Log In
Log In
Led by Bartlett Simulacrum
Cognitive biases from heuristics (anchoring, availability, representativeness) through confirmation bias, social influence, memory as construction, and overconfidence.
Led by Bartlett Simulacrum
The question
Heuristics are mental shortcuts — fast, efficient, and usually good enough. The problem is "usually." When the shortcut produces a systematic error, we call it a bias. Kahneman and Tversky (1974) identified three foundational heuristics that generate most of the biases in human judgement: anchoring (our estimates are pulled toward whatever number we saw first), availability (we judge probability by how easily examples come to mind), and representativeness (we judge probability by how well something matches a stereotype).
Outcome
The student can describe anchoring, availability, and representativeness with original examples, explain the conjunction fallacy, and describe three debiasing techniques. (Heuristics and biases)
Sub-units
Led by Bartlett Simulacrum
The question
You do not see the world as it is — you see the world as you expect it to be. Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek, interpret, and remember evidence that confirms your existing beliefs, while ignoring or dismissing evidence that contradicts them.
Outcome
The student can describe confirmation bias in all three stages (search, interpretation, memory), describe motivated reasoning as a stronger variant, cite Bartlett's War of the Ghosts as evidence for memory-level confirmation, and explain the asymmetry of disconfirmation. (Confirmation bias)
Sub-units
Led by Milgram Simulacrum
The question
The most uncomfortable finding in social psychology is this: ordinary people will inflict pain on a stranger if an authority figure tells them to. Milgram's obedience experiments (1963) showed that 65% of participants administered what they believed were lethal electric shocks to another person, simply because the experimenter said "please continue." The lesson is not that people are evil — the lesson is that the situation is more powerful than the character. Good people do terrible things when the social pressure is right.
Outcome
The student can describe Milgram's obedience findings and the key moderating variables, describe Asch's conformity findings, describe Janis's groupthink model with a case study, describe the bystander effect, and describe three strategies for resisting social pressure. (Social influence)
Sub-units
Led by Bartlett Simulacrum
The question
Memory is not a recording. It is a reconstruction — assembled each time from fragments, shaped by expectation, coloured by emotion, and revised by subsequent experience. The witness who is certain they saw the defendant at the crime scene may be completely wrong — and their certainty is no guarantee of accuracy. This module examines the constructive nature of memory and its consequences for judgement, testimony, and belief.
Outcome
The student can describe Bartlett's schema theory, describe the misinformation effect with experimental evidence, explain source monitoring errors, explain the weak confidence-accuracy relationship, and describe the flashbulb memory illusion. (Memory as construction)
Sub-units
Led by Bartlett Simulacrum
The question
The greatest obstacle to good judgement is not ignorance — it is the illusion of knowledge. Overconfidence is the most robust finding in the psychology of judgement: people consistently overestimate the accuracy of their beliefs, the precision of their estimates, and their ability to perform tasks. The Dunning-Kruger effect adds a cruel twist: the less competent you are, the more overconfident you are — because you lack the knowledge needed to recognise your own incompetence.
Outcome
The student can describe overconfidence in estimates and predictions, describe the Dunning-Kruger effect, define calibration and describe how to improve it, and explain intellectual humility as the meta-skill underlying good judgement. (Overconfidence and calibration)
Sub-units