One source of software project challenges and failures is the systematic errors introduced by human cognitive biases. Although extensively explored in cognitive psychology, investigations concerning ...cognitive biases have only recently gained popularity in software engineering research. This paper therefore systematically maps, aggregates and synthesizes the literature on cognitive biases in software engineering to generate a comprehensive body of knowledge, understand state-of-the-art research and provide guidelines for future research and practise. Focusing on bias antecedents, effects and mitigation techniques, we identified 65 articles (published between 1990 and 2016), which investigate 37 cognitive biases. Despite strong and increasing interest, the results reveal a scarcity of research on mitigation techniques and poor theoretical foundations in understanding and interpreting cognitive biases. Although bias-related research has generated many new insights in the software engineering community, specific bias mitigation techniques are still needed for software professionals to overcome the deleterious effects of cognitive biases on their work.
Cognitive bias modification (CBM) is a novel, but controversial intervention with considerable divergence amongst conclusions in individual studies and reviews. This systematic review synthesizes ...meta-analyses of CBM to determine whether CBM is effective, and what parameters most reliably evoke the process of CBM.
A systematic literature search resulted in twelve meta-analyses in total, from which the published effect sizes were extracted.
Attention bias modification (ABM) shifted targeted biases in adults (ES = 0.24–1.16), was effective as a buffer to stressor vulnerability (ES = 0.33–0.77) and in symptom control (ES = 0.16–0.41). Cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I) modified targeted biases (ES = 0.52–0.81) but did not reliably reduce stressor vulnerability (ES = 0.01–0.24, p > .05). CBM consistently reduced anxiety symptoms, but effects on depressive symptomatology were less compelling. The long-term efficacy of CBM was only supported in addiction studies.
The review included a single CBM-I only meta-analysis, and two meta-analyses with pooled reporting on ABM and CBM-I outcomes.
Overall, this synthesis shows CBM is effective in the short-term for anxiety in adults, and highlights some conditions under which CBM is most efficacious. Rather than debating the efficacy of CBM, future research should focus on developing procedures that more reliably induce bias modification and determining the most efficacious clinical applications.
•This review provides a synthesis of existing CBM meta-analyses.•CBM consistently modifies targeted biases in adults.•CBM consistently reduces anxiety symptoms.•Recommendations to increase the efficacy of CBM are proposed.
This study aimed to elucidate the effect of cognitive bias modification on depression.
This research included 10 randomized studies searching four major databases: PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, and ...Cochrane Library, with a total sample size of 467. Moreover, they were examined for quality and possible publication bias.
Cognitive bias modification (CBM) had statistically significant results,
= -0.64, 95% CI = -0.97-0.32. The interpretation of cognitive bias modification shows the highest effect size,
= -1.45, 95% CI = -2.05-0.88. When the training place is located in the laboratory, the training effect is significant,
= -1.11, 95% CI = -1.62-0.61. The difference is statistically significant when the training environment was changed to home,
= -0.28, 95% CI = -0.51-0.05. CBM has a statistical effect on moderate-to-severe depression,
= -0.70, 95% CI = -1.04-0.36.
We found that CBM had a moderate therapeutic effect on depression, whether the setting was at home or in the lab. Especially when the interpretation of cognitive bias modification (CBM-I) was used, we got the highest effect value. Furthermore, CBM has a statistical effect on moderate-to-severe depression.
Political ties and managerial cognitive biases, specifically overconfidence, have been identified as affecting firm-level R&D processes and outcomes. Here we further conceptually and empirically ...explore how these two factors may influence R&D intensity in an emerging market context. Our empirical results, based on panel data from 1293 Chinese publicly listed firms (between 2010 and 2014) show, contrary to some previous research, that stronger formal political ties somewhat reduce firm-level R&D intensity. Greater overconfidence in managers, by contrast, increases R&D intensity. Interestingly, moreover, overconfidence positively moderates the relationship between political ties and R&D intensity to the extent that the weak negative relationship becomes positive in the presence of overconfidence. Our results highlight the role of managerial mindset as an important determinant of R&D intensity in the emerging market context.
•We explore drivers of innovation intensity in an emerging market context, China.•Political ties by themselves lead to lower innovation intensity.•Managerial cognitive bias, however, is a driver of innovation intensity in China.•It moderates, moreover, the relationship between political ties and R&D intensity.•This is likely because it leads to qualitatively different, explorative innovation.
Objective: Alcohol-dependent patients show attentional and approach biases for alcohol-related stimuli. Computerized cognitive bias modification (CBM) programs aim to retrain these biases and reduce ...relapse rates as add-ons to treatment. Retraining of alcohol-approach tendencies has already yielded significant reductions of relapse rates in previous studies, and retraining of biased attention toward alcohol is promising approach. The current large-scale randomized controlled trial compared the clinical effects of these training methods-separately and in combination-to those of sham training methods and a no-training control, as an add-on to regular treatment. Methods: Participants were 1,405 alcohol-dependent patients of an inpatient rehabilitation clinic. In addition to regular treatment, patients were randomized to receive 6 sessions of approach-bias retraining, 6 sessions of attention-bias retraining, 3 sessions of each of these CBM training varieties, 6 sessions of variants of sham training, or no training. Effects of the training methods were evaluated by measuring treatment success at 1-year follow-up. Results: Primary outcome: The 3 active training conditions yielded higher success rates at 1-year follow-up than sham training or no training (8.4%, on average). Secondary results (available for half of the sample): Both varieties of CBM had only small effects on the targeted biases (significant only for the combined training). Moreover, neither significant mediation of the clinical effect by the change in trained bias nor significant moderation of the clinical effect was found. Conclusions: Both alcohol-avoidance training and alcohol-attention training increased success rates effectively, as did the combination of both methods. Future studies should test ways to increase training effectiveness further.
What is the public health significance of this article?
This large-scale study shows that relapse rates in abstinent alcohol-dependent patients can be reduced both by training to avoid alcohol pictures and by training to direct attention away from them. This offers new and cost-effective add-on treatments for alcohol addiction.
I have been given a priceless opportunity to reflect on my career in the remarkably productive field of risk factors for depression. Psychological research on depression exploded in the early years ...of my work. I try to give an account of the choices and challenges, and reflect on the influences, some calculated and some serendipitous, that determined the paths I have followed. I focus mostly on the robust depression risk factors that have influenced my research, including dysfunctional cognitions, stressful life events and circumstances, parental depression, interpersonal dysfunction, and being female, and I cover some of what I did but also the influential work of others. This is a selective review of depression research in the past 40 or so years, noting some of the big developments that set the stage for the remarkable activity that continues today. In the conclusion, there is a brief statement of aspirations for future developments in our field.
Beginning in the 1980s, experimental psychopathologists increasingly adapted the concepts and paradigms of cognitive science to elucidate information-processing abnormalities that may figure in the ...etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Assessment and modification of attentional biases for threat has been a major theme in this research program. The field has witnessed the development of progressively more sophisticated approaches for isolating attentional processes from other cognitive processes in the service of accurate assessment and treatment. Yet the field is now in crisis as foundational concerns about the reliability of basic measures of attentional bias for threat (ABT) have emerged. Moreover, recent research points to theoretical revisions deemphasizing ABT as a stable, near-universal feature of anxiety disorders, and stressing deficits in executive control as the primary attentional problem linked to anxiety.
•Attention biases for threat (ABT) often characterize anxiety disorders.•Methods for measuring ABT have become increasingly precise.•Yet the reliability of these methods is very poor.
Evidence supports a causal role of insomnia in the development and maintenance of depression, yet mechanisms underlying this association in young people are not well established. Attention biases ...have been implicated separately in the sleep and depression fields and represents an important candidate mechanism. Poor sleep may lead to a negative attention bias (characteristic of depression) by impacting attentional control. This study assessed the hypothesis that attentional control and negative attention bias would sequentially mediate the relationship between insomnia and depressive symptoms in an unselected sample of young people (17–24 years). Concerns have been raised regarding the psychometric properties of tasks used to measure attention bias, and a Dual-Probe Task is emerging as a more reliable measure. Participants (N = 275, Male = 59, Mage = 19.40) completed the Dual-Probe Task, a behavioural measure of attentional control, and self-report measures of insomnia and depression. Participants completed a one-week sleep diary. Results were consistent with negative attention bias, but not attentional control, as a mechanism which partially accounts for the relationship between sleep (i.e., insomnia severity, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, sleep latency) and depression. This study highlights sleep and negative attention bias as potentially modifiable risk factors to reduce depressive symptoms in young people.
•Insomnia and depression relate to negative attention bias, but not attentional control.•Negative attention bias explains the association between insomnia and depression.•Negative attention bias is a transdiagnostic mechanism.•Interventions for depression may target negative attention bias and sleep.
The present study assessed target engagement, preliminary efficacy, and feasibility as primary outcomes of a free multi-session online cognitive bias modification of interpretation (CBM-I) ...intervention for anxiety in a large community sample. High trait anxious participants (N = 807) were randomly assigned to a CBM-I condition: 1) Positive training (90% positive-10% negative); 2) 50% positive-50% negative training; or 3) no-training control. Further, half of each CBM-I condition was randomized to either an anxious imagery prime or a neutral imagery prime. Due to attrition, results from six out of eight sessions were analyzed using structural equation modeling of latent growth curves. Results for the intent-to-treat sample indicate that for target engagement, consistent with predictions, decreases in negative interpretations over time were significantly greater among those receiving positive CBM-I training compared to no-training or 50-50 training, and vice-versa for increases in positive interpretations. For intervention efficacy, the decrease in anxiety symptoms over time was significantly greater among those receiving positive CBM-I training compared to no-training. Interaction effects with imagery prime were more variable with a general pattern of stronger results for those completing the anxious imagery prime. Findings indicate that online CBM-I positive training is feasible and shows some promising results, although attrition rates were very high for later training sessions.
•Free online CBM-I training targeting anxiety delivered to the community.•Positive training is better than 50-50 and No-training at changing interpretations.•Anxiety reduction was greater in those receiving Positive training than No-training.•Attrition was very high. of the N = 807 sample, N = 105 completed six training sessions, N = 89 completed seven sessions, and N = 26 completed all eight sessions.
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