The Research On Irrational Biases Of Cognitive Dual-Process

The dual-process theories of cognition developed a unique explaination for the irrational decision making. They suggested that the irrational decision making was under conditions that encourage a predominance of experiential processing over analytic processing.Although the expaination was supported by almost all the dual-process theories, perspectives about how experiential processing responses take the predominance over analytic processing were different. Klaczynski and other psychologists focused on metacognitive function which is the key regulation of co-development between experiential and analytic processing. They thought that metacognitive monitored and regulated the conflict between experiential and analytic processing. The present studies which based on that perspective explored the impact of metacognitive during dual-process.The present research included two studies. Study 1 explored the impact of metacognitive during dual-process of irrational decision making by using Kirkpatrick and Epstein's (1992) ratio-bias task which may bring out a typical irrational decision making named ratio-bias effect. The result partly conformed that participants who was in different metacognitive statuses showed significant differences on ratio-bias task:the participants with complete metacognitive knowledge (Competent metacognitive status) were more likely to make rational choice based on analytic processing on the task than the other three metacognitive statuses. And the result also showed that participants with different education backgrounds showed significant differences on ratio-bias task:the participants with liberal education background were more likely to show ratio-bias effect based on experiential processing on the task than the the participants with science education background.Study 2 tried to find the implicit evidence of irrational bias by using implicit association test. The study used two irrational effects which were ratio-bias effect and endowment effect. The result basically conformed that both of the two irrational effects had implicit association evidences. Participants with different education backgrounds showed significant differences in the implicit association tests:participants with science education background had weaker implicit bond of the two irrational effects than participants with liberal education background.In conclusion, the present research basically conformed that the predominance of experiential processing was based on implicit association which was related with the former experiences (or education background). But the dual-process of cognition was also regulated by metacognitve. People with strong metacognitive skills may relay on the analytic processing responses and avoid irrational biases.