Blowup in progress

Small lights marked “right” and “wrong” provided feedback to the participants about their respective choices. There was just one “wrinkle” in the experiment of which both participants were unaware. Only one of them received accurate feedback about their guesses. When the light in this person’s cubicle indicated they had made the “right” choice, they had indeed guessed correctly. On the other hand, feedback for the second participant was not based on their own, but on the guesses made by the first participant! No matter their choices, this person was told they were “right” if the other person had guessed correctly and “wrong” if the other had been incorrect. Data collected without their knowledge showed, at the conclusion of the experiment, that the first participant had learned to distinguish healthy from sick cells with an 80% rate of accuracy. The second continued to guess at no better than a chance rate. These were not the only results. The two types of feedback also had a distinct and interesting impact on the theories each participant developed during the study for differentiating between ” healthy” and “sick” cells. The participant who received accurate, reliable feedback ended the experiment with a very simple, concrete, and parsimonious explanation. In contrast, the second participant, developed a complicated, subtle, and elaborate theory.

read about what happened next at http://perceptionmanagers.org/2008/08/bavelas-experiment.html