In our lead up to #ICA25, we are providing information about papers that received Top Paper awards from the Communication Science and Biology (CSaB) Interest Group. Each paper received exceptionally high scores from reviewers. These papers reflect outstanding scholarship in CSaB. Today’s Top Paper features Artemenko, Zhitkova, Terpilowsky, & Koltsova’s paper: “In the blink of an eye: behavioral correlates of the confirmation bias effect”. Be sure to check out the paper at #ICA25
CSaB: In a few short sentences, what is your study about?
We have taken another step toward elucidating the well-documented phenomenon of confirmation bias, this time within the framework of cognitive neuroscience. The expression of this bias is closely linked to an increase in cognitive load, which can be empirically captured through behavioral correlates—most notably, an elevated relative blink rate—and further characterized through event-related potentials (ERPs), thereby offering a multidimensional view of the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms.
CSaB: How did you come up with the idea for this line of research?
At the Social & Cognitive Informatics Lab (HSE University), we have been extensively studying the factors that influence perceived credibility and validation accuracy of information, as well as exploring effective strategies for enhancing media literacy among the general public. Among our projects is a large-scale cross-cultural experiment, the results of which were recognized as a Top Paper in the Communication and Technology Division at ICA 2022.
We were deeply struck by the failure of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign observed in many countries, which highlighted the urgent need to better understand the psychological mechanisms through which information is filtered and interpreted by individuals. This realization led us to focus on the cognitive and affective phenomena shaping information perception.
One of our key research directions lies at the intersection of social neurobiology and cognitive neuroscience, which provide powerful tools for uncovering the neurocognitive underpinnings of information processing. In particular, we investigate the nature of cognitive biases through the lens of their oculomotor and neural correlates in a series of controlled laboratory experiments.
CSaB: Tell us more about the team!
Our laboratory brings together a highly interdisciplinary team of psychologists and cognitive scientists, sociologists, mathematicians, computer scientists, biologists, and linguists. This diversity enables us to design and conduct both large-scale online experiments and smaller, lab-based studies involving the collection of multimodal data such as EEG and eye-tracking. These data are subsequently analyzed using advanced machine learning techniques.
This integrative approach allows us to address deeply fundamental questions across various dimensions of communication and information perception. It is precisely this combination of disciplinary perspectives and methodological rigor that enables us to explore the complex mechanisms underlying how individuals interact with and interpret information in the modern media landscape.