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Perception, Decision Making and Problem Solving - Understanding why people do not see eye to eye

Q: What are perceptual errors?

Perceptual errors are defined as flaws in perception due to mental shortcuts people make to simplify information that is processed. These errors matter for a number of reasons; (1) they affect interpretations of leaders’ and coworkers’ behavior. (2) perceptual errors (or biases) affect how job applicants are seen in interviews. (3) they affect performance appraisals.

Q: What is the The Recency Effect?

Recency effect implies that people do not only remember what they experience first, they also remember the most recently presented items or experiences.

Q: What is Elaborative interrogation?

Elaborative interrogation requires people to generate their own explanations of factual statements that are presented to them.

Q: What is the halo error?

halo error occurs when the rater’s overall positive impression or evaluation strongly influences ratings of specific attributes. For example, wearing a fraternity or sorority pin to an interview may invoke a positive impression if the interviewer is a person who assumes membership in the organization translates to high performance.

5 important questions on Perception, Decision Making and Problem Solving - Understanding why people do not see eye to eye

What are perceptual errors?

Perceptual errors are defined as flaws in perception due to mental shortcuts people make to simplify information that is processed. These errors matter for a number of reasons;

(1) they affect interpretations of leaders’ and coworkers’ behavior.
(2) perceptual errors (or biases) affect how job applicants are seen in interviews.
(3) they affect performance appraisals.

What is the The Recency Effect?

Recency effect implies that people do not only remember what they experience first, they also remember the most recently presented items or experiences.

How can a leader guard against making the availability bias mistake?

(1) They can make the things that are desired for decision making (perhaps at a later date) vivid and very easy to bring to mind (e.g., with repetition and visualization).
(2) They can also try to minimize things that influence decisions by making them more difficult to recall by using vague, abstract, complex, or uncomfortable language to describe them.
(3) Increasing the number of counter explanations reduces the persistence of the availability bias.

What is Elaborative interrogation?

Elaborative interrogation requires people to generate their own explanations of factual statements that are presented to them.

What is the halo error?

halo error occurs when the rater’s overall positive impression or evaluation strongly influences ratings of specific attributes.

For example, wearing a fraternity or sorority pin to an interview may invoke a positive impression if the interviewer is a person who assumes membership in the organization translates to high performance.