Dual-process Theory Research Articles

Which Survey Design Can Serve as an Authentic Citizen Satisfaction Measurement? A Cross-Survey Comparison

A considerable amount of literature has been published on increasing citizens’ satisfaction through satisfaction surveys. However, we know little about how to find the optimal design for a citizen satisfaction survey. Borrowing insights from dual-process theory, the study examines the effects of citizen satisfaction survey design on respondents’ effort and reported satisfaction. A fully randomized 2 × 3 between-subjects factorial experiment revealed a positive relationship between the number of anchors and the cognitive effort, while the effect of survey length is negative. Additionally, an increasing number of anchors will decrease the cognitive bias of participants. This study underscores the critical role of dual-process theory in understanding citizens’ evaluations and offers practical implications for survey design.

Empowering Investors: Reducing Herd Bias through Financial Literacy and Self-reflective Thinking

Herd behavior, where investors mimic the trades of others rather than relying on their own information or analysis, is a widespread phenomenon that can lead to suboptimal investment decisions and market inefficiencies. Hence, understanding how to reduce this behavior is crucial for improving individual investment outcomes and sustainable market performance. Though the literature suggests that self-reflection and financial literacy have potential to mitigate herd bias, it is unclear as to how these two perspectives interact to minimize this irrational behavior. By drawing on insights from the adaptive market hypothesis, transformative learning theory, concept of bounded rationality and dual process theory, this study attempts to enhance the understanding of this phenomenon by introducing a conditional mediation model that promotes self-directed learning. It predicts that investors can reduce their herd bias through self-reflection on their past stock trading experiences, which they can practice by engaging intuitive logical thinking and strengthen further through their financial literacy. Since herding is generally predicted to be more prevalent in frontier stock markets, the study was conducted in a frontier market - the Colombo Stock Exchange. The data was obtained through a self-administered questionnaire from 253 active individual investors, and analyzed by applying the PROCESS procedure. The findings reveal the significance of self-reflection as a mediating variable across its antecedents, which provides strong evidence for its central role in reducing herd bias. Notably, the findings indicate that self-reflection has a stronger effect on reducing herd bias of investors with lower level of financial literacy. It implies that investors with low financial literacy are more susceptible to herd bias, and self-reflection facilitates them to recognize and minimize their herd bias. Accordingly, the study concludes that promoting self-reflection can empower individual investors to become more financially literate and thereby mitigate their herd bias.

The role of deliberation in intuitive decision-making in sports

ABSTRACT In sports, athletes are frequently challenged to make decisions under time constraints. The ability of skilled athletes to make successful and seemingly effortless decisions in these situations is often referred to as intuition. However, how athletes develop intuition remains to be elucidated. A key issue highly debated between proponents of opposing theoretical views is whether the development of intuitive decision-making benefits from the involvement of deliberate cognitive processes (explicit vs. implicit). In this perspective paper, we critically assess theoretical arguments and empirical evidence for these contradictory views. Moreover, by delving into cognitive psychological assumptions rooted in dual-process theory, we elucidate the proposed processes underlying the development of intuitive decision-making. While the use of implicit approaches seems to be increasingly questioned in this domain, a promising recent theoretical proposal argues that intuition is formed through repeated practice of deliberative processes. We argue in favor of this approach and present suggestions for empirical research to test the proposal for the development of intuitive decision-making in sport. Finally, we illustrate suggestions for future research and critically discuss the potential and limitations of such an approach.

An inherently interpretable deep learning model for local explanations using visual concepts.

Over the past decade, deep learning has become the leading approach for various computer vision tasks and decision support systems. However, the opaque nature of deep learning models raises significant concerns about their fairness, reliability, and the underlying inferences they make. Many existing methods attempt to approximate the relationship between low-level input features and outcomes. However, humans tend to understand and reason based on high-level concepts rather than low-level input features. To bridge this gap, several concept-based interpretable methods have been developed. Most of these methods compute the importance of each discovered concept for a specific class. However, they often fail to provide local explanations. Additionally, these approaches typically rely on labeled concepts or learn directly from datasets, leading to the extraction of irrelevant concepts. They also tend to overlook the potential of these concepts to interpret model predictions effectively. This research proposes a two-stream model called the Cross-Attentional Fast/Slow Thinking Network (CA-SoftNet) to address these issues. The model is inspired by dual-process theory and integrates two key components: a shallow convolutional neural network (sCNN) as System-I for rapid, implicit pattern recognition and a cross-attentional concept memory network as System-II for transparent, controllable, and logical reasoning. Our evaluation across diverse datasets demonstrates the model's competitive accuracy, achieving 85.6%, 83.7%, 93.6%, and 90.3% on CUB 200-2011, Stanford Cars, ISIC 2016, and ISIC 2017, respectively. This performance outperforms existing interpretable models and is comparable to non-interpretable counterparts. Furthermore, our novel concept extraction method facilitates identifying and selecting salient concepts. These concepts are then used to generate concept-based local explanations that align with human thinking. Additionally, the model's ability to share similar concepts across distinct classes, such as in fine-grained classification, enhances its scalability for large datasets. This feature also induces human-like cognition and reasoning within the proposed framework.

Clinical Reasoning Unveiled: Demystifying Heuristics and Hermeneutics in Neurological Clinical Practice

Introduction: Medical practice, particularly in Neurology, is often influenced by cognitive biases that can compromise diagnostic and therapeutic accuracy, leading to significant patient consequences. Clinical reasoning strategies are fundamental, yet the complexity of these processes is frequently underestimated. Understanding these strategies is crucial to ensure accurate diagnoses and effective treatments, thereby reducing clinical errors and optimizing patient outcomes. Despite extensive literature on cognitive biases, there is a need for a systematic synthesis addressing the peculiarities of neurological clinical reasoning, considering heuristics (mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that simplify decision-making) and hermeneutics (the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially of textual and symbolic content). Objectives: To review and systematize the main clinical reasoning strategies in Neurology, highlighting common biases and proposing methods to improve diagnostic and therapeutic accuracy. Methodology: A comprehensive literature review focusing on familiarity biases, Dual Process Theory, and heuristics (anchoring, availability, and representativeness). Additionally, the application of hermeneutics in hypothesis formulation and the importance of understanding the patient as a complex system were analyzed. Results: Specialized neurologists often rely on heuristics, which means a cognitive shortcut. Recognizing this process can mitigate anchoring and availability biases. The hermeneutic approach, on the other hand, is essential for interpreting variables in the patient’s context, integrating historical and social aspects. Conclusion: Understanding clinical reasoning processes and systematically teaching these strategies are crucial to enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical decision-making, reducing diagnostic errors, and improving patient outcomes.

The Underlying Cognitive Processes of Thin Slices Judgments on Teaching Quality

Thin slices ratings (i.e., ratings based on first impressions) have yielded intriguingly accurate results in various domains. Among other, researcher have applied the thin slices technique to assess instructional quality, showing that teacher-student interactions can be reliably inferred by just very short snippets of classroom instruction. The accuracy of thin slices ratings is often explained by dual process theories of social cognition, whereby System 1 refers to an intuitive and fast way of processing, while System 2 denotes a more reflective and analytical way of processing. System 1 is considered the cognitive foundation of thin slices ratings. The central aim of the present study was to understand the underlying cognitive processes shaping the impression formation of thin slices raters of teaching quality. Therefore, an unconventional and innovative research design was required to gain insights into the cognitive “black box” of thin slices raters by examining their verbal data. In an exploratory mixed method research design, we set up Cognitive Laboratories with two different rating situations. In a thin slices rating situation, participants rated instructional quality based on short classroom videos (30 seconds). Participants in a long-video rating situation rated instructional quality based on longer classroom videos (10 minutes). We collected, coded and statistically analyzed participants’ verbal reports regarding their rating processes. The findings suggest that thin slices ratings evolve primarily based on typical processes of System 1 and not on those of System 2. For instance, thin slices ratings are associative and tend to be rather negative than positive. Moreover, an initially formed impression tends to remain stable and is resistant to alteration. Ratings of instructional quality based on longer videos rely on both cognitive systems, with System 2 possibly modifying an initial judgment. Thus, our study does not only explain the cognitive processes under-lying the thin slices ratings, but additionally provides valuable insights into the processes occurring in conventional rating settings.

Diagnostic reasoning and cognitive error in emergency medicine: Implications for teaching and learning.

Accurate diagnosis in emergency medicine (EM) is high stakes and challenging. Research into physicians' clinical reasoning has been ongoing since the late 1970s. The dual-process theory has established itself as a valid model, including in EM. It is based on the distinction between two information-processing systems. System 1 rapidly generates one or more diagnostic hypotheses almost instantaneously, driven by experiential knowledge, while System 2 proceeds more slowly and analytically, applying formal rules to arrive at a final diagnosis. We reviewed the literature on dual-process theory in the fields of cognitive science, medical education and emergency medicine. The literature reflects two prominent interpretations regarding the relationship between the fast and slow phases and these interpretations carry very different implications for the training of clinical learners. One interpretation, prominent in the EM community, presents it as a "check-and-balance" framework in which most diagnostic error is caused by cognitive biases originating within System 1. As a result, EM residents are frequently advised to deploy analytical (System 2) strategies to correct such biases. However, such teaching approaches are not supported by research into the nature of diagnostic reasoning. An alternative interpretation assumes a harmonious relationship between Systems 1 and 2 in which both fast and slow processes are driven by underlying knowledge that conditions performance and the occurrence of errors. Educational strategies corresponding to this alternative have not been explored in the EM literature. In this paper, we offer proposals for improving the teaching and learning of diagnostic reasoning by EM residents.

Too much of a good thing: Addressing the shape of relationship between positive media sentiment and IPO performance

The influence of mass media sentiment on the IPO performance of newly listed firms has received increasing research attention in management and entrepreneurship research. However, prior literature assumes the beneficial role of positive media sentiment in investors’ evaluation of the firm yet overlooks the potential downside of too much positive media sentiment. Based on two theories, dual processing theory and celebrity theory, we develop and test a curvilinear relationship between positive media sentiment and newly listed firms’ IPO performance. Further, we suggest that IPO market conditions, offering an important information cue, moderate this curvilinear relationship. Drawing a representative sample of newly listed U.S. firms in recent decades, we find support for the proposed inverted U-shape relationship and a moderating effect of market conditions.

Understanding dual process cognition via the minimum description length principle.

Dual-process theories play a central role in both psychology and neuroscience, figuring prominently in domains ranging from executive control to reward-based learning to judgment and decision making. In each of these domains, two mechanisms appear to operate concurrently, one relatively high in computational complexity, the other relatively simple. Why is neural information processing organized in this way? We propose an answer to this question based on the notion of compression. The key insight is that dual-process structure can enhance adaptive behavior by allowing an agent to minimize the description length of its own behavior. We apply a single model based on this observation to findings from research on executive control, reward-based learning, and judgment and decision making, showing that seemingly diverse dual-process phenomena can be understood as domain-specific consequences of a single underlying set of computational principles.

Start Task Crafting, Stay Away from Cyberloafing: The Moderating Role of Supervisor Developmental Feedback.

Cyberloafing as a production deviance behavior raises organizational concerns. Unfortunately, it is unknown how to minimize cyberloafing from a bottom-up perspective, particularly different types of cyberloafing. This study draws on the job crafting and dual-process theory to construct a framework for understanding the relationship between task crafting and passive-active cyberloafing, as well as their boundary condition (i.e., supervisor developmental feedback). We adopted a convenient sampling method, following a two-stage sampling with a time interval of 2 weeks. A sample of 614 full-time employed adults were recruited from the online survey. The results showed that: (1) Task crafting was negatively related to passive and active cyberloafing, respectively. (2) The impact of task crafting on passive cyberloafing rather than active cyberloafing was moderated by supervisor developmental feedback, such that task crafting had significant negative relations with passive cyberloafing when supervisor developmental feedback was higher (vs. lower). Overall, our research findings indicate that passive cyberloafing seems more sensitive to the organizational environment than active cyberloafing, thus different types of cyberloafing have different intervention strategies.

Social Rationality and Human Reasoning: Logical Expressivism and the Flat Mind.

This paper attempts to reconcile the claims that the mind is both flat (Chater, 2018) and highly rational (Oaksford & Chater, 2020). According to the flat mind hypothesis, the mind is a mass of inconsistent and contradictory fragments of experience. However, standard accounts of rationality from formal epistemology argue that to be rational, our beliefs must be consistent, and we must believe all the logical consequences of our beliefs. A social account of rationality is developed based on Brandom's (1994) logical expressivism, in which respecting the norms of logic and probability theory is still central but where these standards apply to our public commitments in social dialogical contexts rather than to our individual belief systems (Skovgaard-Olsen, 2017). According to this account, even if someone's individual beliefs are inconsistent, they cannot be condemned as irrational if they acknowledge the inconsistency and seek to resolve it. It is shown how this approach interacts with people's fragmented and shallow world knowledge, and its social distribution yields some counterintuitive consequences, such as it sometimes being rational individually not seeking to resolve contradictions. Other consequences of this social expressivist approach are considered, including for dual process theories of reasoning, our view of beliefs, the status of logic, and Fodor's (1983) view of central systems. It is concluded that people can have flat minds and yet be highly rational.

Language Styles, Recovery Strategies and Users’ Willingness to Forgive in General Artificial Intelligence Service Recovery: A Mixed Study

As the prevalence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in the service sector continues to grow, the impact of the language style and recovery strategies utilized during service failures remains insufficiently explored. This study, grounded in the theory of social presence and dual-process theory, employed a mixed-method approach combining questionnaire surveys and event-related potential (ERP) experiments to investigate the effect of different language styles (rational vs. humorous) and recovery strategies (gratitude vs. apology) on users’ willingness to forgive during the GenAI service recovery process. It further delves into the chained mediating role of perceived sincerity and social presence in this process. The findings revealed that a humorous language style was more effective in enhancing users’ willingness to forgive compared to a rational style, primarily through the enhancement of users’ perceived sincerity and sense of social presence; recovery strategies played a moderating role in this process, with the positive impact of perceived sincerity on social presence being significantly amplified when the GenAI service adopted an apology strategy. ERP results indicated that a rational language style significantly induced a larger N2 component (cognitive conflict) in apology scenarios, while a humorous style exhibited higher amplitude in the LPP component (positive emotional evaluation). This research unveils the intricate relationships between language style, recovery strategies, and users’ willingness to forgive in the GenAI service recovery process, providing important theoretical foundations and practical guidance for designing more effective GenAI service recovery strategies, and offering new insights into developing more efficacious GenAI service recovery tactics.

The Predictive Role of visual attention bias in aggressive driving decisions among violation-involved drivers on attitudes of right-of-way

This study, based on dual-process theory, explores the aggressive driving decision-making characteristics and cognitive processing of violation-involved drivers in right-of-way infringement scenarios. It aims to identify an eye-movement indicator that can predict drivers’ prosocial behaviors. The study recruited 75 drivers aged 19–58 years, who completed a video-based aggressive driving decision-making test and the Driver Attitudes of Right-of-way Questionnaire (DARQ). The results indicate that age moderates the relationship between violation history and visual attentional bias. Younger drivers with a history of violations exhibit an attentional bias towards aggressive words, whereas older drivers do not. After controlling for age, violation-involved drivers demonstrated a higher rate of aggressive decision-making, especially in situations with very short lane-change time headway. Visual attentional bias towards aggressive words can effectively predict positive emotions in attitudes towards the right-of-way. This suggests that early eye movement indicators during the driving decision-making process represent a form of socioemotional characteristic. The more positive the driver’s right-of-way attitude, the stronger their prosocial behavior and the weaker their intuitive impulsiveness during the early cognitive processing stages of driving decision-making. This indicates that the driving decision-making eye-movement assessment paradigm is an objective and effective method for evaluating drivers’ pro-sociality.

Decision threshold models in medical decision making: a scoping literature review

BackgroundDecision thresholds play important role in medical decision-making. Individual decision-making differences may be attributable to differences in subjective judgments or cognitive processes that are captured through the decision thresholds. This systematic scoping review sought to characterize the literature on non-expected utility decision thresholds in medical decision-making by identifying commonly used theoretical paradigms and contextual and subjective factors that inform decision thresholds.MethodsA structured search designed around three concepts—individual decision-maker, decision threshold, and medical decision—was conducted in MEDLINE (Ovid) and Scopus databases from inception to July 2023. ProQuest (Dissertations and Theses) database was searched to August 2023. The protocol, developed a priori, was registered on Open Science Framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines were followed for reporting on this study. Titles and abstracts of 1,618 articles and the full texts for the 228 included articles were reviewed by two independent reviewers. 95 articles were included in the analysis. A single reviewer used a pilot-tested data collection tool to extract study and author characteristics, article type, objectives, theoretical paradigm, contextual or subjective factors, decision-maker, and type of medical decision.ResultsOf the 95 included articles, 68 identified a theoretical paradigm in their approach to decision thresholds. The most common paradigms included regret theory, hybrid theory, and dual processing theory. Contextual and subjective factors that influence decision thresholds were identified in 44 articles.ConclusionsOur scoping review is the first to systematically characterizes the available literature on decision thresholds within medical decision-making. This study offers an important characterization of the literature through the identification of the theoretical paradigms for non-expected utility decision thresholds. Moreover, this study provides insight into the various contextual and subjective factors that have been documented within the literature to influence decision thresholds, as well as these factors juxtapose theoretical paradigms.

AI assistant is my new best friend! Role of emotional disclosure, performance expectations and intention to reuse

In this modern era, high-tech companies are launching their AI assistants, considering their role in shaping consumer behavior. This research sheds light by building a conceptual framework using dual process theory to determine the impact of AI assistant advantage on user engagement and user emotional disclosure, subsequently influencing the intention to reuse AI with the moderating role of performance expectation. Using a random sampling method, a structured questionnaire was used for data collection from 644 consumers. The findings show that AI assistant advantages positively impact user engagement, and user emotional disclosure increases the intention to reuse AI assistants. This impact of user engagement and user emotional disclosure, along with performance expectations, maximizes the reuse intention of AI. Managers and marketers in the AI environment can insinuate the study methods to increase the intention of reuse and may transform their marketing strategies to promote their businesses using AI more effectively.

Reinforcing mindware or supporting cognitive reflection: Testing two strategies for addressing a persistent learning challenge in the context of air resistance

In this study, we have explored the effectiveness of two instructional approaches in the context of the motion of objects falling at terminal speed in the presence of air resistance. We ground these instructional approaches in dual-process theories of reasoning, which assert that human cognition relies on two thinking processes. Dual-process theories suggest multiple possible avenues by which instruction might impact student reasoning. In this paper, we compare two possible instructional approaches: one designed to reinforce the normative approach (improving the outputs of the intuitive process) and another that guides students to reflect on and analyze their initial ideas (supporting the analytic process). The results suggest that for students who have already demonstrated a minimum level of requisite knowledge, instruction that supports analysis of their likely intuitive mental model leads to greater learning benefits in the short term than instruction that focuses solely on providing practice with the normative mindware. These results have implications for the design of instructional materials and help to demonstrate how dual-process theories can be leveraged to explain the success of existing research-based materials. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Incidental learning in EFL learners’ vocabulary accumulation: the lens of dual process theory

PurposeDrawing on dual process theory as the overarching framework, this study investigates how different types of incidental vocabulary learning yield different performance, repetition, and continuance intention outcomes and uncovers the underlying mechanism.Design/methodology/approachWe identify four popular types of incidental learning: traditional, a murder mystery game, noneducational live streaming, and VTuber. We propose that the underlying mechanism is the mediating role of perceived novelty as heuristic processing, and effort and performance expectancy as systematic processing. We conduct a between-subject experiment with four groups for the four types of incidental learning. From a total of 220 subjects, 55 valid responses were collected from each group. Analysis of variance and a partial least squares structural equation model are employed to examine the differences and mechanism.FindingsThe results show that noneducational live streaming performs significantly best for all three outcomes. The mechanism test demonstrates that perceived novelty and performance expectancy play significantly positive mediating roles, whereas effort expectancy has a null mediating effect.Originality/valueThe research provides both theoretical and practical implications.

Attitude, Habit Strength, and the Relationship Between Intention and Leisure-Time Physical Activity Behavior Among College Students

ABSTRACT According to the dual-process theories, many scholars proposed that physical activity behavior tends to be governed by an interplay of intentional planning and habitual action. The major purpose of this study was to determine the moderation effects of habit strength on the relationship between leisure time moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) intention and behavior and the impacts of cognitive and affective attitude on PA habit strength, utilizing a latent interaction modeling approach. A total of 1803 undergraduate students completed this study. All variables were measured using validated self-report questionnaires. Structural equation modeling and Hayes’ PROCESS program (model 1) were conducted to address the research questions. Habit strength significantly and positively moderated the effects of intention on leisure time MVPA behavior (β = .08, p < .01). The association between intention and PA behavior became stronger as habit strength increased. Affective attitude positively and significantly influenced habit strength (β = .71, p < .01). The effect of cognitive attitude on habit strength was significant and negative with a small effect size (β = –.08, p < .01). Findings indicated that habit strength positively moderated the relationship between PA intention and behavior, suggesting that stronger habit strength may amplify the association between PA intention and actual PA behavior. Affective attitude toward PA significantly influenced habit strength, whereas cognitive attitude exhibited minimal negative impact on habit strength. These findings contribute to our understanding of the interaction effects between deliberative and automatic processes in regulating PA behavior, as well as the nuanced relationship between attitude and habit development.

Tourists’ visual attention to cultural landscapes under crowding stimuli: An eye-tracking approach

Research on visual attention and perceived crowding in culture-oriented tourism destinations remains scant. This study examines the effects of varying environmental stimuli on tourists’ visual attention to cultural landscapes. Eye-tracking experiments and self-reported surveys were used to collect data ( n = 50). Participants were asked to view photos presenting varying environmental stimuli (e.g. crowding, mask-wearing measurement, etc.) in two culture-oriented tourism destinations (indoor and outdoor culture-oriented tourism destinations), followed by a questionnaire survey. Findings revealed that tourists paid more attention to the human crowds than cultural landscape when social density increased. Perceived crowding was significantly influenced by visual attention to cultural landscapes in both indoor and outdoor tourism destinations, with more silent effects in indoor settings. The findings of this study extend the normative theory of crowding and dual-process theory, and provide practical insights to optimize design for cultural landscapes and facilities to minimize tourists’ perceived crowding in culture-oriented tourism destinations.

“I'm completely off base here on what this child is capable of”: A qualitative analysis of how medical ableism manifests in PICU clinicians' care of children with severe neurological impairment

BackgroundChildren with severe neurological impairment (SNI) are at heightened risk of experiencing medical ableism from clinicians in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), where barriers such as time scarcity and heavy workloads limit clinicians’ ability to provide personalized care. ObjectiveTo examine medical ableism and strategies to support PICU clinicians in understanding the lives of children with SNI and their families. MethodsThis US-based, single-center, qualitative study included PICU clinicians identified by the parents/caregivers of a child with SNI. Semi-structured 1:1 60-min interviews about the challenges of caring for children with SNI were conducted virtually. Coded data were extracted, thematically analyzed, and further conceptualized using the Dual Process Theory (DPT) bias reduction framework. ResultsNineteen PICU clinicians participated. Three major themes emerged: 1) assumptions and misconceptions about children with SNI and their families, 2) barriers to providing personalized care, and 3) clinician-suggested strategies to honor the lives of children with SNI. These themes aligned with the DPT framework. As outlined in the DPT, system 1 “fast thinking” errors occur when quick observations inform decisions (e.g., snap judgments about a child's capabilities). Second, barriers (e.g., insufficient time for meaningful interactions) may prevent clinicians from providing unbiased care. Third, system 2 “slow thinking,” where complex decision-making occurs, and can be enhanced through personalization strategies (e.g., viewing visuals of the child at baseline health). ConclusionsIncreasing clinician awareness of their potential implicit biases and utilizing bias reduction strategies to mitigate medical ableism in care are critical areas for future research.