THE FOUR-FOLD PATH TO DE-BIASING:
MOTIVATION, COGNITION, TECHNOLOGY,
ERROR-AVOIDANCE
DR. FRANK ZENKER
Philosophy and Cognitive Science
Lund University, Sweden
We suggest that effective critical thinking instruction must simultaneously address
aspects of cognition, motivation, and technology as well as error-avoidance in ways that
bear stronger resemblances to personalized medicine than to the currently typical forms of
university level teaching. We briefly review the case for ameliorative prescriptive
intervention and provide an explanation-sketch for the rise and current popularity of late
20th-century research in psychology and cognitive science on heuristics and biases in
human decision-making and choice. Introducing some useful analytical distinctions, we turn
to the mixed empirical results on the effectiveness of select de-biasing techniques, identify
some reasons why this research has so far not delivered, and make brief methodological
comments. The talk offers a positive forward-looking view based in an improved
understanding why an important topic such as de-biasing has remained incomparably less
well studied, and has produced far fewer “neat” results, than the regular experimental
demonstration of allegedly ubiquitous human biases lead one to expect.
Discussants
Dr. Lori Buchanan
Psychology
University of Windsor
Dr. Andrew Allen
Education
University of Windsor
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
CRRAR Seminar Room
Essex Hall, rm. 209
4:00 p.m.
ALL ARE WELCOME