hindsight bias

 Hindsight bias is the tendency to claim knowledge of how a past event would turn out or to consider the outcome inevitable. People tend to reconstruct the past to make it consistent to what is now known.

Hindsight bias is a common and powerful bias that people find difficult to disregard. This can create problems when juries are instructed to disregard information and when  experts are asked to offer a second opinion when they know the original opinion.

Hindsight bias leads to recalling information that confirms memories and can lead to false memories.

Hindsight bias can interfere with learning from experience.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Cognitive Dissonance Theory (CDT) posits that cognitive inconsistencies can lead to a motivational state characterized by emotional distress, which can motivate a person to resolve the discomfort by changing one belief to reduce the perceived conflict.

Leon Festinger presented the theory of Cognitive Dissonance in 1957.

Vadis and Bran criticized CDT (2019). One criticism is the imprecise use of the concept dissonance. Dissonance is in the name of the theory and has referred to the situation that produces or triggers the inconsistency and the resulting experience of conflict. The authors note that much research has focused on attitude and behavior change as regulation strategies to reduce a state of dissonance. See the article for more details. 

For a look at research trends, see Cooper (2019).

Examples of Regulating Dissonance

Distorting self-appraisal of alcohol dependence to view oneself as a social drinker.

Distorting one's miserable relationship by focusing only on the pleasant moments.

Distorting the quality of a purchase after a difficult decision to favor the one finally selected.

References

Cooper, J. (2019). Cognitive dissonance: Where we’ve been and where we’re going. International Review of Social Psychology, 32(1), Article 7. https://doi.org/10.5334/irsp.277

Festinger L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson and Company. Reedited in 1962/1985 at Stanford University Press. 

Vaidis, D. C., & Bran, A. (2019). Respectable Challenges to Respectable Theory: Cognitive Dissonance Theory Requires Conceptualization Clarification and Operational Tools. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 1189. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01189

[Cite this post]

Sutton, G. W. (2022, January 26). Cognitive dissonance theory. PSYCHOLOGY Concepts and Theories. Retrieved from https://suttonpsychology.blogspot.com/2022/01/cognitive-dissonance.html

Books - Examples on AMAZON

A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger  (1957)

Cognitive Dissonance: Reexamining a Pivotal Theory in Psychology by Eddie Harmon-Jones (2019)

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

Please check out my books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   X  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation. 

implicit theory of stability

 The implicit theory of stability is a tendency of people to assume their views have not changed over time.

cognitive offloading

 Cognitive offloading refers to the process of relying on external reminders such as electronic devices to retrieve memories.

Please check out my website   www.suttong.com

   and see my books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Also, consider connecting with me on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

working memory, phonological loop

 Working memory is a short-term cognitive store of information. Following the perception of information, that information is stored often for just a few seconds until it is either lost or stored in long-term memory for either episodic or semantic information.

One subsystem of working memory is called the phonological loop studied by Alan Baddeley. This loop allows for the transmission of speech, words, and digits from perception to long-term memory or the retrieval of the same data.

Please check out my website   www.suttong.com

   and see my books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Also, consider connecting with me on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

semantic memory

 Semantic memory is one of two types of long-term memory, which stores general knowledge and facts like the first president of the United States. The other type is episodic memory.

Please check out my website   www.suttong.com

   and see my books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Also, consider connecting with me on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

episodic memory

 Episodic memory is one of two types of long-term memory, which stores personal experiences linked to particular times and places. The other type is semantic memory.

Please check out my website   www.suttong.com

   and see my books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Also, consider connecting with me on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

Mental Reserve or Cognitive Reserve

 

Mental reserve is the capacity of brains to enable people to function adequately despite disease or damage to the brain.

Because brain damage often impairs memory important to solving problems, mental reserve, cognitive reserve, or brain reserve are terms used in conjunction with some memory studies.

The term cognitive reserve has been used since the 1980s when autopsies revealed signs of Alzheimer's disease in people who functioned adequately. It appeared they had sufficient mental or cognitive reserve capacity to compensate for the disease.

Studies that investigate cognitive reserve are generally addressing the Cognitive Reserve Hypothesis. The Cognitive Reserve Hypothesis states that intellectual enrichment produces cognitive efficiency, which results in Cognitive Reserve as a protection against expected disease-linked cognitive impairment.

Cognitive reserve is an inferred concept. That is, when people do better than expected following brain trauma or disease, clinicians infer that the better performance is due to cognitive reserve (Schwartz et al., 2016).

Carolyn Schwartz and her team (2016) suggest cognitive reserve should be a broader or multidimensional concept than the typical focus on cognitive skills. They include physical, socio-emotional, and spiritual components.

Brains affected by disease require extra effort to function as well as before the disease. Diseases that can affect the brain include Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, stroke, and forms of dementia.

High levels of cognitive reserve are associated with people who have high levels of education and occupational status as well as high participation in nonwork activities. Cognitive activity is generally considered to be a helpful factor in high levels of cognitive reserve.

An extensive study conducted by Isobel Evans and her team (2018) explored the role of social activity and cognitive reserve. Following is part of their conclusion:

After controlling for age, gender, education, and physically limiting health conditions, social isolation was associated with cognitive function at baseline and two year follow-up. Cognitive reserve moderated this association longitudinally. Findings suggest that maintaining a socially active lifestyle in later life may enhance cognitive reserve and benefit cognitive function. (Abstract)

Scientists who study cognitive reserve include neuropsychologists, neurologists, neuroscientists and behavioral neurologists.

References

Evans, IEM, Llewellyn, DJ, Matthews FE, Woods, RT, Brayne, C, Clare, L, et al. (2018) Social isolation, cognitive reserve, and cognition in healthy older people. PLoS ONE 13(8): e0201008.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201008

Schwartz, C.E., Rapkin, B.D. & Healy, B.C. Reserve and Reserve-building activities research: key challenges and future directions. BMC Neurosci 17, 62 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12868-016-0297-0

Please check out my website   www.suttong.com

   and see my books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Also, consider connecting with me on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

Memory -Forgetting and Transience

Psychologist  Daniel L. Schachter (2021) describes transience memory as those memories that are lost due to the passage of time. The memory appears to get weaker.

The problem of transience is what we may often call forgetting. It is a typical problem. 

In the history of psychology, early work on forgetting as a function of time was studied experimentally by German philosopher, Hermann Ebbinghaus who learned nonsense syllables then plotted his recall over time. A month after learning a list he had forgotten 75% but he had lost 60% after 9 hours! Thus, after the initial loss, the rate of loss declined. Since then, many psychological scientists have studied memory and forgetting in many ways both in labs and field (real life) settings.

Memory for words can distinguish between older adults with and without Alzheimer's disease.

An important series of studies by the neurologist Herman Buschke and his colleagues shows that levels of forgetting in a word memory test can distinguish between healthy older individuals and those with Alzheimer’s disease. (Schacter, p. 42)

People recall and forget different details of shared events. 

Some people have better memories than others. 

It's not surprising to find disagreements

 when memories are shared during the holidays.

APA Reference

Schachter, D. L. (2021). The seven sins of memory: How the mind forgets and remembers. Updated Edition. New York: Mariner. Link to Book

Key terms

#forgetting #memoryloss #memoryproblems #Alzheimer's

Please check out my website   www.suttong.com

   and see my books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Also, consider connecting with me on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

Sunk Cost Effect : Psychology of Sunk Cost

The psychology of sunk cost, also called the sunk-cost effect and the sunk-cost fallacy, refers to a finding that people tend to continue investing time, money, or effort into an activity, despite evidence that the increased effort will not likely yield the desired outcome. Work by Kahenman (e.g., 2011) and others document the sunk-cost effect.

In common language, the effect has been called "throwing good money after bad" as when an investor continues to purchase stock despite a precipitous decline in stock price.

In "sunk-cost relationships," one partner may invest considerable effort to win the other back even though friends agree there is little or no hope for restoring the relationship. Focusing on losses means an inability to move forward and recover. 

Rego et al. (2018) looked at the sunk-cost effect in committed relationships. Their first expeirment revealed "the likelihood of participants staying in the relationship was higher when money and effort, but not time, had been previously invested in that relationship." In their next study, they looked at time: "Results revealed a sunk time effect, that is, participants were willing to invest more time in a relationship in which more time had already been invested."

People may hang on to old clothes they have rarely or never worn just because they spent so much on the purchase.

The sunk-cost effect can also be seen in religion. For example, people who have a firm commitment to a religious belief despite evidence that many holding a similar faith no longer hold such a rigid belief because it led them to loss of physical health, emotional health, or relationships. A religious person may vigorously invest time, effort, and money defending a previously held belief. This sunk cost effect has been applied to beliefs that divide Christians (Sutton, 2013, 2016). 

The sunk-cost effect can be seen in politics. Many people invest heavily in a political leader. When evidence reveals flaws, they are more likely to stick with the flawed leader than invest in a new leader with more potential. As can be seen in history, seriously flawed leaders can lead to ruin for the wellbeing--an even deaths-- of millions.

Arkes & Blumer (1985) linked the sunk-cost effect to a desire not to appear wasteful in people who increased their attendance following the high price they paid for a season ticket.

The sunk-cost effect generalizes. The focus of research has been on an individual's irrational behavior; however, Christopher Olivola (2018) found an interpersonal effect. that is, people change their behavior in response to other people's past investments.

Sunk-costs, personality, and biopsychology

Fujino et al. (2016) report on the sunk-cost effect, personality, and biopsychology relationship. 

"Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated neural responses induced by sunk costs along with measures of core human personality. We found that individuals who tend to adhere to social rules and regulations (who are high in measured agreeableness and conscientiousness) are more susceptible to the sunk cost effect. Furthermore, this behavioral observation was strongly mediated by insula activity during sunk cost decision-making. Tight coupling between the insula and lateral prefrontal cortex was also observed during decision-making under sunk costs. " (Abstract)

 

References

Arkes, H. R., & Blumer, C. (1985). The psychology of sunk cost. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 35(1), 124–140.

Fujino, J., Fujimoto, S., Kodaka, F., Camerer, C. F., Kawada, R., Tsurumi, K., Tei, S., Isobe, M., Miyata, J., Sugihara, G., Yamada, M., Fukuyama, H., Murai, T., & Takahashi, H. (2016). Neural mechanisms and personality correlates of the sunk cost effect. Scientific reports, 6, 33171. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep33171

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Olivola, C. Y. (2018). The Interpersonal sunk-cost effect. Psychological Science, 29(7), 1072-1083. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617752641

Rego, S., Arantes, J., & Magalhães, P. (2018). Is there a sunk cost effect in committed relationships? Current Psychology: A Journal for Diverse Perspectives on Diverse Psychological Issues, 37(3), 508–519. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9529-9

Sutton, G. W. (2016). A house divided: Sexuality, morality, and Christian cultures. Eugene, OR: Pickwick. ISBN: 9781498224888

Note: Sinking boat Image created in Designer.

Connections

   My Page    www.suttong.com

   My Books   AMAZON     GOOGLE PLAY STORE

   FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton

   X  @Geoff.W.Sutton

   PINTEREST  www.pinterest.com/GeoffWSutton

Publications (many free downloads)

  

Academia   Geoff W Sutton   (PhD)     

  

ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton   (PhD)

If you study sunk-costs and other effects, consider 

  

Creating Surveys on AMAZON