HE3D321 Final Flashcards
What is a reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods?
Frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth
What do Dual process models include?
- Automatic cognitive processes – independent of intentions, fast, and efficient
- Also include processes that do not depend on propositional mental representations (we don’t think about how true connected pieces of knowledge are)
What does the Dual process model assume about the processes underlying behavior?
Can be broadly categorized into two systems, which are assumed to differ in
- the degree to which they can operate automatically (independent of intentions, fast, efficient)
- the degree to which they depend on propositional mental representations
What is system 1 in the dual processing model (chart)?
Automatic
Fast
Low effort
Independent of working memory
What is system 2 in the dual processing model (chart)?
Deliberative
Slow
High effort
Requires working memory
What is system 1 in the duel processing model?
- functions under distraction, fatigue, and time pressure. And when such cognitive strains are absent.
- it is relatively independent from cognitive resources and therefore operates in an automatic manner,
- it is always active and can lead to responses
What is a heuristic?
A mental shortcut that allows people to make decisions more quickly
- “shortcuts” that humans use to reduce task complexity in judgment and choice, and biases are the resulting gaps between normative behavior and the heuristically determined behavior
What is Confirmation bias?
Having a preconception or hypothesis about a given issue, the tendency is to favor information that corresponds with their prior beliefs and disregard evidence pointing to the contrary. People then search, code, and interpret information in a manner consistent with their assumptions, leading them to biased judgments and decisions.
What is Hindsight bias?
When people evaluate events or outcomes after they have occurred, they sometimes exhibit a hindsight bias when they judge the event as being more predictable then it was before it actually happened.
What are Associative representations?
Connections between things that represent nothing more than mutual activation; e.g., ecological and green
What is Accessibility?
The ease with which things in our memory are retrieved; usually depends on the recency and frequency of prior activation in memory
What are 2 definitions of ‘Implicit’ attitudes?
- Encounter something in your environment and its associated evaluation is activated which spreads (presumes attitudes are difficult to control)
- Unconscious attitudes that people are unable to report (don’t even know they have the attitudes)
How are higher implicit attitudes toward sedentary behaviour associated with PA?
Associated with significantly lower physical activity in participants with low and moderate executive functions, but not high executive functions
What are ‘Gut reactions’?
- associations that exist in memory
(emotional, created through learning and experience)
What are ‘Reasoned responses’?
- take the time to think
(can’t assume people do this)
What are Habits?
Behaviours done with little thinking that occur by repeatedly performing a goal-directed behaviour in the same context; for example, automatically taking the stairs instead of the elevator
How much time for habits to develop?
They take a long time (up to a year)
What are the 3 key elements (steps) of habit?
- Action repeated in a consisted cue context
- Over time, this leads to the formation of a cue-response association in memory
- Once formed, the action becomes cue-contingent: the behaviour is automatically activated when the cue is encountered.
How do habits operate?
Independently of goals
What are habit cues?
Things such as physical location (a room in your house), completing a task (getting up), or a scripted sequence of events (brushing your teeth)
How do habits change? (3 WORDS)
Through increased cognitive control, not through decreased habit strength
How does habit formation work? (what is required)
- Requires the identification of a specific behaviour that can be performed easily in an enabling environment
- Materials need to be available (dental floss if you’re trying to develop the habit of flossing)
- Critical cue for action needs to be identified -event based cues are better than time-based cues. (after I eat dinner is better than 7 pm)
- A plan to do the action when the cue is encountered must be formed and enacted consistently over a long period of time
How can you make a new healthy habit?
- Decide on a goal to achieve for your health.
- Choose a simple action that will get you towards your goal that you will do daily.
- Plan when and where you will do your chosen action. Be consistent: choose a time and place you encounter every day.
- Every time you encounter that time and place, do the action.
- It will get easier with time, within 10 weeks you should be doing it automatically without even thinking about it.
What are Behavioural slips? What is an example?
- Strong habits are provoked by context cues without a person even realizing they are doing the action.
Ex: Study looked at smokers before and after a law was enacted that banned smoking in public places, including pubs.
Some smokers reported putting a cigarette in their mouth and lighting it, without thinking, and it was more likely to have happened when they were distracted like talking to someone.
How can you undo a habit?
- People are likely aware of habitual behaviour but unaware of cues that trigger it so need to work on preventing activation of the cue-response association
OR by preventing enactment of the habitual response by ignoring the cue, working to not do the behaviour, or substitute a different response. - That is HARD to do!
What are some strategies to undo habits?
- Limit exposure to cues
- Habit discontinuity hypothesis: take advantage of new contexts to learn new habit
- Retrain mental associations
- Ignore cue or substitute new action in response to cue
- Use monitoring and effortful inhibition to limit responding
What is affect (emotions)?
We do things we like to do and so will do those things more automatically than things we don’t like to do and have to work up our motivation
How is affect defined?
As an evaluative neurobiological state that is demonstrated by:
- Coordinated patterns of physiological (hormones, heart rate) and involuntary behavioural (facial expression, vocalizations) changes
- Subjective feelings (what we say we are feeling: angry, happy, sad, embarrassed)
Affect is an “umbrella” term that
encompasses what?
Core affect, emotions, mood
What is core affect?
Responses such as pleasure/displeasure
- Always present when conscious but not always the focus of attention
- Changes in core affect underlie more complex appraisal-based emotions and moods
What are Emotions?
(anger, fear, sorrow, joy) involve appraisals of specific things which lead to physiological and/or behavioural responses
ex: if you’re angry because you think you
weren’t treated fairly, you might have increased heart rate, flushed skin, a scowl, and an increase in negative core affect
What is Mood?
(happy, sad, anxious) involve the same things as emotions but are broader, last longer, and are less focused on a specific thing. Ex: you might be grumpy but you can’t attribute it to anything specific and it can last for a long time
What is Affect change
Generally through messages
- Including fear appeals
- Targeting affective attitudes
- Anticipated affect – Usually anticipated regret; Ex, if I do not go for cancer screening, I will feel regret
What type of messages are needed?
Messages are needed that target positive affect in combination with messages that give self-regulatory tips.
What is the difference of thinking about gains vs. thinking about loss?
If we are thinking about gains, we want to avoid risk but when thinking about loss, people are more open to thinking about risk
Preventive behaviours generally better promoted by gain-framed messages and detection behaviours better with loss-framed.
What is an example of prevention through
1. Gain-framed
2. Loss-framed
- Bring physically active improves mood.
- Not being physically active can increase risk of depression.
What is an example of detection through
1. Gain-framed
2. Loss-framed
- Early detection of cancer can save your life
- Late detection of cancer can lead to premature death
What is Reactance?
An emotional response to attempts at coercion, prohibition or regulation
- Leads people to take opposite view of what is imposed
- Motivates people to do the opposite of what is recommended
What is Cognitive dissonance?
Psychological discomfort that occurs when a person encounters counter-attitudinal information.
- Motivation to reduce the dissonance
- Could discredit the course of the counter-attitudinal information
- Avoid contradictory information
- MIGHT actually adjust their attitudes in the direction of the new information.
How can you avoid reactance?
Gentle messages – only slightly off neutral in content
What are Attitudes?
Evaluations of objects, persons, behaviours, ideas, or events.
Typically thought of in terms of valence such as bad/good, positive/negative, dislike/like
What are attitudes central in?
- How we view others: like, love, hate;
- Interpersonal relations: stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination
- How we view objects including consumer items, where we live, our environment
- How we view policies such as mandatory vaccinations or seatbelt laws
Where are attitudes stored?
Long-term memory
What is the Elaboration likelihood model?
- Routes to attitude change (could be positive or negative)
- Central Route Processing
- Peripheral Route Processing
What is Central route (systematic) processing?
(LOTS of thinking)
- Involves greater cognitive elaboration
- Meaning of message is critical to persuasion
What is Peripheral route processing?
(VERY LITTLE thinking)
- Involves little systematic processing
- Other characteristics of message or likely more important
What is Central route to persuasion?
Asking people to consider the information
- People have time
- People have knowledge
- The topic is personally relevant
- Decision made on basis of: Strength of arguments, Fairness of arguments
- Central processing is associated with more stable attitude change.
What is Peripheral route to persuasion?
Relies much less on thinking and more on heuristics
- People don’t have time
- People don’t have capability
- No knowledge
- Poor message content
- Message does not have sufficient arguments
- Message is not personally relevant
- Decision made on basis of ‘peripheral cues’ such as:
Expertise
Large number of arguments
Consensus
Attractiveness, colours, etc
Peripheral processing generally leads to weak, temporary attitude change
What do stronger pre-existing attitudes result in?
Bigger reactance to strong messages
What are ‘neutral’ pre-existing attitudes?
More likely to consider two sides of an argument
How can you create a positive attitude toward desired behaviour? (health promoting behaviour)
- Present attractive; ‘expert’; reliable model
- Positive information about
*the performance of a behaviour
*the outcomes of a behaviour - For long term behaviour change
*This should be central route: encourage deep processing (thinking)
How can you create a negative attitude toward undesired behaviours? (health harming behaviour)
- Create negative beliefs about
- Behaviour
- outcome of behaviour
- Use attractive, sometimes high status, trustworthy models
- Some behaviours need more of a focus on peripheral decision making
- Health risk behaviours are ‘spur of the moment’ (e.g., smoking) want to create accessible cues to action
