Confirmation bias in visual search

In a series of experiments, we investigated the ubiquity of confirmation bias in cognition by measuring whether visual selection is prioritized for information that would confirm a proposition about a visual display. We show that attention is preferentially deployed to stimuli matching a target temp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance Vol. 41; no. 5; p. 1353
Main Authors Rajsic, Jason, Wilson, Daryl E, Pratt, Jay
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.10.2015
Subjects
Adult
Attention - physiology
Humans
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:In a series of experiments, we investigated the ubiquity of confirmation bias in cognition by measuring whether visual selection is prioritized for information that would confirm a proposition about a visual display. We show that attention is preferentially deployed to stimuli matching a target template, even when alternate strategies would reduce the number of searches necessary. We argue that this effect is an involuntary consequence of goal-directed processing, and show that it can be reduced when ample time is provided to prepare for search. These results support the notion that capacity-limited cognitive processes contribute to the biased selection of information that characterizes confirmation bias. (PsycINFO Database Record
ISSN:1939-1277
DOI:10.1037/xhp0000090