Cognitive biases can get in the way of effective testing. How can we compensate for them and do more "outside the box" thinking? Presented at Motrix Ministry of Testing Cork. Meetup April 15 2020
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Thinking Outside the Box
Cognitive bias and testing
Lisa Crispin
With material from Stephanie Desby and Rachel Joi
MoTrix 2020
@lisacrispin
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Thinking outside the box?
What does it mean for you?
Do you think it is an important skill?
Do you think that is something we can learn and
improve?
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Thinking outside the box changes the world!
Many great discoveries were made by people who
challenged the way that the masses thought:
Discovery of America : “Let’s go the other way!”
iPhone : “I don’t think keyboards are essentials”
And you probably do it already!
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So...
Thinking outside the box:
- can make big changes
- leads to new solutions to an existing problem
- can make us discover new opportunities, lands
and bugs!
That’s exciting but…
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Lateral thinking vs Vertical thinking
Thinking outside the box is also known as Lateral
Thinking
What does it mean?
And Vertical Thinking?
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Conformity bias
Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to match
those of other people or a group standard.
A fun video illustrating this:
https://tinyurl.com/MoTConformity
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Confirmation bias
The tendency to search for evidence that
confirms one’s pre-existing beliefs or
hypotheses, and to give less weight to, or
fail to search for, the evidence that
contradicts them.
https://www.outils-pour-reflechir.fr/biais-de-confirmation/
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Anchoring bias
We tend to rely too heavily on the first piece of
information seen
Setting a high price for one item makes all others
seem cheaper, though only when the price shown is
actually plausible (and not some silly amount!)
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Availability bias or heuristic
Availability bias means we’re happy with what we
know and we don’t seek new information.
Automatic brain thinking: we go to the fastest,
simplest answer without considering context or new
possibilities.
“If I can remember it easily, it must be important”
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Examples
Doctors that have diagnosed two cases of a
serious illness are likely to see it in the next
patient with similar symptoms, even if that
person has a much milder illness.
Lottery companies remind us of recent winners.
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My personal theory (no data to support this!)
We each have cognitive biases
Hopefully, people with different experience, background etc.
have different ones?
Together, we can see a clearer picture
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Try this with your team
How would you test a soda machine?
Write down your ideas individually.
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Now have them do it together
How would you test a soda machine?
Take your individual ideas, share them, and brainstorm
together.
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Ask them: did you get new ideas together?
Did everyone have the same idea of what’s meant by “a soda
machine”?
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Thinking outside of the box
Our brain is working to make fast connections to build habits.
We may be able to build NEW habits, with practice.
We can take steps to counteract our biases
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Ways to practice overcoming biases
- Use concrete examples
- Strong-style pairing, mobbing
- Visual Thinking Strategy
- Enigmas, riddles
- Escape games
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What we have learned?
- Our brain prefers the automatic way of thinking
- This is not a safe way to think because it can be biased
- We can practice to:
- have the reflex to think in other ways more often
- be more aware of our biases
- We overcome our cognitive biases together
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Resources
● Watch João Proença’s TestBash Home 2020 talk!
https://www.ministryoftesting.com/events/testbash-home-2020
● Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
● Gem Hill’s “Let’s talk about tests, Baby” podcast, Ep 73: There is no
spoon!, https://letstalkabouttests.xyz/index.php/2017/02/23/ep-73-
there-is-no-spoon/
12 Cognitive Biases Explained,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEwGBIr_RIw
● Visual Thinking Strategies - Alex West https://nerdnoir.com/vts/