Cognitive ease

When you are conscious (and probably not only then), a lot of calculations are going on in your brain, which constantly check and update the answers to important questions: is something new happening? Is there a threat? Is everything going well? Do not need to refocus attention? Do not need to spend on this task more effort? Imagine the cockpit, where the instruments show the current values ​​of each of these critical parameters. The evaluation is carried out automatically by System 1, and one of its goals is to determine whether System 2 needs to try harder.

One of the devices is signed “Cognitive Ease”, and the range of its scale begins with “easy” and ends “with difficulty”. “Easy” is a sign that everything is going well: no threats, no special news, no need to redirect attention or mobilize efforts. “With difficulty” indicates that there is a problem, for the solution of which it will be necessary to use System 2 more. There is also an inverse indicator - cognitive stress. It is influenced by the current level of effort and the presence of outstanding requirements. Surprisingly, a single sensor of cognitive ease is connected to a large network of various inputs and outputs. Details are shown in Figure 5.

Fig. 5 Causes and Effects of Cognitive Ease

The figure assumes that the proposal for which the preparation was carried out, which was printed in a clear font or repeated, will be processed quickly and easily. If you are in a good mood or even just “smile” with a pencil in your mouth, you can easily hear the speaker’s speech. And vice versa: you feel tense by reading instructions that are printed in poor type, pale paint or difficult to formulate, as well as when you are in a bad mood or just frown.

Different causes of lightness or stress act in both directions. In a state of cognitive ease, you are probably in a good mood, you like what you see, you believe what you hear, trust your forebodings and assess the situation as comfortable and familiar. In addition, you are more likely to reason casually and superficially. Feeling stress, you will probably be vigilant and susceptible, invest more strength in your work, feel less comfortable and make less mistakes, but at the same time you will use your intuition and creative abilities less than usual.