Choice reaction times for temporal numerosity

Subjects watched rapidly presented visual sequences of two events until they decided which event was the more frequent. Accuracy was reduced both by increased rates of presentation and by the addition of more inconclusive information to the initial portion of the sequence. Response latencies were longest when there was no objective numerosity inbalance, and they decreased, for both correct responses and errors, when discrimination was relatively easy. The patterns of decision latencies for individual subjects could be represented on a continuum defined by the sensitivity of the latencies to the rate of event presentation and to the objective inbalance between the two events. The discussion points out formal and empirical similarities between sequential numerosity judgments and choice reaction times. The present results are discussed within the framework of a first-passage time model, to be developed formally in a subsequent paper.     

The effects of elapsed time and retrieval on young children's judgments of the temporal distances of past events

Young children have very limited knowledge of long-term time patterns, but recent studies show that impressions of temporal distances provide them with some sense of the times of past events. These studies were investigations of (a) the function relating subjective to objective distances in the past for events whose ages range from less than 1 month to 1 year and (b) the effects of retrieving events on their subjective recency. In Study 1, 825 children (5-, 6-, and 7-year-olds) compared the recency of two school events from many months in the past shortly after one of the events was retrieved. In Study 2, 162 children (mean age 4.9 years) judged the distances in the past of their birthdays, summer, and 4 holidays by placing cards on a spatial continuum. In Study 3, 148 children (mean age 4.8 years) performed a similar task after the prior retrieval or priming of some of the events. Subjective temporal distance increased with real distance up to about 5 months, with no evident increase thereafter. Retrieval and priming had no effect on subjective recency. These findings show that early developing characteristics of memory provide young children with a differentiated sense of the times of events from past months. However, simple strength models cannot explain this ability.     

躯体化的心身交互机制及其中的文化因素

基于神经生物学的心身交互作用是当前躯体化病理机制的一个研究重点。在生理-心理的功能连续体中, 认知学习、感觉监控、注意、记忆过程等都会影响躯体症状的呈现。文化则会通过这些过程塑造个体对症状的归因和解释, 引发躯体症状的呈现和扩大, 最终通过不同文化特有的民族生理学模式形成具有文化特异性的疑病焦虑和医学无法解释症状。     

Objective Bayesianism with predicate languages

Objective Bayesian probability is often defined over rather simple domains, e.g., finite event spaces or propositional languages. This paper investigates the extension of objective Bayesianism to first-order logical languages. It is argued that the objective Bayesian should choose a probability function, from all those that satisfy constraints imposed by background knowledge, that is closest to a particular frequency-induced probability function which generalises the λ = 0 function of Carnap’s continuum of inductive methods.     

社会心理学角度分析群体性事件综述

群体性事件作为我国社会转型时期的一个突出问题,近年来受到广泛关注。本文对近十年来从社会心理学角度研究群体性事件的相关文献进行梳理整合,总结归纳出三个重要方面,并对相关研究的不足之处提出了疑问和建议,以期对当前类似事件的应对有所借鉴及对后继研究有所启示。     

The meaning of life (events) predicts changes in attachment security

Building on prior research, which has failed to find consistent effects of life events on change in self-reported adult attachment security over time, the present study tested the hypothesis that it is the meaning people attach to events, rather than the objective features of events, that is associated with changing levels of security. Participants engaged in an 8-week daily diary study, during which they completed daily self-report measures of attachment security, negative life events, perceptions of loss associated with events, and mood. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that perceptions of greater interpersonal (but not achievement) loss associated with life events were significantly associated with greater insecurity on a day-to-day basis, even controlling for objective features of events and for mood. Trait levels of security did not moderate this association. Results are discussed with regard to social-cognitive models of attachment security and the utility of understanding the meaning of life events to understand how attachment models may be confirmed or disconfirmed.     

The influence of aging on preferences for sequences of mixed affective events

Research on preferences among sequences of mixed affective events has mostly used young adults as participants. Given differences due to aging in people's ability to regulate emotion, one could expect differences due to aging in preferences for different sequences. Study 1 demonstrated age‐related differences in how older adults (age 65 and older) versus young adults (age 18–25) choose to order mixed affective events that will occur over time. The tendency to choose sequences in which the final event is positive was greater among older adults versus young adults. And, more so than young adults, older adults preferred that the positive and negative events in a sequence be separated in time by a neutral event. Studies 2–3 investigated age‐related differences in overall retrospective evaluations of presented sequences of mixed affective events. In contrast to young adults, older adults' retrospective evaluations were not affected by: (1) whether the final trend of the sequence improved monotonically; (2) whether the last event in the sequence was positive; or (3) the temporal proximity of positive and negative events in the sequence. Results of Study 3 suggest that these age‐related differences are due to differences in older (vs. young) adults' ability to regulate emotion. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prediction during statistical learning, and implications for the implicit/explicit divide

Accounts of statistical learning, both implicit and explicit, often invoke predictive processes as central to learning, yet practically all experiments employ non-predictive measures during training. We argue that the common theoretical assumption of anticipation and prediction needs clearer, more direct evidence for it during learning. We offer a novel experimental context to explore prediction, and report results from a simple sequential learning task designed to promote predictive behaviors in participants as they responded to a short sequence of simple stimulus events. Predictive tendencies in participants were measured using their computer mouse, the trajectories of which served as a means of tapping into predictive behavior while participants were exposed to very short and simple sequences of events. A total of 143 participants were randomly assigned to stimulus sequences along a continuum of regularity. Analysis of computer-mouse trajectories revealed that (a) participants almost always anticipate events in some manner, (b) participants exhibit two stable patterns of behavior, either reacting to vs. predicting future events, (c) the extent to which participants predict relates to performance on a recall test, and (d) explicit reports of perceiving patterns in the brief sequence correlates with extent of prediction. We end with a discussion of implicit and explicit statistical learning and of the role prediction may play in both kinds of learning.     

Chance and the Continuum Hypothesis

This paper presents and defends an argument that the continuum hypothesis is false, based on considerations about objective chance and an old theorem due to Banach and Kuratowski. More specifically, I argue that the probabilistic inductive methods standardly used in science presuppose that every proposition about the outcome of a chancy process has a certain chance between 0 and 1. I also argue in favour of the standard view that chances are countably additive. Since it is possible to randomly pick out a point on a continuum, for instance using a roulette wheel or by flipping a countable infinity of fair coins, it follows, given the axioms of ZFC, that there are many different cardinalities between countable infinity and the cardinality of the continuum.     

On Finitism and the Beginning of the Universe: A Reply to Stephen Puryear

Stephen Puryear argues that William Lane Craig's view, that time as duration is logically prior to the potentially infinite divisions that we make of it, involves the idea that time is prior to any parts we conceive within it (Priority of the Whole with respect to Time: PWT). He objects that PWT entails the Priority of the Whole with respect to Events (PWE), and that it subverts the argument, used by proponents of the Kalam Cosmological Argument (KCA) such as Craig, against an eternal past based on the impossibility of traversing an actual infinite sequence of events. I argue that proponents of KCA can affirm that time is not discrete, nor is it continuous with actual infinite number of parts or points, but rather that it is a continuum with various parts yet without an actual infinite number of parts or points. I defend this view, and I reply to Puryear's other objections.     

The support of autonomy and the control of behavior

In this article we suggest that events and contexts relevant to the initiation and regulation of intentional behavior can function either to support autonomy (i.e., to promote choice) or to control behavior (i.e., to pressure one toward specific outcomes). Research herein reviewed indicates that this distinction is relevant to specific external events and to general interpersonal contexts as well as to specific internal events and to general personality orientations. That is, the distinction is relevant whether one's analysis focuses on social psychological variables or on personality variables. The research review details those contextual and person factors that tend to promote autonomy and those that tend to control. Furthermore, it shows that autonomy support has generally been associated with more intrinsic motivation, greater interest, less pressure and tension, more creativity, more cognitive flexibility, better conceptual learning, a more positive emotional tone, higher self-esteem, more trust, greater persistence of behavior change, and better physical and psychological health than has control. Also, these results have converged across different assessment procedures, different research methods, and different subject populations. On the basis of these results, we present an organismic perspective in which we argue that the regulation of intentional behavior varies along a continuum from autonomous (i.e., self-determined) to controlled. The relation of this organismic perspective to historical developments in empirical psychology is discussed, with a particular emphasis on its implications for the study of social psychology and personality.     

Time Will Fly During Future Fun (But Drag Until Then)

Consumers’ lives are filled with scheduled events—both positive and negative. The current research examines how the valence of future scheduled events colors consumers’ temporal judgments in relation to such events: the time until their onset, the time during the events, and the time until their offset. We propose that the lay theory espousing “time flies when you’re having fun” leads consumers to judge that positive (vs. negative) future events of equivalent objective distance and duration are farther away and shorter. Operating in tandem, these elements produce two novel phenomena: (a) The end of positive and negative events can feel similarly far from the present, and (b) The beginning and end of positive events can feel similarly far from the present, whereby, in some circumstances, the event’s duration is effectively eliminated in the mind’s eye. Four studies provide evidence for these predictions, informing future directions regarding prospective time perception.     

The Storied Self: The Search for Coherence Amidst Constant Change

When children come to therapy, they come to play. Children organize their experiences by pretending and enacting incidents in the here and now. When adults come to therapy, they come to tell their stories, constructing a unitary, continuous sense of being by matching feelings to events and events to sequences in the immediate medium of another’s mind. In this talk, I will focus on how narrative emerges from breaks in the canonical ways of a culture, whether it is the culture of the home, the workplace, or a way of being together that emerges in the clinical situation. I will look at narrative first from a developmental perspective, considering how children start by describing “timeless” routines of their surround and move only gradually to elaborating particular episodes that have to do with violations of these routines. We will look at telling experiences as falling along a continuum,on one end chaotic and nonlinear, on the other rehearsed and rigidly adhering to a cultural template. We will consider the ideal middle ground of the coherent narrative that remains stable and yet open to revision. We will also examine how an ever-evolving self emerges from this process. Last, we will consider applications of these ideas to the clinical situation, advocating an elaborative rather than an interpretive stance.     

Modality effects in the coding reproduction of rhythms

The temporal coding assumption is that time of presentation is coded more accurately for auditory events than for visual events. This assumption has been used to explain the modality effect, in which recall of recent auditory events is superior to recall of recent visual events. We tested the temporal coding assumption by examining the coding and reproduction of quintessentially temporal stimuli-rhythms. The rhythms were produced by sequences of short and long auditory stimuli or short and long visual stimuli; in either case, the task was to reproduce the temporal sequence. The results from four experiments demonstrated reproduction of auditory rhythms superior to that of visual rhythms. We conclude that speech-based explanations of modality effects cannot accommodate these findings, whereas the findings are consistent with explanations based on the temporal coding assumption.     

The intentional mind and the hot hand: Perceiving intentions makes streaks seem likely to continue

People can appear inconsistent in their intuitions about sequences of repeated events. Sometimes people believe such sequences will continue (the “hot hand”), and sometimes people believe they will reverse (the “gambler’s fallacy”). These contradictory intuitions can be partly explained by considering the perceived intentionality of the agent generating the streak. The intuition that streaks will continue (reverse) should emerge in contexts involving agents that are perceived to be intentional (unintentional), and should be most common among those who are most inclined to attribute intentions to other agents. Four studies support these predictions, identifying both situational and dispositional determinants of the perceived continuity of streaks. Discussion focuses on the foundational nature of intentionality for perceptions of interdependence between events, the relationship between these findings and existing theoretical accounts, and the inverse possibility that people use perceptions of streakiness as a cue for an agent’s intentionality.     

Phenomenology,Objectivity, and the Explanatory Gap

There has been much recent discussion of whether Husserlian phenomenology might be relevant to the explanatory gap—the problem of explaining how conscious experience arises from nonexperiential events or processes. However, some phenomenologists have argued that the explanatory gap is a confused problem, because it starts by assuming a false distinction between the subjective and the objective. Rather than trying to solve this problem, they claim that phenomenology should dissolve it by undermining the distinction upon which it is based. I shall argue that adopting a phenomenological approach does not provide reason to think that the explanatory gap is not a genuine problem. In assessing the assumptions underlying the gap, we must distinguish between objectivity understood as a stance we can take toward the world and objectivity as the world's having a structure independent of any experience. The explanatory gap can be understood as the problem of finding a place for consciousness in this objective structure. This does not force us to take an objective stance or reduce the methods of phenomenology to those of the natural sciences.     

Evaluating the Source of the Risks Associated with Natural Events

Within philosophy there has been little discussion of the risks associated with natural events such as earthquakes. The first objective of this paper is to demonstrate why such risks should be the subject of more sustained philosophical interest. We argue that we cannot simply apply to risks associated with natural events those insights and frameworks for moral evaluation developed in the literature considering ordinary risks, technological risks and the risks posed by anthropogenic climate change. The second objective of this paper is to identify and develop a framework for the moral evaluation of the source of the risks associated with natural events, or the actions which sustain and impact such risks. Our discussion concentrates on the ways the construction and modification of built and natural environments can alter the probability of occurrence of natural events and the character and magnitude of the impact that such events have. We then argue for the need to develop a standard of reasonable care for decisions about the built and modified natural environment, which accounts for technical and resource constraints, as well as the place of natural hazard mitigation in public policy.     

Assimilation is due to one perceived whole and contrast is due to two perceived wholes

There is evidence that assimilation occurs when stimuli form one perceived whole. The assumption that a single internal event results in both a perceived whole and assimilation follows. There is also evidence that a transition from assimilation to contrast can occur. This assimilation should be due to one internal event, and this contrast is argued to be due to an interaction between the internal events for two perceived wholes. Another proposal is that at any one moment in time all stimuli result in an outcome that has a specific position on a continuum that ranges from one strong perceived whole to two interacting perceived wholes to two independent perceived wholes.     

Memory of elapsed time and feeling of time discrepancy

In dating past events, one sometimes recalls inaccurate dates and tends to estimate recent events too remotely and remote events too recently (telescoping). On the other hand, even when one knows the exact dates of events, subjective time could be elastic and often different from objective time. This Feeling of Time Discrepancy between objective and subjective elapsed times was examined with two autobiographical events. Results showed that (1) subjects reported a discrepancy even if the exact dates of events were known and (2) the discrepancy for entrance into university was higher than that for graduation from high school, even when they happened at almost same time. The results are discussed in terms of "location" and "distance" theories, Kemp's 1999 associative model of dating, and Conway's 2000 self-memory system. Autobiographical memory may be organized in terms of present self-concept with our past fitted to the present self-concept. However, if autobiographical memory changes greatly, we cannot share autobiographical memory with other people. We may be adapted to the present life by making only a sense of the subjective elapsed time of each event change with the accurate time information of the autobiographical facts held.     

Serial order processing in human infants and the role of multisensory redundancy

Perception, production, and understanding of sequences is fundamental to human behavior and depends, in large part, on the ability to detect serial order. Despite the importance of this issue across many domains of human functioning, the development of serial order skills has been neglected in developmental studies. The current article reviews evidence that the basic temporal and spatiotemporal skills that are necessary for the development of serial order skills emerge early in human development. The article then presents recent evidence from the authors laboratory showing that serial order perceptual skills emerge at the same time and improve rapidly. Consistent with a multisensory redundancy view of perception, when serial order perceptual abilities first emerge in infancy, they depend critically on the redundant specification of sequences in both the auditory and visual modalities. The findings suggest that infants ability to perceive the surface serial order characteristics of sequentially organized events provides the necessary antecedents to the development of more complex serial order skills that ultimately enable us to extract meanings from sequentially organized events and perform complex sequential actions.Edited by: Marie-Hélène Giard and Mark Wallace