THE FUTILITY OF UTILITY ANALYSIS

In a study involving 143 experienced managers, utility analysis was found to influence managerial decision making, but not in the way intended by advocates of this technique. Utility analysis reduced the support of managers for implementing a valid selection procedure, even though the analysis indicated that the net benefits from the new procedure were substantial. In light of these findings, industrial/organizational psychologists are advised to reconsider their assumptions regarding the information managers use when managers make human resource policy decisions.     

THE FUTILITY OF UTILITY ANALYSIS REVISITED: WHEN EVEN AN EXPERT FAILS

The effect of utility analysis on managerial decisions regarding the use of a valid selection test was investigated. Experienced managers ( n = 41) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. The control condition contained written advice to adopt new selection procedures from a hypothetical psychologist that included an explanation of validation procedures. The second condition contained the same written information and advice as the control condition plus written support of that advice from a hypothetical trusted adviser. The third condition contained all the material that was presented in the control condition plus a written explanation of utility analysis, an actual utility analysis showing that large financial benefits would flow from using the proposed procedures, and a video-taped presentation from an expert on utility analysis where the logic underlying utility analysis and its benefits were explained. The expert was then presented live to the audience to address any questions that might have arisen from the utility analysis or the video. An ANOVA revealed that the presentation of a positive utility analysis reduced support for implementing a valid selection procedure, even though the logic and merits of utility analysis as a decision-making tool were described by an internationally recognized authority.     

FUTILITY AND THE VARIETIES OF MEDICAL JUDGMENT

Pellegrino has argued that end-of-life decisions should be based upon the physician's assessment of the effectiveness of the treatment and the patient's assessment of its benefits and burdens. This would seem to imply that conditions for medical futility could be met either if there were a judgment of ineffectiveness, or if the patient were in a state in which he or she were incapable of a subjective judgment of the benefits and burdens of the treatment. I argue that a theory of futility according to Pellegrino would deny that latter but would permit some cases of the former. I call this the “circumspect” view. I show that Pellegrino would adopt the circumspect view because he would see the medical futility debate in the context of a system of medical ethics based firmly upon a philosophy of medicine. The circumspect view is challenged by those who would deny that one can distinguish objective from subjective medical judgments. I defend the circumspect view on the basis of a previously neglected aspect of the philosophy of medicine -- an examination of varieties of medical judgment. I then offer some practical applications of this theory in clinical practice.     

刺激类型与预先信息对任务切换的影响

为揭示联结竞争与任务设置重构在切换加工过程中的关系,以切换代价为指标,研究了刺激类型与预先信息对任务切换的影响效应,结果发现:(1)无信息的切换代价显著高于部分信息和全部信息的切换代价,而后二者之间无显著差异;(2)单向刺激的切换代价显著高于双向刺激的切换代价;(3)预先信息和刺激类型对切换代价的影响无交互作用。这表明任务设置重构与联结竞争是两个具有相加效应的序列认知活动。     

NAMING,THE FORMATION OF STIMULUS CLASSES,AND APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

The methods used in Sidman's original studies on equivalence classes provide a framework for analyzing functional verbal behavior. Sidman and others have shown how teaching receptive, name-referent matching may produce rudimentary oral reading and word comprehension skills. Eikeseth and Smith (1992) have extended these findings by showing that children with autism may acquire equivalence classes after learning to supply a common oral name to each stimulus in a potential class. A stimulus class analysis suggests ways to examine (a) the problem of programming generalization from teaching situations to other environments, (b) the expansion of the repertoires that occur in those settings, and (c) the use of naming to facilitate these forms of generalization. Such research will help to clarify and extend Horne and Lowe's recent (1996) account of the role of verbal behavior in the formation of stimulus classes.     

THE EFFECTS OF VARIABILITY AND RISK IN SELECTION UTILITY ANALYSIS: AN EMPIRICAL COMPARISON

To date, utility analysis research has derived point estimates of the expected utility value for human resource management programs or interventions. Utility estimates are usually quite large, but they fail to reflect the size and shape of the utility distribution. The present study investigated utility estimate variability for the selection utility of using the Programmer Aptitude Test to select computer programmers in a medium-sized computer manufacturing organization. Utility calculations incorporated financial/economic factors as well as employee flows over time. The distributions for each utility parameter were empirically estimated, and these distribution estimates were combined through a Monte Carlo analysis to yield a distribution of total utility values. Monte Carlo results were compared to three other risk assessment approaches: (1) sensitivity analysis, (2) break-even analysis, and (3) algebraic derivation of the distribution. Results suggest that the distribution information provided by the Monte Carlo analysis more completely described the variability and riskiness associated with the expected utility value. Future research suggested by these findings is discussed.     

刺激结构对视觉定位的影响

本实验采用多点定位作业,结合部分报告法,研究视觉刺激的整体结构对定位成绩的影响。所呈现的刺激为1、2、3或4个颜色点。其中2、3、4点刺激分别是直线、正三角形和正方形。结果发现,当呈现时间较长时,1点和2、3、4点的定位误差无显著差异。但是1点的定位反应时却显著少于2、3、4点。这提示出现视觉定位的结构效应。而当呈现时间较短时,却没有这种结构效应。实验还发现,这种结构效应并不因刺激结构的不同而有区别。     

MAU程序和自由讨论的群体决策质量比较

采用实验室研究方法,比较了在信启、不分享条件下多特征效用模型(MAU)决策程序和自由讨论对群体决策质量的影响,并对影响MAU决策质量的主要因素进行了初步探讨。结果发现：(1)MAU程序可以较好地克服群体动力学方面的一些消极影响,表现出挖掘信息(尤其是非分享信息)的充分性。但MAU程序在被试的态度和社会交互作用等心理效标上并未显示出优势;(2)在MAU条件下,群体规模的增大对分享和非分享信息的讨论量无显著影响。而任务难度效应要和群体规模一起才能起到作用。     

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS AND THE WORLD VIEW OF PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN

Abstract. This paper introduces the thought of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin from a perspective neglected until now: a view that builds on the analysis of his scientific papers. His scientific work formed part of the "modern synthesis" which laid the foundation of contemporary Darwinism. His main contributions in the field were the definition of a new branch of evolutionary sciences, geobiology; the redefinition of the term orthogenesis ; and the proposal of the "scale" phyletic tree. Using these new research concepts, Teilhard de Chardin attempted to solve, within a scientific framework, a problem fundamental for his philosophical synthesis: that of evolutionary directionality.     

内隐和外显记忆任务之间的实验性分离:刺激的不同呈现形式的作用

通过操纵目标刺激的表面形式变化,在内隐和外显记忆任务之间,发现了实验性分离现象,图形识别任务受到了这种操纵的影响,再认任务则没有,同时发现,它们存在着依赖性的关系。对比相关研究,该实验结果表明,概念驱支任务对刺激的表面或知觉的物理性表现出敏感性,是在刺激的编码阶段;数据驱动任务在码阶段和提取阶段,均对其表现出敏感性,在刺激的提取阶段,这两种类型任务提取了刺激的某些共同成分。     

前置线索与刺激语义相容性的实验研究

运用前置线索技术,探讨无ＳＲＣ条件下线索与刺激的语义相容性效应。实验考察不同线索与刺激的关系,线索与刺激的呈现间隔和线索有效性对视觉刺激进行非维度重合命名的影响。结果表明：（１）线索与刺激的语义相容性存在,且符合维度重合理论;（２）线索与刺激的语义相容性具有一定适时性,支持自动激活假设;（３）线索的客观有效性影响了线索与刺激的语义相容性,表现为有效性越高,相容性效应越显著。     

STIMULUS FADING AND TRANSFER IN THE TREATMENT OF SELF-RESTRAINT AND SELF-INJURIOUS BEHAVIOR

We conducted several manipulations of mechanical restraint properties during the course of treatment for two profoundly retarded adolescents who exhibited both self-restraint and self-injurious behavior. In study 1, a combination of prompting, differential reinforcement, and stimulus fading reduced one subject's self-restraint, which consisted of holding rigid tubes on his arms. Subsequently, stimulus control of both self-restraint and self-injurious behavior was transferred to tennis wrist bands. In study 2, a second subject's self-restraint—placing his hands in his pants—was immediately eliminated by the use of air splints. Additionally, differential reinforcement and air-pressure fading resulted in the complete mobility of his arms and a substantial increase in appropriate behaviors. Results of this investigation suggest that stimulus fading and transfer may be valuable components in the elimination of self-restraint.     

THE USE AND UTILITY OF THE MONOTONE CRITERION IN MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALING

The monotone criterion as a multidimensional scaling technique is theoret- ically and empirically evaluated using the algorithms of Kruskal (MDSCAL) and Guttman-Lingoes (SSA-1). Geometric configurations are used to test the recovery capabaty and other aspects of MDSCAL and SSA-1. In addition to theoretical shortcomings, the monotone criterion permits results which do not correspond to the shape of the input data. Because of its deficiencies, alterna- tive goodness-of-fit criteria are suggested in preference to the monotone criterion.     

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT AND ECONOMIC UTILITY OF CORPORATE-WIDE TRAINING

This study describes a 4 year effort to investigate the effect and utility of managerial and sales/technical training. The effort relied upon quasi-experimental designs to investigate the effect of training programs, meta-analysis to summarize the effect of different types of training, and utility analysis to estimate the economic impact of training. The utilized multi-attribute utility analysis model, based on Raju, Burke, and Normand's 1990 (RBN) model, was modified and approved by the senior management of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company; it included a measure of criterion deficiency and corrected for differences due to alternative methods of calculating effect sizes (e.g., repeated measures ANOVA vs. ANCOVA). Results of 18 training program evaluations (range of N = 10 to 216), which were conducted in one company on the basis of supervisor, subordinate, or peer ratings, are reported. Great variation existed between the effectiveness of the programs (range of d = -.09 to 1.11), and managerial training was found to have less effect (d = .31) and utility (mean ROI = 45%) than sales/technical training (d = .64, mean ROI = 418%). In addition, the use of a 2-point performance scale in application of the RBN utility model as well as the role of management pre-approval of utility analysis are investigated.     

THE INFLUENCE OF LABOR MARKETS ON HUMAN RESOURCES UTILITY ESTIMATES

Recent work in industrial and personnel psychology has extended earlier efforts to financially evaluate the utility of organizational human resources policies. Utility analysis now includes a variety of refinements that more accurately measure the costs and benefits of human resources programs, both in the present and in the future. While this work substantially improves the firm-level evaluation of many personnel policies, conventional utility models have ignored the effects of the external labor market on estimated utilities. Specifically there appears to be an implicit assumption that utilities are invariant across changing labor market conditions and that employees (both current and prospective), as well as other employers, will be unresponsive to these labor market dynamics. This paper examines the effect of relaxing these implicit assumptions on the magnitude of expected utilities. We conclude that, in general, the omission of these considerations overstates the likely utility of the programs being evaluated.     

ON WEAK POSTPOSITIVISM: AHISTORICAL REJECTIONS OF THE VIEW FROM NOWHERE

Abstract: Postpositivists have lately joined post‐Husserlians in arguing that the deepest problem with Descartes' legacy is that it fosters the objectivist illusion that philosophers might actually come to think “from Nowhere,” or at least that they can self‐consciously choose whatever presuppositions they do accept. Yet this argument is easier to express than to incorporate into one's own thinking. It is perfectly possible to oppose the View from Nowhere, and even to criticize others for failing to understand its impossibility, and still do so … as if from Nowhere. This article is concerned with such compromised opposition—that is, with critics who reject, in ahistorical terms and from an ahistorical standpoint, an ahistorical conception of philosophy. It focuses on two figures from the empiricist‐positivist side of the Cartesian legacy, Rorty and Taylor, but their story is in important ways typical. Though their criticisms are certainly more radical and considerably more successful than those of many of their analytic colleagues, each retains in his own thinking more of the ahistorical or standpointless ideal than he realizes.