Chapter 7 ~Cognitive Psychology~ Information processing Amber Gilewski Tompkins Cortland Community College

Cognitive Psychology: the study of mental processes Understanding the way people process information about environmental problems is crucial for understanding their responses to them Cognitive and perceptual biases, errors, and shortcuts, cause us to overact to some hazards and under-react to others

Humans are visual-dependent Sight uses a greater part of the human brain cortex Leads people to rely heavily on visual information –Seeing is believing –Out of sight, out of mind Visual dependency has been exploited by all sides of the environmental debates

Change blindness Visual scenes can change radically without being noticed because of constraints on the ability to: –Process –Retain –Compare information, from one moment to the next PBS – Change Blindness

Irrelevant information Too much information can produce GIGO (garbage in-garbage out) if the information is confusing Many reasoning difficulties come from being distracted by or using irrelevant information Greenwashing Inaccurate and irrelevant information is displayed in an attempt to make companies appear environmentally conscious Planet 100: Top 5 Eco-Contradictions

One way that people actively pursue irrelevant information: Confirmation bias - When testing hunches against incoming data, most people make the mistake of looking for confirming rather than disconfirming information

Representativeness heuristic: –The tendency to judge an event as likely if it represents the typical features of its category Availability heuristic: ---- The tendency to form a judgment based on that which is readily brought to mind Comparative optimism: –A cognitive bias that leads individuals to believe they are less vulnerable than other people –A heuristic that helps people feel good about themselves, in spite of their behavior or circumstances

False consensus: –A heuristic that helps people maintain positive self- esteem by convincing themselves that many others engage in the same undesirable behaviors that they do False polarization: –The tendency to perceive the views of those on the opposing side of a partisan debate as more extreme than they really are Framing effects: –Are induced when the same information is structured in different ways DECISION MAKING & HEURISTICS ACTIVITYDECISION MAKING & HEURISTICS ACTIVITY

Rank in order the following hazards according to your perception of the health risk each poses: –Radiation –Persistent organic pollutants –Pesticides –Global warming –Hazardous waste sites –Population growth

Professional risk assessment: 1.Population growth 2.Global warming 3.Persistent organic pollutants 4.Pesticides, hazardous waste, and radiation