Decision Difficulty in the Age of Consumer Empowerment

In this review, we examine the impact of two key factors of consumer empowerment–choice freedom and expansion of information--on the choice difficulty consumers experience in today’s decision environment. We posit that though these two consumer empowerment factors offer numerous potential benefits, they also can magnify such sources of decision difficulty as task complexity, tradeoff difficulty, and preference uncertainty. Next we review several key moderators, including consumer knowledge, mental representation, and maximization tendencies as well as information type and organization, that can exacerbate or mitigate the effect of these consumer empowerment factors on decision difficultly outcomes. Lastly, we examine the effectiveness of decision aids in assisting consumers navigate the complexity of today’s decision environment, and we identify areas for future investigation.     

Difficulty scaling of recognition items

Usual system: take as scale value the normal deviate corresponding to the areap = (p –p ₀)/(1 –p ₀), wherep is the proportion of correct answers andp ₀ is the chance proportion. Ifp p ₀, the item difficulty is unscalable. Proposed system: take as scale value the normal deviate corresponding to the areap =p ^x , withx so chosen thatp = .5 whenp is half-way betweenp ₀ and 1. Table givesD (=500 + 100z) forp = .00(.01)1.00 and for (= number of alternatives) 2,3,4,5,6,7, .     

Difficulty and interpersonal attraction

Male subjects learned that they would have to perform an easy, moderately difficult, or very difficult memory task in order to qualify for a “learning session” in which they would be accompanied by a moderately attractive female. Subjective measures taken just prior to task performance indicate that subjects viewed the female target as more attractive, sexy, and cute in the Moderately Difficult task condition than in the Easy and Very Difficult task conditions. Results are discussed in terms of a recently proposed model of motivation (Brehm 1979; Brehm, Wright, Solomon, Silka, & Greenberg, 1983), and research on the relation between difficulty and interpersonal attraction.     

Monty Hall Dilemma的困难原因探讨

采用Monty Hall Dilemma的经典研究范式,探讨了大学生被试在不同提示条件下对MHD问题的解决情况,结果发现只有在条件关系提示下,MHD的作业成绩才得到了明显的改善,但是正确率也只有35.7%。这表明MHD问题困难的原因很可能是多方面的,如认为主持人的行为完全是随机事件,很难意识到参与者的最初选择与主持人打开特定盒子间的三种条件关系;多数被试作出选择的理由是非理性的,如“坚持第一选择,相信自己的直觉”;不能正确判断MHD问题的内在概率关系以及缺乏认真思考的动力等。     

数列推理项目的难度模型构建

研究基于数列推理项目的认知模型归纳整合和丰富了数列推理项目的刺激特征,基于这些刺激特征生成了92个数列题目,组成四套不同的测验,共给466名学生施测。结果表明:测验的EAP信度为0.87,其中双层运算项目适合高水平能力被试;刺激特征及其交互作用显著影响题目难度;使用LLTM模型构建项目难度模型,该模型可以有效预测项目难度,预测项目难度和实测项目难度的相关为0.85。这说明研究选择和拓展的刺激特征能够显著增加和预测题目的难度。     

论亚里士多德的排中律疑难

亚里士多德在《解释篇》第9章对排中律提出了限制. 亚里士多德说:"在有关现存事物或已发生的事物的场合,命题不论其为肯定的或否定的,都必须或为真的,或为假的.至于一对矛盾命题,则正如上面所已指出的,不论主词是普遍的并且命题是全称性的,或者主词是单称的,两个命题中其一必定为真的,而另一个必定为假的."[1]这里,亚里士多德就"有关现存事物或已发生的事物的场合"论述了排中律和矛盾律.     

Estimating Difficulty from Polytomous Categorical Data

A comprehensive analysis of difficulty for multiple-choice items requires information at different levels: the test, the items, and the alternatives. This paper introduces a new parameterization of the nominal categories model (NCM) for analyzing difficulty at these three levels. The new parameterization is referred to as the NE–NCM and is statistically equivalent to the NCM. The NE–NCM is applied to a sample of responses from a logical analysis test. The results suggest that the individuals execute a self-terminated response process that is mostly determined by working memory load.     

辨别作业难度对返回抑制时间进程的影响

在返回抑制范式下,利用线索一靶子模式和辨别作业进行了两个实验,探讨辨别作业难度对返回抑制的影响。以大学生为被试。实验一对辨别作业难度采用组间设计;实验二采用组内设计。结果发现,无论是组间比较(实验一),还是组内比较(实验二)．复杂辨别作业条件下返回抑制出现时间均比简单辨别作业晚,表明作业难度对返回抑制的时间进程有显著影响。该结果对返回抑制的机制研究有一定的意义。     

Not Always Worth the Effort: Difficulty and the Value of Achievement

Recent literature has argued that what makes certain activities ranging from curing cancer to running a marathon count as achievements, and what makes achievements intrinsically valuable is, centrally, that they involve great effort. Although there is much the difficulty‐based view gets right, I argue that it generates the wrong results about some central cases of achievement, and this is because it is too narrowly focused on only one perfectionist capacity, the will. I propose a revised perfectionist account on which an achievement is an activity that fully exercises or expresses any number of a range of perfectionist capacities.     

脑死亡立法的艰难与中国传统文化

因中国传统伦理文化对人们意识观念的深刻影响导致中国脑死亡立法步履艰难。从中国传统文化视角分析中国的脑死亡及相关伦理问题,提出中国脑死亡诊断标准的制定必须充分考虑民族心理感受,要立足于民族文化理性地探索“中国脑死亡”。     

Task Difficulty and the Time Scales of Warm-Up and Motor Learning

The authors investigated the influence of task difficulty on warm-up decrement and learning across practice sessions. Three groups of participants practiced a star-tracing task over 3 consecutive days with different levels (e.g., easy, medium, hard) of task difficulty. The performance data were modeled with a 2 time scale function that represented the transient, fast time scale process of warm-up decrement superimposed with the persistent, slow time scale process of learning. Movement time decreased as a function of practice with the most difficult condition exhibiting the greatest reduction though still the longest movement time. The 2 time scale model provided a better fit to the data than an exponential or power law function and showed that the 3 difficulty conditions exhibited similar rates of change for the respective slow (i.e., learning) and fast (i.e., warm-up decrement) time scale processes that varied by an order of magnitude. Task difficulty was inversely related to the initial level of warm-up decrement but not the rate of performance recovery early in a practice session. The findings support the postulation that there is a persistent learned component to the initial conditions in subsequent practice sessions but that there is a common time scale of accommodating the transient process of warm-up decrement.