TOK Integration – Psychology LAJM / VALA

TASK Is human memory reliable? – on what basis it is? – on what basis it is not?

Flashbulb memories Refers to dramatic and emotionally charged events that etch themselves onto our minds with unusual vividness, accuracy and durability – can be associated with shared events or personal traumas

TASK What kind of flashbulb memories do you have? – how vividly and accurately can you remember these? Can you rely on your flashbulb memories? – do you really remember tragic events more accurately than other events?

Flashbulb memories According to research, even flashbulb memories change and deteriorate dramatically over time – flashbulb memories builds confidence, not accuracy

Some memory biases (1) Egocentric bias – tendency to attribute a more central role to ourselves in past events

Some memory biases (2) Narrative bias – tendency to exaggerate our memories and to make them fit into a predetermined storyline

Some memory biases (3) Emotional bias – our view of the past may be influenced by our current mood – can lead to nostalgia

Some memory biases (4) Vividness bias – tendency to recall the vividness of events over frequency of events

Some memory biases (5) Hindsight bias – tendency to be wise after the event and adjust our memories accordingly

Some memory biases (6) Source amnesia – tendency to forget the source of our knowledge – may lead to unconscious plagiarism

TASK How have you fallen into memory biases? How can you combat memory biases?

Cognitive biases Distort our intuitions about the world in a systematic manner – are related to memory biases Seem to be common to everyone of us

GROUP WORK One group finds out the following things from one of the cognitive biases on the right – (a) What does the bias mean? – (b) Give examples – (c) Give means to combat the bias (1) Confirmation bias (2) Sunk cost bias (3) Framing effect (4) Availability heuristic (5) Affect heuristic (6) Fundamental attribution error

GROUP CONVERSATION Has TOK integration with psychology helped you to become a better critical thinker?

Picture Sources youre-suffering-from-hindsight-bias.html decisions