Connection‐based and object‐based grouping in multiple‐object tracking: A developmental study

Developmental research on Gestalt laws has previously revealed that, even as young as infancy, we are bound to group visual elements into unitary structures in accordance with a variety of organizational principles. Here, we focus on the developmental trajectory of both connection‐based and object‐based grouping, and investigate their impact on object formation in participants, aged 9–21 years old (N = 113), using a multiple‐object tracking paradigm. Results reveal a main effect of both age and grouping type, indicating that 9‐ to 21‐year‐olds are sensitive to both connection‐based and object‐based grouping interference, and tracking ability increases with age. In addition to its importance for typical development, these results provide an informative baseline to understand clinical aberrations in this regard.

Statement of contribution

What is already known on this subject?

• The origin of the Gestalt principles is still an ongoing debate: Are they innate, learned over time, or both?
• Developmental research has revealed how each Gestalt principle has its own trajectory and unique relationship to visual experience.
• Both connectedness and object‐based grouping play an important role in object formation during childhood.

What does this study add?

• The study identifies how sensitivity to connectedness and object‐based grouping evolves in individuals, aged 9–21 years old.
• Using multiple‐object tracking, results reveal that the ability to track multiple objects increases with age.
• These results provide an informative baseline to understand clinical aberrations in different types of grouping.

     

The Logic of Plausible Reasoning: A Core Theory

The paper presents a core theory of human plausible reasoning based on analysis of people's answers to everyday questions about the world. The theory consists of three parts:

• 1 a formal representation of plausible inference patterns; such as deductions, inductions, and analogies, that are frequently employed in answering everyday questions;
• 2 a set of parameters, such as conditional likelihood, typicality, and similarity, that affect the certainty of people's answers to such questions; and
• 3 a system relating the different plausible inference patterns and the different certainty parameters.

This is one of the first attempts to construct a formal theory that addresses both the semantic and parametric aspects of the kind of everyday reasoning that pervades. all of human discourse.     

A Unified Nonparametric IRT Model for <Emphasis Type="Italic">d</Emphasis>-Dimensional Psychological Test Data (<Emphasis Type="Italic">d</Emphasis>-ISOP)

The (univariate) isotonic psychometric (ISOP) model (Scheiblechner, 1995) is a nonparametric IRT model for dichotomous and polytomous (rating scale) psychological test data. A weak subject independence axiom W1 postulates that the subjects are ordered in the same way except for ties (i.e., similarly or isotonically) by all items of a psychological test. A weak item independence axiom W2 postulates that the order of the items is similar for all subjects. Local independence (LI or W3) is assumed in all models. With these axioms, sample-free unidimensional ordinal measurements of items and subjects become feasible. A cancellation axiom (Co) gives, as a result, the additive isotonic psychometric (ADISOP) model and interval scales for subjects and items, and an independence axiom (W4) gives the completely additive isotonic psychometric (CADISOP) model with an interval scale for the response variable (Scheiblechner, 1999). The d-ISOP, d-ADISOP, and d-CADISOP models are generalizations to d-dimensional dependent variables (e.g., speed and accuracy of response). The author would like to thank an Associate Editor and two anonymous referees and also Professor H.H. Schulze for their very valuable suggestions and corrections.     

Longitudinal pathways between mental health difficulties and academic performance during middle childhood and early adolescence

There is a growing appreciation that child functioning in different domains, levels, or systems are interrelated over time. Here, we investigate links between internalizing symptoms, externalizing problems, and academic attainment during middle childhood and early adolescence, drawing on two large data sets (child: mean age 8.7 at enrolment, n = 5,878; adolescent: mean age 11.7, n = 6,388). Using a 2‐year cross‐lag design, we test three hypotheses – adjustment erosion, academic incompetence, and shared risk – while also examining the moderating influence of gender. Multilevel structural equation models provided consistent evidence of the deleterious effect of externalizing problems on later academic achievement in both cohorts, supporting the adjustment‐erosion hypothesis. Evidence supporting the academic‐incompetence hypothesis was restricted to the middle childhood cohort, revealing links between early academic failure and later internalizing symptoms. In both cohorts, inclusion of shared‐risk variables improved model fit and rendered some previously established cross‐lag pathways non‐significant. Implications of these findings are discussed, and study strengths and limitations noted.

Statement of contribution

What is already known on this subject?

• Longitudinal research and in particular developmental cascades literature make the case for weaker associations between internalizing symptoms and academic performance than between externalizing problems and academic performance.
• Findings vary in terms of the magnitude and inferred direction of effects. Inconsistencies may be explained by different age ranges, prevalence of small‐to‐modest sample sizes, and large time lags between measurement points.
• Gender differences remain underexamined.

What does this study add?

• The present study used cross‐lagged models to examine longitudinal associations in age groups (middle child and adolescence) in a large‐scale British sample.
• The large sample size not only allows for improvements on previous measurement models (e.g., allowing the analysis to account for nesting, and estimation of latent variables) but also allows for examination of gender differences.
• The findings clarify the role of shared‐risk factors in accounting for associations between internalizing, externalizing, and academic performance, by demonstrating that shared‐risk factors do not fully account for relationships between internalizing, externalizing, and academic achievement. Specifically, some pathways between mental health and academic attainment consistently remain, even after shared‐risk variables have been accounted for.
• Findings also present consistent support for the potential impact of behavioural problems on children's academic attainment.
• The negative relationship between low academic attainment and subsequent internalizing symptoms for younger children is also noteworthy.

     

On the construction of reality and truth. Towards an epistemology of community social psychology

An expression of community social psychology based on the need to transform social reality, and to consider people as the constructors of that reality, is examined from an epistemological point of view. Dualism, the position considering that object and subject are separate entities, and monism, the perspective stating that there is only one substance, are discussed. The consequences of both conceptions for community social psychology, and their incompatibility, as well as the notions of reality and truth are analyzed. That analysis deals with the problems of defining reality, of separating subject and object of knowledge, of language's role, and of relativism and truth. Finally, a constructionist view of monism based on relatedness, and action, is proposed, stating the mutually influencing union of subject and object in the construction of reality.     

Arousal and Valence in the Direct Scaling of Emotional Response to Film Clips

Contributions of differential attention to valence versus arousal (Feldman, 1995) in self-reported emotional response may be difficult to observe due to (1)confounding of valence and arousal in the labeling of rating scales, and (2) the assumption of an interval scale type. Ratings of emotional response to film clips (Ekman, Friesen, & Ancoli, 1980) were reanalyzed as categorical (nominal) in scale type using consensus analysis. Consensus emerged for valence-related scales but not for arousal scales. Scales labeled Interest and Arousal produced a distribution of idiosyncratic responses across the scale, whereas scales labeled Happiness, Anger, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, Surprise, and Pain, produced consensual response. Magnitude of valenced response varied with both stimulus properties and self-reported arousal.     

Perceived trustworthiness of online shops

• Trust has been found to be crucial for consumer behaviour towards online shops. However, existing studies on the role of trust in electronic commerce are mainly based on ad hoc scales to measure trustworthiness, merely rely on self‐reported consequences of trust such as intention to buy, and focus on low‐risk products.
• In a web‐based study, 634 participants interacted with a provider of medical goods, that is a simulated online pharmacy. The study develops and employs a psychometrically sound scale for assessing perceived trustworthiness of online shops. Moreover, it examines the impact of trustworthiness on both consumers' intended and actual behaviour towards online shops.
• Results show that trustworthiness promotes both intention to buy and actual financial risk taking. Perceived risk was not found to moderate the relationship between trustworthiness and intention to buy. Instead, trustworthiness partially mediated the influence of perceived risk on intention to buy. The results from the scale development challenge multidimensional conceptualizations of trust; comparing this finding with other studies suggests that the duration of the relationship might moderate the dimensionality of trust.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ROOTCLUS: Searching for “ROOT CLUSters” in Three-Way Proximity Data

In the context of three-way proximity data, an INDCLUS-type model is presented to address the issue of subject heterogeneity regarding the perception of object pairwise similarity. A model, termed ROOTCLUS, is presented that allows for the detection of a subset of objects whose similarities are described in terms of non-overlapping clusters (ROOT CLUSters) common across all subjects. For the other objects, Individual partitions, which are subject specific, are allowed where clusters are linked one-to-one to the Root clusters. A sound ALS-type algorithm to fit the model to data is presented. The novel method is evaluated in an extensive simulation study and illustrated with empirical data sets.

     

Individual loudness functions determined from direct comparisons of loudness intervals

Five subjects were required in each trial to directly compare two pairs of tones and indicate which pair of tones had the greater loudness difference. Ten 1,200-Hz tones differing only in intensity were employed. Subjects made binary comparisons among the 45 tone pairs that can be formed from these 10 tones. The loudness difference comparisons of each subject were found to satisfy two properties (transitivity and monotonicity) that are required for an interval scale representation of loudness. Therefore, individual loudness scales were constructed using a nonmetric scaling technique designed for comparisons of sensory intervals. These loudness scales differed significantly from subject to subject. Since a nonnumerical scaling procedure was employed, these individual differences could not be attributed to biases in the way in which observers use numbers or numerical concepts to describe the loudness of tones. Hence, they suggest strong individual differences in the coding of sound intensity.     

The Cognitive Relation in a Formal Setting

This paper proposes a formal framework for the cognitive relation understood as an ordered pair with the cognitive subject and object of cognition as its members. The cognitive subject is represented as consisting of a language, conequence relation and a stock of accepted theories, and the object as a model of those theories. This language allows a simple formulation of the realism/anti-realism controversy. In particular, Tarski’s undefinability theorem gives a philosophical argument for realism in epistemology. Special Issue Formal Epistemology II. Edited by Branden Fitelson     

An introduction to mixture item response theory models

Mixture item response theory (IRT) allows one to address situations that involve a mixture of latent subpopulations that are qualitatively different but within which a measurement model based on a continuous latent variable holds. In this modeling framework, one can characterize students by both their location on a continuous latent variable as well as by their latent class membership. For example, in a study of risky youth behavior this approach would make it possible to estimate an individual's propensity to engage in risky youth behavior (i.e., on a continuous scale) and to use these estimates to identify youth who might be at the greatest risk given their class membership. Mixture IRT can be used with binary response data (e.g., true/false, agree/disagree, endorsement/not endorsement, correct/incorrect, presence/absence of a behavior), Likert response scales, partial correct scoring, nominal scales, or rating scales. In the following, we present mixture IRT modeling and two examples of its use. Data needed to reproduce analyses in this article are available as supplemental online materials at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2016.01.002.     

Beyond the Ethnic‐Civic Dichotomy: Cultural Citizenship as a New Way of Excluding Immigrants

In European Union (EU) countries, public debates about immigrants and citizenship are increasingly framed in cultural terms. Yet, there is no agreement within the citizenship literature on whether a cultural citizenship representation can be distinguished from the more established ethnic and civic representations and on how its measures relate to anti‐immigrant attitudes. The present study tested measures of citizenship representations among high school students (N = 1476) in six EU countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Sweden). Factor analyses favored a three‐factor model of citizenship representations (i.e., ethnic, cultural, and civic factors), which showed partial metric invariance. Across countries, ethnic and cultural scales correlated positively with each other and negatively with the civic scale. Moreover, ethnic and cultural scales related positively and the civic scale negatively to anti‐immigrant attitudes. However, when analyzed simultaneously, relations of the ethnic scale with anti‐immigrant attitudes were no longer significant, while those of the cultural and civic scales proved to be robust. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

An experimental analysis of psychometric functions in a threshold discrimination task with four response categories1

An experiment on a threshold discrimination task with four response categories was conducted to check the implicit assumptions of a threshold discrimination task with three response categories. Consideration of a task with three response categories, for example, “stronger,”“don't know,” and “weaker,” leads us to anticipate a relation between position parameters and that between the sizes of scale parameters of a model for a task with four response categories, such as, “stronger,”“probably stronger,”“probably weaker,” and “weaker.” That is, position parameters will be equidistant between adjacent categories and the middle scale parameter will be the largest. The results of the experiment on a four‐category task did not support these anticipated relation, and a possibility of biases in the estimation of point of subjective equality (PSE), using a three‐category task is pointed out. As an alternative to a three‐category task, a four‐category task is suggested when more than two categories are required.     

Persons and organisms

The philosophical quest for unity leads to the desire for a clear and adequate conception of human reality as a “mind-body unity.” This quest for unity has led both to conceptions of considerable heuristic value and to overly reductionistic approaches that impoverish our full relation to reality. Three basic themes are developed in this essay:

1. That on an ontological level dualistic and monistic approaches to mind-body remain equally plausible.
2. That on a practical level, epistemological considerations require us to retain a dualistic approach suggested by the terms “person” and “organism.”
3. That psychotherapy (whether religious or secular) must ground itself in the notion of “person.”

Differences between the concepts of “person” and “organism” are delineated on six specific points. Finally, it is suggested that a holistic approach to health requires both constructs.     

Middle Response Scale Options are Inappropriate for Ideal Point Scales

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to provide a theoretical rationale for the inappropriateness of middle response options on the response scales offered on ideal point scales, and to provide empirical support for this argument to assist ideal point scale development.

Design/Methodology/Approach

The same ideal point scale was administered in three quasi-experimental groups varying only in the response scale offered: the three groups received either a four-, five-, or six-option response scale. An ideal point Item Response Theory model, the Generalized Graded Unfolding Model (GGUM), was fit to the response data, and model-data fit was compared across conditions.

Findings

Responses from the four- and six-option conditions were fit well by the GGUM, but responses from the five-option condition were not fit well.

Implications

Despite the scale being constructed to follow the tenets of ideal point responding, the GGUM was unable to provide a reasonable probabilistic account of responding when the response scale contained a middle option. The authors find support for the argument that an odd-numbered response scale does not match the principles of ideal point responding, and can actually result in misspecifying the underlying response process.

Originality/Value

Although a growing body of research has suggested that attitude and personality measurement is best conceptualized under the assumptions of ideal point responding, little practical advice has been given to researchers or practitioners regarding scale creation. This was the first study to theoretically and empirically assess the response scale on ideal point scales, and offer guidance for constructing ideal point scales.