Lecture Notes: Cognitive Ease and Repetition

Key Concepts

Cognitive Ease

• Definition: A measure of how hard your brain is working.
• Characteristics:
  • Things that are true generally elicit cognitive ease.
  • True and familiar things feel effortless and good.
• Mechanism: Triggers feelings of goodness and familiarity.

Repetition and Its Effects

• Exposure: Repeated exposure to stimuli increases familiarity and perceived truth.
  • Example: A phrase about the body temperature of a chicken can seem true after repetition.
• Cognitive Ease through Repetition:
  • Experiments show repeated nonsense words are rated more favorably.
  • Familiarity leads to cognitive ease and positive feelings.

Experiments and Findings

Michigan University Ad Study

• Experiment: Ads with nonsense words printed at different frequencies.
• Outcome: More frequent words were rated as having a positive meaning.

Broader Implications

• Music and Images:
  • Songs and images become more favorable with repeated exposure.
  • High contrast images and clear audio/video are processed with ease.

Real-World Examples

• Fame: Repeated exposure to names/faces (e.g., Kardashians) leads to cognitive ease and familiarity.
• Advertising: Repeated stimuli (e.g., soda ads) become appealing through familiarity.

Evolutionary Perspective

• Safety and Comfort: Repetition indicates safety, reducing perception of threats.
• Animal Behavior: Chick study shows reduced distress with familiar tones.

Additional Factors Influencing Cognitive Ease

Visual and Text Contrast

• High Contrast: Easier to process, feels good (explains Instagram filters).
• Legibility of Text: More legible text judged as more truthful.

Pronunciation and Recognition

• Names and Stock Market: Easily pronounced names are favored.
• Intuitive Connections: Cognitive ease aids in recognizing connections (e.g., word association tests).

Cognitive Ease vs. Cognitive Strain

Challenges of Cognitive Ease

• Gullibility: Makes people more likely to accept false information.
• Decision Making: Easier tasks allow for intuitive decisions, but complex fields require skepticism.
• Happiness: Cognitive ease is associated with happiness, but less accuracy in complex tasks.

Cognitive Strain

• Benefits: Forces analytical thinking, reduces errors in complex tasks.
• Observations: Analytical thinkers may appear less happy due to required skepticism.

Conclusion

• Balance in Thinking:
  • Cognitive ease aids in familiar situations but can be misleading in complex tasks.
  • Critical thinking requires effort but is necessary for accuracy.
• Repetition's Role:
  • Repeated exposure enhances perceived truthfulness.
  • Vigilance is needed to distinguish truth from familiarity.

Supporting Information

• Credit to Patreon supporters and collaboration with Hot Wheels for educational content.