Incomplete Information, Inferences, and Individual Differences: The Case of Environmental Judgments

A model for inference of missing information is explicated and tested in two studies (Ns = 74, 76) of judgments about two environmental issues (endangered species reintroduction and the siting of a waste processing facility). Participants made judgments of scenarios in which information relevant to the judgment was varied orthogonally and, in some cases, relevant information was missing. The results showed individual differences-as well as intraindividual differences-in the assumptions participants made about missing information and in the tendency to infer missing cues. Reported assumptions about missing information predicted some aspects of the judgments. The data for only a small minority (15%) of the participants were consistent with the inferred values model. Participants may use different methods for dealing with missing information at different times or may not generally follow either an inference or averaging model in such contexts. Less favorable judgments were given for scenarios with incomplete information (the "penalty" effect), and this effect showed individual and intraindividual variation that was related to reported assumptions about missing information. We discuss the implications of these results for societal conflicts over controversial issues and for understanding the sources of individual differences in judgments. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

编码时间对序列视觉信息整合的影响

本研究采用空白单元格定位任务,探讨序列刺激整合的时间特性。实验1重复前人的实验,验证了时间间隔对整合绩效的影响;实验2系统操纵了对先前刺激的编码时间与时间间隔,结果发现,编码时间越长,记忆的效果越好,虽然会妨碍对随后刺激的知觉,但整合绩效越高;而随着时间间隔的延长,延长编码时间带来的优势逐渐减弱。结论提示,人们能够整合视觉短时记忆和视知觉的信息,而且这种整合的时间特性不同于知觉整合。     

The Role of Oculomotor Information in the Learning of Sequential Aiming Movements

With their eyes initially on either the home, midline, or final end position, 30 participants practiced a 2-target aiming movement. After 120 acquisition trials, participants performed a retention test and were then transferred to each of the other 2 eye conditions. During acquisition, all groups improved over practice, but the home group showed the greatest improvement. The temporal improvement was most pronounced in the times spent after peak velocity. Retention and transfer tests indicated that participants performed best under eye-movement conditions that were the same as the 1 they had practiced in. There was also positive transfer of training between conditions in which the oculomotor information was similar. Thus, to optimize learning, one should practice under the same afferent and oculomotor conditions that will be required for the final performance.     

Nonstrategic Delay in Bargaining: An Experimental Investigation

The practice of bargaining is strongly affected by procedural features. Procedures matter because they affect each party's bargaining power and, consequently, the negotiation outcome. The extent and nature of delay between offers and counteroffers are an example of procedural specification in bargaining. Bargaining models consider delay only as a strategic screening device to build a reputation for toughness, the logic being that the party with the smaller cost of delay obtains all the gain from trade. In reality, however, delay between offers is common because of imperfect player control over the duration of the offers for reasons other than strategic, namely, transactional, timing, and interruptions. This delay, in essence, limits the number of rounds of offers and counteroffers in a fixed-period negotiation compared to when there is no delay and, in turn, is expected to affect negotiation outcome. The objective of the current research is to experimentally explore the implications of nonstrategic delay between offers and counteroffers in a finite-horizon alternating-offer bargaining game with incomplete information but without discounting. Specifically, this study examines the effect of nonstrategic time delay during negotiation on (1) the effect of risk preference on negotiator effectiveness, (2) deadline effect, (3) first-mover advantage, and (4) conflict between the negotiating partners. As hypothesized, the results show that delay dilutes the effect of negotiators’ risk preference, eliminates the deadline effect, negates the first-mover advantage, and enhances dyadic conflict.     

The Sequential Model of Future-Oriented Coping and Adjustment to University Life: The Role of Attitudes as Further Evidence

The Psychological Record - The objectives of the present study were to develop the University Life Implicit Association Test (IAT) and to explore the role of implicit and explicit attitudes in the...     

The Role of Negotiator Aspirations and Settlement Expectancies in Bargaining Outcomes

The following paper offers both a framework and empirical test of the importance of negotiators′ aspiration levels and settlement expectancies on negotiated outcomes. In particular, we demonstrate that, in the presence of a stable bargaining zone, negotiators′ aspirations significantly affect negotiated outcomes. Further, we find that asymmetries in negotiators′ aspirations with respect to the bargaining zone are a source of inefficiency in bargaining-i.e., asymmetries increase the likelihood of impasse in the presence of a positive bargaining zone. We also present data which examine the role of settlement expectancies as another source of settlement inefficiency.     

Evidence of Incomplete Motor Programming in Parkinson's Disease

One of the essential questions regarding movement deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD) is whether they stem from impaired selecting and switching among movements, impaired use of predictive information to prepare movement, or impaired execution of movement. PD subjects (n = 9) and age-matched control subjects (n = 8) performed a cued, sequential-response RT task. The cue provided either no information, accurate information, or inaccurate information about the upcoming response. PD subjects used predictive information to prepare and to switch among movement sequences normally, but second and third key press latencies were prolonged in comparison with the first key press latency. In Experiments 2 and 3, the effects of choice set and sequence length on key press latencies were examined. These results provide evidence that PD subjects initiate movement before the entire response sequence is prepared. PD does not impair motor programming or execution processes themselves but impairs the smooth coordination of those processes.     

Evidence of Incomplete Motor Programming in Parkinson's Disease

One of the essential questions regarding movement deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD) is whether they stem from impaired selecting and switching among movements, impaired use of predictive information to prepare movement, or impaired execution of movement. PD subjects (n equals 9) and age-matched control subjects (n equals 8) performed a cued, sequential-response RT task. The cue provided either no information, accurate information, or inaccurate information about the upcoming response. PD subjects used predictive information to prepare and to switch among movement sequences normally, but second and third key press latencies were prolonged in comparison with the first key press latency. In Experiments 2 and 3, the effects of choice set and sequence length on key press latencies were examined. These results provide evidence that PD subjects initiate movement before the entire response sequence is prepared. PD does not impair motor programming or execution processes themselves but impairs the smooth coordination of those processes.     

基于语境的预期推理构建的实验研究

两个实验用移动视窗技术,用目标句阅读时间和命名探测词两种指标来考察当文本中有两个情境模型时,读者是否会即时进行预期推理。结果表明,如果在支持性语境与引发推理的信息之间插入一个与支持性语境所描述的情境模型不同的,且与主人公目标有关的因果链上的情境模型的信息,则不管这个插入的情境模型在文本中的位置如何,也不管干扰信息的干扰水平高低,都会降低因果性预期推理在阅读中产生的可能性。     

The Role of Evidence in Chronic Care Decision-Making

Topoi - In the domain of medical science, factual evidence is usually considered as the criterion on which to base decisions and construct hypotheses. Evidence-based medicine is the translation of...     

Information Integration in Modulation of Pragmatic Inferences During Online Language Comprehension

Upon hearing a scalar adjective in a definite referring expression such as “the big…,” listeners typically make anticipatory eye movements to an item in a contrast set, such as a big glass in the context of a smaller glass. Recent studies have suggested that this rapid, contrastive interpretation of scalar adjectives is malleable and calibrated to the speaker's pragmatic competence. In a series of eye‐tracking experiments, we explore the nature of the evidence necessary for the modulation of pragmatic inferences in language comprehension, focusing on the complementary roles of top–down information ‐ (knowledge about the particular speaker's pragmatic competence)  and bottom‐up cues  (distributional information about the use of scalar adjectives in the environment). We find that bottom‐up evidence alone (e.g., the speaker says “the big dog” in a context with one dog), in large quantities, can be sufficient to trigger modulation of the listener's contrastive inferences, with or without top‐down cues to support this adaptation. Further, these findings suggest that listeners track and flexibly combine multiple sources of information in service of efficient pragmatic communication.     

道德判断中的情绪因素——从认知神经科学的角度进行探讨

道德判断中的情绪与认知因素是社会认知神经科学研究的重要议题。本文对近年来社会认知神经科学领域中有关情绪影响道德判断的研究发现和相关理论进行了回顾和总结。介绍了外源性情绪影响道德判断的行为研究证据,大脑情绪功能障碍者在道德判断中的异常表现以及道德两难任务所对应的大脑激活模式,着重探讨了情绪因素影响道德判断的神经机制和道德判断中情绪加工与认知加工相互作用的过程。揭示了情绪是道德判断的必要因素,道德判断是情绪加工和认知加工协同作用的结果,并在此基础上提出了该领域未来发展的设想。     

Processing Illness Information: The Role of Disease Prototypes

Recently Bishop and Converse (1986) proposed that information about physical symptoms is interpreted by relating those symptoms to preexisting disease prototypes. The two present studies further examined this formulation by testing hypotheses concerning the speed of processing symptom information as well as associations made to sets of physical symptoms as a function of prototypicality. As predicted, Experiment 1 showed that response time to highly prototypical symptom sets was significantly shorter than that for symptom sets containing irrelevant symptoms. Also as predicted, the results of Experiment 2 showed significant differences in the associations made by experiment participants to symptom sets as a function of the prototypicality of the symptoms in those sets. Participants made more category-based associations to highly prototypical symptom sets than to those lower in prototypicality but made more associations to individual symptoms for symptom sets low in prototypicality. Implications for the prototype hypothesis and for understanding the processing of illness information are discussed.     

Loss of Information in Estimating Item Parameters in Incomplete Designs

In this paper, the efficiency of conditional maximum likelihood (CML) and marginal maximum likelihood (MML) estimation of the item parameters of the Rasch model in incomplete designs is investigated. The use of the concept of F-information (Eggen, 2000) is generalized to incomplete testing designs. The scaled determinant of the F-information matrix is used as a scalar measure of information contained in a set of item parameters. In this paper, the relation between the normalization of the Rasch model and this determinant is clarified. It is shown that comparing estimation methods with the defined information efficiency is independent of the chosen normalization. The generalization of the method to other models than the Rasch model is discussed. In examples, information comparisons are conducted. It is found that for both CML and MML some information is lost in all incomplete designs compared to complete designs. A general result is that with increasing test booklet length the efficiency of an incomplete design, compared to a complete design, is increasing, as is the efficiency of CML compared to MML. The main difference between CML and MML is seen in the effect of the length of the test booklet. It will be demonstrated that with very small booklets, there is a substantial loss in information (about 35%) with CML estimation, while this loss is only about 10% in MML estimation. However, with increasing test length, the differences between CML and MML quickly disappear.     

Sequential Performance in Young and Older Adults: Evidence of Chunking and Inhibition

ABSTRACT

Two experiments were conducted to examine possible sources of age-related decline in sequential performance: age differences in sequence representation, retrieval of sequence elements, and efficiency of inhibitory processes. Healthy young and older participants learned a sequence of eight animal drawings in fixed order, then monitored for these targets within trials of mis-ordered stimuli, responding only when targets were shown in the correct order. Responses were slower for odd numbered targets, suggesting that participants spontaneously organized the sequence in two-element chunks. Perseverations (responses to previously relevant targets) served as an index of inhibitory inefficiency. Efficiency of chunk retrieval and self-inhibition were lower for older than for younger adults. Increasing environmental support in Experiment 2 through overt articulation of current chunk elements showed a pattern of results similar to Experiment 1, with particular benefit for older adults. The findings suggest an underlying susceptibility to interference in old age.     

学习因素对语义信息加工性质的影响

本研究通过两个行为实验,采用句子核证作业,将SAD技术和范畴学习范式有机地结合起来,对语义信息加工进程以及学习因素在其中的作用进行了考察。实验一研究了熟悉性对语义信息加工的影响。结果表明,高熟悉句的部分信息积累具有离散的趋势;低熟悉句的部分信息积累是连续性的。实验二采用范畴学习。并结合SAD技术的句子核证作业．考察了在学习过程中语义加工性质的变化。结果发现：过度学习比初始学习有更多的部分信息积累,并随信号间隔的延长而逐渐增加;过度学习表现出部分信息积累的离散性变化;初始学习则表现出连续累积的趋势。说明学习确实造成了连续性加工向离散性质的过渡。     

The Role of Information Reduction in Skill Acquisition

Theories of skill acquisition assume that the effects of practice on task performance are due to either qualitative changes in the task structure, an increased efficiency of performing individual task components, an increased efficiency of performing sequences of task components, or some combination of these mechanisms. We propose an extension to the existing theories by arguing that for many tasks, practice affects which information is processed. More specifically, we argue that people learn, over the course of practice, to separate task-relevant from task-redundant information, and to limit their processing to relevant aspects of the task. In three experiments, subjects verified alphabetic strings, such as M [4] R S T. Strings were correct if they followed the alphabet when the number of letters, given by the digit in parentheses, was skipped. Strings were constructed such that errors occurred only within the initial “letter–digit–letter” triplet. Analyses of subjects’ RTs for strings of varying lengths demonstrated that: (a) subjects were able to distinguish relevant from redundant task information, and to limit their processing to the relevant information, (b) the ability to reduce the amount of information that is processed takes time and develops gradually over the course of practice, and (c) the mechanism underlying this ability appears to be largely stimulus-independent in the sense that structural components of a task are ignored, rather than specific task information. The findings and their implications for general theories of skill acquisition are discussed.     

儿童公平行为的发展——来自博弈实验的证据

公平正义一直是人类不懈追求的目标,是心理学、经济学等多个学科共同关注的一个重要课题。发展心理学常采用故事法对儿童的公平认知进行研究,博弈范式的引入则为研究儿童的公平行为提供了新的方法和角度。该文主要介绍了独裁者博弈和最后通牒博弈中儿童公平行为的发展趋势,并对已有的矛盾性结论进行了原因分析,探讨了公平行为的内团体偏差效应、公平的本质是意图公平还是结果公平、以及心理理论与公平行为的关系等问题。最后,该文指出今后对儿童公平行为的研究应充分考虑社会情境与社会认知能力的影响。     

The Impact of Alcohol on Negotiator Behavior: Experimental Evidence1

Business‐related drinking is an important organizational and managerial activity with particular relevance to the negotiation process. This paper investigates the influence of a moderate amount of alcohol on negotiator behavior and negotiated outcomes. We conducted 2 negotiation studies involving inebriated and sober participants, and found that inebriated negotiators used more aggressive tactics, made more mistakes, and reached less integrative agreements than did sober negotiators. Across both studies, we found that inebriated negotiators were unaware that alcohol had affected their negotiations.