Reliability of cognitive processes

Question 1

What are the two topics under the reliability of cognitive processes?

Answer 1

Reconstructive memory and biases in thinking and decision making

Question 2

What studies can be used to illustrate reconstructive memory?

Answer 2

Loftus and Palmer, Bergman and Roedinger

Question 3

What studies illustrate the biases in thinking and decision making?

Answer 3

Jacowitz and Kahneman and Hamilton and Gilford

Question 4

Jacowitz and Kahneman

Answer 4

• To investigate various relationships between anchors and estimates.
• 3 ppts (‘calibration group’) estimated fifteen quantities - from the length of the Mississippi river to the number of female professors at UC Berkeley - and stated how confident they were in their estimates. From these estimates a low and high anchor was calculated for each quantity.
• Ppts were asked to estimate the quantities but had an anchor first and were asked whether they thought the quanitiy was higher or lower than the anchor, then had to state how confident they were in their answer.
• Estimates given following a low anchor were significantly lower than estimates given after a high anchor.
• Ppts who had been given anchors were significantly more confident in their estimates than those in the calibration group where no anchors were given.
• Analysis demonstrated that the simple idea that ppts came up with their own estimate and then compared that to the anchor was not consistent with the results. It seemed that the anchor itself had an impact on ppts’ judgment, possibly because it made a particular type of answer more plausible than it might otherwise be.*