ELI: An Interactive Elicitation Technique for Subjective Probability Distributions

Uncertain knowledge about continuous quantities is usually formalized through subjective probability distributions (SPD′s). However, results from past experimental research have often pointed to the rather poor quality of SPD′s. Moreover, previous attempts to improve SPD quality frequently appeared to be only partly successful; overconfidence especially proved to be an exceptionally persistent phenomenon. In the present study, method-induced biases in particular are considered to be responsible for the poor quality of SPD′s, and an alternative means for eliciting uncertain knowledge was designed to meet fundamental quality criteria to a more satisfactory degree. The direct realization of a proper scoring rule in a graphically oriented interactive computer program is one of the central features of this new elicitation technique, ELI. An experiment with 48 subjects was carried out to evaluate ELI performance and to compare it with the performance of (a) an existing elicitation technique and (b) a simple technique that only asks for a best guess and a lower and upper bound. The three techniques were evaluated and compared with respect to their contribution to reliable and valid SPD′s and with respect to their practical usefulness. The results indicated that for ELI the fundamental requirements were realized to a great extent. Furthermore, compared with the two other techniques, ELI performance appeared to be superior. In particular, only with the support of ELI did overconfidence appear to be almost absent.     

Metastable attunement and real-life skilled behavior

In everyday situations, and particularly in some sport and working contexts, humans face an inherently unpredictable and uncertain environment. All sorts of unpredictable and unexpected things happen but typically people are able to skillfully adapt. In this paper, we address two key questions in cognitive science. First, how is an agent able to bring its previously learned skill to bear on a novel situation? Second, how can an agent be both sensitive to the particularity of a given situation, while remaining flexibly poised for many other possibilities for action? We will argue that both the sensitivity to novel situations and the sensitivity to a multiplicity of action possibilities are enabled by the property of skilled agency that we will call metastable attunement. We characterize a skilled agent’s flexible interactions with a dynamically changing environment in terms of metastable dynamics in agent-environment systems. What we find in metastability is the realization of two competing tendencies: the tendency of the agent to express their intrinsic dynamics and the tendency to search for new possibilities. Metastably attuned agents are ready to engage with a multiplicity of affordances, allowing for a balance between stability and flexibility. On the one hand, agents are able to exploit affordances they are attuned to, while at the same time being ready to flexibly explore for other affordances. Metastable attunement allows agents to smoothly transition between these possible configurations so as to adapt their behaviour to what the particular situation requires. We go on to describe the role metastability plays in learning of new skills, and in skilful behaviour more generally. Finally, drawing upon work in art, architecture and sports science, we develop a number of perspectives on how to investigate metastable attunement in real life situations.

     

Applying the job demands–resources model to the work–home interface: A study among medical residents and their partners

Work–home interference (WHI) is a prevalent problem because most employees have substantial family responsibilities on top of their work demands. The present study hypothesized that high job demands in combination with low job resources contribute to WHI. The job demands–resources (JD-R) model was used as a theoretical framework. Using a sample of 230 medical residents and their partners, our results show that the combination of high job demands (i.e., work overload, emotional and cognitive demands) and low job resources (i.e., participation in decision making, supervisory coaching, feedback, and opportunities for development) was positively related to partner ratings of the employee's WHI. When job resources were high, most job demands were not related to WHI. These findings show that the JD-R model is a conceptual framework that can be fruitfully applied to the work–family interface, adding to our understanding of which particular job designs facilitate or prevent work–home interference.     

Voluntary task switching under load: Contribution of top-down and bottom-up factors in goal-directed behavior

The present study investigated the relative contribution of bottom-up and top-down control to task selection in the voluntary task-switching (VTS) procedure. In order to manipulate the efficiency of top-down control, a concurrent working memory load was imposed during VTS. In three experiments, bottom-up factors, such as stimulus repetitions, repetition of irrelevant information, and stimulus-task associations, were introduced in order to investigate their influence on task selection. We observed that the tendency to repeat tasks was stronger under load, suggesting that top-down control counteracts the automatic tendency to repeat tasks. The results also indicated that task selection can be guided by several elements in the environment, but that only the influence of stimulus repetitions depends on the efficiency of top-down control. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed within the interplay between top-down and bottom-up control that underlies the voluntary selection of tasks.     

No protective effects of education during normal cognitive aging: results from the 6-year follow-up of the Maastricht Aging Study

Recent large-scale longitudinal aging studies question earlier claims that higher education protects against cognitive decline in older age. In the present study, the authors addressed this issue by determining whether educational level had an attenuating effect on the rate of cognitive change assessed with a broad range of neuropsychological tests in a community sample of 872 healthy individuals aged 49 to 81 years at baseline. The participants were followed for 6 years and were tested 3 times (at baseline and at 3 and 6 years after baseline). Results of linear mixed-model analyses showed that education had no significant effect on cognitive change over time. These results are discussed in terms of the age range of the sample, definition and range of education, cognitive measures used, length of the study and number of consecutive assessments, and confounding effect of health. The findings question the extent of the presumed protective effects of higher education on cognitive decline during normal aging.     

Investigating the role of conflict resolution in memory updating by means of the one-back choice RT task

The current study is inspired by recent findings, which suggest that conflict is involved in the updating of memory representations. It directly addresses the relation between memory updating and conflict resolution by means of the one-back choice reaction time (RT) task, an updating task, which requires participants to postpone their response to stimulus n until the subsequent stimulus n + 1 has been presented. In three experiments, a more detailed analysis of the one-back choice RT task is presented in order to further identify the role of conflict resolution in memory updating. The findings demonstrate that the one-back choice RT task, which allows motor preparation just like a simple RT task, is in fact performed slower than a simple RT task because it additionally involves conflict resolution. It is further shown that also the response–stimulus interval of the one-back task involves processes that affect the amount of conflict in the task. In the "General discussion", the theoretical relevance of these findings for the concept of updating is discussed.

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Religious/secular discourses and practices of good sex

This article focuses on the triangulation of sexuality, religion and secularity in Dutch society by analysing two contemporary case studies. We focus on sexual experiences and practices rather than sexual identities to further understand the constructions of what constitutes ‘good’ sex. The empirical research is situated in the Netherlands, where the binary of religion and sexual regulation versus secularity and sexual freedom has been dominant in both public and political discourse for a long time. Exploring sexual practices and narratives as central to the constitution of both religious and secular selves, we noted these to be fluctuating, inconsistent and subject to discourses. Our first case study discusses sexual experiences of non-heterosexual Protestant women, whereas the second explores the frequently considered ‘neutral’ notions of secularity in sexual education. Applying insights from both religious studies and queer studies, we bring the empirical study of sexuality together with the theoretical debates about the conceptualisation of the secular and the religious in contemporary Western Europe. This comparative approach to sexuality not only undermines the culturally presumed exclusive opposition of the secular and the religious but it also provides new empirical contributions for understanding the interactions between sexual practices and sexual discourses.     

The Concept Shifting Test: adult normative data

The Concept Shifting Test (CST) is a newly developed Trail Making Type test that measures concept shifting and executive functioning. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether CST performance was affected by age, gender, educational level, or handedness and to establish the normal range of test performance. The CST was administered to a large sample (N = 1,794) of cognitively intact adults (age range 24 to 81 years). The results showed that CST performance was superior in women, decreased with age, and increased with level of education. Handedness did not affect CST performance. Normative data that are corrected for the influences of these demographical variables were established with a regression-based normative approach.