Numerals as triggers of System 1 and System 2 in the ‘bat and ball’ problem

Mastrogiorgio, Antonio; Petracca, Enrico

doi:10.1007/s11299-014-0138-8

Cited by 18 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It is also interesting psychologically. Analyzing the cognitive reflection aspect of this scale continues to lead to insights about human reasoning almost 10 years after publication of the initial paper (e.g., De Neys et al, 2013 ; Mastrogiorgio and Petracca, 2014 ). In addition, the fact that there are detectable individual differences in Cognitive Reflection, that are somewhat stable across problems, may support the idea that individual differences in System 1 inhibition exist (Kahneman and Frederick, 2002 ; Frederick, 2005 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Cognitive reflection vs. calculation in decision making

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Scores on the three-item Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) have been linked with dual-system theory and normative decision making (Frederick, 2005). In particular, the CRT is thought to measure monitoring of System 1 intuitions such that, if cognitive reflection is high enough, intuitive errors will be detected and the problem will be solved. However, CRT items also require numeric ability to be answered correctly and it is unclear how much numeric ability vs. cognitive reflection contributes to better decision making. In two studies, CRT responses were used to calculate Cognitive Reflection and numeric ability; a numeracy scale was also administered. Numeric ability, measured on the CRT or the numeracy scale, accounted for the CRT's ability to predict more normative decisions (a subscale of decision-making competence, incentivized measures of impatient and risk-averse choice, and self-reported financial outcomes); Cognitive Reflection contributed no independent predictive power. Results were similar whether the two abilities were modeled (Study 1) or calculated using proportions (Studies 1 and 2). These findings demonstrate numeric ability as a robust predictor of superior decision making across multiple tasks and outcomes. They also indicate that correlations of decision performance with the CRT are insufficient evidence to implicate overriding intuitions in the decision-making biases and outcomes we examined. Numeric ability appears to be the key mechanism instead.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The banana costs 13 cents more than the bagel”). However, Bourgeois-Gironde and Van der Henst ( 2009 ) subsequently demonstrated that most people answer these problems incorrectly anyway (58% incorrect; see also Mastrogiorgio and Petracca, 2014 ).…”

Section: The Cognitive Reflection Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive reflection vs. calculation in decision making

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Previous research findings have demonstrated a number of successful debiasing strategies for the bat-and-ball problem (e.g., Alter, Oppenheimer, Epley, & Eyre, 2007;Bourgeois-Gironde & Vanderhenst, 2009;Mastrogiorgio & Petracca, 2014;Thompson et al, 2013). For example, degrading or stylizing the lettering of the font such that it was more difficult to read resulted in higher accuracy (Alter et al, 2007).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Algebraic reasoning and bat-and-ball problem variants: Solving isomorphic algebra first facilitates problem solving later

Hoover

Healy

2017

Psychon Bull Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The classic bat-and-ball problem is used widely to measure biased and correct reasoning in decision-making. University students overwhelmingly tend to provide the biased answer to this problem. To what extent might reasoners be led to modify their judgement, and, more specifically, is it possible to facilitate problem solution by prompting participants to consider the problem from an algebraic perspective? One hundred ninety-seven participants were recruited to investigate the effect of algebraic cueing as a debiasing strategy on variants of the bat-and-ball problem. Participants who were cued to consider the problem algebraically were significantly more likely to answer correctly relative to control participants. Most of this cueing effect was confined to a condition that required participants to solve isomorphic algebra equations corresponding to the structure of bat-and-ball question types. On a subsequent critical question with differing item and dollar amounts presented without a cue, participants were able to generalize the learned information to significantly reduce overall bias. Math anxiety was also found to be significantly related to bat-and-ball problem accuracy. These results suggest that, under specific conditions, algebraic reasoning is an effective debiasing strategy on bat-and-ball problem variants, and provide the first documented evidence for the influence of math anxiety on Cognitive Reflection Test performance.

show abstract

“…The view that the human mind operates through two types of highly differentiated cognitive processes has been proposed in several psychological disciplines, including cognitive, social, and personality psychology and neuroscience [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. This consensus view of mind has been termed Dual-Process Theory (DPT) of cognition, and it is one the most relevant approaches in the study of human rationality [20,21].…”

Section: The Dual-process Theory Of Cognition and Cognitive Reflectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The CRT consists of three apparently simple arithmetical problems that provoke an immediate and wrong response. The individual has to suppress this answer in favor of an alternative one, which is reflective, deliberative, and correct [20,26].…”

Section: The Dual-process Theory Of Cognition and Cognitive Reflectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive Reflection and General Mental Ability as Predictors of Job Performance

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents a study with four independent samples on the validity of cognitive reflection (CR) for predicting job performance and academic outcomes. The results showed that CR was a valid predictor of academic outcomes (i.e., grades and exam marks) and job performance (i.e., assessment center ratings). The magnitude of the CR validity was similar to the validity of GMA. Moreover, we found that CR and GMA were moderately correlated, and multiple regression analyses showed that CR added a small amount of validity over GMA validity for predicting both types of performance. Finally, we discuss the implications of the findings for the theory and practice of predicting performance and organizational sustainability.

show abstract

Numerals as triggers of System 1 and System 2 in the ‘bat and ball’ problem

Cited by 18 publications

References 37 publications

Cognitive reflection vs. calculation in decision making

Cognitive reflection vs. calculation in decision making

Algebraic reasoning and bat-and-ball problem variants: Solving isomorphic algebra first facilitates problem solving later

Cognitive Reflection and General Mental Ability as Predictors of Job Performance

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About