16
votes
Accepted
Basis for "we make 35,000 decisions a day" statistic
Concurring with the comments on the Skeptics question, I am also not aware of a standardized operationalization of "number of decisions" that could be used to produce a meaningful measure ...
- 18k
14
votes
Thinking, Fast and Slow vs. Mindfulness vs. Flow
Short answer: Dual-process, mindfulness and flow theory are related by way of attention theory. Two previous posts that may be of interest are "What is the relation between concepts, constructs ...
- 6,902
10
votes
Is Decision-Making Emotionally Based, with Rationalization as the only Conscious Component?
This is a very broad topic. I'll attempt to quickly summarize the most relevant findings from a wide variety of research areas.
Post-rationalization:
There is a fair bit of evidence that ...
- 18k
6
votes
Who first used the term 'heuristic' in a cognitive science context?
His very first use of heuristic beyond computer science (he won the Turing award in Comp. Science) is from 1946.
The Proverbs of Administration
Herbert A. Simon, Public Administration Review, Vol. ...
- 435
6
votes
Do ALL decisions arouse cognitive dissonance?
Short answer: This is mostly a question about statistical significance.
Cognitive dissonance theory encompasses several different research paradigms. I believe this question is about the "free-...
- 18k
6
votes
Accepted
Pros and Cons of PsychoPy for designing psychological experiments?
I highly recommend PsychoPy over E-prime. Why?
Keeping track of who has the e-prime dongle is annoying.
Students learn it more easily (see data below).
E-prime uses visual basic (boo) and PsychoPy ...
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6
votes
Accepted
Why do some people refuse to wear their seat belt while being aware of the risks?
I think this is a rather difficult question to answer. Psychology Today sums up some interesting reasons why people totally aware of the risks involved in not wearing a seat belt (or in smoking ...
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5
votes
What are the negative effects of meditation?
The adverse effects of meditation as reported in scientific studies are as follows:
relaxation-induced anxiety and panic
paradoxical increases in tension
less motivation in life
boredom
pain
impaired ...
- 167
5
votes
Accepted
Where are scientific references for the claims made in "Thinking Fast and Slow"
Just found the book I used to study decision making. It's called Judgement and Decision Making and is written by Daniel and David Hardman. It is a perfect introductory book on the topic with ...
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5
votes
Why does having many options harm decision making?
The problems presented by having too many choices are defined at the personal level by Overchoice and at the organization level as Analysis Paralysis. However, they both cover the same idea, wherein ...
- 8,783
5
votes
Accepted
Does the subconscious mind communicate its analysis through emotions?
First, there's not complete agreement in psychology nor neuroscience: you can find support for most any imaginable position. But in terms of the consensus of recent peer-reviewed work, here are some ...
- 1,438
4
votes
What is the term for when too many choices results in inability to decide?
Overchoice or "choice overload" are the common used terms for
describing the cognitive process in which people have a difficult time making a decision when faced with many options (Wikipedia on ...
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4
votes
Research that shows that people infer causation from correlation
A much-cited reference on the statistical backgrounds is this one:
Simon (1954), Spurious Correlation: A Causal Interpretation, J Am Stat Assoc; 49(267)
A more recent, open access but applied ...
- 19.6k
4
votes
What experiment in a simple decision task should we run to obtain one million trials?
I like this idea! I think the task should be one where the data could be used by many analytic tools. Hence, the data would not only be beneficial for one particular question, for example parameter ...
4
votes
What experiment in a simple decision task should we run to obtain one million trials?
I agree with Marc-André, the selected stimuli should have no semantic association (or as little as possible) which is why I would encourage the use of geometric shapes that vary in colour. ...
- 41
4
votes
Accepted
What experiment in a simple decision task should we run to obtain one million trials?
I don't like the idea that the task should be low error, errors are needed for modeling choice. I don't like random dot motion because there are big individual difference making it hard to find a ...
4
votes
What experiment in a simple decision task should we run to obtain one million trials?
Just a few comments...
Since one of the advantages of a large data set is high statistical power, it might be a good idea to use a task where the key effect has not been found in previous studies. ...
- 41
4
votes
Accepted
Are emotions needed to make decisions?
Phineas Gage style indeed (is that a precursor to Gangnam style?) - ironically (referring to one large iron rod), Phineas Gage's accident is believed to have entirely removed his OFC, as well as parts ...
- 18k
4
votes
Accepted
What research is there on how people go from examining/gathering evidence to executing on a decision?
It's possible that there is no sharp threshold between information gathering and acting. A recent paper by Piantadosi exploring that possibility, and citing a ton of (admittedly more conventional/...
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4
votes
Do people always decide to do things that they believe will provide them the maximum amount of positive feelings in their conscious life?
I would say that the more compelling scientific evidence would suggest the opposite.
Daniel Kahnemann got a Nobel Prize for behavioural economics, part of which discussed that the default decision ...
- 141
4
votes
Accepted
wisdom of crowds and group polarization
Great question.
Wisdom of crowds happens when participants are motivated to find a "correct" answer. The classic example is counting jelly beans in a jar - where the average of guesses ...
- 18k
3
votes
Is decision making/theory/analysis applicable to game design?
This question seems to arise out of a slight terminological confusion. Empirical studies of human decision-making in particular are not covered by decision theory. Decision theory is the mathematical ...
- 6,902
3
votes
What are the underlying mechanisms for optimism bias?
Optimism bias refers to a general human tendency to underestimate the likelihood of negative events, and conversely, to overestimate the likelihood of positive events, when making predictions about ...
- 6,902
3
votes
Accepted
Why do children sometimes not do what they are told, even though their environment supports them fully to do so?
Children go through many phases of independence to detach from their parents. The most (in)famous is the "no" stage (around 2 years old). But they also get to a point where they actively do things ...
- 5,610
3
votes
What is the term for human beings' tendency to obey without thinking?
I would say 'Herd mentality' or 'Conformity' comes close.
Yet, I think it is important to note that 'thinking logical' is a pretty ambiguous term in itself. Everybody has their own image of what is ...
- 283
3
votes
Accepted
What is the psychological cause and meaning of "common sense"?
It is difficult to say that "common sense" is rigidly defined enough to be studied in the way stated above. There are interesting topics concerning common sense in Psychology, but most don't come from ...
3
votes
What are the characteristics that make complex problem solving complex?
MariaAnt provided a relevant definition of complex problem solving in the answer to the question, "Research operationalizing so-called strategic thinking?" based on Frensch and Funke (1995).
...
- 6,902
3
votes
Is Decision-Making Emotionally Based, with Rationalization as the only Conscious Component?
The human brain is subject to many faults and biases (Kahneman, 2011).
Human beings usually use heuristics, screening, ranking, and other rules of thumb to limit the complexity of a decision.
...
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