Get Smart
The best of both worlds: Integrating conscious and unconscious thought best solves complex decisions
Loran Nordgren, Maarten Bos & Ap Dijksterhuis
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Two studies address the debate over whether conscious or unconscious mental processes best handle complex decisions. According to Unconscious Thought Theory (Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006) both modes of thinking have particular advantages: conscious thought can follow strict rules, whereas unconscious thought is better suited for integrating numerous decision attributes. Because most complex decisions require both adherence to precise rules and the aggregation of information, we hypothesized that complex decisions can best be made by engaging in periods of both conscious and unconscious thought. In both studies we found that the sequential integration of conscious and unconscious thought solved complex choices better than conscious or unconscious thought alone. In Study 2 we examined whether the sequential order of the integration condition matters. In line with our prediction, we found that integration worked best when unconscious thought followed conscious thought.
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The benefits of "sleeping on things": Unconscious thought leads to automatic weighting
Maarten Bos, Ap Dijksterhuis & Rick van Baaren
Journal of Consumer Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We tested and confirmed the hypothesis that unconscious thought leads to an automatic weighting process whereby important decision attributes receive more weight, and unimportant decision attributes receive less weight. In three experiments, participants chose between cars with few important positive attributes and many unimportant negative attributes ("Quality cars"), and cars with many unimportant positive attributes and few important negative attributes ("Frequency cars"). In all experiments, unconscious thinkers showed a stronger preference for Quality cars than immediate decision makers, showing that unconscious thought indeed evokes an automatic weighting process. An alternative explanation is refuted and implications are discussed.
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Benefits of indoor plants on attention capacity in an office setting
Ruth Raanaas et al.
Journal of Environmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research studied possible benefits of indoor plants on attention capacity in a controlled laboratory experiment. Participants were 34 students randomly assigned to one of two conditions: an office setting with four indoor plants, both flowering and foliage, or the same setting without plants. Attention capacity was assessed three times, i.e. immediately after entering the laboratory, after performing a demanding cognitive task, and after a five-minute break. Attention capacity was measured using a reading span test, a dual processing task known to tap the central executive function of attention. Participants in the plant condition improved their performance from time one to two, whereas this was not the case in the no-plant condition. Neither group improved performance from time two to three. The results are discussed in the context of Attention Restoration Theory and alternative explanations.
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Elliot Tucker-Drob et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent research in behavioral genetics has found evidence for a Gene × Environment interaction on cognitive ability: Individual differences in cognitive ability among children raised in socioeconomically advantaged homes are primarily due to genes, whereas environmental factors are more influential for children from disadvantaged homes. We investigated the developmental origins of this interaction in a sample of 750 pairs of twins measured on the Bayley Short Form test of infant mental ability, once at age 10 months and again at age 2 years. A Gene × Environment interaction was evident on the longitudinal change in mental ability over the study period. At age 10 months, genes accounted for negligible variation in mental ability across all levels of socioeconomic status (SES). However, genetic influences emerged over the course of development, with larger genetic influences emerging for infants raised in higher-SES homes. At age 2 years, genes accounted for nearly 50% of the variation in mental ability of children raised in high-SES homes, but genes continued to account for negligible variation in mental ability of children raised in low-SES homes.
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Fact and Fiction in Cognitive Ability Testing for Admissions and Hiring Decisions
Nathan Kuncel & Sarah Hezlett
Current Directions in Psychological Science, December 2010, Pages 339-345
Abstract:
Standardized measures of intelligence, ability, or achievement are all measures of acquired knowledge and skill and have consistent relationships with multiple facets of success in life, including academic and job performance. Five persistent beliefs about ability tests have developed, including: (a) that there is no relationship with important outcomes like creativity or leadership, (b) that there is predictive bias, (c) that there is a lack of predictive independence from socioeconomic status, (d) that there are thresholds beyond which scores cease to matter, and (e) that other characteristics, like personality, matter as well. We present the evidence and conclude that of these five beliefs, only the importance of personality is a fact; the other four are fiction.
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Unconscious information processing reduces information overload and increases product satisfaction
Claude Messner & Michaela Wänke
Journal of Consumer Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Consumers are less satisfied with a product chosen from an extended assortment than from a limited one. Presumably, information overload causes decreased satisfaction and reducing information overload would increase satisfaction. Building on Unconscious Thought Theory, results suggest that this classic effect reverses when consumers do not deliberate. Consumers reported lower satisfaction with a praline chosen from a large assortment than from a small one, when they either deliberated intensively or chose spontaneously. This effect reversed when consumers were distracted before choosing. Unconscious thinking about a large assortment led to the highest product satisfaction.
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Susanne Shultz & Robin Dunbar
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 14 December 2010, Pages 21582-21586
Abstract:
Evolutionary encephalization, or increasing brain size relative to body size, is assumed to be a general phenomenon in mammals. However, despite extensive evidence for variation in both absolute and relative brain size in extant species, there have been no explicit tests of patterns of brain size change over evolutionary time. Instead, allometric relationships between brain size and body size have been used as a proxy for evolutionary change, despite the validity of this approach being widely questioned. Here we relate brain size to appearance time for 511 fossil and extant mammalian species to test for temporal changes in relative brain size over time. We show that there is wide variation across groups in encephalization slopes across groups and that encephalization is not universal in mammals. We also find that temporal changes in brain size are not associated with allometric relationships between brain and body size. Furthermore, encephalization trends are associated with sociality in extant species. These findings test a major underlying assumption about the pattern and process of mammalian brain evolution and highlight the role sociality may play in driving the evolution of large brains.
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Kimberley Ferriman Robertson, Stijn Smeets, David Lubinski & Camilla Benbow
Current Directions in Psychological Science, December 2010, Pages 346-351
Abstract:
The assertion that ability differences no longer matter beyond a certain threshold is inaccurate. Among young adolescents in the top 1% of quantitative reasoning ability, individual differences in general cognitive ability level and in specific cognitive ability pattern (that is, the relationships among an individual's math, verbal, and spatial abilities) lead to differences in educational, occupational, and creative outcomes decades later. Whereas ability level predicts the level of achievement, ability pattern predicts the realm of achievement. Adding information on vocational interests refines prediction of educational and career choices. Finally, lifestyle preferences relevant to career choice, performance, and persistence often change between ages 25 and 35. This change results in sex differences in preferences, which likely have relevance for understanding the underrepresentation of women in careers that demand more than full-time (40 hours per week) commitment.
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Enhanced Cortical Connectivity in Absolute Pitch Musicians: A Model for Local Hyperconnectivity
Psyche Loui, Charles Li, Anja Hohmann & Gottfried Schlaug
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, April 2011, Pages 1015-1026
Abstract:
Connectivity in the human brain has received increased scientific interest in recent years. Although connection disorders can affect perception, production, learning, and memory, few studies have associated brain connectivity with graded variations in human behavior, especially among normal individuals. One group of normal individuals who possess unique characteristics in both behavior and brain structure is absolute pitch (AP) musicians, who can name the appropriate pitch class of any given tone without a reference. Using diffusion tensor imaging and tractography, we observed hyperconnectivity in bilateral superior temporal lobe structures linked to AP possession. Furthermore, volume of tracts connecting left superior temporal gyrus to left middle temporal gyrus predicted AP performance. These findings extend previous reports of exaggerated temporal lobe asymmetry, may explain the higher incidence of AP in special populations, and may provide a model for understanding the heightened connectivity that is thought to underlie savant skills and cases of exceptional creativity.
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Pervasiveness of the IQ Rise: A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis
Jakob Pietschnig, Martin Voracek & Anton Formann
PLoS ONE, December 2010, e14406
Background: Generational IQ gains in the general population (termed the Flynn effect) show an erratic pattern across different nations as well as across different domains of intelligence (fluid vs crystallized). Gains of fluid intelligence in different countries have been subject to extensive research, but less attention was directed towards gains of crystallized intelligence, probably due to evidence from the Anglo-American sphere suggesting only slight gains on this measure. In the present study, development of crystallized intelligence in the German speaking general population is assessed.
Methodology/Principal Findings: To investigate whether IQ gains for crystallized intelligence are in progress in German-speaking countries, two independent meta-analyses were performed. By means of a cited reference search in ISI Web of Science, all studies citing test manuals and review articles of two widely-used salient measures of crystallized intelligence were obtained. Additionally, the electronic database for German academic theses was searched to identify unpublished studies employing these tests. All studies reporting participants mean IQ or raw scores of at least one of the two measures were included in the present analyses, yielding over 500 studies (>1,000 samples; >45,000 individuals). We found a significant positive association between years of test performance and intelligence (1971-2007) amounting to about 3.5 IQ points per decade.
Conclusions/Significance: This study clearly demonstrates that crystallized IQ gains are substantial and of comparable strength as Flynn effects typically observed for measures of fluid intelligence in Central Europe. Since mean IQ was assessed in a large number of small, non-representative samples, our evidence suggests a remarkable robustness of these gains. Moreover, in both meta-analyses strength of gains was virtually identical. On the whole, results of the present study demonstrate a pervasive and generalizing Flynn effect in German-speaking countries.
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The role of computational ease on the decision to spend loyalty program points
Jessica Kwong, Dilip Soman & Candy Ho
Journal of Consumer Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Many consumers today hold loyalty program points which function as a currency, but are not cash. This paper examines factors that influence consumers' decisions to keep or spend their accumulated points. We found that consumers are more likely to spend points when they can easily anticipate the benefits they can enjoy with the points. Specifically, the decision to spend points is facilitated when it is easier to compute the percentage savings one can get by using the points. This computational ease has effects on point spending beyond that of saving magnitude.
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How the brain integrates costs and benefits during decision making
Ulrike Basten, Guido Biele, Hauke Heekeren & Christian Fiebach
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 14 December 2010, Pages 21767-21772
Abstract:
When we make decisions, the benefits of an option often need to be weighed against accompanying costs. Little is known, however, about the neural systems underlying such cost-benefit computations. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and choice modeling, we show that decision making based on cost-benefit comparison can be explained as a stochastic accumulation of cost-benefit difference. Model-driven functional MRI shows that ventromedial and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex compare costs and benefits by computing the difference between neural signatures of anticipated benefits and costs from the ventral striatum and amygdala, respectively. Moreover, changes in blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal in the bilateral middle intraparietal sulcus reflect the accumulation of the difference signal from ventromedial prefrontal cortex. In sum, we show that a neurophysiological mechanism previously established for perceptual decision making, that is, the difference-based accumulation of evidence, is fundamental also in value-based decisions. The brain, thus, weighs costs against benefits by combining neural benefit and cost signals into a single, difference-based neural representation of net value, which is accumulated over time until the individual decides to accept or reject an option.
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Predicting Long-Term Firefighter Performance From Cognitive And Physical Ability Measures
Norman Henderson
Personnel Psychology, Winter 2010, Pages 999-1039
Abstract:
Firefighters from 1 academy training class were observed for 23 years, beginning with their selection test consisting of a g-saturated written exam (GCA) and firefighting simulations loaded on a strength/endurance (SE) factor. Operational validity coefficients for both GCA and SE were high for training success and remained consistently high for job performance ratings throughout the study. The operational validity for combined GCA and SE predictors was .86 for a composite job rating measure covering 21 years of service. A structural model produced similar results for more broadly defined GCA and SE latent variables. Both analyses suggested approximately equal weighting for GCA and SE for a fire service selection test. Results indicate considerable latitude in choosing cognitive and physical predictors for firefighter screening if the predictors are highly loaded on GCA and SE.
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Humans and Insects Decide in Similar Ways
Philippe Louâpre, Jacques van Alphen & Jean-Sébastien Pierre
PLoS ONE, December 2010, e14251
Abstract:
Behavioral ecologists assume that animals use a motivational mechanism for decisions such as action selection and time allocation, allowing the maximization of their fitness. They consider both the proximate and ultimate causes of behavior in order to understand this type of decision-making in animals. Experimental psychologists and neuroeconomists also study how agents make decisions but they consider the proximate causes of the behavior. In the case of patch-leaving, motivation-based decision-making remains simple speculation. In contrast to other animals, human beings can assess and evaluate their own motivation by an introspection process. It is then possible to study the declared motivation of humans during decision-making and discuss the mechanism used as well as its evolutionary significance. In this study, we combine both the proximate and ultimate causes of behavior for a better understanding of the human decision-making process. We show for the first time ever that human subjects use a motivational mechanism similar to small insects such as parasitoids and bumblebees to decide when to leave a patch. This result is relevant for behavioral ecologists as it supports the biological realism of this mechanism. Humans seem to use a motivational mechanism of decision making known to be adaptive to a heterogeneously distributed resource. As hypothesized by Hutchinson et al. and Wilke and Todd, our results are consistent with the evolutionary shaping of decision making because hominoids were hunters and gatherers on food patches for more than two million years. We discuss the plausibility of a neural basis for the motivation mechanism highlighted here, bridging the gap between behavioral ecology and neuroeconomy. Thus, both the motivational mechanism observed here and the neuroeconomy findings are most likely adaptations that were selected for during ancestral times.