Study of cognitive biases has completed the data-gathering stage

The study of cognitive biases occurring in education and training settings which we have been designing, preparing and running for the Erasmus+ project dBias (https://dbias.eu) has now completed its intensive data-gathering stage.

We placed a number of short videos which we had produced earlier on a bespoke online platform where respondents were asked to register and fill out a short form in their profile from where we can later group them using relevant criteria. The participants were then asked to watch and react to a sequence of 22 videos anchored in common biased situations, 1 task and 2 profiling scales. Each video has two versions – biased (short) and de-biased (long). Most biases have separate versions for teachers and learners, shown based on the self-identification in the profile with one of these two roles. The sequences of videos were different, following several patterns of interest as identified by our research team.

We are seeking to confirm whether providing additional information (as opposed to limited) will reduce the bias, whether such reduction will be a one-time effect or whether it will spill over other videos, and whether there are distinct clusters of biases that tend to go together.

The platform and all content are translated in 10 languages, and within the intensive data-gathering phase we had a total of 1203 participants, of which 318 teachers/educators and 885 learners. We collected over 21,000 data points. The data comes from 328 males and 868 females, and 7 identified as other.

Over the course of the next few months, we will be analysing the dataset, after which a detailed report will be published. In the meantime, we will be releasing some very basic statistics on individual biases in the social media profiles of the partner organisations.

The platform (https://testmenow.eu) is – and will remain – open for new registrations. All participants who complete the full pathway of 25 items receive an individual report showing their results and comparison with the results of all other participants. Teachers who wish to get a detailed report for a group of learners may contact us and will be issued a special code. When the pathways are completed by all group members, a summary report will be provided to the teacher will the full group results, while protecting the anonymity of the individual group members.