Myths and Misconceptions

psychological misconceptions

false, common-sense beliefs that typically originate from informal sources and are commonly held but are inconsistent w the consensus of research- Bensley and Lilenfeld

how does the language production system work (for bilingual ppl)

when trying to say a word the semantic system is activated, the the phonological lexical system (whole words), then the phenome system (singular sounds)

bilingual ppl have multiple linguistic phonological lexicons for each concept meaning they have to tell their language production system which word to use w use of inhibition which part of cognitive control

why may bilingual ppl be better at cognitive tasks

more regular inhibition means skill is more developed

dementia and bilingualism

Simon test shows that showed that bilingual ppl are better at inhibition especially when older possibly accounting for delay in dementia

however most studies are done on immigrants so may be due to environmental factors not the bilingualism

a covaried study found a later dementia development for bilingual ppl independent of other factors

only delay of onset not prevention

issues w bilingual advantage

reduces the rich tapestry of bilingual life experience into a homogenous group- differing factors: age of acquisition of second language, languages, where the language was learnt

bilingual advantage cannot be found at cognitive peak (~18)

task in studies are often basic and binary

different types of cognitive tasks are all grouped together

primarily done on uni students whose languages are separated into different parts of their lives- different to bilingualism in countries like Wales and South africa

being bilingual is often confounded w higher socioeconimic and immigrant status

results depend on lab showing publication bias (Bialystok finds advantage, paap doesn’t)

effects are generally very small and don’t have many real world implications

task impurity effect

cognitive processes cannot be measured in isolation eg: in inhibition tasks ppts must also understand and remember the task (working memory)

what does the bilingual advantage depend on

task and age

solution for inconsistencies in bilingual studies

doing numerous tasks, online data collection to increase size and diversity, mouse tracking to understand thought processes and see hesitating

intention-behaviour gap

just teaching risks isn’t enough to stop unhealthy behaviors bcs other factors also contribute

information motivation and skills model of healthy behaviour

these factors come together to influence behaviour

dangerous bcs it shifts blame to individuals

fear appeals and unhealthy behaviour

they are not enough to change behaviour

lead to feeling of hopelessness, avoiding the topic or rejecting the message

just a part of a scheme not a whole scheme

what is needed to change behaviour

feelings of personal vulnerability, a low response cost and high self efficacy

social environment and healthy behaviour

changing attitudes, beliefs, self efficacy and skills is sometimes not enough to change behaviour- physical and social environment also plays a large role

social contagion theory: behaviors, emotions and ideas spread across social groups wo intent

eg: obesity and happiness level correlate w family and friends- shared behaviour (eating together, shared culture + norms, shared environment)

why is debunking myths abt unhealthy behaviour important

it is cheaper to blame individuals than to address issue at its root- this negatively effects the most vulnerable ppl as unhealthy behaviors are generally coping mechanisms and ppl w highest rates are already disadvantaged

when do most unhealthy behaviors occur and why

late in the day- more opportunity (no work, social opportunities) and burnout

what influences unhealthy behaviour most

emotions and physiological state and habit (situationally triggered behaviour)

method of introspection

in order to understand cognitive processes we should simply ask participants about them

what did Miller say abt consciousness

all we know is the result of cognition

Nisbett and Wilson (1977) consciousness

we are four times more likely to pick a stocking on the left in a line of identical stockings showing an unconscious systematic bias that ppl were not aware of when asked

Johansson et al and consciousness

people did not notice when they are given the opposite face card to the one they said they preferred and are then able to come up w a justification for why they chose the one they didn’t chose

Evans et al.- awareness of internal states (cognitive dysfunction)

ppl only become aware that their blood sugar is low 20 mins after cognitive dysfunction begins

Bushman et al.- awareness of internal states (emotion)

ppl w low blood sugar thought they were more mad at their spouse and were not aware that this was linked to blood sugar

Danziger et al (2011)- awareness of internal states- judges

judges likelihood to make favorable decisions is linked to their food breaks (blood sugar)

link btwn unconscious mind and creativity

song writers often don’t know where their ideas came from

Mendeleyev dreamed the periodic table

Maier- awareness of internal states- rope

participants had to try to tie together two far away ropes, researcher casually swung rope and soon after ppts solved issue after being confused- none of them said that the researcher helped them

Davis- awareness of internal states- political worm

a worm moving up and down during political debates representing public opinions heavily influences viewers opinions- they were unaware of this

worms are no longer allowed on broadcasts

Eastwick and Finkel- awareness of internal states- dating

what ppl said they were looking for in a romantic partner was not predictive of who they chose in a speedating scenario

myth that we use 10% of our brains

believed by 72% of laypeople and 49% of teachers

10% accounts for 2-3% of body mass, consumes 20% of energy and is the place of electrical currents in alert patients

origin may be William James who said that we only reach 10% of our potential

10% is our conscious brain, rest is subconscious

common characteristics of a “left brain learner”

seeks structure, memorises by repetition, lies planning, independent working, checklists, likes maths, prefers workbook learning

common characteristics of “right brain learner”

spontaneous, memorises through meaning and symbols, odes not plan ahead, skips around work, makes quantum leaps, dislikes maths, prefers projects and discussions

possible origin of left/ right brain myth

effect of corpus callosotomy- hemispheres cannot communicate and can do things seperately at the same time

myth of different learning styles

modality preferences: visual, auditory, kiesthetic

66% of 347 UK schools reported teaching to students in preferred learning styles

this may be limiting, costly and time-consuming w little scientific evidence

study found that it did not follow that auditory learners did significantly better w an e-text over an audio book compared to visual learners

educational neuroscience

combines research in neuroscience, psychology and cognitive science to apply to education. has had mullions of funds but had produced no new methods or knowledge

history of epistemologies throughout psychology

positivism- early 20th century

post positivism- mid 20th century onwards

constructivism- mid 20th century

critical realism- late 20th century

feminist epistemologies- late 20th century

post positivism is more prominent today

CBT and decolonisation

CBT based on Beck et al (1979) and widely used in modern western medicine

most studied form of psychotherapy w hundreds of rials demonstrating effectiveness

focusses on changing mental processes to change behaviour

used to treat depression

considered to be universal

quantitatively measured based on individual experiences, emphasis on individuals and treatment of symptoms

researched by WEIRD ppl and doesn’t take into account collectivist cultures

cultural racism in decolonising psychology

reinforces existing power structures by cumulative effect of favouring the views of one dominant group whilst marginalising the views of indigenous cultures

decolonial psychology

born out of culture itself

more emphasis on community and culture over individual

reclaims indigenous knowledge

history of misogyny in psychology

women believed to have smaller brains- originally frontal lobes and then switched to parietal lobes when they believed to subserve higher mental functions

Mall argued tat these differences were found due to bad research practices and Thompson Woolley did a literary review and claimed bias

difference hypothesis

men and women are psychologically very different

evolutionary- sexual selection: males compete to mate and females chose, parental investment higher from women

SLT: behaviour is shaped by operant conditioning and modeling behaviors

Social role theory: division of labour creates psychological differences

gender similarities hypothesis

men and women are psychologically similar on most, if not all, variables

evolution- natural selection: acts the same on males and females creating similarity

SLT: punishments for violating gender norms have decreased over time creating less differences

social role theory: gender similarities are greater when there is more gender equality

Hyde meta-analysis on gender differences

78% of the effect sizes for psychological gender differences were small or near zero- supporting the gender similarities hypothesis

language and gender

Brizendine, 2006 claimed that women spoke 20,000 words a day compared to 7,000 by men but this was not based on natural conversation

Mehl naturally recorded language and found women spoke 16,215 and men 15,669 (very small effect size)

Hyde and Lynn meta-analysis found small differences in language overall w trivial differences in vocab, comprehension and essay writing and small differences in verbal fluency. effect size went down w increased gender equality

spatial performance and gender

spatial performance measured w mental rotation test

effect size is large to medium w men being better

some speculate this is due to activities like video games and sport or bcs they use more global strategies

sport and gender

gomez-gonazalez found that ppl will estimate someone’s sporting ability if they perceive them as a man- used blurred/ unblurred photos of sportsmen/women

women’s sport make sup 4% of coverage worldwide

differences in brain based on sex studies

Ingalhaliar 2014 found that women had higher connectivity in frontal and parietal lobes whereas men had higher cnnectivity in cerebellum

Dean found differences in total brain volume in babies relating to sex

5-HTT gene and self correcting science

research on genes link to depression in leate 90s and early 2000s all based on a fundamental study, however the fundamental study was wrong

2005 Willis-Owen did the same study on 100,000 ppl comapred to 500

it took two decades for the science to self-correct- waste of time and bad for environment

how should science self correct

replication of previous studies, publication of all results including null, modification of theory based on new observations

disallowance for chance positives to be bases for theories

replication crisis

60% of psychological studies don’t replicate, however this doesn’t always mean og results are wrong

negative replication w bigger sample size is good grounds to question theory

working w probability statistics means false positives are inevitable

open science collaboration found that in over half of replications p values do not reach significance levle when they did in og study

publication bias in self correcting science

1 study

failures to replicate are less likely to be published

Da Vries found that a quarter of the negative experiments on anti-depressants weren’t published- many are spun w primary measure changed

citation bias

positive trials are more often cited showing our overreliance on them

researcher allegiance bias

researchers who have a grounding in the field of interest will interpret results differently

scientists don’t want to admit they are wrong because it is their career

researchers are rewarded for publishing, obtaining grant funding and becoming “known” which is more likely to occur w interesting results

cognitive biases in self correcting science

apophenia: noticing patterns that aren’t there eg: seeing faces

if we are looking for certain things we see them

question research practices that lead to a lack of self correction in science

p-hacking/ analytic flexibility: looking for any kind of significant result

harking: presenting exploratory work as confirmatory- changing the hypothesis after researching many variables

selective publication

how to make science more self correcting

more transparency- open data

new approaches to publishing- not all done by researchers, publishing research as a chronological record

better raining and incentives

myth that everyone feels the same way abt protest

right wing media pushes that everyone views protest as annoying and disruptive

often positivity for protests happening in other countries or in the past

views actually depend on the persons view on the issue and the type of protest

myth that protestors don’t understand how protests are viewed

2020 study found that protestors assume most ppl will understand their views bcs he ppl around them do

a different study found that protestors accurately predicted views on different types of protests

debunking myth that unpopular protest turns ppl away from cause- van gogh survey, history

survey showed that more people were put off cause by people throwing soup at van gogh painting than encouraged by it however the question was leading- “damaging paintings” (untrue), ppl who are unsure have to pick- we are unsure on interior mental states and asking directly abt them can cause confusion and for participants to impose theories on themselves

history shows that protest is an engine for social change eg: civil rights and suffragettes- public opinion has change don figures over time- in 1966 96% had unfavorable views of MLK

affective model of views on protest

observing protest leads to either empowerment or threat, either increasing or decreasing their support for and identification with protestors and their views on social change

bidirectional ambiguity- perhaps view on social change impacts view on protest

social identification model of views on protest

mediating factor of observing protests leading to supporting the cause is social identification w protestors (agreeing w them)

activists dilemma

balance of how extreme to be so as to not get ignored but not to have a negative impact

blm study- public views abt protest

baseline assessment of views on blm protest, read either pos or neg article and then answer questions abt feelings towards protestors, support for actions, movement and demands

after reading pos article there was less feelings of threat and increased identification but there was no effect btwn which article and views on the demands of the protestors- views are held individually unaffected by protestors

photographic memory vs eidetic imagery

photographic memory is the ability to look at something and remember exactly what was seen once it is gone, eidetic imagery is a different phenomenon referring to individual differences in the way people produce images in their mind eidetic is the most vivid type but is not always entirely accurate

photographic memory case study- Elizabeth

claimed to have photographic memory and didn’t use mnemonic techniques, tested by Stromeyer, could be shown one image of thousands of pixels and one the next and fuse them in her mind to create the overlapping image

in 70s Richard Gregory said more tests needed to be done Stroymer confused and got married to Elizabeth

Merrit 79 tired o find someone else like her and of the 15 ppl he visited who could successfully do the pixel thing, none of them could do it again

expert chess players and photographic memory

often believed to have photographic memory

De Groot found that good chess players could easily place all pieces onto a blank board after being shown a middle of a game- linear relationship between chess playing strenght and number of pieces successfully placed

Chase and Simon found that when the pieces were placed randomly in places that would be impossible in a game the chess players were no better at placing pieces than amateurs

the players don’t have photographic memory they just have experience and familiarity w chess so can create big chunks

principles of effective encoding

chunking, elaborative rehearsal, associative cues, imagery, spatial memory

why do people believe in photographic memory

simple explanation for superior memory, an excuse for people who don’t have superior memories, appeals to desires

evidence for myth that progress on climate crisis is slow bcs ppl don’t care

guardian claims that apathy is more dangerous than denial

many books on climate apathy

idea that humans can’t cope w the idea

psychological barriers: too far away (time or space), we dont like change, political ideology, idea that it won’t affect you, freeloading (no point cuz they aren’t doing anything)

pluralistic ignorance and climate apathy

a population shares a particular viewpoint (climate crisis is important) but thinks that others don’t agree w them

affected by media

a cycle is created as when ppl think their views are unpopular they don’t want to voice them

psychoanalytic accounts of climate apathy

renee lertzman: apathy is illusory, in reality we feel too much (environmental melancholia) and are too scared to face the issue

Sally Weintrobe: negation vs disavowal- we simultaneously know and “don’t know”- act as if we don’t

climate efficacy

4 key words

1 study

Bandura said that efficacy is a fundamental precursor to any adaptive behaviour

types of efficacy: self efficacy (competence), response-efficacy (effectiveness) and political efficacy (coming together)

protection motivation theory: behaviour is driven by perceived threat and efficacy that change is possible

Angill-Williams and Davis 2021 showed a threat video to all participants and showed some an individual efficacy video and some a collective efficacy video- both efficacy videos increased response efficacy but had little effect of self efficacy

stories of collective action increase efficacy

myth that memory is like a video camera

believed by 65% of the public but nearly no experts

disproved by change blindness demonstrated by Simon and Levin’s door experiment showing that people don’t notice when the person talking to them changes

inaccuracy of flashbulb memories + study

high confidence in accuracy of memory

Neisser and Harsch asked ppl what they were doing when they found out abt the challenger the day after and 3 years later and found that half of the recalled attributes of the memory were wrong

implanting of memories

key words, 2 studies, real world implications

confabulation: recalling something that didn’t happen

Hyman, 1995 cued participants w real childhood memories and fake events made by researchers- more and more can be recalled abt the real events w each interview- they don’t recall the fake events at first but details get added w each interview. 15% come to truly believe that the non-event happened

real world implications: jufges can’t tell the difference btwn real memories and confabulations

Kull, 2003, 2006 found that US public believed in presence of WMDs in Iraq war due to news reporting them and then taking it back

John Dean and false memories

gave overall accurate testimony but was inaccurate w some details of watergate eg: who said what and presented himself as more important than he was

explanations and mythical knowledge

illusion of explanatory depth

2 studies

explanations are needed for knowledge- psychological and exist in context

often simplified as they must be understandable to be valuable

illusion of explanatory depth: people feel they understand the world more than they actually do eg: we misattribute knowing what smth does to how it works

Rozenblit and Keil, 2002 had ppl rate their level of understanding of different mechanisms before explaining, after attempting t explain and after reading an explanation, also re-rated initial understanding after reading explanation- ratings decreased after attempting to explain and after reading explanation. difference between initial rating and re-rating represents the mythical knowledge

Lombrozo, 2007 found that ppl are more likely to believe simple explanations even up to the point where the more complicated explanation is said to be 3 times more likely

Google Galileos

people who think they know smth after googling it even if google doesn’t give them the answer

debate and illusory knowledge

people overestimate their ability to argue their case, this increases w passion for issue

people rate their ability higher before they do it and then lower afterwards- larger gap for more passionate people

independent ratings show no correlation between degree of care abt issue and ability to argue case

myh that IQ is useless

IQ is reliable- ppl get the same score at different times

standardised- normal distribution w mean 100 and sd 15

predicts life achievement

myth that IQ is inherited

heritability estimates around 40-50%

use of twin studies due to issue w parents giving both gene and environment

belief in 100% genetics can lead to problematic beliefs (eugenics)

race and intelligence

attempts to make race classification systems across history but none of them work

race measured w distance from equator as this relates to skin colour as adaptation to climate

race is a social construct driven by peoples desire to classify and has no link to DNA

the bell curve (1994) says that the mean of the bell curve for African Americans is lower than for white ppl because of DNA- this is a myth

data is true- AAs often tested w lower IQ but not when socioeconomic status is accounted for

social factors such as systematic oppression and less opportunities for AAs impact IQ- this can begin in the womb due to the treatment of the mother

the psychological hammer- discrimination cause stress and elevates level of cortisol, correlates w preterm or low birth rates and transgenerational impacts

why does misinformation matter

democracy is in retreat and there is an increase in number of countries autocratising

misinformation is a top global risk

myth that everyone sees things the same

more ppl at obama’s inauguration but trump said he had the biggest inauguration ever

26% of highly educated trump supporters said there was more ppl in a pic of trumps inauguration and 11% of less educated trump supporters

participatory propaganda- seeing things the way they want to see them

people are more/ less likely to notice pollution on beaches based on political affiliation

myth that people can easily update memories w new information

51% of republicans think that WMDs were in iraq despite both parties saying there weren’t

continued influence effect: people recognise a previous belief is false but still act as if they rely on it

Swire, 2017- presented online sample w trump statements that were either true or false and either attributed or not attributed to trump- true statements were affirmed and false statements were rebutted. belief ratings were asked for before and either immediately after the confirmation/ rebuttal. affirmations increased belief and correction decreased belief for both Trump and Sanders supporters but there was no association btwn belief change and voting intentions (effect does not follow in Aus and UK)

myth that social media does not effect political polarisation

bidirectional ambiguity- does misinformation cause ppl to commit hate crimes or are the type of ppl who commit hate crimes more likely t consume misinformation

causation can be found w natural/ quasi experiments

when social media is down there is a reduction in hate crimes

broadband internet availability (topography) determines polarisation btwn partisans in US and populist voting in germany and italy

inoculation

“pre-bunking” misinformation by pre-empting it

warning ppl abt misinformation, refuting anticipated arguments

requires knowledge of how ppl become misinformed not the information itself

polygraphs

look for physiological indicators of lying: pulse, blood pressure, respiration, skin conductivity

hit rate (accurately finding a lie) 80%

false alarm rate (truth reading as lie) 10%

national research council, 2003 found that majority of polygraphs fall above line of chance performance but close to it

not entirely flawed but not highly accurate- many argue they should not be used in court

case study- false confessions (ES)

dozens of ppl confessed to murder of Elizabeth Short in 1947

common characteristics of ppl who give false confessions

under 18 (36%), metal illness or intellectual disability (70%)

voluntary confessions

self-incriminating statements given to police wo pressure

high profile cases

self-punishment, protecting real perpetrator, can’t tell what is reality

eg: Henry Lee Lucas confessed to any case brought to him#

compliant confession

confessing to stop interrogation, avoid threat or gain reward

eg central park 5 were told that if they confessed they would be allowed to go home

internalised confession

they believe they committed the crime

often a result of US police lying and suspects believing them, causing them to question reality

eg: Jorge Hernandez were told his finger prints were found and there was surveillance footage for a rape, he thought he must’ve been drunk

Russians et al., 2005- false confessions

participants given problem solving task in room w confederate and told that some had to be done individually- in one condition the confederate would ask for help, afterwards the researcher would say they had to sign a waver confessing to cheating due to same wrong answers, either used deal techniques (leniency given for confession) or minimsiation technique (what you did wasn’t that bad), both or neither. use of both strategies had the most true and false confessions

laypersons’s view of memory working lie a video camera

64% agree but when more questions are asked a more nuanced view is revealed

Jennifer Thompson and unreliability if eyewitness evidence

in court she said she was absolutely certain that Ronald Cotton raped her but in initial ID from lineup she had low confidence- looked at pic for 4-5 mins and said “I think”

factors influencing accuracy of ID

in initial ID (lineup) close to crime confidence is a strong predictor however confidence in court (months-years later) is not a good predictor- Garrett in 57% of DNA exoneration cases the eye witnesses were uncertain in initial IDs

accuracy is worse when suspect is a different race

the psychological hammer

discrimination causes stress and elevates level of cortisol- this correlates w preterm or low birth rates and transgenerational impacts (why African Americans seem to have a lower IQ)