The Effects of Force and Direction Uncertainty on Choice Reaction Time in an Isometric Force Production Task

The two experiments reported examined the temporal organization of force and direction motor-programming processes in a step-input tracking type task. Both experiments observed a reduction in reaction time in the direction-uncertain conditions compared to the direction-certain ones. Thus it seems as though the direction decision does not have to precede the selection of the proper amount of force. Experiment 2 observed an underadditive interaction between levels of direction uncertainty (certain or uncertain) and levels of force uncertainty (certain or uncertain). This interaction was interpreted as support for a parallel organization of the processes responsible for the programming of force and direction and thus, strongly supports the parallel model of programming recently proposed by Klapp (1977a, b).     

The Direction of Causation and the Direction of Time

It is, it seems, a fundamental fact that the future is due to the present, or, more mildly, is affected by the present, but the past is not. What does this mean? It is not clear and, if we try to make it clear, it turns into nonsense or a definition…     

Extent of psychological differentiation and creativity.

Among the extensive array of studies relating Witkin's construct of psychological differentiation to many psychological functions and variables, none seem to have adequately tested its relationship to creativity, although these two variables have personality traits and development characteristics in common and require similar skills for effective performance. Eighty-five male high school students were separated according to Embedded Figures Test, and the extreme groups tested for creativity by eight factorially pure tests developed by Guilford, and by Schaefer and Anastasi's Biographical Inventory. Statistical procedures included analysis of covariance, analysis of variance, and a matrix of intercorrelations. With intelligence controlled, field-independent persons performed significantly better than field-dependent persons on measures of visualization, spontaneous flexibility, adaptive flexibility, and creativity in mathematics and science but not significantly better on the other six creativity tests.     

Changing Direction on Direction of Fit

In this paper, I show that we should understand the direction of fit of beliefs and desires in normative terms. After rehearsing a standard objection to Michael Smith’s analysis of direction of fit, I raise a similar problem for Lloyd Humberstone’s analysis. I go on to offer my own account, according to which the difference between beliefs and desires is determined by the normative relations such states stand in. I argue that beliefs are states which we have reason to change in light of the world, whereas desires are states that give us reason to change the world. After doing this, I show how the view avoids various objections, including two from David Sobel and David Copp. The paper ends by briefly discussing the relevance of the view to the Humean theory of motivation.     

On Separability of and Interference Between Tracking Dimensions in Dual-Axis Tracking

Time-shared tasks may conceivably be separable or integral. A case in which the question of separability seems quite relevant is dual-axis tracking. To test the interaction between tracking dimensions, we first studied whether they interfere with each other. Practiced subjects performed tracking on one or two axes, with or without feedback indicators and with or without a requirement to allocate resources unevenly between axes. They also performed with or without a concurrent binary classification of visually presented digits which were presented within a moving square that served as the target for tracking. Small deficits were found in the performance of both tracking and digit classification when performed together. However, the conditions of tracking did not have a discernible effect on either tracking or digit classification. Hence, the introduction of a second tracking axis probably does not have harmful consequences either on tracking itself or on any other task time-shared with tracking.

Further studies were conducted to examine whether the absence of an effect of number of tracking axes is due to their integrality. Ordinary position tracking was paired either with another similar task on the other axis or with a novel sort of tracking in which subjects had to continually match sizes of moving rectangles. Tasks were paired under both divided-attention and focused-attention instructions. No interference on position tracking was observed even when the types of task on the two axes differed, and no other evidence for integrality of the homogeneous task pairs was found.     

Uncertainty in pigeons

Pigeons classified a display of illuminated pixels on a touchscreen as sparse or dense. Correct responses were reinforced with six food pellets; incorrect responses were unreinforced. On some trials an uncertain response option was available. Pecking it was always reinforced with an intermediate number of pellets. Like monkeys and people in related experiments, the birds chose the uncertain response most often when the stimulus presented was difficult to classify correctly, but in other respects their behavior was not functionally similar to human behavior based on conscious uncertainty or to the behavior of monkeys in comparable experiments. Our data were well described by a signal detection model that assumed that the birds were maximizing perceived reward in a consistent way across all the experimental conditions.     

Direction Orientation in Children

Abstract

The mental and physical life of school children. By Peter Sandiford. London, Longmans, Green &; Co., 1913. 346 p.

The demonstration schools record, number two; edited by J. J. Findlay. Manchester, University Press, 1913. 283 p.

Educational psychology. Volume two. The psychology of learning. By Edward L. Thorndike. N. Y., Teachers College, Columbia University, 1913. 452 p.

School health administration. By Louis W. Rapeer. New York, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1913. 360 p.

Young working girls. A summary of evidence from two thousand social workers. Edited for the National Federation of Settlements by Robert A. Woods and Albert J. Kennedy, its secretaries; with an introduction by Jane Addams, its first president. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1913. 185 p.

Medical and sanitary inspection of schools, for the health officers, the physician, the nurse and the teacher. By S. W. Newmayer. Ill. with 71 engravings and 14 full-page plates. Philadelphia, Lea &; Febiger, 1913. 318 p.

De la méthode littéraire; journal d'un Professeur dans une Classe de Première. Par J. Bezard. Paris, Librairie Vuibert, n. d. 2nd ed. 746 p.

Foods and household management; a textbook of the household arts. By Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley. N. Y., Macmillan, 1914. 401 p.

The Montessori method and the American school. By Florence Elizabeth Ward. N. Y., Macmillan, 1913. 243 p.

Advanced English grammar. By William T. Harris. Yonkers-on-Hudson, world Book Co., 1912. 511 p.

Hygiene for girls; individual and community. By Florence Harvey Richards. Boston, D. C. Heath &; Co., 1913. 257 p.

Young boys and boarding school; the functions, organisation and administration of the sub-preparatory boarding-school for boys. By Horace Holden. Boston, Richard G. Badger, 1913. 197 p.

Psychologie der Sprachpädagogik; Versuche zu einer Darstellung der Prinsipien des fremdsprachlichen Unterrichts auf Grund der psychologischen Natur der Sprache. Von. Chr. B. Flagstad. Leipzig, B. G. Teubner, 1913. 370 p.

Principles of education. By T. Raymont. London, Longmans, Green, 1913. 381 p.

Young folks handbook. Philadelphia, American Institute of Child Life, 1913. 215 p.

Intensive studies in American literature. By Alma Blount. New York, Macmillan, 1914. 331 p.

Chinese womanhood. By Lucinda Pearl Boggs. Cincinnati, Jennings &; Graham, 1913. 129 p.

The marking system in theory and practice. By I. E. Finkelstein. (Educational Psychology Monographs, no. 10.) Baltimore, Warwick &; York, 1913. 88 p.

The examination of school children; a manual of directions and norms. By William Henry Pyle. New York, Macmillan, 1913. 70 p.

Elements of debating. By Leverett S. Lyon. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1913. 136 p.

Paedologisch Jaarboek, volume 8. Edited by M. C. Schuyten. Paris, Librairie C. Reinwald, 1913.

A cyclopedia of education. Volume 5. Edited by Paul Monroe. N. Y., Macmillan, 1913. 892 p.

Die Erkennung des Schwachsinns beim Kinde. Von Emil Villiger. Leipzig, Wilhelm Engelmann, 1913. 90 p.

The French verb; its forms and tense uses. By William A. Nitze and Ernest H. Wilkins. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1914. 40 p. (With French verb blanks.)

Trans-Atlantic historical solidarity. Lectures delivered before the University of Oxford in Easter and Trinity terms, 1013. By Charles Francis Adams. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1913. 184 p.

Linking the life insurance companies to the public health movement. By Eugene Lyman Fisk. (Read before the Reed College Conference on Conservation of Human Life, Portland, Ore., May 9, 1913) 8 p.

Concrete investigation of the material of English spelling; with conclusions bearing on the problem of teaching spelling. By W. Franklin Jones. Vermillion, S. D., University of South Dakota. 27 p.

Panama canal; what it is and what it means. By John Barrett. Washington, D. C., Pan American Union, 1913. 120 p.

The Pan American Union; peace, friendship, commerce. By John Barrett, 1911. 253 p.

Table talk in the home. By the Literary staff of the institute. Monograph of the American Institute of Child Life. Philadelphia, 1913. 16 p.

Calendar of childhood and youth. Prepared by William Byron Forbush and the educational staff of the American Institute of Child Life. Philadelphia, American Institute of Child Life, 1913. 59 p.     

空间主方位判断的训练和方位效应

以20名区域管制员和20名大学生为被试,通过两种类型的空间主方位判断任务考察训练效应和方位效应。结果表明：管制员主方位判断的绩效(正确率和判断反应时)显着优于学生．拍摄方向朝北和目标刺激在上-下轴位置时,主方位判断的绩效显著优于其他条件。研究提示,训练能够有效地提高空间主方位判断的绩效,主方位判断存在朝北的方位效应和上-下轴位置效应。     

Uncertainty and religious reactivity: Uncertainty compensation,repair, and inoculation

Recent research conducted in Western, democratic societies indicates that temporary uncertainty inductions lead to intolerance of religious dissent, increased conviction in religious attitudes, and even increased support for holy war. Past and current conflicts based on religious ideology underscore the danger such responses to uncertainty can pose. This paper responds to the need to learn how to control responses to uncertainty. After having confirmed through pilot testing that uncertainty increases self‐report religious faith, two subsequent studies investigate different techniques to control compensatory responses to uncertainty. Study 1 demonstrates that uncertainty‐induced increases in religiosity can be eliminated by a post‐uncertainty directed positive recall writing task. Study 2 presents evidence for an uncertainty “inoculation,” whereby a pre‐uncertainty self‐affirmation exercise can protect against uncertainty compensation effects. These findings, in combination with a consideration of previous research, offer insight into how undesirable uncertainty compensation effects might be reduced and even prevented. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Direction constancy

A series of experiments investigating the constancy of perceived direction was conducted. Experiments 1, 2, and 3 indicated that the perception of direction, while close to constancy, exhibited a consistent departure from constancy of approximately 2.5 deg. Experiments 4 and 5 investigated the departure from constancy in terms of the information of the position of the eyes within the head and the information of the retinal area (local sign) being stimulated. The results of these experiments indicated that the departure from constancy was a function of the underestimation of the position of the eyes within the head.     

Uncertainty and religious belief

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Uncertainty and social comparison

Two experimetnal tests were conducted of a model which predicts social comparison choices of extreme scores on a personality inventory. In groups of nine, subjects completed a bogus personality inventory that ostensibly measured a desirable or undesirable trait, and were told that either the highest or the lowest obtained score was a positive instance of the trait. The highest score was located for the subjects either with certainty or uncertainty, and the two experiments employed different manipulations of this factor. In both experiments the pattern of subjects' social comparison choices of other subjects' scores was fit best by a model comprising main effects of each factor and interactions between desirability and positive instance and between desirability and certainty.     

Uncertainty and visual strategies in table tennis

Ball games are characterized by perceptual uncertainty and time-pressure. Of interest is the visual-search pattern carried out when these characteristics change. This is the case in table-tennis situations when comparing a drill situation, when one kind of stroke is constantly repeated, and a match situation, when the stroke is more often unpredictable. We analysed, during play, the visual-search pattern of five expert table tennis players to examine the effect of uncertainty on visual behavior. Direction of gaze was recorded by a video-oculographic recorder (NAC Eye Mark Recorder IV). Analysis showed that (i) visual fixations towards opponent player were only systematic in a match contrary to drill where they occurred less frequently. (ii) Whatever the situation, only the first part of the ball's trajectory was visually tracked. This occurred immediately after the opponent's release of the ball. Nevertheless, visual tracking was more frequent and of longer duration in a match. (iii) Analysis of motor behavior showed that the duration of the movement preparation was longer in a match while the duration of the execution phase was unchanged.