’ so there was a rush to bet on red and money was lost.
- Problem gamblers adopt thinking pattern that that something is ‘due’ a win and that they can predict the outcome of the next bet.
Define availability.
- An event is more likely if it’s easier to recall from memory.
- Decision-making is based on the frequency of hearing about something and how available info is rather than the actual probability.
Give an example of availability.
- Overestimate frequency of cause of death if they’ve experienced it or it’s commonly reported in the media.
In terms of availability, how can gambling be a problem?
- Gamblers are encouraged to engage/continue with the behaviour under the mistaken belief that they’re likely to win.
- Media reports about big wins makes it seem more likely.
- Casinos: slot machines = close together meaning you hear the coins rolling out and think it’s more likely that the same thing will happen to you.
Give some other examples of the availability heuristic.
- Multiple reports about car thefts = Make judgement that vehicle theft in area is more common than reality.
- Reports of job loss = danger of being layed-off = awake at night and worrying.
- TV programmes about shark attacks = think it’s relatively common. Holiday = no swimming as believe probability of attack is high.
- Article on lottery winners = overestimate own likelihood of winning and so spend more on tickets.
Illusion of Control is an example of cognitive biases in gamblers. Define this.
- Falsely believe that if they can control aspects of the process, their chances of success will be improved.
Give an example of the Illusion of Control in gamblers.
- They might win if they choose a particular seat at a roulette table, or throw a dice in a particular way.
Hindsight Bias is an example of cognitive biases in gambling. Define this.
- Claim to not be surprised by the outcome; could have predicted it
- Helps maintain the belief that if skills are improved, they’ll win more consistently.
Self-serving bias is an example of cognitive biases in gambling. Define this.
- The tendency to attribute wins to internal causes, such as their own skill, and losses to external factors such as bad luck l.
- They feel like losses aren’t their fault and so continue to gamble.
Attentional Bias is an example of cognitive biases in gamblers. Define this.
- When an addict is paying attention to certain stimuli and ignoring others in environment.
What did Weinstein and Cox (2006) find in terms of the attentional bias?
- Bias plays important role in developments and maintenance of addictive behaviours.
- Bias increases the motivation to engage in the behaviour in the first place.
- Addict pays more attention to stimuli relating to the addiction, exacerbating the problem.
Give an example of the attentional bias.
- Smoking is strongly influenced by environmental cues relating to addictition e.g. smell or advertisements.
What is the test used to investigate the Attentional Bias?
- The Stroop Test.
What is the Stroop Test?
- Shown series of words printed in a colour different to the word.
- Must name the colour not the word.
- Adaption: emotionally neutral words (e.g. ‘change’ / ‘song’) or words linking to addiction (e.g. ‘coke’/ ‘uppers’).
- Longer to name the colour the addiction words are written in shows that attention is taken up the the word itself, and example of cognitive biases.
Bjorn Johnsen at am (1997) compared active smokers, abstinent smokers and non-smokers in their responses to an addiction Stroop Test. What did they find?
- Smokers had a longer reaction time than the other 2 groups suggesting support for the role of the attentional bias.
