An investigation of a quantum probability model for the constructive effect of affective evaluation

The idea that choices can have a constructive effect has received a great deal of empirical support. The act of choosing appears to influence subsequent preferences for the options available. Recent research has proposed a cognitive model based on quantum probability (QP), which suggests that whether or not a participant provides an affective evaluation for a positively or negatively valenced stimulus can also be constructive and so, for example, influence the affective evaluation of a second oppositely valenced stimulus. However, there are some outstanding methodological questions in relation to this previous research. This paper reports the results of three experiments designed to resolve these questions. Experiment 1, using a binary response format, provides partial support for the interaction predicted by the QP model; and Experiment 2, which controls for the length of time participants have to respond, fully supports the QP model. Finally, Experiment 3 sought to determine whether the key effect can generalize beyond affective judgements about visual stimuli. Using judgements about the trustworthiness of well-known people, the predictions of the QP model were confirmed. Together, these three experiments provide further support for the QP model of the constructive effect of simple evaluations.

[1]  D. Hermans,et al.  The affective priming effect: Automatic activation of evaluative information in memory. , 1994 .

[2]  Eric J. Johnson,et al.  The adaptive decision maker , 1993 .

[3]  Anca M. Miron,et al.  Can the Simultaneous Experience of Opposing Emotions Really Occur? , 2006 .

[4]  Richard M. Shiffrin,et al.  Context effects produced by question orders reveal quantum nature of human judgments , 2014, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[5]  Melissa J. Ferguson,et al.  After-affects: How automatic evaluations influence the interpretation of subsequent, unrelated stimuli , 2005 .

[6]  Jerome R Busemeyer,et al.  Can quantum probability provide a new direction for cognitive modeling? , 2013, The Behavioral and brain sciences.

[7]  N. Cohen.  The Relativity of Absolute Judgments , 1937 .

[8]  Gordon D. A. Brown,et al.  Absolute identification by relative judgment. , 2005, Psychological review.

[9]  R. Hogarth,et al.  Order effects in belief updating: The belief-adjustment model , 1992, Cognitive Psychology.

[10]  S. Chaiken,et al.  The generality of the automatic attitude activation effect. , 1992, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[11]  Diederik Aerts,et al.  Applications of Quantum Statistics in Psychological Studies of Decision Processes , 1995 .

[12]  Stephen Porter,et al.  Is the face a window to the soul? Investigation of the accuracy of intuitive judgments of the trustworthiness of human faces. , 2008 .

[13]  Jennifer S Trueblood,et al.  A quantum theoretical explanation for probability judgment errors. , 2011, Psychological review.

[14]  Sean A. Spence,et al.  Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain , 1995 .

[15]  Emmanuel M. Pothos,et al.  Sometimes it does hurt to ask: The constructive role of articulating impressions , 2014, Cognition.

[16]  Harald Atmanspacher,et al.  The Potential of Using Quantum Theory to Build Models of Cognition , 2013, Top. Cogn. Sci..

[17]  S. Chaiken,et al.  The Automatic Evaluation of Novel Stimuli , 2002, Psychological science.

[18]  John W. Payne,et al.  The adaptive decision maker: Name index , 1993 .

[19]  Tali Sharot,et al.  Do Decisions Shape Preference? , 2010, Psychological science.

[20]  Nalini Ambady,et al.  Accuracy and consensus in judgments of trustworthiness from faces: behavioral and neural correlates. , 2013, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[21]  Jerome R. Busemeyer,et al.  A Quantum Question Order Model Supported by Empirical Tests of an A Priori and Precise Prediction , 2013, Top. Cogn. Sci..

[22]  A. Khrennikov,et al.  Quantum Social Science , 2013 .

[23]  J. Brehm.  Postdecision changes in the desirability of alternatives. , 1956, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[24]  Robin J. Tanner,et al.  A Tiger and a President: Imperceptible Celebrity Facial Cues Influence Trust and Preference , 2012 .

[25]  S. Chaiken,et al.  The Automatic Evaluation Effect: Unconditional Automatic Attitude Activation with a Pronunciation Task , 1996 .

[26]  Janine Willis,et al.  First Impressions , 2006, Psychological science.

[27]  Jerome R. Busemeyer,et al.  Quantum Models of Cognition and Decision , 2012 .

[28]  Daniel Kahneman,et al.  Predicting a changing taste: Do people know what they will like? , 1992 .

[29]  Jennifer Trueblood,et al.  A Quantum Probability Account of Order Effects in Inference , 2011, Cogn. Sci..

[30]  S. Paradiso.  The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life , 1998 .

[31]  Masanori Ohya,et al.  On Application of Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad Equation in Cognitive Psychology , 2011, Open Syst. Inf. Dyn..

[32]  Janine Willis,et al.  Running head : FIRST IMPRESSIONS First impressions : Making up your mind after 100 milliseconds exposure to a face , 2005 .

[33]  R. Zajonc.  Feeling and thinking : Preferences need no inferences , 1980 .

[34]  Niels Bohr,et al.  Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge , 1958 .

[35]  P. Slovic.  The Construction of Preference , 1995 .

[36]  Nicholas O. Rule,et al.  The Face of Success Inferences from Chief Executive Officers' Appearance Predict Company Profits , 2008 .

[37]  Michael I. Norton,et al.  How actions create – not just reveal – preferences , 2008, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[38]  Peter Bruza,et al.  Is There Something Quantum-Like about the Human Mental Lexicon? , 2009, INEX.

[39]  K. C. Klauer,et al.  List-context effects in evaluative priming. , 1997, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[40]  A. Todorov,et al.  EvaluaTiNg faCES ON TruSTwOrThiNESS afTEr miNimal TimE ExpOSurE , 2009 .

[41]  Jennifer S Trueblood,et al.  A quantum geometric model of similarity. , 2013, Psychological review.

[42]  Andrew D. Engell,et al.  Implicit Trustworthiness Decisions: Automatic Coding of Face Properties in the Human Amygdala , 2007, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[43]  A G Greenwald,et al.  Unconscious processing of dichoptically masked words , 1989, Memory & cognition.

[44]  R. Hughes,et al.  The Structure and Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics , 1989 .

[45]  Frank R. Kardes,et al.  On the automatic activation of attitudes. , 1986 .

[46]  Yoshiharu Tanaka,et al.  Quantum-like model of brain's functioning: decision making from decoherence. , 2011, Journal of theoretical biology.

[47]  David W. Moore.  Measuring New Types of Question-Order Effects: Additive and Subtractive , 2002 .

[48]  S. Sherman.  On the self-erasing nature of errors of prediction. , 1980 .

[49]  K. Scherer,et al.  The Geneva affective picture database (GAPED): a new 730-picture database focusing on valence and normative significance , 2011, Behavior research methods.

[50]  Emmanuel M. Pothos,et al.  A quantum probability perspective on the nature of psychological uncertainty , 2013, CogSci.

[51]  Harald Atmanspacher,et al.  A proposed test of temporal nonlocality in bistable perception , 2010 .

[52]  N. Mermin.  Quantum theory: Concepts and methods , 1997 .