The development of cognitive reflection

Shtulman, Andrew; Young, Andrew G.

doi:10.1111/cdep.12476

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(85 reference statements)

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“…This finding highlights the nuanced nature of the relationship, suggesting that the protective effect of systematic information processing against phishing susceptibility is contingent upon individuals’ level of financial knowledge. This finding aligns with the Cognitive Reflection model (Shtulman & Young, 2023), which posits that individuals’ ability to override intuitive and erroneous responses is influenced by their domain-specific knowledge. In the context of phishing, individuals with higher financial knowledge demonstrate a heightened understanding of the potential risks involved and are more proficient at leveraging systematic processing strategies to critically evaluate online messages.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Enhancing Cybersecurity: The Crucial Role of Self-Regulation, Information Processing, and Financial Knowledge in Combating Phishing Attacks

Waqas,

Hania,

Yahya

et al. 2023

SAGE Open

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In today’s technologically advanced world, the escalating prevalence of phishing attacks necessitates an urgent exploration of effective countermeasures. This study delves into the crucial investigation of how self-regulation influences phishing susceptibility, while also examining the mediating role of information processing and the moderating influence of financial knowledge. A comprehensive survey was meticulously crafted, targeting 370 recent university graduates. The collected data underwent rigorous analysis using Hayes’ PROCESS macro, unveiling a mediated moderation model. The findings reveal that self-regulation does not directly predict phishing susceptibility. However, information processing, whether systematic or heuristic, significantly impacts phishing susceptibility. Additionally, information processing serves as a mediator, connecting self-regulation to phishing susceptibility. Notably, the interaction between systematic information processing and financial knowledge emerged as a significant determinant of phishing susceptibility. By establishing a comprehensive mediated moderation model, this study provides invaluable insights for individuals and organizations seeking to bolster their defenses against phishing attacks. Furthermore, it emphasizes the vital role of financial knowledge and employees’ heuristic information processing in mitigating cyber threats. This research serves as a crucial scientific contribution, offering compelling evidence that proactive management of contributing factors can effectively mitigate the escalating threats posed by phishing attacks.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Enhancing Cybersecurity: The Crucial Role of Self-Regulation, Information Processing, and Financial Knowledge in Combating Phishing Attacks

Waqas,

Hania,

Yahya

et al. 2023

SAGE Open

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In actuality, these scores ranged from 0 to 7 and averaged 2.6 ( SD = 1.6). Children’s CRT-D scores were strongly correlated with age ( r = .52, p < .001), consistent with previous studies (see Shtulman & Young, 2023).…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Tests of cognitive reflection assess the propensity to monitor and correct an intuitive response. For instance, the Cognitive Reflection Test, Developmental Version (CRT-D; Young & Shtulman, 2020) consists of several brainteasers designed to elicit an intuitive, yet incorrect, response that children can correct upon further reflection, such as “Which weighs more: a pound of rocks or a pound of feathers?” Children who are better at answering such brainteasers demonstrate higher levels of rational thought and conceptual understanding (Shtulman & Young, 2023). They may also be better at using precedents and mechanisms to scrutinize their intuitions about possibility, especially after training.…”

Section: Similarity and Causalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Improbable but possible: Training children to accept the possibility of unusual events.

Shtulman,

Goulding,

Friedman

2024

Developmental Psychology

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Young children tend to deny the possibility of events that violate their expectations, including events that are merely improbable, like making onion-flavored ice cream or owning a crocodile as a pet. Could this tendency be countered by teaching children more valid strategies for judging possibility? We explored this question by training children aged 4-12 (n = 128) to consider either the similarity between the target event and unusual events that have actually occurred or causal mechanisms that might bring the target event about. Both trainings increased children's acceptance of improbable events but only for the types of events addressed during training. Older children were more likely to accept improbable events, as were children who scored higher on a measure of cognitive reflection, but neither age nor cognitive reflection moderated the effects of training. These findings indicate that children can use both similarity and causality to assess possibility, but the use of this information is highly circumscribed, further demonstrating how robustly children conflate improbability with impossibility. Public Significance StatementChildren tend to claim that unusual events are impossible, and this study explored the source of that tendency by training them to consider real events similar to the target events or mechanisms that cause the target events to occur. We find that both types of information increase children's acceptance of unusual events but only for events similar to those covered during training, which suggests that children appreciate the kinds of considerations relevant to possibility but do not seek out those considerations on their own.

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“…One important individual difference that might matter, though, is a person’s tendency to engage in cognitive reflection, which might facilitate counterintuitive responding among both children and adults. Children who engage in more cognitive reflection demonstrate more sophisticated modal reasoning (Shtulman et al, 2023), and cognitive reflection predicts rational thinking in both Chinese and American children (Gong et al, 2021; Shtulman & Young, 2023). But some cultures might promote the importance of using intuition over reflection, or vice versa (Buchtel & Norenzayan, 2008; Norenzayan et al, 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of modal intuitions: A test of two accounts.

Goulding,

Khan,

Fukuda

et al. 2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Young children, unlike adults, deny that improbable events can happen. We test two accounts explaining this developmental shift. The development = reflection account posits that this shift is driven by an emerging ability to reflect on modal intuitions. In contrast, the development = intuition account posits that this shift is driven by changes in modal intuitions themselves, due to age-related changes in what people know and how they sample their knowledge and memories. These accounts make competing predictions about how long children and adults should take to make possibility judgments. In Experiment 1, we asked 123 children (39 5-year-olds, 42 7-year-olds, 42 9-year-olds; 49.60% White) and 40 adults (50% White) to judge the possibility of 78 ordinary, improbable, and impossible events and recorded their response times. In Experiment 2, we tested an additional 52 adults (42.32% White) who were under speeded conditions and thus less able to reflect before responding. Our results favor the development = intuition account. At all ages, people judged improbable events more slowly than ordinary or impossible events, and slow responding did not consistently predict affirmation over denial. Further, adults' possibility judgments did not change under speeded conditions. We also fit a drift-diffusion model to our data, which suggested that adults and children may sample different kinds of knowledge when generating intuitions. Our findings suggest that possibility judgments are often driven by modal intuitions with little reflection, and that a developmental shift in what children know and how knowledge is retrieved can explain why these intuitions change over time. Public Significance StatementJudging possibility is a core cognitive ability that interacts with many, if not all, domains of thought. We use our beliefs about what is possible to understand and infer what will happen in the distant future, what has happened in the past, what we are seeing right before our eyes, and all things in between. This work explored the development of how quickly these judgments are made, which allowed for a test of whether judgments about possibility become slower and more deliberative with age. Children are often framed as unsophisticated thinkers, employing frugal reasoning strategies which lead them to incorrect answers. Conversely, adults are thought to be more careful and deliberative in their thinking. This work suggests that children and adults use the same strategy to infer what is possible, and further suggests that this strategy is fast and frugal at all ages. The findings suggest that people's beliefs about what can happen are typically driven by quick intuitions rather than reflective reasoning, and that these intuitions are shaped by knowledge and memory retrieval patterns that change with age. This research highlights the importance of studying whether cognitive development can often be explained by changes in knowledge, as opposed to a developmental shift in reasoning strategies. Further, this work suggests that people...

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The development of cognitive reflection

Cited by 8 publications

References 61 publications

Enhancing Cybersecurity: The Crucial Role of Self-Regulation, Information Processing, and Financial Knowledge in Combating Phishing Attacks

Enhancing Cybersecurity: The Crucial Role of Self-Regulation, Information Processing, and Financial Knowledge in Combating Phishing Attacks

Improbable but possible: Training children to accept the possibility of unusual events.

The development of modal intuitions: A test of two accounts.

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