Revision/ Cretique paper.

VACCINATION DECISIONS 1

Vaccination Decisions

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Vaccination Decisions

Introduction

The article ‘Risk Perception And Communication in Vaccination Decisions: A Fuzzy-Trace Approach’ addresses a process model used in making vaccination decisions in the recent time; the era of Web 2.0. The author, Reyna explores the fuzzy-trace theory that characterizes vaccination decisions in terms of retrieval of values, application of the values to representations (in context), dual mental representations (gist and verbatim), and background knowledge. Extracting essential gist or meaning of the vaccination messages is interrupted by lack of knowledge. According to the author, the majority of the population has a tendency to adopt the “feeling okay” status quo option as a prevention decision. Additionally, psychological evidence from other relevant prevention decisions including cancer screening shows that a large percentage of the population will present their decision options as being simple, categorical gist. This provides a choice of taking up preventive behaviors and a feeling-okay option. This paper critiques the various sections of Reyna’s article including the theory of approach to vaccinations and the intervention program towards the issue.

The Fuzzy-Trace Theory

According to Reyna, theories in science should have sound empirical evidence and accommodate the relevant evidence including the evidence that is generated from the laboratories. The fuzzy-trace Theory retains the admirable and useful features of the Schema Theory (Reyna, 2012). Specifically, the fuzzy-trace theory makes predictions concerning decision making, judgment, and memory and predicts on their development in the various phases of life (from childhood to old age). For research purposes, fuzzy-trace theory integrates studies on gestalt theory, social judgment, neurobiology, memory and cognition, psycholinguistics and emotion. In obtaining initial measures and definitions of verbatim (surface form, for instance, exact wording) and gist (essential meaning) verbal information representations, the theory relies on psycholinguistics. The concepts of verbatim and gist, however, go beyond the verbal communication, and they include events, images (such as graphs and pictures), numbers (such as probabilities and risks).

According to the theory (fuzzy-trace), there are assumptions that the meaningful inputs are encoded in two forms in the memory: a gist representation (interpretation of what happened) and a verbatim representation (what actually happened) (Reyna, 2012). Unlike the earlier perceptions, gist representations are not obtained from the verbatim. Instead, the encoding of both representations is roughly parallel as an individual perceives a stimulus. While several gist representations that generally involve multiple representations of similar information encoded by one person, verbatim representations include memories for exact numbers and words.

People have fuzzy-processing preferences and rely on gist rather than the verbatim representations on most occasions, especially when the answers are not a must. The researcher operationalizes the theoretical constructs to elaborate on the processing preference of both representations. Gist representations support intuitive processing that is generally parallel, impressionistic and unconscious. On the other hand, verbatim representations support analytical, precise, and conscious processing. Compared to verbatim memory, gist memory is less subjective and more stable to interference (Wolfe & Reyna, 2010).

In summary, Reyna uses all the components of fuzzy-trace theory and shows the existence of obstacles that inhibit good decision for all the four aspects of the vaccination decisions including knowledge, retrieval of values, representations, and processing. Research indicates the presence of two types of mental representations, verbatim and gist, into memory. However, people rely on the gist representations for decisions or judgments. Additionally, beliefs, background knowledge, and the individual differences will influence the meanings that are encoded.

Intervention Program

According to Reyna, anti-vaccine messages are the best intervention for situations where people do not clearly understand vaccination that is widespread. The intervention program would also be applicable in situations of mysterious adverse events that occur in a close contiguity to the vaccination. Anti-vaccine messages are considered cost-efficient since the messages reach massive populations within the shortest time possible. The other intervention program that is deemed fit for changing the health behavior is the extensive discussions of salutary effects. Informing the public of the risks of not vaccinating the community will change the people’s perception on vaccination (Reyna, Estrada et al., 2011).

While anti-vaccine messages provide good grounds for acquiring the background knowledge using the coherent stories that are even supported by the narrative explanations, it has not eliminated the issue of widespread lack of vaccination information. The problem arises when people attempt to extract meaning. According to the author, extracting meaning creates the fertile grounds in which people are exposed to the misleading explanations. In addition to inadequate knowledge, the intervention program has not succeeded due to the people’s negative ideas with prior plausibility; the belief that the authorities are untrustworthy and thus the government programs of vaccination (anti-vaccine messages) are meant to cause harm to the population.

Furthermore, the program is made worse when people experience adverse outcomes including autism, fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis. Such adverse outcomes are poorly understood and hence the negative attitude (Kata, 2010). However, Reyna assures of anti-vaccine messages that satisfy the people’s longing for clarity for the unexplained associations and events shortly. Such improvements are likely to improve the efficiency of the intervention and control the health issue.

References

Reyna, V. F. (May 28, 2012). Risk perception and communication in vaccination decisions: a fuzzy-trace theory approach. Vaccine. 30(25): 3790-3797. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2011.11.070

Wolfe CR, Reyna VF. (2010). Semantic coherence and fallacies in estimating joint probabilities. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. 23(2):203–223

Kata A. A postmodern Pandora's box: Anti-vaccination misinformation on the internet. Vaccine. 2010;28:1709–1716. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2009.12.022.

Reyna VF, Estrada SM, DeMarinis JA, Myers RM, Stanisz JM, Mills BA. Neurobiological and memory models of risky decision making in adolescents versus young adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 2011;37:1125–1142. doi: 10.1037/a0023943.