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So today's episode is on thinking biases. Now, this topic of psychology, I absolutely love to be honest, because I find it amazing that as, as humans we think we are so essentially it god like, we are so clever when it comes to thinking because we can make split decisions. We can be really quick, we can make informed decisions. However, I don't know. I just thought, I find it amazing that there was so many simple biases. That make our thinking flawed and that's what we're going to explore in this episode, which I'm really looking forward to. So what are thinking biases, it is essentially something that makes our thinking flawed. Now, when I learned this topic originally in the IB, there were three biases that we learned but I have picked two, which are the most easiest to remember. I just wanted to focus on what was easiest and what was the most interesting, because the other bias that we're not going to look at is called the anchor bias, which, forgive me, but I've not looked at the anchor bias for ages however, if memory recalls it's that you anchor your thinking based on one bit of information, which if the information is flawed, then it leads to flawed thinking. So the two biases we’ll look at are the framing effect, which I love. I cannot stress enough how much I love the framing effect. Well, I think it's honestly amazing. Now, the framing effect simply states that depending on how you frame the information, it results in a certain thinking pattern. Tversky and Kahneman (1981) They used 307 us undergraduate students, which were voluteers and then the students were asked. We're given a scenario about the US being infected by a strange Asian virsus that was meant to be kill exactly 600 people and then these are people were splitting into two conditions. The positively framed group and then the negative group, and then within each of these groups, people were given information about programs to combat this outbreak. Programme A was that 200 people will be saved. Programme B was that there’s a one third chance that 600 people will be saved but a two third chance that 600 people will die. So what would you choose in that this form? Because personally, actually no. First of all, I'm going to give you a few seconds to think about it. So what would you choose? Programme A 200 people will be saved, or would you choose program B where there's a one third chance that 600 people will be saved them, or there's a two third chances that 600 people will die. Think about it for a moment. So that was for the positive framing the group. However, there was another group where the information was framed more negatively. So programme C was that 400 people will die. There's no doubt about it. These people are going to die. However, program D is that there's a one third chance nobody will die but there's a two third chance 600 people will died. So what would you choose? I'll give you a minute to think about it. So now that you've chosen both of your programs, I'm going to tell you the results. In the positively framed group people tended to choose the certain outcomes because 72% of people chose program A were 200 people will be saved. So as you can see, this positive conditions, when information is framing positively, people focus on certainties, like 200 people will be saved compared to uncertainty, were there’s a two third chance of people dying. However, if you notice all of these conditions are technically the same. Because in all of them, 200 people will be saved and 400 people will essentially die. However, if we moved to the negative condition where the information is framed negatively, 78% of people chose program D, which is where there's a one-third chance that nobody will die and 2/3 that 600 people will die. So as you can see in this condition, when information is framed negatively, people will tend to go for the uncertainty because there's a chance that everyone will live compared to the 400 people, that will definitely die. So as you can see in this study, the framing effect can be a thinking bias because as you can see, all of these scenarios, all of these programs are the same, and the framing effect leads to people not noticing this and people favoring one condition over the other. Now they have a lot of real world implications about this, which I find fascinating. So saying once you can even link this to persuasion, which I did a blog post on a few weeks ago and at university I'm going to mention the framing effect in my persuasion essay for my coursework. So in conclusion, the framing effect is a thinking bias because if the information is framed negatively then people favor uncertainty. However, when information is framed positively, people prefer certainty. A positive of this study is that because of its board implications potentially it does have high ecological validity, which is good as it can be applied to the real world. However, I said potentially because of this scenario, which is where the USA is affected by a strange Asian virus killing only 600 people, there's a problem, that I personally have this study- it is not ecologically valid because you would never find this in the real world. Where undergraduates who haven't got any degrees will be given such an important choice about which Health program to use. So to improve this study, I would definitely give them more ecologically valid scenario, which shouldn't be that hard to be honest, as this has such a wide range of real world implications. For example, investments. You could use because as college students, I imagine that most of them would be wanting to make quite a bit of money. So you could give them a list of a choices about a different investment opportunities. And you could essentially do the exact same experiment and give them different choices. For example, you could effectively say that there's a two third chance of the money being lost. However, there's a third chance that they could make a million that would be very ecologically valid because investment opportunities are used all over the place. That's just my opinion. We're going to move on to another favourite of mine called the peak end bias. I think it is just great because it is true. So the peak end bias is but it's actually called the peak end rule states that people only remember the most interesting part of an event. And at the end of an event, for example, you could be out at a restaurant and you can have the most amazing food. You can have great service. However, let's say that one of the other guests at the restaurant decided to pick a fight with you, and that was the most interesting part of the evening. That would be the peak. And let's say at the end of evening, your credit cards got declined constantly. So you've spent about half an hour trying to figure out a way how to pay for your meal. So that would be the end. So overall, later on, let's say like an hour or two later, somebody asks you how was your meal? You are really likely to say that the meal was awful because of those two things, without considering the great food and the great service. Kahneman (1994) The researchers got participants to place one hand in a painfully code of water. Whilst on the other hand they needed to show how much pain they were in. 1 finger indicated they were experiencing no pain then 5 fingers was extreme pain. There were two conditions, condition 1 was were they needed to place their hand in the painfully cold water was for 60 seconds but they also asked to do another condition, which is when they needed to put their hand in cold water for 60 seconds. However, they had to do it for another 30 seconds as well. But in this last 30 seconds so between 60 seconds and 90 seconds they opened a value which caused the water temperature to increase by one degree. And then at the subjects were told that they needed to do another trial, but then you could choose so they could choose condition 1, which was 60 seconds, or they are at 2nd condition. So logically speaking, it makes a lot more sense to go for condition one because you only experience pain for 60 seconds. So it makes sense. However, 80% of the subjects decided to do condition 2 because of the slight decrease of pain towards the end. So this study effectively shows how the peak end rule works in a research setting. It shows that decision making is flawed because if it wasn't, then the 80% should have chose condition one. Okay. So moving on to our critical thinking section section. This study is a very effective study because it does show that the peak end rule doesn’t cause a bias in thinking and it does have an impact on that behavior. However, though, as with all research, you cannot confirm that this was 100% the peak end rule because there could have been other factors involved and as always that could have led to the person choosing to do the second condition. That was nothing to do with do with the peak end rule and therefore if I was to do the study again then I would conducted semi structured interviews with the participants to try and clear up this matter because in these interviews you can ask them a questions and you could eliminate some possibilities. For example, they could have chosen the second condition because I don't know, something quite like trivial, for example, they could have just liked the warm water. Therefore, this would not have been down to the peak end rule. These interviews would have helped the researcher to eliminate some other possibilities for this. Okay, so now what have we looked at our studies and we've done all critical thinking- let’s bring everything into one cohesive whole. So we know that decision making is a flawed because we all have so many examples in everyday life, which is where we pick less logical answers. And then. We look at back and question why didn't we choose them? The reason why we didn't choose them was that because of these thinking biases. I've just shown you. But there are many more out there. So we looked at the framing effect and the framing effect demostrates that depending on how the inflammation is framed; either positively or negatively; it can influence our thinking to become bias. When information is framed positively people tend to go with the certain outcomes and when the information is framed negatively people to go for the uncertain outcomes. However, there's another bias called the peak end of rule were you only remember the most interesting part of an event and the end and because of this it causes a bias in your thinking. So I hope you enjoyed today's episode. And if you want to know more about cognitive psychology in our general then I recommend getting my book for more easy to understand psychology concepts. It's a cognitive psychology by Connor Whiteley. Have a great week everyone!

Hello, everyone. Today's post is very speacial becuase we'll be focusing on a topic in abnormal psychology; but i beieve that Autism is normal as you're born with it but that's a topic for another time; so we'll be interviewing Dr Sharon A. Mitchell on AUtism. Let's get started! 1. Hello Sharon, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Would you mine introducing yourself to us please? Hi Connor. Thanks for inviting me to your blog. I've been a special education teacher, counselor, school psychologist, school district consultant, autism consultant, university instructor and author. I'm now retired from all but the latter two. Mostly. Well, for now, anyway. Oh, and I also farm with my husband and son; our harvest this fall was interrupted by early snow, so we'll end up completing harvest before we begin seeding in spring. 2. So, I believe that autism and the term ASD is thrown around quite a lot without people knowing exactly what it is. Can you please explain what autism is? There is a good reason why you hear the term autism and ASD so often. According to the Centers for Disease Control, autism affects one in every fifty-nine children. In any school, likely every other classroom has an autistic student. And, that accounts for just those kids who are diagnosed. Many others are on waiting lists or might never receive a formal diagnosis. Autism is a neuro-biological condition, meaning that it has its basis in the brain. Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that there is a wide variation in how it can affect the individual and the degree to which the person is affected. It was once thought that about half of those with autism also had an intellectual disability, but now many think that only about a third of autistic people have an accompanying cognitive disability. There are a few hallmarks of autism. One is in the area of communication. Some autistic people are unable to use speech to get their wants and needs across. Others can seem highly verbal. This difference, along with the possible intellectual disability has led to the terms "high functioning" and "low functioning". But, these terms are misleading. If you think of functioning level only in terms of IQ, then you miss the variations. It could erroneously be assumed that if a person has intellectual ability in the average to above range, that they should get along just fine and do not require support. That is actually not true, or at least not consistently true, for an individual. Under some circumstances, that adult might manage their life just fine. But when under duress from sensory input, anxiety, etc., their ability to communicate might be severely reduced or non-existent and they may not handle their situation at all. During that moment, they will not be "high functioning". There might be an autistic person with a mild intellectual disability who has less anxiety and fewer sensory challenges who actually handles his day-to-day functioning better. Even autistic adults who have good vocabularies and are articulate can have communication difficulties. When we use language, we are often not straight-forward. Our actual words make up on part of the whole that is communication. Autistic individuals are usual concrete, black and white thinkers. Thus, they can miss nuances, facial expressions and body language. Sarcasm and innuendo can be difficult for them to pick up on. Other defining features of autism is repetitive motions or actions and intense fascinations with certain subjects. The latter can be a good thing, especially when this interest can be turned into an occupation. Repetitive actions can take almost any form. Common ones we thinks about are hand-flapping, rocking, spinning, etc., but can be idiosyncratic to the individual. And the motion they make can change over time and circumstance. For some, these repetitive actions can be soothing and help to reduce anxiety or being overwhelmed by sensory sensitivities. Although not part of the diagnostic criteria for an autism diagnosis, it is a rare autistic person who is not bothered to some degree by their sensory system. They might feel things much more intently than would a neurotypical person. Or, they could be under-aroused, requiring more sensory input before the sensation registers on them. 3. Now that we know what Autism is, can you please tell us how autism can impact a child’s or an adult’s life? Hmm. I think I might have covered some of this question above. The main areas that impact an autistic person's life likely have to do with the areas of communication and/or sensory sensitivities. The difficulties are more obvious in a person who is nonverbal. Especially in children, I have seen some of the unwanted behaviors go away when the child is given some type of communication system - a way to exert control, a way to say "no", a way to make their wants and needs known. Can you imagine how frustrating it would be if you had no way to communicate? While speech is the quickest and most efficient way to communicate, for some autistic kids (and adults), this is not easy. Some articulate, nonverbal autistic adults talk about understanding everything that is said to them, having the words in their mind, but are unable to get them out. Typing and various forms of technology have helped them explain a lot of what we now know about how it feels to be a nonverbal autistic. For those unable to type, pictures, word cards, sign language and various forms of facilitated communication help greatly. While their ability to hear might be intact, many autistic people have difficulties with auditory processing. They hear the words, but making sense of those words might be tricky. They might require more time to decipher the individual words, determine their meaning and relate them to what is already known. Auditory processing ability is reduced in noisy or crowded situations and when the person is anxious. Our speech moves at a rapid rate and the autistic student might be trying to process what he or she has heard, while the teacher or group moves on to other things. Some of the instruction will then be missed. Much of our social world revolves around communication. When a child has difficulty with communication, understanding and acquiring age-typical social skills and social relationships will be hard. Many autistic kids find it difficult to fit it and sadly, can be the brunt of bullies. Imagine sitting in a school classroom when your senses are greatly heightened. If you have auditory sensitivities, every scrape of a chair against the floor, every whisper, the scrape of the pencil across paper will assault. How difficult would it be to concentrate on your work when you need to consciously block out all the myriad of sounds in the room? What if your sense of smell was also overly keen? That perfume the teacher put on this morning might block out all other input in your mind. Then, it's lunch time and all the kids open their lunch kits. Again, your nose is overwhelmed by the sheer volume of aromas flooding the room. There will be some students in every classroom who have executive functioning skill challenges. These would be kids who have learning disabilities, attentional issues, fetal alcohol syndrome, autism and other diagnoses. Executive functioning skills are things that most of take for granted - things such as the ability to organize our belongings and our tasks, to plan what needs to be done, to prioritize, to hold in our minds more than one thing at a time as we multi-task and hold things in our short-term memory, to have a sense of time, etc. When these are weak areas for us, then managing at school or at a job can be challenging and frustrating for all concerned. But, while these are definite challenges for an autistic person, autism brings with it some positives as well, such as monotropism. Monotropism is the ability to focus intently on a select, narrow range of interests. Wonderful things can come out of this ability to hyperfocus, such as deep thinking, vast knowledge and intense experiences. But, this same monotropism can make it difficult for the individual to redirect their attention, to start and stop tasks that need to be done, but are less outside the area of interest. 4. Would you mine telling us please, what drawn you to Autism as a career and how you got into this career? As a teen, I volunteered with some autistic kids. The way their mind worked interested me and I enjoyed my time with them. At university, my first degree was in Psychology. My next degree was in the field of education - a B.Ed. in Exceptional Children. I was drawn to kids who learned differently and found them much more interesting. Then I spent a number of years as a special education teacher, working with kids who had learning disabilities and behavioral challenges. Returning to university, I got a Master's of Arts in Educational Leadership; my thesis focused on autism. I worked as a school psychologist, then as a school district consultant. I was seconded travel my province (I'm Canadian) as autism consultant, giving presentations and doing consults in schools. Along the way I returned to school for a PhD in Psychology Management, again focusing on autism. I retired from education (for one very nice week), then began a job as regional autism consultant. I did that for the next half dozen years before retiring again. Mostly. I still teach three university classes as year, as I've done for the past fifteen years or so. These are undergrad and grad classes in education, all on inclusion and kids who learn differently. While a consultant, I heard over and over from parents and teachers that they want to learn more about autism, but don't have time to wade through textbooks, nor pour over internet sites, weeding out what pertained to their situation. That's where the idea of some of my books was born. Rather than the learning being arduous, what if you could read a story, an enjoyable one, that would still give autism information? What if you learned about autism from being inside a character's mind? What if you could watch strategies being tried at home and at school? So, "Autism Goes to School" was born, the first book in the series. I was very lucky; since there is so much interest in autism these days, it has won awards and been on the Amazon bestseller lists. 5. I noticed that you have a lot of a very interesting autism books, would you mine telling my readers a bit more about them please? I have a series of five novels (so far), each depicting a child or young adult who is autistic and the people who support them. Although it was my intention to just write the one book, readers suggested the topics for the other novels (and for the ones not yet written). The novels are: · Autism Goes to School · Autism Runs Away · Autism Belongs · Autism Talks and Talks · Autism Grows Up Then, again at the suggestion of readers, there are now two nonfiction books in the series: · Autism Questions Parents Ask · Autism Questions Teachers Ask These latter two are not meant to be read cover to cover (although you can, of course). If time is precious, just flip to the Table of Contents and find the chapters that most pertain to your situation. If you'd like a synopsis of each book, here you go: Autism Goes to School A single dad. A boy with autism. A dedicated teacher. Can they become the family they need? Ben didn't know he'd fathered a child until he took custody of his five-year-old son. New to being a dad and new to autism, well those first days weren't pretty. Autism Runs Away What started as a fun chase game now has deadly possibilities. Six year old Ethan has been kicked out of one school for his tantrums and for blindly fleeing when he gets overwhelmed. Now, enrolled in a new school, his mom clings to her phone, waiting for the call to come get him, that they can't handle an autistic child. Return to Madson School as the students and staff welcome Ethan into their midst. Autism Belongs Manny isn't like other kids. He doesn't talk. He doesn't go to school. His parents frantically try to re-arrange their world to Manny's liking because when he gets upset - well, the aggression was getting worse. Is trapped in a tiny apartment with mounting frustrations all there is for Manny? Is he doomed to isolation and silence or could it be that there is a place where he belongs? Autism Talks and Talks Karen is bright, vivacious and highly verbal. Too verbal. She remains on the fringe, looking at other adolescents having fun together and wondering if she could ever be a part of the group. Karen has Asperger's Syndrome. Who best to help her but an autistic chef. What?! Yep! Meet Jeff. His special talents and view of the world are just what Karen needs. And, Jeff learns that he is just what one particular woman needs as well. Autism Grows Up At twenty-one, Suzie has withdrawn from a world she finds alien and confusing. Ability is not the problem, nor is interest - many things fascinate her. But, she has Asperger's Syndrome and high anxiety. To her, the world is a harsh, scary place where she does not fit. She spends much of her day sleeping and most of her nights on the computer. Her mother, Amanda, wishes Suzie would get a job, go to school or at least help out around the house. Suzie feels that her time is amply filled with the compelling world lurking within her computer. She is most content when alone in the basement with her computer. Staring at her monitor, the rest of the world falls away and she feels at home. Amanda meets this gentleman. Jack gently persists and Amanda glimpses what her life if only things were different. Then, when an intruder breaks into the house, Amanda has no one but Suzie to rely on. Autism Questions Parents Ask Your child has an autism diagnosis. How can you help? First, do no harm. Well, that’s a no-brainer for parents, right? When your child receives an autism diagnosis, the research begins. You want to learn all that you can and find the best ways to help him. You will receive advice from specialists that makes sense to you - it fits with your life philosophy and with what you know of your child. You will receive advice that does not sit so well with you, the needs of your family and what you feel are the needs of your child. Trust your instincts. You know your child the best and no one has his well-being at heart as much as you. Whether or not you feel prepared right now, you as the paper will be your child's primary therapist. You spend the most time with him and have the biggest impact on his life. This book is for you. It's written by a parent who is also a special ed teacher, counselor, school psychologist, district consultant and autism consultant. The language won't require that you sit with a dictionary in your other hand but when you do find something that makes you want to research further, links and provided to help you with your search. Helping your autistic child be the best he can be is doable. It's within your reach and this is the book to guide you. Autism Questions Teachers Ask One in every 59 children has an autism diagnosis. Once thought rare, now every teacher will have an autistic child in their classroom. Maybe not last year, but this coming year.... Our rooms are full of diverse learners. Sadly, most university programs don't prepare teachers for this reality. With all those bright little faces gazing at you, the needs can seem overwhelming. How can you be everything to each one? This book is for you. It will calm those panicky feelings. You can do this. By learning about autism and the characteristics that affect being in a classroom, you can tailor strategies that will help that learner, you and the other kids who are in your care. You cannot turn your room upside down for one kid but you can use strategies that are doable and will help many of the learners. Dr. Sharon Mitchell gets it. She's been a teacher, counselor, school psychologist, district consultant and autism consultant for decades. She has presented to thousands at conferences and workshops on ways to successfully include kids who learn differently. She teaches university classes to wanna-be-teachers and to school administrators on inclusion strategies and students who learn differently. 6. Finally, where can people find you and your books? For the readers of your blog, I have created a special link where they can download a gift copy of Autism Goes to School. If they’re interested in reading the book, they’ll have the choice to download it in mobi format (for Kindles and the free Kindle reading app), as an epub (for all other e-readers and reading apps) or as a PDF. Here’s the link: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/gxy5w8udif. If you prefer to read paperback books, then you can purchase any of these books on Amazon or on Ingram-Spark. If you read e-books, they are available: · Amazon · Kobo · Google Play · Barnes & Noble · Apple iBooks · And most other online stores Clicking on the book’s title will show you all the stores where you can purchase the book: · Autism Questions Parents Ask · Autism Questions Teachers Ask · Autism Goes to School · Autism Runs Away · Autism Belongs · Autism Talks and Talks · Autism Grows Up Well, I hope that you enjoyed the interview; I know that I did; please comment down below if you enjoyed the interview and would like to see more interviews, and please check out Sharon's books! Have a great week everyone!