The Usable Learning Blog - Why People Are So Dumb (Cognitive Biases)

http://usablelearning.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/why-are-people-so-dumb-cognitive-biases/

First off, I do not want to offend anyone reading this blog, because of the title. My intentions for this blog is simply to learn. Respectfully, JMSPC

This blog has to do with cognitive bias is in regards to Self-Evaluation and Intuition. An example of self-evaluation is if a person does not know anything about a particular concept, then they tend to overestimate their knowledge base on this particular subject. Intuition has to when a person bases their knowledge on the fallacy of centrality, which may cause this information to be incorrect. I always thought that a person should go with their gut (intuition) instinct, most of the time this works

According to this blog, "...cognitive bias is inevitably going to come into play whenever a learning experience requires a change of attitude or behavior, or an acquisition of very foreign information or ideas." This is the phase when a person knows that their answer is correct, but starts to doubt themselves. I envision a contestant on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" many times in this situation.

The cognitive bias is being compared to that of functional behaviors most resembling an optical illusion. According to the blog, which states the following about the optical illusion effect, “….are interesting not because they are wacky or mind-bearing, but because they reveal things to us about how the brain is adapting or interpreting the visual world, cognitive distortions are interesting in that they make explicit and visible the cognitive shorthand that we are using to interpret the world all the time.” So, in essence an optical illusion is being compared to a cognitive distortion in the instance of a bias, which makes perfect sense. According to the blog, it states the following, “…which of us haven’t had the experience where you were absolutely certain you were right, had no reservations about expressing your “rightness”, and then found out later you were…um…yeah… completely wrong.”

I am not sure if this blog would help an Instructional Designer in any way, shape, or form. However, the blog has this to say, “In instructional setting, it’s useful to consider what biases might exist already in your audience, and to keep an eye out for evidence that these biases are occurring. It can also be useful to make learners aware of their own biases…” I am sure that most of us adults have encountered some form of bias in our learning; examples would be a gut feeling or intuition.