Browsing by Subject "sarjariippuvuus"

Decision making has been studied in many different ways. One approach to these studies is to examine the biases that occur in it. We create a subjective view of our environment, which we have developed processes to maintain. Such processes have been found all the way up to the field of perceptual psychology. Despite this, most previous research has treated perceptual judgements as independent, isolated events. The purpose of this review was to examine how the perception and processing of a previous stimulus affects the perception of the next stimulus. In addition, mediators that influence the bias were examined. The data collection used in this thesis was done by using Scopus, Google Scholar, and PubMed databases. Six studies that examinated confirmation bias and serial dependence in sequential decision making, in primitive visual features, were selected. Studies that had been conducted on animals or with a sample differing from the general population in some specific way were excluded. Based on the studies perception of the preceding stimulus, as well as a categorical decision, systematically biased the perception of the following stimulus towards the preceding stimulus. The bias was stronger the more similar features and spatiotemporal proximity the successive stimuli had with the preceding stimuli. The biases were explained by changes in sensitivity to information following the previous stimuli or categorical decision. Attention was interpreted as influencing the intensity of the biases. Studies suggest that confirmation bias and serial dependence smooth out noisy sensory information, ensuring a consistency in our perception over time. In a relatively stable, statistically predictable enviroment, this is an adaptive process that can enhance information-processing. In the future, we need research on which level of information processing these biases arise, and which individual differences regulate the strenght of the biases. Because biases that occur early in visual processing transmit to higher levels of decision making through biased perception, influencing our worldview, it is important to understand them at this early perceptual level.