Question

During World War II, cognitive psychologists discovered that many of the errors pilots make are the result of

A) Attentional biases.
B) Memory retrieval failures.
C) Decision-making heuristics.
D) Perceptual illusions.

Answer 1

During WWII, cognitive psychologists discovered that many pilot errors were due to perceptual illusions, a phenomenon closely related to cognitive biases such as confirmation bias and availability heuristic.

Step-by-step explanation:

During World War II, cognitive psychologists found that many pilot errors were attributed to perceptual illusions. These errors are a result of cognitive biases, which are patterns of quick thinking based on rules of thumb, similar to how perceptual illusions can trick our senses. Cognitive biases can lead to errors in reasoning, as the brain takes shortcuts through mental heuristics or 'rules of thumb' that can be misleading.

For example, a common cognitive bias is the confirmation bias, where individuals tend to focus on information that supports their existing beliefs, ignoring contradictory evidence. Another example is the availability heuristic, where people overestimate the frequency or likelihood of events based on their recent memory or vividness, rather than on objective data or statistical probabilities.