Truthmaking and fundamentality

Consider the idea that some entities are more fundamental than others, some entities ‘ground’ other, less fundamental, entities. What is it for something to be more fundamental than another, or for something to ‘ground’ something else? This paper urges the rejection of conceptions of grounding and fundamentality according to which reality has a hierarchical structure in which higher-level entities are taken to be distinct from but metaphysically dependent on more fundamental lower-level entities. Truthmaking is offered as an apt replacement for at least some of the many applications of grounding.

     

The electric vehicle: A new driving experience involving specific skills and rules

The arrival of the electric vehicle (EV) on the market is one consequence of government measures to improve air quality and reduce CO² emissions. However, the EV has specific properties of use associated with its limited range and relative silence compared to normal vehicles, influencing the mobility behaviours of drivers and requiring them to develop some new driving abilities. This paper examines the behavioural modifications brought about by daily use of an electric vehicle at three different levels of driving activity: strategic, tactical and operational. The study collected and analyzed the self-reported behaviours (via questionnaires and travels dairies) of 36 Parisian private drivers, each of whom drove for six months an electric MINI E prototype. The results of the study show that driving an EV requires a learning phase to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to operate the vehicle. At the strategic level of driving, drivers take into account the restricted range of the EV, implement a daily charge process, and develop new behaviours related to trip planning. The study also examines driver behaviour at the tactical level, in terms of driver interactions with other road users to deal with the silent nature of the EV, and at the operational level of driving, in terms of braking behaviour to master the regenerative braking function of the EV. The paper discusses the interactions between these three levels of driving activity.     

A mixed-effects expectancy-valence model for the Iowa gambling task

The Iowa gambling task (IGT; Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994) was developed to simulate real-life decision making under uncertainty. The task has been widely used to examine possible neurocognitive deficits in normal and clinical populations. Busemeyer and Stout (2002) proposed the expectancy-valence (EV) model to explicitly account for individual participants’ repeated choices in the IGT. Parameters of the EV model presumably measure different psychological processes that underlie performance on the task, and their values may be used to differentiate individuals across different populations. In the present article, the EV model is extended to include both fixed effects and subject-specific random effects. The mixed-effects EV model fits the nested structure of observations in the IGT naturally and provides a unified procedure for parameter estimation and comparisons among groups of populations. We illustrate the utility of the mixed-effects approach with an analysis of gender differences using a real data set. A simulation study was conducted to verify the advantages of this approach.     

关于克里普克模态性的一个自然主义解释

The Kripkean metaphysical modality (i.e. possibility and necessity) is one of the most important concepts in contemporary analytic philosophy and is the basis of many metaphysical speculations. These metaphysical speculations frequently commit to entities that do not belong to this physical universe, such as merely possible entities, abstract entities, mental entities or qualities not realizable by the physical, which seems to contradict naturalism or physicalism. This paper proposes a naturalistic interpretation of the Kripkean modality, as a naturalist’s response to these metaphysical speculations. It will show that naturalism can accommodate the Kripkean metaphysical modality. In particular, it will show that naturalism can help to resolve the puzzles surrounding Kripke’s a posteriori necessary propositions and a priori contingent propositions. __________ Translated from Zhexue yanjiu 哲学研究 (Philosophical Researches), 2008, (1): 18–26     

Still underdetected – Social norms and collective efficacy predict the acceptance of electric vehicles in Germany

The role of social identity variables for predicting environmental decisions may often be underdetected by psychological lay people. Applying this to the acceptance of electric vehicles (EVs) in Germany we investigated whether social norms and collective efficacy predict EV acceptance and what psychological laypersons who are either EV experts or EV non-experts think predicts EV acceptance. In preliminary interview studies we explored the beliefs of EV experts and EV non-experts. In a survey study, we then tested whether cost-related advantages and disadvantages were predictive of EV acceptance and whether norms and collective efficacy have independent effects even when controlling for cost-related factors and demographic variables. Results suggest that both EV experts and EV non-experts considered cost-related factors as much more important than social identity processes. However, hierarchical regression analyses of the survey data showed that norms and collective efficacy have equal or even stronger effects on acceptance than cost-related factors. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

DETERMINING JOB GROUPS: APPLICATION OF HIERARCHICAL AGGLOMERATIVE CLUSTER ANALYSIS IN DIFFERENT JOB ANALYSIS SITUATIONS

The present study showed that researchers must consider underlying data structure when using hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis to group jobs. Five cluster procedures were applied to four simulated data sets constructed to reflect common job analysis situations. The structures contained jobs varying in degree of task overlap, number of tasks performed, and relative number of people doing the jobs. Average linkage/distance was the most accurate procedure when jobs had highly positively correlated task profiles, a situation characteristic of jobs within a career family over a restricted range of levels. Average linkage/correlation was the most accurate for three other structures containing jobs whose profiles were not highly positively correlated. Such are characteristically found when analyzing (a) jobs in different functional units, (b) jobs over a wide range of hierarchical levels such as entry to advanced, and (c) jobs differing markedly in the number of incumbents.     

A note on particularised qualities and bearer-uniqueness

Many friends of the category of particularised qualities subscribe to the view that particularised qualities have a unique bearer in which they inhere; no such quality then can inhere in two different entities. But it seems that this idea is flawed, for there are apparent counterexamples. An apple's redness is identical with the redness of its skin, though the apple is distinct from its skin. So it seems that a principle of bearer‐uniqueness has to be modified, maybe by excluding certain unwanted cases. However, I argue that the need of a modification is not a direct consequence of the supposed counterexamples. Their dangerous potential for the principle arises if one takes the genitive in expressions of the form ‘a's F‐ness’ to signify the relation of inherence. I propose an alternative view: The genitive signifies a relation which is indeed closely related to inherence, but which is, contrary to inherence itself, partitive. That is, it may hold between a particularised quality and another entity because it holds between the quality and a part of the entity. If one regards the ontologically interesting relation of inherence as non‐partitive, one can still adhere to an unrestricted principle of bearer‐uniqueness.     

The interpretation of discrepancies in multimethod research: A comparison of children's negotiations in two research contexts

Although multimethod research has a large number of advocates, problems arise in the interpretation of any discrepancies between results. This paper identifies three approaches to their interpretation: hierarchical validity, cross-validity and triangulation. The first assumes that methods can be ranked in order of validity so that lower ranking methods can be validated against higher ranking methods. The second assumes there is no hierarchy and that multiple methods are desirable to overcome the weaknesses in any one method and, further, that only results obtained from more than one method should be given credence. The third position, which differs from the others in that it arises from a constructionist rather than a positivist framework, holds that multimethods are valuable because of the different insights they produce and focuses attention on the need to examine methods in terms of their contribution in the context of a particular theory. These approaches are discussed in reference to results for children's negotiations from mothers' reports versus those from a quasi-experimental puppets task.     

Improving precision of ability estimation: Getting more from response times

By considering information about response time (RT) in addition to response accuracy (RA), joint models for RA and RT such as the hierarchical model (van der Linden, 2007) can improve the precision with which ability is estimated over models that only consider RA. The hierarchical model, however, assumes that only the person's speed is informative of ability. This assumption of conditional independence between RT and ability given speed may be violated in practice, and ignores collateral information about ability that may be present in the residual RTs. We propose a posterior predictive check for evaluating the assumption of conditional independence between RT and ability given speed. Furthermore, we propose an extension of the hierarchical model that contains cross-loadings between ability and RT, which enables one to take additional collateral information about ability into account beyond what is possible in the standard hierarchical model. A Bayesian estimation procedure is proposed for the model. Using simulation studies, the performance of the model is evaluated in terms of parameter recovery, and the possible gain in precision over the standard hierarchical model and an RA-only model is considered. The model is applied to data from a high-stakes educational test.     

Self-deprecation and estimates of body size in women.

The subject of body image in women has received considerable attention particularly with concern about its relationship to behaviours such as dieting. This study investigated the reported tendency of women to see thinness as desirable and to perceive themselves as fatter than others do. This tendency is inconsistent with the general findings on self-enhancement that show that people (including women) generally overestimate the extent to which they possess desirable characteristics. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the tendency for women to report themselves as fatter than others perceive them is part of a general tendency to deprecate themselves on socially desirable qualities or whether this deprecation is restricted to body size. To investigate this, 29 female undergraduates in psychology participated in a study comparing own and others' perceptions of body size, attractiveness, sexiness, intelligence, and friendliness. Compared with the ratings of them given by others, women tended to make self-enhancing judgements of their attractiveness, sexiness, intelligence, and friendliness. This was not found for body size, however, for which self-ratings tended to be the same as those made by others. The failure to find self-enhancing judgements of body size is discussed in terms of the relatively unvarying standards presented to women concerning ideal body size compared to the more subjective standards used to evaluate other qualities.     

Family as a source of support under stress: Benefits of greater breadth of family inclusion

Family has profound meaning and represents the most important ingroup for most people, yet, we know very little about how lay perceptions of family affect well-being. In the current work, we examined how lay theories about breadth of family inclusion (i.e., including a broader variety of entities in one’s definition of family) were related to family experiences and to well-being. In Study 1, we found that lay theories about family as including a wider variety of entities (i.e., greater breadth of inclusion) predicted more positive family evaluations, more positive qualities, and greater family importance. In Study 2, we found that greater breadth of family inclusion was associated with greater resilience in the face of stress. Finally, in Study 3 we used an experimental manipulation of breadth of family inclusion, establishing that broader views of family produced greater social needs fulfillment. Implications for the role of ingroup memberships and identities in promoting well-being are discussed.     

Studies in Occupational Analysis: II. Originality

Validation is defined as a general scientific procedure for investigating the nature of reality, encompassing all scientific disciplines, regardless of the utilitarian value of the information. When the process is employed in the context of a discipline such as psychology, certain subcategories emerge whose interrelations, if viewed in the light of possible or intended uses of the collected information, demonstrate the interdependence of a variety of validation procedures some of which have been viewed in the past as separate entities. A hierarchical representation of purposes and procedures is presented to facilitate an understanding of their interrelations and interdependence.     

一种测量记忆监测相对准确性的新指标：da

记忆监测的相对准确性是元记忆研究中一个重要内容。研究者采用了各种方法来测量人们记忆监测的判断值对正确项目和错误项目的区分度,例如相关法、信号检测论(SDT)测量法。其中,gamma相关从1984年起一直被广泛用于记忆监测相对准确性的测量。基于SDT的新指标da弥补了gamma相关在实际应用中的不足,并引发了新的研究兴趣。文章对da的提出背景、计算方法和应用前景进行了详细的介绍,对da与其他常用方法在使用中的优势进行了比较。对da的具体应用进行了说明,同时指出了da的使用条件。     

Blirtatiousness: cognitive, behavioral, and physiological consequences of rapid responding.

The Brief Loquaciousness and Interpersonal Responsiveness Test (BLIRT) measures the extent to which people respond to others quickly and effusively. The BLIRT displays desirable psychometric properties and distinguishes people who should theoretically score high (e.g., car salespersons) from those who should score low (e.g., librarians). Scores on the scale predict (a) the amount and rapidity of people's verbal responses in an unstructured interaction, (b) how likable and competent people's classmates perceive them to be early in the semester, (c) how quickly people respond to an obnoxious cell-phone user and how physiologically aroused they become, and (d) how quickly and emphatically people respond to a series of personal insults as well as their degree of physiological arousal. Converging evidence indicates that blirtatiousness is unique in its ability to amplify people's qualities, making these qualities more readily observable to perceivers.     

Negative effects of positive reinforcement

Procedures classified as positive reinforcement are generally regarded as more desirable than those classified as aversive-those that involve negative reinforcement or punishment. This is a crude test of the desirability of a procedure to change or maintain behavior. The problems can be identified on the basis of theory, experimental analysis, and consideration of practical cases. Theoretically, the distinction between positive and negative reinforcement has proven difficult (some would say the distinction is untenable). When the distinction is made purely in operational terms, experiments reveal that positive reinforcement has aversive functions. On a practical level, positive reinforcement can lead to deleterious effects, and it is implicated in a range of personal and societal problems. These issues challenge us to identify other criteria for judging behavioral procedures.     

我国近十年来心理学研究中HLM方法的应用述评

以2002-2011年中国期刊网收录的50例应用多层线性模型(HLM)的心理学期刊论文为研究对象,从样本描述、模型发展与规范、数据准备、估计方法与假设检验4个角度进行文献计量和内容分析,对我国心理学研究中HLM方法的使用现状进行评估。结果表明,HLM方法主要用于管理、发展和教育心理学,绝大多数应用都是两层模型且层2样本量较大。HLM方法在广泛应用的同时仍存在忽略前提假设检验、分析过程中的重要信息和结果报告不完整等问题,随后提供了4条建议。     

ACT-PRO action protocol analyzer: A tool for analyzing discrete action protocols

This article presents a top-down approach for analyzing sequential events in behavioral data. Analysis of behavioral sequential data often entails identifying patterns specified by the researchers. Algorithms were developed and applied to analyze a kind of behavioral data, calleddiscrete action protocol data. Discrete action protocols consist of discrete user actions, such as mouse clicks and keypresses. Unfortunately, the process of analyzing the huge volume of actions (typically, > 10⁵) is very labor intensive. To facilitate this process, we developed an action protocol analyzer (ACT-PRO) that provides two levels of pattern matching. Level one uses formal grammars to identify sequential patterns. Level two matches these patterns to a hierarchical structure. ACT-PRO can be used to determine how well data fit the patterns specified by an experimenter. Complementarily, it can be used to focus an experimenter’s attention on data that do not fit the prespecified patterns.     

教育和心理研究中的多层线性模型

多层线性模型是分析具有层次结构数据的一种新型统计分析技术,与传统统计方法相比,具有模型假设与实际更吻合、结果解释更合理等特点。近年来这一方法的应用逐渐在社会科学的研究中受到重视。文章从多层线性模型的基本假设入手,较系统地介绍了模型参数估计和假设检验的方法,并通过一个具体例子将这一方法与传统回归分析方法相比,进一步说明了多层线性模型在分析具有层次结构数据时的优点。     

Many entities, no identity

The aim of this paper is to argue that some objections raised by Jantzen (Synthese, 2010) against the separation of the concepts of ‘counting’ and ‘identity’ are misled. We present a definition of counting in the context of quasi-set theory requiring neither the labeling nor the identity and individuality of the counted entities. We argue that, contrary to what Jantzen poses, there are no problems with the technical development of this kind of definition. As a result of being able to keep counting and identity apart for those entities, we briefly suggest that one venerable tradition concerning the nature of quantum particles may be consistently held. According to that tradition, known as the Received View on particles non-individuality, quantum particles may be seen as entities having both features: (i) identity and individuality do not apply to them, (ii) they may be gathered in collections comprising a plurality of them.