Cognitive failures – individual predictors and intervention possibilities

Cognitive failures – individual predictors and intervention possibilities

APVV-16-0153

Duration of the project:
1.7.2017 - 30.6.2021

Principal investigator:
doc. PaedDr. Vladimíra Čavojová, PhD.

List of scientific co-workers:
Mgr. Lenka Valuš, PhD.
PhDr. Eva Ballová Mikušková, PhD.
Mgr. Jana Bašnáková, MSc.
Mgr. Jurkovič Marek, PhD.
Mgr. Jakub Šrol, PhD.
PhDr. Brezina Ivan, PhD.
Mgr. Mária Kénesy Túnyiová, PhD.
PhDr. Robert Krause, PhD.
Mgr. Dáša Vedejová, PhD.
Mgr. Miroslava Galasová
Mgr. Jakub Lieskovský

Annotation:
Project focuses on the question which individual predictors influence cognitive failures of people and how can we help them to make better decisions. Cognitive failures are examined from two perspectives – from the perspective of predictors entering into cognitive process and from the perspective of predictors of cognitive failures in specific areas. Relatively new and original is the area of epistemically suspect beliefs (ESB), which represent specific domain of cognitive failures understanding of which can have practical implications for everyday life – from an explication of vulnerability in financial decisions to political extremism. The aim of the project is to construct methods for measuring rational thinking and ESB, identify individual predictors of cognitive failures and their mutual interaction. It will enable us to examine how resistance to cognitive failures in rational tasks correlates with various ESB and to identify socio-cultural factors that predict the forming of ESB in Slovakia. We will also experimentally verify the effect of interventions modified according to these individual predictors on cognitive failures. Previous intervention efforts failed because of the universality of used procedures without regard to specific characteristics of groups of people, who are – for whatever reasons – immune to these interventions and without regard to specific domains of cognitive failures, therefore we aim to specifically address these concerns in our project. Thus, our results can contribute to the verification of the latest models of cognitive processes within dual-process theories and promote our understanding of the connection between cognitive failures in rational thinking tasks and ESB as one of the manifestations of cognitive failure in everyday life.


Key words:
cognitive biases, epistemically suspect beliefs, scientific reasoning, debiasing, confirmation bias

Selected publications:
1. Ballová Mikušková, E. & Čavojová, V. (2020). The Effect of Analytic Cognitive Style on Credulity. Frontiers in Psychology, 11 (584424), 2682.
2. Burič, R. & Šrol, J. (2020). Individual differences in logical intuitions on reasoning problems presented under two-response paradigm. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 32 (4), 460-477.
3. Čavojová, V., Šrol, J. & Jurkovič, M. (2020). Why should we try to think like scientists? Scientific reasoningand susceptibility to epistemically suspect beliefs and cognitive biases. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 4 (1), 85-95.
4. Čavojová, v. & Ersoy, S. (2020). The role of scientific reasoning and religious beliefs in use of complementary and alternative medicine. Journal of Public Health, 42 (3), e239-e248.
5. Čavojová, V & Brezina, I. (2020). Why do we believe weird things? Recent trends in cognitive failures research in Slovakia. In 12th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2019). Seville, SPAIN: IATED. p. 2267-2276. ISBN 978-84-09-14755-7.
6. Čavojová, V., Šrol, J., & Ballová Mikušková, E. (2020). How scientific reasoning correlates with health-related beliefs and behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic? Journal of Health Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105320962266
7. Teličák, P. & Halama, P. (2020). Temná triáda osobnosti ako prediktor epistemicko nepodložených presvedčení = Dark Triad as a Predictor of Epistemically Unfounded Beliefs. In L. Sabová (Ed.), Psychologica L : Zborník. Medzinárodná konferencia: Osobnosť v kontexte kognícií, emocionality a motivácii 2019. Bratislava: STIMUL. s. 109-115. ISBN 978-80-8127-278-3.
8. Vedejová, D. & Čavojová, V. (2020). Ako skúmať sklon k sebapotvrdzovaniu? In Československá psychologie, 64 (2), 184-196.
9. Vedejová, D. & Čavojová, V. (2020). Confirmation Bias in Information Search, Interpretation, and Memory Recall: Evidence from Reasoning about Four Controversial Topics. Thinking and Reasoning. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2021.1891967