Team Project in Psychology: Cognitive Illusions Akhil Dondapati, Kendall Liang, Rose Maisner, Kali Rigby, Zachary Rissman, Cailey Talbot, Ralph Tancredi Jr., David Tong, Asrita Vattikonda, Amy Vonder Haar, Alan Zhang Advisor: Patrick O. Dolan, Ph.D Assistant: Stephanie Hojsak

What is Cognition? ●Our brain’s mental processes o Thought o Memory o Perception o Behavior o Judgement ●Lower-level thinking o Basic perception, attention, and memory ●Higher-level thinking o Reasoning, comprehension, and significance

Hypothesis ●Lower-level, perceptual illusions should fool all participants equally ●Higher cognition tasks should give NJGSS scholars an edge

General Methods ●Participants o 73 NJGSS scholars o 71 MTurk participants ●Materials: o Qualtrics survey ●Design: o 17 cognitive tasks o Personality questions ●Distribution: o Monitored sessions (NJGSS) o Independently (MTurk)

McGurk Effect What do you hear?

McGurk Effect

False Memory ●Recollection of non-existent events ●List of words o Related to unstudied critical word

False Memory ●15 medical words o Critical word: “doctor” ●“Personality test” ●Hypothesis: NJGSS scholars are just as susceptible to false memory

False Memory ●Results confirmed hypothesis o NJGSS scholars just as likely to recall “doctor” o But scholars better at remembering correct words Falsely recalled “Doctor” % of Correctly recalled Words (out of 15) NJGSS55%42% General Public 56%34%

Intuitive Physics ●“Naive theories” ●Predict ball trajectory

Intuitive Physics Results: Answered Correctly Taken a Physics Course NJGSS70%73% General Public35%45%

Anchoring ●Cognitive Bias o Decision-making ●Making estimations ●Initial Value: “Anchor” ●Anchoring-and-adjusting o Insufficient

Anchoring ●Was Gandhi older or younger than 9 when he died? ●Was Gandhi older or younger than 140 when he died?

Anchoring

●Is the mean temperature in Tanzania higher or lower than 51°F? ●Is the mean temperature in Tanzania higher or lower than 106°F?

Anchoring

Moses Illusion ●A subtly distorted question o No correct answer ●Most plausible explanation: assume what question is asking o Other possible explanations

Moses Illusion ●Introduced section as “lightning round” ●Two straightforward, easy questions ●Random selection of one of two questions: o What shape has a circumference of πr 2 ? o What is the name of the man in the red suit and long white beard who rides a sleigh and gives out birthday presents?

Moses Illusion ●Santa Question: o General Public: 72% mistakenly answered “Santa” o NJGSS scholars: 76% mistakenly answered “Santa” ●Circle Question: o General Public: 68% mistakenly answered “circle” o NJGSS scholars: 28% mistakenly answered “circle” ●Conclusion

Lake Wobegon Effect ●Also known as “Illusory Superiority” “Welcome to Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good- looking, and all the children are above average.” ●Mathematically impossible!

Lake Wobegon Effect

●NJGSS Scholars are more susceptible to the Lake Wobegon Effect than the general public. o Theories?

Personality Types

Type FBA You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are able to compensate for them with your strengths. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations may seem unrealistic but you have a strong motivation and drive.

Type ABF You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are able to compensate for them with your strengths. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations may seem unrealistic but you have a strong motivation and drive.

Type BFA You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are able to compensate for them with your strengths. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations may seem unrealistic but you have a strong motivation and drive.

Forer Effect ●NJGSS average rating: 4.16 o 57% rated 5 out of 5 ●General public average rating: 3.87 ○ 35% rated 5 out of 5 ●NJGSS students were more susceptible

Forer Effect You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are able to compensate for them with your strengths. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations may seem unrealistic but you have a strong motivation and drive.

Conclusion ●Our results generally matched our hypotheses ○NJGSS Scholars excelled in math/science oriented questions ○Scholars were still susceptible to lower-level cognitive illusions ●For certain tasks, there was a statistically significant difference between NJGSS Scholars and the general public ○False Memory, Intuitive Physics, Moses Illusion (circle problem), Lake Wobegon

Thank You! Team 2 would like to thank: ●Our leaders, Dr. Dolan and Steph ●Dr. Cassano, Dr. Surace, Anna Mae ●The New Jersey Governor’s School in the Sciences and all its generous donors. o Independent College Fund of NJ/Johnson & Johnson o AT&T o Actavis Pharmaceuticals o Celgene o Novartis o Bayer Healthcare o Laura (NJGSS ’86) and John Overdeck o NJGSS Alumnae and Parents of Alumnae o Board of Overseers, New Jersey Governor’s Schools o State of New Jersey o Drew University Thank you!

Presentation References Pictures ● ● ● ● jpghttp://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/santa-claus-flying-sleigh-christmas-eve jpg ● ● Wobegon jpghttp:// Wobegon jpg ●