Selective exposure and decision framing: The impact of gain and loss framing on confirmatory information search after decisions

When people make decisions, they often prefer to receive information that supports rather than conflicts with their decision. To date, this effect has mainly been investigated in the context of decisions about gains, whereas decisions about losses have received less attention. Based on Prospect Theory, we expected information search to be differently affected by whether people previously have decided about gains or losses. Three studies have revealed that selectivity of information search is stronger after gain-framed rather than after loss-framed decision problems. An investigation of the underlying psychological processes revealed that gain decisions are made with increased subjective decision certainty (i.e. they are easier and less effortful to make), which in turn systematically increases confirmatory information search.     

THE INTERVIEWER AS HYPOTHESIS TESTER: THE EFFECTS OF IMPRESSIONS OF AN APPLICANT ON INTERVIEWER QUESTIONING STRATEGY

Recent findings in the impression formation literature suggest that individuals seek evidence to confirm initial hypotheses, or preconceptions, which they form about other people prior to interaction, and that seeking confirmatory evidence makes it likely that a hypothesis will be confirmed (Snyder and Swann, 1978). Snyder and Swann suggest that the employment interview is one context in which this process can be expected to operate. Four studies are reported which examine the generalizability of these findings to the employment interview. Consistent use of confirmatory hypothesis testing strategies was not found when experienced interviewers, rather than college students, were used as subjects, nor when the study was set specifically in an employment interview setting, nor when hypotheses about characteristics other than those examined by Snyder and Swann were studied.     

Identity styles and hypothesis-testing strategies

The author investigated the manner in which individuals with different identity styles evaluate information relevant to a trait hypothesis-testing task. Identity style refers to how individuals seek, process, evaluate, and use self-relevant information. In a sample of U.S. college students, the participants with normative identity styles displayed confirmatory biases that served to protect and preserve the hypothesis being evaluated. The students with informational identity styles also used confirmation-biased hypothesis-testing strategies. The participants with diffuse-avoidant styles did not discriminate between confirmatory and disconfirmatory information.     

时间距离对于验证性信息加工的影响

研究基于解释水平理论考察时间距离对于验证性信息加工的影响, 即在个体和组织决策情境中, 人们倾向于偏好选择和高估与自身观点和决策相一致的信息, 而不是非一致性信息。通过4个情境决策实验, 研究结果一致表明近期决策会提高信息搜寻和评估中的验证偏差, 而远期决策会降低它们的验证偏差, 知觉到的决策确定性在其中起到部分中介作用(实验1b)。解释水平(实验2)和期许性/可行性表征(实验3)分别在时间距离对验证性信息加工的影响中起到调节作用, 结果依次表明在低解释水平(高可行性-低期许性特征)条件下, 时间距离与验证性信息加工的负相关关系会得到显著增强, 而在高解释水平(高期许性-低可行性特征)条件下, 时间距离与验证性信息加工的负相关关系会得到显著降低。     

The Role of Task Experience and Prior Knowledge for Detecting Invalid Augmented Feedback while Learning a Motor Skill

Two hypotheses were investigated. These were generated from results reported by Buekers, Magill, and Sneyers (1994) and an uncertainty account of those and other effects on skill learning of erroneous knowledge of results (KR). The first hypothesis proposes that if experienced performers have developed the capability of detecting and correcting errors, then they should not be influenced by erroneous KR in the same way as novices. The second proposes that if information about the invalid feedback is given to subjects prior to the beginning of the practice trials, then the capability for assessing feedback can be accelerated such that subjects who receive this advance information should not be misled by the erroneous KR. The first hypothesis was investigated in Experiment 1 by having subjects practise an anticipation timing task for 450 trials. One group received correct KR on all trials, and another group received no KR. Half of the subjects in each group were unexpectedly switched to erroneous KR after 400 trials. Results indicated that the erroneous KR influenced both groups during acquisition and on a retention test one minute later. However, on a retention test given one week later, only the group that had practised with no KR before being switched to erroneous KR continued to show the negative influence of the invalid KR. The second hypothesis was examined in Experiment 2 by telling subjects prior to beginning practice trials that it was possible that the KR they received would be erroneous. Results showed that this intervention strategy was effective on the no-KR retention tests only for subjects who had no-KR trials alternated with trials on which they received the erroneous KR. The results of these experiments provide evidence that uncertainty about the validity of sensory feedback increases the likelihood that subjects will be misled by invalid augmented feedback. Moreover, this uncertainty can be overcome by increased experience or by providing advance knowledge about the nature of the invalid feedback.     

Bias in Counselor Hypothesis Testing: Testing the Robustness of Counselor Confirmatory Bias

Explored the issue of confirmatory bias in counselors' clinical hypothesis testing. Recent research suggests that counselors are subject to a confirmatory bias when using information to test a client hypothesis. The current research tested the robustness of this finding by adding realism and accountability to the experimental situation. Two experiments examined the facts that experienced counselors recalled (a) about a coached client in a naturalistic situation, and (b) when they selected information from a client narrative when told that they would later be held accountable for their selection. In Experiment I, experienced counselors recalled more confirmatory than disconfirmatory information from a coached client's live presentation of factors. In Experiment 2, counselors-in-training selected more confirmatoty than disconfirmatory information from a case history despite the accountability implied by the experimental instructions. The authors concluded (a) that the confirmatory bias is a robust one that may be a natural part of any judgment situation and (b) that counselor education should explicitly train counselors to avoid this confirmatory bias.     

Confirmation Bias in General Aviation Lost Procedures

Pilots, students and orienteers completed three tasks in which they imagined that they were lost. For each task, participants were provided with a map and instructed to select one of three provided features to help them decide if they were at a certain (incorrect) location. One feature was unique to the correct location; the other two features were consistent with locations in both the incorrect location and the correct location. The unique feature was therefore the ‘correct’ choice to make. Only orienteers chose the unique feature at a rate significantly higher than chance; all other groups performed either at or worse than expected by chance. Attempts to increase the rate of disconfirming choices were largely ineffective. Findings suggest that when they are lost, both pilots and psychology students, but not orienteers, adopt a confirmatory approach to ascertain their location, which may put pilots who are already lost at even greater risk. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intragroup or Intergroup Attitude Projection Can Increase Opinion Certainty: Is There Classism at College?1

Two processes were examined by which estimation of the attitude positions of others can increase opinion certainty. In Study 1, sophomore and senior students exhibited greater conviction about their own opinions following an opportunity to estimate the attitudes of in‐group members compared to persons who did not receive this opportunity. In an out‐group projection condition, as expected, reduced attitude similarity to freshman students augmented the opinion certainty of sophomores only. In this condition, sophomore opinion certainty was predicted by their perceived status similarity to the freshman out‐group. In Study 2, the relationships between intergroup status similarity, projected intergroup attitudes, and increments in opinion certainty were reexamined and replicated. These findings are discussed in accord with the motivational and cognitive factors that account for the interface between group dynamics and attitude strength.     

Entwicklung und Evaluation eines interaktiven Films für Jugendliche zur Vermittlung von Gerichtswissen

An interactive movie for juvenile witnesses produced by the author was evaluated in terms of its effectiveness to convey court relevant knowledge to 16-year-old and 17-year-old students. A control group design was used. Controls received a brochure containing information comparable to the movie which was also developed by the author. The aim of the study was to empirically evaluate the movie in order to make it available to juvenile witnesses as an instrument for court preparation in the future. A total of 52 students aged 16 and 17 years at a training college were investigated and court knowledge was measured prior to testing. Participants in the treatment group then viewed the movie, which was produced by the author. The control group received a brochure containing information very similar to the contents of the movie. Approximately 2 weeks later, court relevant knowledge was again assessed and both treatment and control groups showed a strong and significant increase in court relevant knowledge. Comparing the groups showed that the effects tended to be stronger for the treatment group than for the control group. It was also investigated if legal misconceptions could be reduced by the interventions. Analyses indicated that effects were not significant and there was no significant difference between the groups. A significant increase of court relevant knowledge could be found for both treatment conditions. The weak effects concerning the reduction of legal misconceptions could be due to the fact that they were not explicitly presented in the movie but were treated more indirectly by presenting correct knowledge only.     

Probability matching: encouraging optimal responding in humans.

Two hundred undergraduate students participated in a repeated-trials binary choice procedure in which choice of one outcome was correct on 75% of trials. Subjects received 192 trials and were divided into five conditions: (1) control; (2) subjects were given the actual probabilities; (3) subjects were told if they did well they could leave early; (4) competition condition; (5) midway through the task subjects were asked to recommend a strategy for another subject. Half of the subjects in each group were told that the best they could do was to be correct on 75% of the trials. This manipulation permitted assessment of the hypothesis that subjects in probability-matching tasks are seeking a strategy that will be correct on 100% of the trials. The results partially confirmed this hypothesis. In addition, two of the variables improved performance significantly (giving probabilities and asking subjects to recommend a strategy). However, while subjects in all groups improved significantly over trials, optimal choice did not occur in this task.     

AIDS and Perceived Change in Sexual Practice: An Analysis of a College Student Sample from California and Iowa1

The objective of this study was to examine the impact of belief about transmissibility of AIDS and concern about the disease on perceived changes in premarital sexual practices. It was posited that changes in sexual practices are most likely to occur when college students have more certainty about AIDS transmission and greater concern about AIDS. Based on this proposition, dating patterns, premarital sexual permissiveness, attitudes toward homosexuality, sexual orientation, and students' objective perception of AIDS as a problem were used as predictors of concern about AIDS and certainty of sexual transmission. Using a sample of 587 students in the state universities of California and Iowa and focusing on one type of sexual practices (i.e., condom use), it was found that concern about AIDS strongly increases the likelihood of using condoms. Contrary to our prediction, certainty about sexual transmission of AIDS was found to have a marginal effect on students' likelihood of condom use. Furthermore, it was found that monogamous dating, sexual permissiveness, and the degree of perception of AIDS as a problem significantly increase the likelihood of condom use if they are mediated by personal concern about AIDS. The implications are discussed with respect to the usefulness of a theoretical approach and its findings for education on AIDS prevention among college students.     

On the consistency of individual classification using short scales

Short tests containing at most 15 items are used in clinical and health psychology, medicine, and psychiatry for making decisions about patients. Because short tests have large measurement error, the authors ask whether they are reliable enough for classifying patients into a treatment and a nontreatment group. For a given certainty level, proportions of correct classifications were computed for varying test length, cut-scores, item scoring, and choices of item parameters. Short tests were found to classify at most 50% of a group consistently. Results were much better for tests containing 20 or 40 items. Small differences were found between dichotomous and polytomous (5 ordered scores) items. It is recommended that short tests for high-stakes decision making be used in combination with other information so as to increase reliability and classification consistency.     

Attrition and the Student Who is Certain

A study of 89 male students at a small liberal arts college tested the hypothesis that a student whose statement about vocational and/or academic goals expressed certainty and whose grade-point average was below a 2.00 at the end of one year would probably not graduate. The hypothesis had both statistical and practical significance since loss from this group was 75 per cent compared to an average loss of 37.1 per cent (Test of Proportions, z = 2.766, P = .0028).     

Facilitated Communication as an Ideomotor Response

Forty college students were taught facilitated communication via a commercially available training videotape. They were then asked to facilitate the communication of a confederate, who was described as developmentally disabled and unable to speak. All 40 participants produced responses that they attributed at least partially to the confederate, and most attributed all of the communication entirely to her. Eighty-nine percent produced responses corresponding to information they had received, most of which was unknown to the confederate. Responding was significantly correlated with simple ideomotor responses with a pendulum and was not affected by information about the controversy surrounding facilitated communication. These data support the hypothesis that facilitated communication is an instance of automatic writing, akin to that observed in hypothesis and with Ouija boards, and that the ability to produce automatic writing is more common than previously thought.     

The need and ability to achieve cognitive structuring: individual differences that moderate the effect of stress on information processing.

The authors examined the hypothesis that the interaction between the need for cognitive structure (NCS) and the ability to achieve cognitive structure (AACS) moderates the effect of stress on information processing. NCS is the preference for using cognitive structuring, as opposed to piecemeal processes, as a means to achieve certainty. AACS is the extent to which individuals are able to apply information processes that are consistent with their levels of NCS. The hypothesis was validated in 4 studies, which showed that stress increased high-AACS participants' use of cognitive structuring if they had high NCS and reduced it if they had low NCS. An opposite effect was found for low-AACS participants. The implications of these results for the understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the effect of stress on information processing are discussed.     

Using Popular Films to Enhance Classroom Learning: The Good, the Bad, and the Interesting

ABSTRACT— Popular history films sometimes contain major historical inaccuracies. Two experiments investigated how watching such films influences people's ability to remember associated texts. Subjects watched film clips and studied texts about various historical topics. Whereas the texts contained only correct information, the film clips contained both correct information (consistent with the text) and misinformation (contradicted by the text). Before watching each clip, subjects received a specific warning, a general warning, or no warning about the misinformation. One week later, they returned for a cued-recall test about the texts. Watching a film clip increased correct recall of consistent information relative to recall of the same information when subjects did not see the clip. However, when the information in the film contradicted the text, subjects often (falsely) recalled misinformation from the film. The specific warning substantially reduced this misinformation effect. Teachers should use popular history films with caution and should warn students about major inaccuracies in the films.     

Gender Bias in Leader Selection? Evidence from a Hiring Simulation Study

The present research investigated factors that might affect gender discrimination in a hiring simulation context from the perspectives of social role theory and the shifting standards model. Specifically, the experimental study investigated whether gender biases are evident in the screening and hiring stage of the personnel selection process depending on the applicants?? social role and evaluators?? gender. A sample of German undergraduate business students (54 women, 53 men) was asked to make a personnel selection decision (short-listing or hiring) about a fictitious applicant (man or woman) in a specific role (leader or non-leader) for a managerial position. Consistent with social role theory??s assumption that social role information is more influential than gender information, participants selected applicants described as leaders over applicants described as non-leaders, regardless of applicant gender. In addition, in the presence of role information, female applicants portrayed as leaders were similarly short-listed and hired as male applicants with the same credentials. In the absence of role information, female applicants were similarly short-listed as male applicants; however, male applicants were hired over female applicants, albeit by male participants only. This is consistent with the shifting standards model??s assumption that group members are held to a higher standard to confirm traits on which they are perceived to be deficient: Male participants hired female applicants portrayed as non-leaders with less certainty than their male counterparts possibly due to higher confirmatory standards for leadership ability in women than men. The research and practice implications of these results are discussed.     

Age Differences in Correction of Context-Induced Biases: Source Monitoring and Timing of Accountability

The present study tested strategies to help older adults correct their context-induced biases. Two hundred and seventy-two young and older adults participated in this study. Participants read vignettes about two target persons, with true statements printed in black and false statements (either positive or negative trait information) printed in red. Participants in the no-strategy condition were asked to rate the target persons on the relevant trait scales immediately after reading the vignettes. Participants in the feedback condition took a traditional source memory test and received feedback of correct sources of true and false statements. For the participants in the next two conditions, accountability was induced either before or after they encoded information about the target persons. It was found that the feedback manipulation helped older adults correct their context-induced biases. In addition, accountability induced before encoding helped older adults reduce their context-induced biases, whereas accountability induced after encoding did not help.