This research is possibly the first study investigating the impact of cognitive biases on information searching and decision making. Set in the context of making health-related decisions, this research tests the hypotheses that (i) people experience cognitive biases during information searching; (ii) cognitive biases can be corrected during information searching; and (iii) correcting for biases during information searching improves decision making. Using a retrospective data analysis, a Bayesian model and a series of prospective empirical experiments, the cognitive biases investigated are anchoring effect, order effects, exposure effect and reinforcement effect. People may experience anchoring effect, exposure effect and order effects while searching for information. A person???s prior belief (anchoring effect) has a significant impact on decision outcome (P < 0.001). Documents accessed at different positions in a search journey (order effects) and documents processed for different lengths of time (exposure effect) have different degrees of influence on decision making (order: P = 0.026; exposure: P = 0.0081). To remedy the impact of cognitive biases, a series of interventions were designed and trialled to test for their ability to modify the impact of biases during search. A search engine interface was modified to allow for a document-level intervention, which attempts to debias order effects, exposure effect and reinforcement effect; a decision-focussed intervention for debiasing the anchoring effect; and an education-based intervention to inform users about the biases investigated in this research. Evaluation of these alterations to the search interface showed that some of the interventions can reduce or exacerbate cognitive biases during search. Order effects are no longer apparent amongst subjects using a keep document tool (i.e. order debiasing intervention) (P = 0.34); however, it is not associated with any significant improvement in decision accuracy (P = 0.23). Although the anchoring effect remains robust amongst subjects using a for/against document tool (i.e. anchor debiasing intervention) (P < 0.001), the intervention is marginally associated with a 10.3% increased proportion of subjects who answered incorrectly pre-search to answer correctly post-search (P = 0.10). Overall, this research concludes with evidence that using a debiasing intervention can alter search behaviour and influence the accuracy and confidence in decision making.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/257379 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Lau, Annie Ying Shan, Centre for Health Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW |
| Publisher | Awarded by:University of New South Wales. Centre for Health Informatics |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Annie Ying Shan Lau, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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