Sometimes it does hurt to ask: The constructive role of articulating impressions

Abstract

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Payne, Bettman & Johnson, 1993;Sharot, Velasquez, & Dolan, 2010;Sherman, 1980). In this work we explore the constructive role of just articulating an impression, for a presented visual stimulus, as opposed to making a choice (specifically, the judgments we employ are affective evaluations). Using quantum probability theory, we outline a cognitive model formalizing such a constructive process. We predict a simple interaction, in relation to how a second image is evaluated, following the presentation of a first image, depending on whether there is a rating for the first image or not. The interaction predicted by the quantum model was confirmed across three experiments and a variety of control manipulations. The advantages of using quantum probability theory to model the present results, compared with existing models of sequence order effects in judgment (e.g. Hogarth & Einhorn, 1992) or other theories of constructive processes when a choice is made (e.g. Festinger, 1957;Sharot et al., 2010) are discussed. Permanent repository link

A Contextualised General Systems Theory

“…They use this test to explain the results reported in Moore [84], thus unifying the violation of the LTPdiscussed above, with that of order effects in psychology. A further experiment, discussed by White et al [85] demonstrates that the constructive role of measurement is likely to be causing the change in probabilities that arise in these scenarios. This paper introduces a very simple paradigm, where subjects are exposed to two images in a row, with half of the subjects asked to articulate their impressions about the first image before being shown the second and all subjects asked to articulate their impressions about the second image.…”

Quantum cognition: a new theoretical approach to psychology

“…Rather than resorting to heuristics, quantum cognition successfully accounts for these violations using a coherent, common set of principles. Although this review focuses on judgment and decision making, we briefly highlight the expressive power of quantum models by pointing out that they have already been applied to a broad range of cognitive phenomena, including perception [28,29], memory [30][31][32], conceptual combinations [33][34][35][36], attitudes [37,38], probability judgments [39][40][41][42], causal reasoning [43], decision making [44][45][46][47][48][49][50], and strategic games [51,52]. It is not possible to survey the myriad of applications in this review.…”

Towards an Empirical Test of Realism in Cognition

“…Kindly note that " White et al (in press)" has been changed as " White et al (2014)". Please check and confirm.…”

“…In psychology the extent to which a given judgment causes a change in the knowledge state of the subject can be influenced by details of the experimental design (e.g. White et al (2014)). The psychological idea behind non-disturbing measurements would be to avoid a subject feeling as though they had made a strong commitment to a particular choice, and it is possible that this could be achieved through a sufficiently clever experimental design.…”