Psych bio, cultural, social, individual

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Attention and perception: core ideas

  • Topics introduced: limitations of attention; attentional focus effects; how attention affects what we notice

  • Activities planned: attention tests and discussions to concrete takeaways for applying attention concepts to learning and real-world tasks

  • Connection to learning projects: implications for Skills for Success Teaching Project by integrating attention-related findings

What psychological science is

  • Psychological science definition: the scientific study, through research, of the mind, the brain, and behavior

  • Broad perspectives introduced in slides:

    • Biological

    • Social

    • Cultural

    • Individual

  • Emphasis: psychology as a discipline that examines mental processes, neural bases, and observable behavior using empirical methods

Inattentional blindness and change blindness (core concepts)

  • Inattentional blindness:

    • Definition: not noticing something obvious in your visual field because your attention was focused elsewhere

    • Three conditions that increase the likelihood:

    • High demand on attention

    • The ignored elements are alike

    • High level of distraction

  • Change blindness:

    • Definition: not seeing differences in what you're looking at when the scene is briefly interrupted

Attention tests and activities (practical engagement)

  • Page 5: “Let’s Take an Attention Test!”

  • Page 7: “Let’s Do Another Attention Task!” – How many changes do you see?

  • Purpose: to illustrate limitations of attention and practice retrieval of details under testing conditions

Integrating attention into learning and projects

  • Page 9 prompts reflection:

    • What are your concrete takeaways from discussions about attention?

    • How might you integrate some of this content into your Skills for Success Teaching Project?

Dr. Nguyen: two workshop formats for statistics exam preparation

  • Two workshop formats used with statistics students:

    • Workshop A: Writing out definitions of different statistical tests and listing the kinds of situations where each test would be used

    • Workshop B: Exploring case studies of when researchers used the different tests in lab and everyday contexts

  • PollEv questions (as shown in slides):

    • 1) Based on what you've learned about effective learning strategies, which workshop would help students perform better on the final exam?

      • 1. The workshop that wrote out definitions and lists

      • 2. The workshops that explored case studies

      • 3. Both workshops would do equally well

    • 2) Which effective learning strategy does this situation best demonstrate?

      • 2. Retrieval practice

      • 3. Spaced practice

      • 4. Elaboration

      • 5. Interleaving

      • 6. Concrete examples

  • Key takeaway: Case studies and contextual application (elaboration and retrieval of contextual knowledge) may have strong benefits for transfer, but the slides also explicitly tie to retrieval practice as a central concept in learning science

Paloma’s biology example: identifying effective learning strategies

  • Scenario: Paloma memorizes the digestive system by creating a diagram from memory and notes what she remembers from memory

  • Then she checks her diagram against her textbook and class notes

  • BEST-demonstrated strategy: Retrieval practice (A) — recall from memory followed by verification with external sources

  • Related related concepts: dual coding (diagram plus text), but the BEST demonstration here is retrieval practice

What is psychological science? (revisited)

  • Core definition summary:

    • Systematic, empirical study of the mind, brain, and behavior

  • Four broad levels/perspectives mentioned:

    • Biological

      • Definition: How your brain, genes, and body processes affect how you act and think.

      • Example: A person’s anxiety being linked to overactive amygdala activity in the brain.

      Social

      • Definition: How groups, relationships, and social situations influence your thoughts and actions.

      • Example: Peer pressure influencing teenagers to try vaping.

      Cultural

      • Definition: How shared values, traditions, and norms of a culture affect behavior.

      • Example: Collectivist cultures (like Japan) emphasizing group harmony over individual goals.

      Individual

      • Definition: Your unique personality, ways of thinking, and the choices you make.

      • Example: One student studies early in the morning while another prefers late at night because of different habits and personalities.

Humans as intuitive specialists (or not) in psychology

  • Claim: Humans are not great at being intuitive psychologists

  • Implication for learning: intuition can be misleading; scientific methods and evidence are essential to avoid common cognitive pitfalls

Key biases and related concepts (overview)

  • List of biases and related cognitive pitfalls discussed:

    • Confirmation bias

    • Post-hoc fallacy (post hoc ergo propter hoc)

    • Hindsight bias

    • Availability heuristic

    • Dunning-Kruger effect

  • Each bias is presented with a definition, key ideas, and two example illustrations

Confirmation bias (core ideas and visuals)

  • Definition: The habit of looking for, understanding, liking, and remembering information that supports what you already believe.

  • Key ideas:

    • Evidence that confirms beliefs is prioritized; evidence that contradicts beliefs is downplayed or ignored

    • Can lead to a biased interpretation of information and selective exposure

  • Example 1 (conceptual): Google results being hidden by conspiracies or other filtering effects that align with beliefs

  • Example 2 (conceptual): Google results you share that reinforce your viewpoint while ignoring conflicting results

  • Visual/links included in slides (for reference):

    • https://fs.blog/2017/05/confirmation-bias/

    • https://medium.com/@umassthrower/confirmation-bias-sucks-a7bc989d3fd2

Post-hoc fallacy (post hoc ergo propter hoc) and related visuals

  • Core idea: Believing one thing caused another just because it happened afterward.

  • Common phrasing on slides: “Post hoc ergo propter hoc” (literally “after this, therefore because of this”)

  • Visuals/Examples:

    • Clouds/humming example: hummers hum a tune and it rained later; inferring the humming caused rain

    • A mnemonic/graphic showing correlation does not equal causation when events are temporally ordered

  • Purpose: to highlight how one might wrongly infer causation from sequential occurrence

Hindsight bias (after-the-fact explanations)

  • Core idea: Thinking that an event was obvious or predictable after it has already happened.

  • Visual/Example: Before the accident vs. After the accident (how explanations are constructed retrospectively)

  • Lesson: beware of explanations that feel obvious after outcomes are known; they may overstate the predictability of events

Availability heuristic (availability bias)

  • Core idea: Estimating how common or likely something is based on how easily examples pop into your mind, often because of news or media.

  • What happens in the world vs what is emphasized in the news

  • Examples in slides include:

    • Child mortality rates and missing children data, presented through visual charts

    • Media coverage can make certain risks seem more common than they are in objective data

  • Implication for decision making: information seen frequently is perceived as more common or probable, regardless of actual base rates

Additional availability-heuristic visuals and data (illustrative examples)

  • The slide set includes various charts showing perceived risk vs. actual risk, using topics like child mortality, missing children, and crime statistics

  • The overarching message: media framing and vivid anecdotes can distort risk perception via the availability heuristic

Dunning-Kruger effect (self-assessed mastery vs. actual performance)

  • Core idea: When less skilled people think they're better at a task than they are, and very skilled people think they're not as good as they are.

  • Graphical description (Figure 1.6):

    • Second quartile: Perceived mastery of material vs. perceived test performance

    • Third quartile: Actual test performance vs. perceived mastery

    • Top quartile: Actual performance; top performer insights

  • Practical takeaway: metacognition and accurate self-assessment are critical for effective learning; humility and seeking feedback help counteract overconfidence in novices

How these biases relate to scientific thinking and learning

  • Psychological science relies on objective evidence, not just intuition or cherry-picked data

  • Awareness of biases helps in designing better learning strategies (e.g., retrieval practice, spaced practice, and use of concrete examples)

  • In classroom and real-world contexts, recognizing biases supports better interpretation of data and more accurate conclusions

Connections to learning strategies and real-world relevance

  • Retrieval practice (as highlighted in the Dr. Nguyen activity): actively recalling information improves long-term retention more than passive review

  • Case-based and contextual learning (via case studies) helps with transfer of knowledge to new contexts

  • Concrete examples and dual coding (text + images) can reinforce understanding and reduce misinterpretation due to biases

  • Awareness of attention limits and biases informs how to structure study sessions, note-taking, and project work (e.g., Skills for Success Teaching Project)

Formulas and numerical references in the transcript

  • No mathematical formulas or explicit equations were provided in the transcript content

  • References to data visuals (temperature, ice cream sales, pirate counts, etc.) illustrate qualitative concepts (correlation vs. causation, post-hoc reasoning) rather than presenting formal equations

Quick recap of key takeaways for exam prep

  • Attention and perception:

    • Inattentional blindness and change blindness illustrate limits of human attention; high demand, similarity of ignored elements, and high distraction increase misses

    • Practical implication: design learning tasks and environments that reduce unnecessary distraction and increase meaningful focus

  • Psychological science core: mind, brain, behavior studied scientifically across biological, social, cultural, and individual perspectives

  • Biases to know well:

    • Confirmation bias: seeking/veiling evidence that confirms beliefs

    • Post-hoc fallacy: inferring causation from temporal sequence alone

    • Hindsight bias: after-the-fact explanations feel obvious

    • Availability heuristic: overestimating likelihood based on memorable/accessible information

    • Dunning-Kruger effect: miscalibration between perceived and actual ability

  • Learning strategy efficacy: retrieval practice and case-based/contextual learning can outperform simple repetition; retrieval practice is a core evidence-based technique

  • Real-world application: use bias awareness to evaluate information sources, data interpretation, and to design effective teaching and study plans