Participants in an Experiment Were Told That They Were Particularly

question 2

Multiple Choice

Participants in an experiment were told that they were particularly good at a task requiring social skills. Later, they were told that this information was utterly bogus and that all participants had received the same feedback. Then, at the end of the experiment, the participants were asked just how good they thought their social skills really were. On the basis of other studies, we should predict that, in this final self-assessment, participants will:

• A) show a strong contrast effect, thereby underestimating their social skills
• B) continue to believe the information they initially received, thereby overestimating their social skills
• C) be unable to integrate the sequence of inputs and will end up uncertain of how to assess their social skills
• D) rely on their bias toward trusting the most recent information and will be able to disregard the initial (later identified as bogus) feedback

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Definitions:

Critical Thinking

The process of purposeful, reflective judgment. Critical thinking manifests itself in giving reasoned and fair-minded consideration to evidence, conceptualizations, methods, contexts, and standards in order to decide what to believe or what to do.

Hypothesis

A proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.

Evidence

Information or facts that are used to support the validity of a statement or argument.

Interpretation

An expression of the meaning or significance of a wide variety of experiences, situations, data, events, judgments, conventions, beliefs, rules, procedures, or criteria.