Interaction
with others may improve our decision making
Our decision-making is heavily
influenced by the world around us, a study has found, challenging the
traditional idea that thinking takes place strictly in the head.
The idea that thinking is done only in
the head is a convenient illusion that doesn’t reflect how problems are solved
in reality, said Gaelle Vallee-Tourangeau, Professor at Kingston University in
Britain. “When you write or draw, the action itself makes you think
differently. In cognitive psychology you are trained to see the mind as a
computer, but we’ve found that people don’t think that way in the real
world.
“If you give them something to
interact with they think in a different way,” Vallee-Tourangeau added.
In the study, the researchers explored
how maths anxiety – a debilitating emotional reaction to mental arithmetic that
can lead sufferers to avoid even simple tasks like splitting a restaurant bill
– could potentially be managed through interactivity.
The study involved asking people to
speak a word repeatedly while doing long sums at the same time.
The results showed that the
mathematical ability of those asked to do the sums in their heads was more
affected than those given number tokens that they could move with their hands.
“We found that for those adding the
sums in their head, their maths anxiety score predicted the magnitude of errors
made while speaking a word repeatedly. If they’re really maths anxious, the
impact will be huge,” Vallée-Tourangeau explained. “But in a high interactivity
context – when they were moving number tokens – they behaved as if they were
not anxious about numbers,” Vallée-Tourangeau said.
Understanding how we think and make
decisions by interacting with the world around us could help businesses find
new ways of improving productivity – and even improve people’s chances of
getting a job, the researches noted. The study was published in the journal
Cognitive Research: Principles
and Implications.
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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