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Confirmation Biases

Confirmation Biases

The confirmation bias is the tendency to focus on information that confirms our existing beliefs and ignore information that is inconsistent with our expectations. For example, if you think that your professor is not very nice, you notice all of the instances of rude behavior exhibited by the professor while ignoring the countless pleasant interactions he is involved in on a daily basis. Have you ever fallen prey to the confirmation bias, either as the source or target of such bias?

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 20, 2026

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons Columba Livia

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons Columba Livia

Published on: September 7, 2018

Selective attention in dairy cattle.

T L Blackmore¹, W Temple², T M Foster²

¹Royal Veterinary College, Hatfield, Herts AL9 7TA. UK.

Behavioural Processes

|June 7, 2016

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Cows learned to choose gates based on color, not shape. They avoided yellow stimuli, suggesting avoidance learning in animal behavior.

Keywords:

Bos taurus Cattle Selective attention Stimulus discrimination Visual stimuli

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Last Updated: Mar 20, 2026

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons Columba Livia

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Published on: September 15, 2017

The Use of Traditional Fear Tests to Evaluate Different Emotional Circuits in Cattle

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Published on: April 22, 2020

Area of Science:

Animal behavior and cognition
Sensory perception in livestock

Background:

Discrimination learning is crucial for animals to navigate their environment.
Understanding stimulus control in farm animals informs welfare and management practices.

Purpose of the Study:

To replicate Reynolds (1961) and investigate stimulus control in cows.
To determine if shape or color influenced cows' choices between visual stimuli.

Main Methods:

Cows were trained to discriminate between a positive (red cross, S+) and negative (yellow triangle, S-) stimulus for food reward.
Probe tests systematically varied stimulus shape and color to assess control.
Further tests used red, white, and yellow stimuli to clarify avoidance vs. approach learning.

Main Results:

Cows consistently chose the red stimulus over the yellow stimulus, irrespective of shape.
When shapes were the same color, cows showed no preference.
Results indicated cows learned to avoid the yellow (negative) stimulus.

Conclusions:

Color, specifically the negative stimulus's color, controlled the cows' discriminative behavior.
Avoidance of the negative stimulus (yellow) was the primary learning mechanism, not approach to the positive stimulus (red).
The salience of negative stimuli may relate to avoiding aversive farm handling practices.