Cognitive Biases and Learning

Biases in thinking are ubiquitous and we all have them.

There is a bias (Bias Blind Spot) that means that you think you have fewer biases than others (sorry, not true). We are all subject to biases in our thinking and we see a personalized distortion of the world. Too often our cognitive biases lead to dead end thinking.

The primary reason we have biases is that thinking is a costly process. Therefore, if we can develop cognitive shortcuts that save us energy when it comes to thinking but end up distorting our decision-making ability. Not only will they distort our decision-making ability, but they distort our learning as well. Unsurprisingly, cognitive biases arise early in our lives. They develop because of the high cost of brain activity, and as children develop and learn in an unknown world, the cost to them of thinking is significantly higher than it is to an adult navigating a familiar world. Saving cognitive energy is more important for a child or adolescent than it is for a fully grown adult. As a result, cognitive biases arise early in a child’s development and grow and develop with a child’s progression.

There are almost two hundred cognitive biases that have been identified and studied. Some are more powerful than others, and there are individual differences in how any single bias will affect anyone. They have been studied and discussed a lot when it comes to decision-making, however, there needs to be more discussion about cognitive biases and learning.

A cognitive bias is an error in the way we think. Cognitive biases are unavoidable but being aware of them can help us red flag thinking that might be susceptible to a particular bias. In addition, we can tailor our teaching methods to address some of the more problematic biases – a much better use of planning than preparing for learning styles.

The primary way that we can combat biases is to demand thinking during our teaching activities. This is not a usual part of the learning process. Teachers spend inordinate amounts of time trying to make things easier to learn (no thinking), testing memorization (no thinking), doing all the preparation for students – think PowerPoint (no thinking), using canned worksheets to belabor trivial points that aren’t necessary for a desired outcome (no thinking), and basically doing all they can ensuring that thinking is not a part of the learning process.

Why?

Because thinking can be hard. Students don’t want hard and neither do teachers. Administrators don’t want hard work because other stakeholders (parents or funders) don’t like hard work. So, we use lectures, PowerPoint, and handouts to make things as easy as possible for everyone involved.

We don’t plan for the presence of biases in our teaching, we reinforce them. The way we teach today using lectures (even to 4 people), PowerPoints, and exams (tests) is what is expected. Anything that deviates is met with resistance and disliked by stakeholders. And the more difficult the learning is, the more resistance it will meet.

Stakeholders want easy and so we have built a system of ease.

I’m going to spend some time thinking about specific biases and how they affect learning. I might even come across ways to work around biases to make learning more effective.