Causal illusion in the core of pseudoscientific beliefs: The role of information interpretation and search strategies.

The prevalence of pseudoscientific beliefs in our societies negatively influences relevant areas such as health or education. Causal illusions have been proposed as a possible cognitive basis for the development of such beliefs. The aim of our study was to further investigate the specific nature of the association between causal illusion and endorsement of pseudoscientific beliefs through an active contingency detection task. In this task, volunteers are given the opportunity to manipulate the presence or absence of a potential cause in order to explore its possible influence over the outcome. Responses provided are assumed to reflect both the participants' information interpretation strategies as well as their information search strategies. Following a previous study investigating the association between causal illusion and the presence of paranormal beliefs, we expected that the association between causal illusion and pseudoscientific beliefs would disappear when controlling for the information search strategy (i.e., the proportion of trials in which the participants decided to present the potential cause). Volunteers with higher pseudoscientific beliefs also developed stronger causal illusions in active contingency detection tasks. This association appeared irrespective of the participants with more pseudoscientific beliefs showing (Experiment 2) or not (Experiment 1) differential search strategies. Our results suggest that both information interpretation and search strategies could be significantly associated to the development of pseudoscientific (and paranormal) beliefs.

Causal illusion as a cognitive basis of pseudoscientific beliefs.

Causal illusion has been proposed as a cognitive mediator of pseudoscientific beliefs. However, previous studies have only tested the association between this cognitive bias and a closely related but different type of unwarranted beliefs, those related to superstition and paranormal phenomena. Participants (n = 225) responded to a novel questionnaire of pseudoscientific beliefs designed for this study. They also completed a contingency learning task in which a possible cause, infusion intake, and a desired effect, headache remission, were actually non-contingent. Volunteers with higher scores on the questionnaire also presented stronger causal illusion effects. These results support the hypothesis that causal illusions might play a fundamental role in the endorsement of pseudoscientific beliefs.

Two strategies used to solve a navigation task: A different use of the hippocampus by males and females? A preliminary study in rats / Dos estrategias que se utilizan para resolver una tarea de navegación: ¿un uso diferente del hipocampo en machos y en hembras?. Un estudio preliminar con ratas

There is abundant research (both in rodents and in humans) showing that males and females often use different types of information in spatial navigation. Males prefer geometry as a source of information, whereas females tend to focus on landmarks (which are often near to a goal objects). However, when considering the role of the hippocampus, the research focuses primarily on males only. In the present study, based on Rodríguez, Torres, Mackintosh, and Chamizo’s (2010, Experiment 2) navigation protocol, we conducted two experiments, one with males and another with females, in order to tentatively evaluate the role of the dorsal hippocampus in the acquisition of two tasks: one based on landmark learning and the alternate one on local pool-geometry learning. Both when landmark learning and when geometry learning, Sham male rats learned significantly faster than Lesion male animals. This was not the case with female rats in geometry learning. These results suggest that the dorsal hippocampus could play an important role in males only

Hay mucha investigación (tanto en roedores como en humanos) que muestra que los machos y las hembras a menudo usan diferentes tipos de información en la navegación espacial. Los machos prefieren la geometría como fuente de información, mientras que las hembras utilizan más los puntos de referencia (que a menudo son objetos que se encuentran cerca de una meta). Sin embargo, al considerar el papel del hipocampo, la investigación se centra casi exclusivamente en los machos. En el presente estudio, basado en el protocolo de navegación de Rodríguez, Torres, Mackintosh y Chamizo (2010, Experimento 2), llevamos a cabo dos experimentos, uno con machos y otro con hembras, para tener una primera aproximación del papel del hipocampo dorsal en la adquisición de dos tareas: una basada en el aprendizaje en base a un punto de referencia y la otra basada en el aprendizaje de un vértice de la piscina (aprendizaje de la geometría). Tanto en el aprendizaje basado en el punto de referencia como en el aprendizaje de la geometría, las ratas de control macho aprendieron significativamente más rápido que los machos lesionados. Este no fue el caso con las ratas hembra. Estos resultados sugieren que el hipocampo dorsal podría jugar un papel importante solo en los machos

What makes a landmark effective? Sex differences in a navigation task.

In Experiment 1, two groups of female rats were trained in a triangular pool to find a hidden platform whose location was defined in terms of a single a landmark, a cylinder outside the pool. For one group, the landmark had only a single pattern (i.e., it looked the same when approached from any direction), while for the other, the landmark contained four different patterns (i.e., it looked different when approached from different directions). The first group learned to swim to the platform more rapidly than the second. Experiment 2 confirmed this difference when female rats were trained in a circular pool but found that male rats learned equally rapidly (and as rapidly as females trained with the single-pattern landmark) with both landmarks. This second finding was confirmed in Experiment 3. Finally, in Experiment 4a and 4b, male and female rats were trained either with the same, single-pattern landmark on all trials or with a different landmark each day. Males learned equally rapidly (and as rapidly as females trained with the unchanged landmark) whether the landmark changed or not. We conclude that male and female rats learn rather different things about the landmark that signals the location of the platform.

Landmark vs. geometry learning: explaining female rats' selective preference for a landmark / Aprendizaje basado en un punto de referencia vs.aprendizaje de la geometría: explicando la preferencia selectiva de las ratas hembra por un punto de referencia

Rats were trained in a triangular-shaped pool to find a hidden platform, whose location was defined in terms of two sources of information, a landmark outside the pool and a particular corner of the pool. Subsequent test trials without the platform pitted these two sources of information against one another. In Experiment 1 this test revealed a clear, although selective, sex difference. As in previous experiments, females spent more time in an area of the pool that corresponded to the landmark, but here only when it was a cone but not when it was a pyramid. Males, on the other hand, always spent more time in the distinctive corner of the pool. Experiments 2 and 3 were only with female rats. In Experiment 2 two identical shaped cylinders were used as landmark cues (one plain white and the other vertically patterned with four different patterns). The results of the preference test revealed that only the females trained and tested with the plain cylinder spent more time in the area of the pool that corresponded to the landmark than in the distinctive corner of the pool. Finally, Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment 2 while eliminating an alternative explanation in terms of differential contrast between the two cylinders and the black curtain (AU)

Se entrenó a unas ratas en una piscina con forma triangular a que encontrasen una plataforma oculta, cuya ubicación estaba definida en base a dos fuentes de información, un punto de referencia y una parte de la piscina con una forma distintiva. Ensayos de prueba posteriores, sin la plataforma, enfrentaron la forma y el punto de referencia. En el Experimento 1 esta prueba reveló una diferencia de sexo clara, aunque selectiva. Como en experimentos anteriores, las hembras pasaron más tiempo en el área de la piscina que se correspondía con el punto de referencia, aunque sólo cuando este era un cono no cuando era una pirámide. Por otro lado, los machos siempre pasaron más tiempo en el área de la piscina que se correspondía con la forma distintiva. Los Experimentos 2 y 3 se llevaron a cabo sólo con ratas hembra. En el Experimento 2 se emplearon como puntos de referencia dos formas cilíndricas idénticas (una de color blanco y la otra verticalmente dividida en cuatro segmentos con trama diferente). Los resultados de las pruebas de preferencia revelaron que solamente las hembras entrenadas y puestas a prueba con el cilindro blanco pasaron más tiempo en el área de la piscina que se correspondía con el punto de referencia que en el área de la piscina que se correspondía con la forma distintiva. Por último, el Experimento 3 replicó los resultados de los Experimentos 1 y 2 eliminando una explicación alternativa basada en el contraste diferente de los dos cilindros respecto a las cortinas negras (AU)