Do endogenous and exogenous action control compete for perception?

Human actions are guided either by endogenous action plans or by external stimuli in the environment. These two types of action control seem to be mediated by neurophysiologically and functionally distinct systems that interfere if an endogenously planned action suddenly has to be performed in response to an exogenous stimulus. In this case, the endogenous representation has to be deactivated first to give way to the exogenous system. Here we show that interference of endogenous and exogenous action control is not limited to motor-related aspects but also affects the perception of action-related stimuli. Participants associated two actions with contingent sensory effects in learning blocks. In subsequent test blocks, preparing one of these actions specifically impaired responding to the associated effect in an exogenous speeded detection task, yielding a blindness-like effect for arbitrary, learned action effects. In accordance with the theory of event coding, this finding suggests that action planning influences perception even in the absence of any physical similarities between action and to-be-perceived stimuli.     

Do action systems resist visual illusions?

Arguments about the relative independence of visual modules in the primate brain are not new. Recently, though, these debates have resurfaced in the form of arguments about the extent to which visuomotor reaching and grasping systems are insensitive to visual illusions that dramatically bias visual perception. The first wave of studies of illusory effects on perception and action have supported the idea of independence of motor systems, but recent findings have been more critical. In this article, I review several of these studies, most of which (but not all) can be reconciled with the two-visual-systems model.     

Do salespeople matter in competitive tenders?

Abstract

Organizational buyers are increasingly employing competitive tenders with objective buying criteria to mitigate the influence of personal relationships with suppliers and reduce the overall cost of buying. This paper investigates the role of salespeople’s relationships with buyers (i.e., purchasing managers) and how they affect supplier selection in such contexts. Drawing on data from 428 tenders across different buying organizations, this study shows that the quality of the salesperson’s relationship with the buyer influences the buyer’s evaluation of the tender proposal, which, in turn, affects supplier selection. Thus, the results support an indirect effect of salesperson relationship on supplier selection even in a tender context. In addition, the results indicate that the effect of a salesperson’s relationship on buyer’s proposal evaluation is contingent on the comprehensibility of suppliers’ proposals and buyer’s product knowledge. These results have significant theoretical and managerial implications for both buyers and suppliers in business-to-business (B2B) tender contexts.     

Do action goals mediate social inhibition of return?

Social inhibition of return is the phenomenon whereby an individual is slower to reach to locations to which another individual has recently responded. Although this suggests that an observer represents another person's action, little is known about which aspects of the action are encoded. The present work describes a series of three experiments examining whether social inhibition of return represents the endpoint goal of the action, i.e., is 'goal based'. Pairs of participants sat opposite to one another and alternated responses to a cued or non-cued object presented on a table top. Importantly, either the two participants performed the same interaction with the object or a different interaction. Although all our experiments showed social inhibition of return, the size of the effect was not modulated according to whether each participant had the same or different goal. We conclude that although the mechanisms giving rise to social inhibition of return do encode some aspects of a response they do not code for terminal action goals.     

Do perceived differences in religion matter at work?

Over 90% of the United States population affiliates with an organised religion. There has been, however, very little research regarding religion in work organisations. This study focuses on the effects of individual perceptions of religious dissimilarity, as a characteristic of deep-level diversity, on perceived cohesion. A scale is developed to measure individual perceptions of the dissimilarity of religion. Two different studies are used to establish reliability and validity of this scale. In addition, some implications of the negative relationship between individual perceptions of religious dissimilarity and perceived cohesion for organisations are discussed.     

Do we weep for Cordelia?

Abstract

Much of the contemporary debate concerning the nature and role of fictive emotions has argued that we do feel garden-variety emotions for fictional characters; the puzzle has been to account for this, given our knowledge of their fictional status. In this paper I argue that many of the emotional responses we have towards fictional characters are nothing like the emotions we feel in ordinary life. The implications for our engagement with literary fictions are subsequently examined.     

Examining cognitive performance: Do perfectionism and rumination matter?

Research has looked to possible personality constructs that can affect cognitive performance. Studies have demonstrated that working memory and attentional effectiveness can be directly related to the cognitive resources upon which one is readily able to call. Whereas limited research has examined the role of perfectionism in relation to problem solving abilities, to date, no studies have specifically examined how it may affect working memory or attention. The study’s purpose was to assess the impact of task difficulty (high, medium, or low) and personality constructs on working memory and attention. Following completion of the personality measures, participants completed the d2 test of attention and an N-back task. Results indicated that perfectionism and rumination significantly affected accuracy but not reaction time on the N-back task and that rumination significantly affected the total number of items processed on the d2 test of attention. Given the lack of elevated scores on the personality indicators within this sample, future research might examine this process in those more strongly endorsing these traits, allowing us to better ascertain the degree to which cognitive deficits may be evident.     

Daily experiences and well-being: Do memories of events matter?

Retrospective subjective well-being (SWB) refers to self-reported satisfaction and emotional experience over the past few weeks or months. Two studies investigated the mechanisms linking daily experiences to retrospective SWB. Participants reported events each day for 21 days (Study 1) or twice a week for two months (Study 2). The emotional intensity of each event was rated: (1) when it had recently occurred (proximal intensity); and (2) at the end of the event-reporting period (distal intensity). Both sets of ratings were then aggregated across events and used to predict retrospective SWB at the end of the study. Path analyses showed that proximal intensity predicted retrospective SWB whereas distal intensity did not. The effect remained even after controlling for trait happiness and neuroticism. These results suggest that daily experiences influence retrospective SWB primarily through abstract representations of the past few weeks or months (as measured by aggregated proximal intensity ratings) rather than the explicit recollection of individual events during the same period (as measured by aggregated distal intensity ratings). Retrospective SWB, in turn, mediated the effect of daily experiences on global SWB (i.e., self-reported satisfaction and emotional experiences in general).     

Do people's self-views matter? Self-concept and self-esteem in everyday life

Recent scholars have dismissed the utility of self-esteem as well as programs designed to improve it. The authors challenge these contentions on conceptual, methodological, and empirical grounds. They begin by proposing that the scope of recent analyses has been overly narrow and should be broadened to include specific as well as global self-views. Using this conceptualization, the authors place recent critiques in historical context, recalling that similarly skeptical commentaries on global attitudes and traits inspired theorizing and empirical research that subsequently restored faith in the value of both constructs. Specifically, they point to 3 strategies for attaining more optimistic assessments of the predictive validity of self-views: recognizing the utility of incorporating additional variables in predictive schemes, matching the specificity of predictors and criteria, and using theoretically informed standards for evaluating predictor- criterion relationships. The authors conclude that self-views do matter and that it is worthwhile and important to develop and implement theoretically informed programs to improve them.     

Do educational aspirations and expectations matter in improving school achievement?

Social Psychology of Education - The main objective of this paper is to examine the role of students’ aspirations and expectations in affecting school achievement among 7th and 8th grade...     

Do infants apply the principle of rational action to human agents?

Twelve- to fourteen-month-old infants’ reactions to violations of the principle of rational action [Cognition 56 (1995) 165] were studied in two experiments, using humanlike puppets and human agents rather than computerized shapes as stimuli. In Experiment 1, infants watched a puppet approaching another puppet on a stage, while in Experiment 2 a videotaped sequence of a person approaching another person was shown. In both experiments, a rational and a non-rational approach condition were contrasted in the habituation phase. In the rational approach condition, an obstacle had to be overcome by climbing or jumping. In the non-rational approach condition, the agent made a detour approach in the absence of an obstacle. In the test phase, infants watched direct and indirect-approach events. In both experiments, infants in the rational approach condition looked significantly longer at indirect-approach than at direct-approach test events, while no difference between the two types of test events was observed in the non-rational approach condition. These findings support the assumption that one-year-old infants have principled expectations about rational goal approaches of human agents.     

Climate change and social order: Knowledge for action?

This article is a critical, sociological examination of policy advice aimed at reducing or limiting CO₂ emissions. The policy proposals are taken from various sources directed to governmental or economic institutions and targeted to cope with the natural and social consequences of global warming. We ask, based on a sociological understanding of features constitutive of practical social science knowledge, how feasible and practical are various policy proposals. Our assessment, in turn, is based on a theoretical model of the characteristics ofpractical scientific knowledge, which is discussed in conjunction with the current field of climate change knowledge. He is currently the editor of theCanadian Journal of Sociology. This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association, Learned Societies Conference, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, June 1992.     

Probing folk-psychology: Do Libet-style experiments reflect folk intuitions about free action?

There is an ongoing debate in philosophy and psychology about when one should consider an action to be free. Several aspects are frequently suggested as relevant: (a) a prior intention, (b) a conscious action-related thought, (c) prior deliberation, (d) a meaningful choice, (e) different consequences of the action, and (f) the duration between intention and action. Here we investigated which criteria laypeople adopt and thus probed their intuitions about free actions in three surveys based on daily life scenarios. First, our results indicate that laypeople consider a conscious intention important for an action to be free. Second, laypeople consider spontaneous actions without consequences to be freer than actions with prior deliberation. Third, laypeople consider proximal rather than distal intentions relevant when it comes to judging actions as free. Taken together, these results suggest that simple laboratory experiments on action choices reflect laypeople’s intuitions of free actions to a considerable degree.     

Intentional action and limitation of personal autonomy. Do restrictions of action selection decrease the sense of agency?

The experience of being an intentional agent is a key component of personal autonomy. Here, we tested how undermining intentional action affects the sense of agency as indexed by intentional binding. In three experiments using the Libet clock paradigm, participants judged the onset of their action (key presses) and resulting effect (auditory stimuli) under conditions of no, partial, or full autonomy over selecting and timing their actions. In all cases, we observed a moderate to strong intentional binding effect. However, we found no evidence for an influence of personal autonomy on intentional binding. These findings thus suggest that being unable to decide how and when to perform actions does not affect the perceived temporal binding between action and effect, a phenomenon suggested to be associated with the implicit sense of agency. We discuss the implications of our findings in the context of research on personal autonomy and goal-directed behavior.     

Do Common Factors Account for Counseling Outcome?

This study drew from common factors as an explanatory model for how counseling produces client change. Client self‐report measures for 3 common factors—client factors, client–counselor relationship factors, and client expectancy factors—were examined at a counseling training clinic. Regression analyses revealed that 2 factors significantly predicted treatment outcome: client expectancy and the therapeutic alliance. One variable from client factors—abuse history—had a nonsignificant but modest relationship with outcome.     

What Can Armstrongian Universals Do for Induction?

Philosophia - David Armstrong (1983) argues that necessitation relations among universals are the best explanation of some of our observations. If we consequently accept them into our ontologies,...     

Do Social Bonds Matter for Emerging Adults?

The extent to which social bonds and turning points influence criminal activity has been the focus of much empirical research. However, there have been few empirical studies exploring social bonds and turning points and offending for those who have experienced emerging adulthood, a recently identified stage of the life course. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health we examined if indicators of social bonds and turning points were predictors of criminal offending. Several of the turning points and social bonds included in these analyses were found to influence decreases in criminal offending for a cohort of emerging adults. We extend previous research by examining the influence of social bonds and turning points on patterns of criminal offending during emerging adulthood.     

What Can Feminist Epistemology Do for Surgery?

Surgery is an important part of contemporary health care, but currently much of surgery lacks a strong evidence base. Uptake of evidence‐based medicine (EBM) methods within surgical research and among practitioners has been slow compared with other areas of medicine. Although this is often viewed as arising from practical and cultural barriers, it also reflects a lack of epistemic fit between EBM research methods and surgical practice. In this paper we discuss some epistemic challenges in surgery relating to this lack of fit, and investigate how resources from feminist epistemology can help to characterize them. We point to ways in which these epistemic challenges may be addressed by gathering and disseminating evidence about what works in surgery using methods that are contextual, pluralistic, and sensitive to hierarchies.