Cognitive bias

Cognitive bias is any of a wide range of observer effects identified in cognitive science, including very basic statistical and memory errors that are common to all human beings (first identified by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman) and drastically skew the reliability of anecdotal and legal evidence. They also significantly affect the scientific method which is deliberately designed to minimize such bias from any one observer.

Bias arises from various life, loyalty and local risk and attention concerns that are difficult to separate or codify.

Table of contents
1 Cognitive versus culture versus notation bias in physics
2 Weak, strong, and other anthropic principles
3 Math as shared abstract human cognitive bias?

Cognitive versus culture versus notation bias in physics

In physics, researchers are concerned with observer effects - which set clear limits on the process of observing, e.g. as in the Uncertainty Principle, e.g. when untangling quantum entanglement. These are all well-accepted foundations of 20th century philosophy of science and along with a few other such discoveries (like the speed of light) form its core epistemology. Knowing these limits has helped develop a cognitive science by which humans might reasonably characterize the limits of their own perception.

However, bias does not end with cognition. How to interpret the data on what humans 'can' observe becomes controversial when there are few individuals capable of reproducing experiments and compiling new models. Culture arises.

Also, the models, and goals of experiments often come into question as "normal science" nears a "paradigm shift", and considers changing this ontology, among other changes. Thomas Samuel Kuhn stated that the ontology or methodology accepted by prevailing scientists often provided a cultural bias - much like the one that previously guided human cognition of other species as being unfeeling or unconscious. Assigning all freedom of choice to the observer and none to the observed has been a common theme, and error, in all science prior to the 20th century.

Finally, there are notation problems. Aside from the neutrality of math as studied in the philosophy of mathematics, there are many shallow disputes:

For example, a quite different ontology problem identified by anti-reductionist physics is that there is just as much legitimacy describing the bonds or collections between particles as the first-class objects, as there is in the particle physics model composed of particles. Ontological ("what exists") and epistemological ("how you know") concerns often overlap, as they do in theology and philosophy where the terms originate - but descriptions of relations between cognitive bias, culture bias, and notation bias are as controversial as other questions of individual, social and instructional responsibilities - as most clearly visible in the wide range of economic studies of human capital.

Weak, strong, and other anthropic principles

The most all-encompassing example of cognitive bias may be the anthropic principle: in its "weak" form, this states that we humans cannot observe any of the possible universes in which humans cannot exist, and therefore all human observations of the universe are constrained by the many fundamental constants that gave rise to human cognition itself! It's a tautology, and most scientists accept that peering into other universes is not possible - thus theories about them have serious problems of falsifiability.

The "strong form" of the anthropic principle (which most scientists do not accept) argues the reverse: that fundamental constants are constrained by cognition. How can this be, when mathematics predicts future events reliably?

One controversial argument, by Buckminster Fuller, held that cognitive bias arose not directly out of any fundamental physical constants, but rather out of the shared life, loyalty and locality imposed by living in one gravity well sustaining one biosphere - that rather than binding to the whole universe, intelligent creatures were bound emotionally and cognitively to their home planet. In his book "Critical Path" he concluded somewhat controversially that "gravity is love".

Math as shared abstract human cognitive bias?

However, arguing that planets or biospheres must hopelessly bias all aspects of our cognition strongly in their favor is not even the most extreme claim; some argue that whatever human cognitive bias exists is extended by culture into notations where it becomes institutionalized:

Many theorists have thought that mathematical notation itself must contain a strong human cognitive bias - that it cannot predict future events but rather future human cognition - a common theme in theology and in the philosophy of mathematics - and a few, led by George Lakoff, have attempted to create a cognitive science of mathematics to clearly bind together basic constants and operations in mathematics to human cognitive assumptions (about the body and its movements and negotiations).

However behavioral psychology and artificial intelligence studies in the 20th century had a similar agenda, and both more or less failed to explain more than a bare minimum of animal and planning behavior respectively.

See also: falsifiability, cognitive science, philosophy of mathematics, epistemology.



In the News

Hearing Loss In Older Adults May Compromise Cognitive Resources For Me
In a new study, Brandeis University researchers conclude that older adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss may expend so much cognitive energy on hearing accurately that their ability to remember spoken language suffers as a result.

Metal-based Medicine Could Treat Diseases In The Body
Designer molecules that combine metals such as copper with natural organic materials could one day attack viruses in the body and treat a wide range of diseases. That's the finding of chemists at Ohio State University, who have successfully tested such molecules against portions of HIV and Hepatitis C virus RNA in the laboratory. They've also created molecules that act like ACE, or angiotensin-converting enzyme, inhibitors -- drugs that are used to lower blood pressure.

Scientists Aim To Sequence And Catalog Conifer Genes For Future Biofue
Scientists are working to greatly expand the gene catalog for pines and initiate the first gene discovery efforts in five other conifer families. The goal of the research is to produce a comprehensive catalog of all the genes expressed as conifers grow, develop and respond to their environments. By comparing genes expressed by different conifer species in similar tissues under similar conditions, scientists will be able to more quickly identify the key genes controlling tree growth and development. Such studies will also improve our understanding of the formation of biomass components such as lignin that impede production of biofuels from lignocellulosic materials, including wood.

Designer Babies: What Would You Do For A 'Healthy' Baby?
The well-educated are significantly more open to the idea of "designing"babies than the poorly educated, according to a new study by psychologists at the University of East Anglia.

Gene Discovery Aids Understanding Of Common Inherited Neurological Dis
Scientists have identified the gene responsible for one type of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder, a common inherited neurological disease, thanks to the chance appearance of a strain of impaired "pale tremor"mice in a research laboratory. Researchers tracked down the gene responsible for similar disability in people. Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder causes leg pain, muscle weakness and foot deformities.

Surprise In The Organic Orchard -- A Healthier Worm In The Apple
Insects can catch more than a cold from certain viruses. Some viruses can be lethal to pest species - turning their insides to soup - without harming beneficial insects or other organisms. Hence they are used as an environmentally friendly means of biological crop protection worldwide. The proverbial worm in the apple, the codling moth caterpillar, has been controlled in European orchards for years. But in southwest Germany, some organic apple growers noticed that the virus was losing its effectiveness. Pest resistance to chemical insecticides is common in agriculture, but resistance to viruses had never been a problem in the past. Scientists have now discovered how the codling moth rapidly developed virus resistance.

The Evolutionary Triumph Of Flower Power
While flowers originally came on the scene to attract potential pollinators like bugs and birds, it is their appeal to humans that accounts for the incredible variety of shapes and colors we see in domesticated flowers today. Rutgers researchers suggest that nature's prettier flowers got to survive and thrive because people didn't destroy them when they cleared land for agriculture. Instead, they cultivated them and have been doing so for more than 5,000 years.

Fatal Attraction: Elephants And Marula Fruit
Being female can be a risky business, especially if you are a Marula tree in Africa receiving the attention of elephants. Research published in African Journal of Ecology shows that the female Marula suffers a higher risk than the male tree of being destroyed and perhaps killed by elephants. "There is a conflict of interest experienced by female trees when the disperser also has the potential to seriously damage or kill the tree."

[Odd] A Romanian couple has named their son Yahoo as a sign of gratitu
Daily Libertatea said on Thursday Cornelia and Nonu Dragoman, both from Transylvania, met and decided they were meant for each other following a three-month relationship over the net.They married and had a baby this Christmas, whom they decided to name after one of the worldwide web's most popular portals."We named him Lucian Yahoo after my father and the net, the main beacon of my life,"Cornelia Dragoman was quoted as saying.

Best Redneck Horror Flicks
From scary "surgeons" to potion-swilling mad scientists, the misfits that inhabit these creepy late-night gems will keep you jumpy all weekend. In Table of Malcontents.


MP3 Music Downloads

Preview songs, Download Free Music,Burn CDs at ITunes.com
iTunes_RGB_9mm

 

Google




InformationQuickFind.com - Find Information Fast

Links