Psychology and Technology Flashcards
What are types of technologies we don’t usually associated with as technology?
cars
typewriter
pen and paper
calendars
screwdrivers (tools)
clock
calculator
what is the illusion of explanatory depth?
we don’t know what we don’t know (instinct blindness with technology)
- People think they know how something WORKS because they know how to USE the technology BUT they can’t explain it (ie. bicycle drawing, toilet)
- Only after people try to explain how the technology works do people realize they know less than they thought
Describe the example of explanatory depth given by the toilet
Ask people what they think they know about the world vs what they actually know:
1. How well do you understand how a toilet flushes? (1-7) OK, tell us how!
2. How well do you understand how a toilet flushes? (1-7)
Ie. toilet flushing: we just press down the lever, but in reality the process is extremely complex → reflex on whether we actually knew how a toilet flushing works (example of instinct blindness)
We know how to USE the toilet but not how a toilet WORKS
–> leads to the question of…
- Why do people not know that they don’t actually know how a toilet works?
- Why do people come to the insight that they don’t know technology just by trying to explain it?
- Is there an incompetence issue or a real knowledge issue
describe the science of cycology study (bicycle drawing study)
- Do you know how a bicycle works? Great! Now draw a functional bicycle
- researchers asked people to draw the frame, pedals, and chain into the given bicycle photo and draw a functional bicycle → a lot of people cannot accurately draw one that is functional
40% of people make mistakes
what percentage of people made mistakes in drawing a functional bicycle?
40% of people make mistakes
what is an example of offloading?
Albert Einstein was asked if he knows what the speed of sound is and his response was “I don’t know. I don’t burden my memory with such facts that I can easily find in a textbook” –> example of offloading
Why should we maintain being somewhat skeptical of the criticisms of technology today?
In the past, people were also skeptical or newspapers and even books → and that they will ruin people’s brains → nowadays, people are doing the same thing, where some people think technology is making is stupid
offloading definition
when we let the world take care of some information for us, and as long as we can access the information, then it is safe and okay.
We just need to know how to USE the technology and how to access it (don’t need to “waste” the brainpower to remember these things)
describe the Searching for explanations Study and its findings
- How well can you answer these questions WITHOUT using outside sources? And they categorized the questions into different types
Ie. Why can’t x-rays penetrate lead?
Why are so many people allergic to peanuts?
Why can’t HIV be transmitted through saliva?
Why can’t you drink alcohol on antibiotics? - then researchers asked How does a zipper work? –> Two groups of people (one can use google and one cannot use google)
- “Please search howstuffworks.com to find an article that will tell you the answer” - Then they asked them how well do you rate your ability to answer these trivia questions (NOT about zippers) vs you were in the group of finding the articles yourself vs you didn’t use the internet?
Results: People who were in the internet access group thought they knew more about gluten than people who didn’t have access to it even though the information they were provided with from google was about zippers and NOT the random trivia questions
- people who used the internet were also more willing to bet money that they would will a trivia contest against another subject
–> Internet inflates estimates of internal knowledge
- Since internet is so accessible people rely on it hella and they think they know a lot
- Having the Internet at our fingertips makes us all feel smarter
What are 2 examples of technology being smarter or better at than humans?
Chess and Go
What are 3 examples given in lecture of the limitations to technology/AI?
ChatGPT hallucinations (aka bullshitting)
robot cannot put a box on a counter
image-recognition AI cannot accurately describe a photo (ie. man playing a violin, AI described as “a man wearing a hat on a skateboard”
–> struggle at simple tasks that 5 year olds can go but can beat us at complex games (chess and go)
ChatGPT mistakes and concerns about using ChatGPT?
- Can get Chat to say things we wouldn’t say
- Can make us worse at writing and we don’t learn how to write ourselves → can hear that worry as old-fashioned thinking the way that people used to think that about calculators and math skills
“Hallucinations”: Chat will often make stuff up and bullshit things, including in an academic context → it will make up…
- Academic references
- Historical events
- Biographical details
and even if you ask Chat to tell the truth and not make stuff up, it still makes it up → people making these technologies don’t know how to stop it
–> Humans are better at telling what is true and false (having common sense)
What are ChatGPT hallucinations? and give 3 examples of what it specifically makes up
Chat will often make stuff up and bullshit things, including in an academic context → it will make up…
1. academic references
2. historical events
3. biographical details
(even if you ask Chat to tell the truth)
