Training cooperation in the Prisoner's Dilemma

Female Ss' choices in two types of mixed-motive game situations were used to select Ss who had predominantly Own Gain and Ss who had predominantly Relative Gain goals. On the basis of simple reward notions, it was predicted that the former but not the latter would change from competitive to cooperative responding in decomposed Prisoner's Dilemma game situations when interacting with a conditionally cooperative other. Corresponding yoked controls were not expected to become cooperative. The availability of social comparison with an outcome which was smaller than the mutually cooperative outcome but larger than the mutually competitive out-come was expected to lead Own Gain Ss to more rapid learning of cooperation but not to affect the responses of corresponding yoked controls or of Relative Gain Ss. A 2 × 2 × 2 × 5 factorial design was used in which the factors were goal orientation (Own Gain vs Relative Gain), strategy of the other (conditionally cooperative vs yoked control), the availability vs unavailability of the social comparison, and trials. The results strongly supported each of the expectations. The results were discussed in terms of how the operation of the reward mechanism would be affected by the operation of some other social psychological processes.     

Individual differences in the game motives of Own,Relative, and Joint gain

Two hundred and eighteen undergraduates (94 males and 124 females) made decisions in same-sex dyads across four types of 3-choice decomposed games. An analysis of each subject's choices was performed to see if he or she consistently pursued one of the three motives of Own (Individualism), Relative (Competition) or Joint (Cooperation) gain across all four decomposed games. Sixty-six percent of the subjects manifested such consistency, and sex of subject was unrelated to which goal was pursued. Of the remaining 32%, a sizable subgroup ($\text{1}\text{3}$) was shown to be making its choices in an Altruistic fashion, attempting to maximize the outcomes of the other subject. An analysis of variance of the F scale scores of subjects in these motivational categories yielded an effect (p < .025), with the Competitive group having the highest, and the Altruistic group having the lowest mean authoritarianism score. Correlational analyses indicated negative r's between degree of Competition and F score, positive r's between degree of Altruism and F, but no apparent relation between F and either Individualistic or Joint gain choice.     

Conciliatory strategies and relative power

In an investigation of variations of a conciliatory strategy, 96 subjects, half female and half male, played a modified Prisoner's Dilemma in which their relative power, in terms of control over the other's outcomes, was less than, equal to, or greater than that of a simulated other. After 10 trials on which (s)he was 50% competitive, the other either did or did not send a handwritten note of general intent to be cooperative. In the second block of 10 trials, the other either was 100% cooperative or began with cooperation and stayed with it as long as the subject did not exploit. When the subject did exploit, the other made the competitive choice on the following trial as a form of retaliation, but followed this retaliation by a return to cooperation on the next trial so that there were never two consecutive competitive choices. During this second block, the simulated other always signaled in advance, with an explicit message, which choice (s)he was about to make. In a third block, the other was 100% cooperative in all conditions and sent no messages. As hypothesized, subjects whose power was equal to or less than that of the other were more cooperative in response to conciliation than were subjects whose power was greater than that of the other. Subjects who received the general note of intent were more cooperative than those who did not, but only in the equal and low power conditions. The subjects in the equal power condition who experienced retaliation were more cooperative than those who did not, but those in the unequal conditions tended to react negatively to retaliation. The results were discussed in terms of Osgood's (Peace Research Reviews, 1979, 8(2), 77–92) GRIT strategy and outcome control in interaction.     

What a person thinks upon learning he has chosen differently from others: Nice evidence for the persuasive-arguments explanation of choice shifts

Small shifts in choice occur even without discussion, when individuals merely know each other's preference. This appears to support an interpersonal comparison explanation of group induced shifts in choice and to refute explanations based on persuasive argumentation. The present study demonstrates the contrary, that such effects are consistent with the persuasive-arguments formulation and are obtained under particular conditions specified only by the latter theory, to wit: Knowledge of other's choices is assumed to lead a person to think of reasons (arguments) others might have had for their choices-reasons which ordinarily would not come to mind without this knowledge. Such reasoning functions in the same way as persuasive argumentation during group discussion; it causes the person to persuade himself that an alternative course of action now has greater merit than the one he initially preferred. To test this analysis, an experiment was performed in which subjects responded to choice-dilemma items under three different conditions: Following their own choice (I) they learned what several others had chosen and then wrote arguments in support of alternatives given in that same item; (II) they learned what several others had chosen and then wrote arguments in support of alternatives given in a different item; and (III) they received no information about others' choices but merely wrote arguments on that item. As predicted, shifts in choice occurred only if the person knew what others chose and had an opportunity to think about the latter (condition I); they did not occur if an opportunity to think of others' choices was denied (condition II), nor if knowledge of others' choices was withheld (condition III). Content analysis of the arguments subjects produced in conditions I and II completely supported the hypothesis, as did analyses of responses to postexperimental questionnaire which directly asked the subjects about their feelings and thoughts upon learning what others had chosen.     

The empirical violation of conservation laws and its relation to structural change

Concrete operational Ss were provided empirical evidence of nonconservation of discontinuous quantity and weight. The findings were that few Ss accepted this evidence. This was interpreted as supporting the organismic-developmental claim that lower forms of reasoning are transformed into structurally more advanced forms. It was also found that (1) probing provides a more accurate assessment of Ss' operational levels, (2) one can empirically distinguish between logicomathematical and physical knowledge, and (3) the former is understood by Ss to be nomically necessary and the latter, in the case of weight, may not be.     

Trust-suspicion and gender differences in interpersonal functioning

Responses on self-report questionnaires (Study 1) and in a dyadic game (Study 2) were observed to investigate relationships of trust-suspicion (T-S), locus of control (I-E), and situational contingencies to styles of interpersonal functioning. Generalized T-S predicted cooperative/competitive interactional choices among the male college student samples (p ? .01). However, T-S predicted females' interpersonal behaviors only when they were in a reactive, defensive position. T-S did not relate to actual behaviors when females were allowed to select/initiate cooperative or competitive exchanges. Situational rules (p ? .025) and I-E (p ? .01) predicted all subjects' behaviors when in a choice, but not defensive, position.     

Evaluating the reliance on past choices in adaptive learning models

Adaptive learning models are used to predict behavior in repeated choice tasks. Predictions can be based on previous payoffs or previous choices of the player. The current paper proposes a new method for evaluating the degree of reliance on past choices, called equal payoff series extraction (EPSE). Under this method a simulated player has the same exact choices as the player but receives equal constant payoffs from all of the alternatives. Success in predicting the next choice ahead for this simulated player therefore relies strictly on mimicry of previous choices of the actual player. This allows determining the marginal fit of predictions that are not based on the actual task payoffs. To evaluate the reliance on past choices under different models, an experiment was conducted in which 48 participants completed a three-alternative choice task in four task conditions. Two different learning rules were evaluated: an interference rule and a decay rule. The results showed that while the predictions of the decay rule relied more on past choices, only the reliance on past payoffs was associated with improved parameter generality. Moreover, we show that the Equal Payoff Series can be used as a criterion for optimizing parameters resulting in better parameter generalizability.     

Effects of density,activity, and personality on environmental preferences

The effects of room density, type of ongoing activity (party vs studying), and a personality variable (“personal space” or the distance which subjects place between themselves and others) on room liking were investigated. Results supported the prediction that type of activity is an important determinant of whether a high or low density setting is preferred. Evidence was also presented that a mediator between activity type and density preference is whether the presence of other people facilitates or inhibits the individual's goals in the setting. Personality factors also influence density preferences: Close standing Ss preferred a high to a low density setting; far standing Ss showed an opposite preference pattern, but only in the party condition. Correlations between Ss' personal space scores and several background and personality variables are also presented.     

Socially Constructed Technology

The concepts of omniscience and omnipotence are defined in 2 × 2 ordinal games, and implications for the optimal play of these games, when one player is omniscient or omnipotent and the other player is aware of his omniscience or omnipotence, are derived. Intuitively, omniscience allows a player to predict the strategy choice of an opponent in advance of play, and omnipotence allows a player, after initial strategy choices are made, to continue to move after the other player is forced to stop. Omniscience and its awareness by an opponent may hurt both players, but this problem can always be rectified if the other player is omniscient. This pathology can also be rectified if at least one of the two players is omnipotent, which can override the effects of omniscience. In some games, one player's omnipotence ‐ versus the other's ‐ helps him, whereas in other games the outcome induced does not depend on which player is omnipotent. Deducing whether a player is superior (omniscient or omnipotent) from the nature of his game playing alone raises several problems, however, suggesting the difficulty of devising tests for detecting superior ability in games.     

Can confidentiality of data pay off?

Ss were administered a self-report personality measure and a social desirability scale under conditions of Confidentiality, Anonymity or Nonanonymity alone. The tester's written assurance that the Ss' disclosures would be kept strictly confidential had a substantial moderating effect (when compared with Nonanonymity alone) on correlations between some subscales of the personality measure and the social desirability scale. In contrast to an earlier finding, there were no appreciable effects of Anonymity when compared with Nonanonymity alone. It appears that confidentiality of data can pay off in terms of increased predictive validity of some self-report personality measures by moderating the potential biasing effect of test response distortion due to socially desirable responding.     

The effect of social motives,communication and group size on behaviour in an N-person multi-stage mixed-motive game

Two experiments investigated the impact of social motives or individuals' preferences for specific self—other outcome distributions, on behaviour in an n-person game. Subjects' social motives (altruistic, cooperative, individualistic, competitive) were assessed prior to the decision-making in either 7-person games (Experiment 1) or 20-person games (Experiment 2). A modification of the n-person game format normally employed is introduced in this research to permit the choices made by players on a given trial to modify the payoff matrix available to self and others on subsequent trials. The game format, a simulated social dilemma, was presented in terms of a conservation of resources problem. In Experiment 1 communication opportunities were manipulated. As predicted, there were consistent differences between the four classes of social motivation in the amount of the resources taken for self competitive subjects took the most, individualistic subjects took less than the competitive ones but more than the average, while cooperative and altruistic subjects took the smallest amount of the resources for themselves. Moreover, competitive subjects expected the others to take fewer resources than they intended to themselves, and altruistic subjects expected the others to take more resources than they intended to themselves. These findings are only partly consistent with existing theories concerning the relationship between behaviour and expected behaviour of others. In addition, when communication was allowed, significantly fewer resources were taken for self Contrary to the predictions based on previous research findings, subjects in the 20-person groups did not take more resources for self than subjects in the 7-person groups.     

The assessment of subjective probability distributions: A training experiment

For this experiment 22 Ss were especially trained to assess subjective probability distributions for proportions concerning student characteristics. Two different assessment techniques were used. There were four experimental sessions. From the second session on, Ss received feedback about their performance in the previous session(s). While Ss' associated by far too much confidence with their assessments at the beginning, they learned to assess more realistic distributions. Furthermore, discrepancies between techniques were reduced.Some considerations for a more effective training procedure are made and the concept of giving feedback only according to the tightness of the assessed distribution is critically discussed.     

Deep and surface structure in children's sentence learning

Fifth-graders were asked to learn 32 syntactically varied, semantically unrelated sentences containing combinations of agentive, objective and instrumental case relations. Five learning trials, each followed by a noun-prompted recall test, were provided. Recall patterns indicated that variations in surface structure complexity (i.e., verb voice and sentential position of noun prompts) exerted less influence on Ss' memory for sentences than deep structures. Several trials were required for Ss to reproduce syntactic details accurately and many transformational errors were observed. Even then, children were unable to learn one syntactic form. Although patterns of recall were more consistent with deep structure predictions, results were not completely supportive of Fillmore's analysis of deep structure in terms of case relations, and the possibility that other non-linguistic means were used to store sentences loomed as an alternative to the deep structure view.     

The role of imagery in the evaluation of sentences

Reaction time was the dependent variable in this sentence verification experiment. Simple sentences, which were either true or false, were constructed such that in some cases it was easy to form an image of the sentence, and in other cases forming an image was difficult. Ss' ratings were employed to select low- and high-imagery sentences. It was found that high-imagery sentences could be verified more rapidly than low-imagery sentences. Instructions which did not mention imagery were given to some Ss while others were specifically asked to employ imagery, but the reaction times of these two groups of Ss did not differ. It was concluded that imagery facilitates the process of sentence verification and that models of this process which restrict themselves to purely semantic operations are incomplete.     

Affiliation of opposite-sexed strangers

This study examined the effects of a subject's sex and affiliative tendency and the other's physical attractiveness on the cross-sexual interaction of strangers. Although previous studies showed that one's interest in an opposite-sexed other is a function of the other's physical attractiveness, the actual behavior of individuals in the presence of attractive and unattractive others had not been systematically examined. Subjects were individually placed in a 5-min waiting situation with a physically attractive or unattractive target of the opposite sex who behaved in a standard way. Conversations were recorded and subsequently analyzed; subjects also provided their impressions of the targets following the waiting period. Physical attractiveness of the opposite-sexed other did not significantly influence the subject's verbal affiliative behavior, but the combined influence of a subject's sex and affiliative tendency was predictive of cross-sexual affiliation. Although physical attractiveness did not account for differences in affiliative behavior, subjects preferred attractive over unattractive targets as potential dates or marriage partners.     

Multidimensional scaling of rorschach inkblots: Relationships with structured self-report

This study attempted a replication of previous multidimensional scaling (MDS) results concerning the most salient perceptual features of the Rorschach inkblots. A second purpose was the investigation of the relationships between individual S's relative reliance on these salient features, and personality characteristics as assessed by the Jackson Personality Inventory (JPI). The two-dimension solution obtained in previous research, involving inkblot color and twomess of form, was closely replicated. Only very low correlations between Ss' use of these dimensions, and personality characteristics as measured by the JPI, were obtained. The MDS-Rorschach approach may prove useful in delimiting peculiarities of attention and perception in clinical states. The usefulness of the approach in furthering study of personality constructs assessed through traditional Rorschach administration is currently in question.     

Behavioural Consistency Within the Prisoner's Dilemma Game: The Role of Personality and Situation

Mixed‐motive games represent situations that confront people with a conflict between cooperative and non‐cooperative alternatives. Despite this common basis, recent research has shown that the consistency of people's choices across different mixed‐motive games is rather low. The present research examined behavioural consistency within the same mixed‐motive game, by presenting participants with a series of one‐shot Prisoner's Dilemma Games. Across this set of games, payoffs were manipulated in order to intensify or weaken the conflict between self and the other party while maintaining the game's underlying structure. Our findings indicate that significant differences in choice behaviour are observed as a function of both situational (i.e. manipulations of the Prisoner's Dilemma Game's payoff structure) and personality differences (i.e. individual differences in personality and motivational traits). Moreover, our included situational variables and personality features did not interact with each other and were about equally impactful in shaping cooperation. Crucially, however, despite the significant behavioural differences across game variants, considerable consistency in choices was found as well, which suggests that the game's motivational basis reliably impacts choice behaviour in spite of situational and personality variations. We discuss implications for theorizing on mixed‐motive situations and elaborate on the question how cooperation can be promoted. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology     

A comparison of psychiatric patients' self-report with other sources of clinical information

This study compared self-report (MMPI item responses) of psychiatric patients who were experiencing different crises situations with other sources of clinical information. The results suggest that in a large number of instances item responses communicate information which is in agreement with what was known about the patients form other sources of information. The content of item responses was consistent with interpretations from several empirical measures of the Ss' test performance.     

Prediction outcome and choice reaction time: Inhibition versus facilitation effects

In two-choice RT tasks Ss verbally predicted all stimulus presentations, two-thirds of the presentations, or none of the presentations. Effects of stimulus probability were similar for each type of prediction trial: Correct Prediction Outcome (PO), Incorrect PO, and No-Prediction (NP). When comparisons between Prediction and NP trials were between Ss, reactions on NP trials were significantly faster than reactions POs, but were not slower than reactions to Correct POs. However, when Prediction and NP trials occurred within Ss, reactions on NP trials were not faster than reactions to Incorrect POs, but were significantly slower than reactions to Correct POs. Speculations about Ss' implicit stimulus predictions are offered to interpret differential implications of inhibition and facilitation.     

The influence of incongruity and preexposure on the familiarity effect in visual selection of children

A consistent finding in the literature concerning visual selection is that Ss will spend more time viewing unfamiliar stimuli than stimuli with which they have been familiarized. In the present experiment, the relationship between the magnitude of this familiarity effect and the level of stimulus incongruity was examined and found to be monotonic and increasing. In addition, amount of stimulus preexposure had no significant effect on the magnitude of the familiarity effect. Furthermore, there was no overall difference in Ss' preference for familiar and unfamiliar stimuli. Results are interpreted as supporting a theory of visual selection based on information-conflict resolution.