Publication
Confirmation and Cognitive Bias in Design Cognition
AbstractThe desire to better understand design cognition has led to the application of literature from psychology to design research, e.g., in learning, analogical reasoning, and problem solving. Psychological research on cognitive heuristics and biases offers another relevant body of knowledge for application. Cognitive biases are inherent biases in human information processing, which can lead to suboptimal reasoning. Cognitive heuristics are unconscious rules utilized to enhance the efficiency of information processing and are possible antecedents of cognitive biases. This paper presents two studies that examined the role of confirmation bias, which is a tendency to seek and interpret evidence in order to confirm existing beliefs. The results of the first study, a protocol analysis involving novice designers engaged in a biomimetic design task, indicate that confirmation bias is present during concept generation and offer additional insights into the influence of confirmation bias in design. The results of the second study, a controlled experiment requiring participants to complete a concept evaluation task, suggest that decision matrices are effective tools to reduce confirmation bias during concept evaluation.
Download publicationRelated Resources
See what’s new.
2008
Sensing in Nature: Using Biomimetics for Design of Sensors
The paper illustrates how biomimetics can be applied in sensor design…
1993
Situated Information Spaces and Spatially Aware Palmtop Computers.
No longer will we need to be tethered to a stationary computer…
2012
Learning Hatching for Pen-and-Ink Illustration of Surfaces
This paper presents an algorithm for learning hatching styles from…
2012
User Experience and Likelihood to Recommend: Linking UX and Net Promoter Score
This study reports on a two-year survey in which user experience…
Get in touch
Something pique your interest? Get in touch if you’d like to learn more about Autodesk Research, our projects, people, and potential collaboration opportunities.
Contact us