On Tuesday 12 Jan 2010 11:09:13 am Jim Grisanzio wrote: > Good story. I certainly know a few of those monkeys (and a few > veterinarians studying real monkeys too). But I suppose we all have the > ability of acting like those monkeys from time to time even if we are > consciously aware of the issue and try to disrupt the process. I think > that's a strong point of the article, that our reactions are hardwired > to at least a certain degree. Catching (and adjusting) our own narrow > agendas is cool, but what about what we genuinely miss? And how much are > we missing on any given day. Probably more than we are comfortable with.
I believe this stuff falls within the field of "cognitive biases" that are currently being studied by silklist lurker Shyam. I quote Shyam from another board > an introduction to my recent interest in the area of cognitive biases which > is quite closely related to the field of artificial intelligence (at least > historically). Bias refers to a tendency towards a particular perspective, > ideology or result and cognitive bias refers to biases related to our brain > as a computational tool. For example, one type of cognitive bias is > confirmation bias, the tendency to interpret new information in such a way > it that confirms one's prior beliefs. Another example of a cognitive bias, > pertinent to medical diagnosis, is anchoring - the tendency to lock onto > salient features in the patient’s initial presentation too early in the > diagnostic process, and failing to adjust this initial impression in the > light of later information. The idea of a cognitive bias is interesting to me because I have been recognizing the effects of cognitive bias in the fom of "cognitive dissonance' that I have mentioned before on Silk. Here are two articles that speak of the effect of cognitive bias in medicine http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/01/29/070129fa_fact_groopman http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/magazine/13Fob-wwln-t.html I could tell you people a bit about cogtnitive bias in politics and religion :D shiv
