Dual Processing Models Flashcards
Dual process models
- Includes automatic cognitive processes that happen outside of conscious awareness
- Dual: Includes ignored reasoned processes
Frequent repetition
- If something is familiar, it is hard to distinguish from truth, even if false
- We absorb and believe
Heuristics
- Mental shortcut allowing people to make decisions quickly, even if incorrect
- We use them to reduce task complexity of our thinking, judgement, and choice
Biases
- The resulting gaps between normative and heuristically determined behaviour
- Gap between what we actually do and heuristics
- They are important and influence us!
Cognitive Biases
-Systematic errors in judgement (the ways we think) based on heuristics
Confirmation Bias
- Happens when we have preconception/hypothesis about an issue
- We tend to favour information that corresponds with prior beliefs and disregard contrary evidence
- We search, code, and interpret information consistent with our assumptions
- Confirms our own beliefs–> this is truth because what I see matches what I believe
- Ties into our ego –> we search for what we believe in
Health behaviour confirmation bias
- Think about things you do/don’t enjoy doing
- E.g. don’t want COVID vaccine so search for information to support against the vaccine
Hindsight Bias
- People evaluate events after they occurred and judge it as more predictable than it was before it happened
- “I KNEW this was going to happen”
Health behaviour hindsight bias
- “I am currently in this health state because I knew what would happen if I didn’t do this”
- Others use this to affect our health and motivation –> “I told you this would happen if you did that”
Bias Blindspot
-We recognize others’ bias but not how we are personally biased
Automatic processing
- System 1
- Automatic: memory activated association
- Fast: brain operating quickly (10-15ms)
- Low cognitive effort: not spending mental energy for processes to happen
Reasoned Processing
- System 2
- Deliberative: Choosing to think
- Slow: Taking time to think (<1 second)
- High cognitive effort: thinking is hard work and it takes effort to choose
“Humans are lazy thinkers” means…
- We default to System 1 and tend to make decisions form it
- We default to heuristics and biases and do things without thinking why we are doing them
Habits
- Default response unless there is motivation to change behaviour
- Behaviour done with little thinking that occur by repeatedly performing a goal-directed behaviour in the same context
- e.g. Taking stairs instead of elevator (Behavioural habit)
How do habits develop?
With intermittent reinforcement and repetition
Intermittent reinforcement
You keep coming back because an unknown. (e.g. slot machines)
When do we use habits?
- When stressed or have impaired executive functioning
- Stress = less ability to cope and think
Impaired executive functioning
- Our ability to think
- e.g. Self regulatory processes, ability to stop and think about goals
How do habits change?
- Habits don’t become less strong
- We get better at being able to say No or change/increase our cognitive control
- Increased abilities (e.g. self regulatory processes)
- We can work to try to control it
- First step is knowing what context it is happening in and why you are doing it/why it is affecting you
Do people know of their habitual behaviour?
- People are likely aware of habitual behaviour but unaware of triggering cues
- e.g. Not thinking about how a grocery store is lad out
The Reflective Impulsive Model
- Impulsive = System 1
- Reflective/Reasoned = System 2
- it is always back and forth; our emotions operate automatically
- E.g. you can have an automatic negative association of exercise as unpleasant but become persuaded that it is fun and then choose to bet active
Automatic Processes
- Associations in memory
- Result of the interaction between pre-existing associations and current external inputs
- If we see things repeated or paired often/ in certain contexts, we associate them in our long term memories (not front of mind/working memories)
Reflective processes
- AKA Reasoned responses
- Reasoning about the validity of automatically activated associations
- Stopping to think about something
- Something brought to front of mind but you stop to think if it is actually true/ whether you believe the bias or stereotype
- Take the time to think
- System 2
Automatic Processes that influence our health behaviours
- Habits
- Impulses
- Affect
Impulses
- Immediate response to approach rewarding stimuli
- We are automatically impulsively drawn to things that reward us
- e.g. do what you want because it is rewarding
Affect
- Emotions
- We do things we like to do and do those more automatically than things we don’t like to do and need motivation for
- It is easier to do behaviour you want to think about if you actually like doing it
- Harder to be motivated if you are trying to motivate yourself to do something you don’t like to do
Impulsive processes around food
- We respond to food ads emotionally that is under the radar of critical thinking
- Some ads promise intense taste experience and make us have intimate relationship with products
- We know we are being manipulated but if in a rush, we may not stop to think
- Our food environments are being manipulated and created to help us make an impulsive choice
Using Implementation Intentions to stop an impulsive choice
“IF I am in this situation and I know it will cause me trouble, THEN…”
What affects Affect?
- Environmental cues activate affective associations (things in our environment remind us about things and trigger emotions; e.g. hearing favorite song so we feel happy)
- Subsequent controlled, reflective evaluations of PA depend on the affective response (we need to think about our attitudes, intentions, and motivations)
- Sometimes the motivational hurdle is just working through our emotional response
How can we overcome automatic behaviours?
- If we have coping skills to handle stress = overcome automatic behaviours
- If we have strong associations but have strong executive skills, we can override automatic behaviours!
- When strongly motivated, we can overcome the superficial factors that produce illusions of truth
- e.g. “I don’t believe these superficial factors that the chips are as good as the ad is trying to tell me… so I overcome”
Implicit Attitudes Test
- A way we can measure operationalizing automatic associations that are triggered
- Response time task to categorize items as quickly as possible under time pressure
- Assumption: people respond more rapidly when the concept and attribute mapped onto the same response are strongly associated (mapped on the same response key)
Implicit Attitudes
- Can be based on memory associated between concepts that are not based on truth or reflect automatically activated propositions that may be subjectively thought to be true
- e.g. May find out you are strongly associating women with negative things, but don’t believe that; the memory associations are there because of things we see and you have to work to overcome it
Sedentary Behaviour and Implicit Attitudes Study
- Higher implicit attitudes/ associations of sedentary with happy = lower PA in people with LOW and MODERATE executive functions, but not high executive functions
- People with lower levels of executive functions (less able to self-regulate, stop and think, less goal setting skills, etc) did not engage in PA; less able to forego immediate pleasures/impulsive needs
- Strong executive functions could override automatic processes and impulsive needs
- We may have strong associations to being sedentary but if we ALSO have strong executive skills, we can override that!*
Gut Reactions
- Associations that exist in memory
- System 1
- Emotional
- Created through learning and experience