Individual Differences Explination 2: Cognitive Biases Flashcards
What is the base thinking behind cognitive biases as an explination for addiction
Research believes that humams have a particular way of aproaching decision making and making judgements off of probablities , called heuristics
What are heuristics?
Mental shortcuts used to solve a problem or make a decision and they often focus on one thing at the expense of others
What are the two types of heuristics typically attached to gambling?
Representativeness and avaliability
What is the representativeness heuristic?
The belief that random events actually have a pattern
(e.g the idea that a coin fliped 20 times would be 10 times H and 10 times T when in reality its random)
How could the representativeness heuristic link to a gambling addiction?
The gambler’s fallacy is the belief that because something is happening more frequently it’ll happen less frequently in the future. Problem gamblers may try to ‘learn’ the pattern of the game and they can be ‘due’ a win
Research showed when black was span 26 times on a roulette wheel, gamblers rushed to be on red as it was ‘due’
How does the availability heuristic work?
It works on the idea that an event is more likely if it is easier to recall from memory
How could the availability heuristic explain a gambling addiction?
People may be encouraged to keep gambling if they believe they are likely to win
E.g slot machines making loads of noise when someone wins , sticks in peoples mind
What behaviour do we commonly attach heuristics too?
Gambling
What are the 4 evaluation points for cognitive biases?
Supporting evidence
Decription or explination?
Issues with research
Everyone exihibits biases
What is the supporting evidence for cognitive biases? (Evaluation)
Research compared the verbalisations of 30 regular gamblers and 30 non gamblers whilst on a fruit machine, found that regular gamblers showed more irrational verbalisations (14% to 2.5%) shows evidence cognitive bias
Explain the evaluation point of description or explanation (cognitive biases)
It is argued that cognitive biases only provide a description of the thoughts of gamblers, rather than an explination of the cause of gambling, explinations of behaviour should be able to predict circumstances, whereas its impossible to predict cognitive biases
Explain the issues with research on cognitive biases (evaluation)
Questionnaires succumb to social desirability bias, verbalisation of thought requires researchers to decide what bias is being shown, as a result its susceptible to research bias
Explain the evaluation point that everyone exhibits cognitive biases
One issue is that the same cognitve biases can be found among non-gamblers and those who gamble but arent addicted, therfore, what causes the addiction in the select few addicts?
