Cue-type manipulation dissociates two types of task set inhibition: backward inhibition and competitor rule suppression

Backward inhibition (BI) reflects the suppression of a recently abandoned task set to allow for smooth transition to a new task even when the rules do not generate a response conflict. Competitor rule suppression (CRS) reflects the inhibition/suppression of irrelevant task rules when these rules generate a response conflict even if they have not recently been abandoned. We assessed whether BI and CRS are differentially affected by the difficulty in retrieving category-response mappings from memory. Retrieval demands were manipulated via the information provided by the task cues, which either indicated the relevant dimension (dimension cues; “color”) or the relevant dimension with its category-to-key mapping (mapping cues; “red green”, indicating that “red” and “green” go with the left/right responses, respectively). CRS was larger with dimension compared to mapping cues when cue-type varied between groups and was larger after trials involving dimension cues when cue-type varied on a trial-by-trial basis. In contrast, BI was not influenced by cue-type. These results suggest that task switching involve at least two distinct inhibitory processes, with CRS being related to the ease of retrieval of category-response mappings from memory.     

Preschool Children's Mastery of the Form/Content Distinction in Communicative Tasks

Preschoolers' mastery of the form/content distinction in language and communication, along its contingency on the characteristics of particular task requirements and test procedures, was investigated in two studies. The theoretical concepts principle of contrast and theory of mind are closely related to the studies. A paraphrase task and a referential communication task were used. In the paraphrase task, children from 3 to 6 years of age acted as messengers and judged whether or not a paraphrase of a message was the same as what the child had said. The results in Study 1 indicated that children as young as 3 years of age recognized this kind of form/content distinction. Fewer children, in particular the younger ones, succeeded with the referential communication task in Study 1. However, among the 6-year-olds, the two tasks showed a tendency to be significantly related. In Study 2, performance decreased among children of all ages, but in particular among the youngest children. In Study 2, the two form/content tasks were not correlated in any age group. The general conclusion is that there is a range of tasks, which may reveal awareness of the form/content distinction among young children, and that it is possible to construct tasks which would enable young children to pay attention to this distinction. Aspects of awareness of the form/content distinction may start to develop early during the preschool period, rather than appearing around the school start. However, the question of why only some children, and not the majority of them, develop this distinction at a very young age is unsettled, as well as the consequences of this early development later on at school.     

Assigning biological functions: making sense of causal chains

A meaningful distinction can be made between functions and mere effects in biological systems without resorting to teleological arguments: (i) biological systems must cope with a multitude of problems or they will cease to exist; (ii) the solutions to these problems invariably depend on circular causal chains (“feedback loops”); and (iii) biological functions are attributes of elements in biological systems that have an effect which, by contributing to the correcting behavior of a feedback control system, assists in solving a biological problem. The analysis is applied to several biological systems. The proposed solution is discussed primarily in its relation to two popular approaches to the concept of biological function, i.e., the “causal role accounts” and the “selected effect accounts”.     

Failures of explaining away and screening off in described versus experienced causal learning scenarios

Causal Bayes nets capture many aspects of causal thinking that set them apart from purely associative reasoning. However, some central properties of this normative theory routinely violated. In tasks requiring an understanding of explaining away and screening off, subjects often deviate from these principles and manifest the operation of an associative bias that we refer to as the rich-get-richer principle. This research focuses on these two failures comparing tasks in which causal scenarios are merely described (via verbal statements of the causal relations) versus experienced (via samples of data that manifest the intervariable correlations implied by the causal relations). Our key finding is that we obtained stronger deviations from normative predictions in the described conditions that highlight the instructed causal model compared to those that presented data. This counterintuitive finding indicate that a theory of causal reasoning and learning needs to integrate normative principles with biases people hold about causal relations.     

Stability,breadth and guidance

Much recent work on explanation in the interventionist tradition emphasizes the explanatory value of stable causal generalizations—i.e., causal generalizations that remain true in a wide range of background circumstances. We argue that two separate explanatory virtues are lumped together under the heading of `stability’. We call these two virtues breadth and guidance respectively. In our view, these two virtues are importantly distinct, but this fact is neglected or at least under-appreciated in the literature on stability. We argue that an adequate theory of explanatory goodness should recognize breadth and guidance as distinct virtues, as breadth and guidance track different ideals of explanation, satisfy different cognitive and pragmatic ends, and play different theoretical roles in (for example) helping us understand the explanatory value of mechanisms. Thus keeping track of the distinction between these two forms of stability yields a more accurate and perspicuous picture of the role that stability considerations play in explanation.     

Diachronic causal constitutive relations

Mechanistic approaches are very common in the causal interpretation of biological and neuroscientific experimental work in today’s philosophy of science. In the mechanistic literature a strict distinction is often made between (intralevel) causal relations and (interlevel) constitutive relations, where the latter cannot be causal. One of the typical reasons for this strict distinction is that constitutive relations are supposedly synchronic whereas most if not all causal relations are diachronic. This strict distinction gives rise to a number of problems, however. Our end goal in this paper is to argue that it should be given up, at least in the context of the biological and the psychological sciences. To that effect, we argue that constitutive relations in this context are diachronic, thus undermining the aforementioned reason. We offer two cases from scientific practice in which constitutive relations are regarded as both diachronic and causally efficacious, review three existing ways of dealing with the apparent diachronic nature of interlevel relations in mechanisms and propose a new account of diachronic, causal constitutive relevance.

     

Job Satisfaction as a Reflection of Disposition: A Multiple Source Causal Analysis

Dispositional sources of job satisfaction have been the subject of recent research in the organizational sciences. Problems in much of this research, which limit the conclusions one can draw from the results, are discussed. This study makes a distinction between affective disposition, defined as the tendency to respond generally to the environment in an affect-based manner, and subjective well-being, the level of overall happiness and satisfaction an individual has with his or her life. Affective disposition was hypothesized to lead to subjective well-being, and subjective well-being and job satisfaction were hypothesized to be mutually causal. A causal model was tested employing two different sources of data: self-reports and "significant other" evaluations. This biangulation of sources of data and estimation of nonrecursive relationships removes some problems often assumed to plague results based on single-source data. Results indicated support for the overall hypothesized causal model and supported a dispositional influence on job attitudes. The influences are more complex than past research has suggested.     

The power PC theory and causal powers: comment on Cheng (1997) and Novick and Cheng (2004)

It has been claimed that the power PC theory reconciles regularity and power theories of causal judgment by showing how contingency information is used for inferences about unobservable causal powers. Under the causal powers theory causal relations are understood as generative relations in which a causal power of one thing acts on a liability of another thing under some releasing condition. These 3 causal roles are implicit or explicit in all causal interpretations. The power PC theory therefore fails to reconcile power theories and regularity theories because it has a fundamentally different definition of power and does not accommodate the tripartite causal role distinction. Implications of this distinction are drawn out.     

Irrelevant differences in the "same"--"different" task

This article examines the effects of irrelevant information on the multidimensional "same"--"different" task. Subjects were instructed to compare two geometric figures with respect to certain attributes but to ignore other attributes in making the "same"--"different" decision. The irrelevant attributes were chosen in such a way that they could not easily be ignored to see how the existence of irrelevant differences would affect the comparison process. As expected, the overall latencies were longer than is usually found in tasks with no irrelevant differences. However, the nature of the comparison process appeared unchanged. The usual finding of a "fast-same" phenomenon persisted even when irrelevant information was present. The similarity of the results in this task to results in the "same"--"different" task with no irrelevant features supports the idea that the same comparison mechanism is used whether or not irrelevant differences are present in the stimulus pairs. The results suggest a more general-purpose comparison mechanism than is usually included in models of this task. Two-process models of visual comparisons are thus ruled out entirely. A modified version of Krueger's noisy-operator theory does appear consistent with the results.     

外表真实区别、表征变化和错误信念的任务分析

自20世纪80年代以来,“心理理论”已成为发展心理学的研究热点和最活跃、最多产的领域。为了分析和比较“心理理论”的实验任务,该研究以济南市3所幼儿园中的233名3—6岁儿童为有效被试。进行了“意外转移。和“欺骗外表”两种心理理论实验任务。得出如下主要结论：(1)意外转移任务中内隐错误信念显著难于标准错误信念,易化错误信念与标准错误信念的难度不存在显著差异。(2)欺骗外表任务中外表真实区别难度显著低于表征变化和错误信念。(3)意外转移任务的错误信念显著难于欺骗外表任务的错误信念。     

Evidence for a basic level in event taxonomies

The proposition that event taxonomies have a “basic” level was tested. In the first two tasks of the experiment, taxonomically related event categories were elicited. Nine taxonomies were constructed from subjects’ responses on these tasks. In the third task, subjects listed attributes for events categories from the three levels of abstraction of these taxonomies. A single, common level of abstraction (the basic level) was identified. Subjects listed significantly more attributes for basic categories than for superordinate categories, but not significantly more attributes for the lower, subordinate-level categories. Further analyses showed that basic and subordinate categories elicited a greater number of concrete and event-related features than action and personrelated features, and that superordinate categories showed the opposite trend. These findings are discussed in terms of general principles of categorization applied to events, objects, and scenes, and the particular characteristics of events.     

Forward and backward blocking of causal judgment is enhanced by additivity of effect magnitude

When two causes for a given effect are simultaneously presented, it is natural to expect an effect of greater magnitude. However many laboratory tasks preclude such an additivity rule by imposing a ceiling on effect magnitude-for example, by using a binary outcome. Under these conditions, a compound of two causal cues cannot be distinguished from a compound of one causal cue and one noncausal cue. Two experiments tested the effect of additivity on cue competition. Significant but weak forward blocking and no backward blocking were observed in a conventional "allergy" causal judgment task. Explicit pretraining of magnitude additivity produced strong and significant forward and backward blocking. Additivity pretraining was found to be unnecessary for another cue competition effect, release from overshadowing, which does not logically depend on additivity. The results confirm that blocking is constrained when effect magnitude is constrained and provide support for an inferential account of cue competition.     

A more complete task-set reconfiguration in random than in predictable task switch

Three experiments are presented that compare the cost found when switching from one task to another in two different conditions. In one of them, the tasks switch in predictable sequences. In the other condition, the tasks alternate at random. A smaller time cost is found in the random-switch condition when enough preparation time is allowed. Such an effect is due to the random-switch cost continuing to decrease with preparation time after the predictable-switch cost has reached an asymptote. Although the relationship between number of repetitions of one task and time cost is different in the random- and the predictable-switch conditions, only the latter shows the presence of an "exogenous" component of cost. The implications of this finding are discussed in relationship with the usual distinction between an endogenous component of switch cost that is affected by preparation time and another exogenous, residual component (e.g., Rogers & Monsell, 1995). It is proposed that a different kind of task-set preparation is at work when tasks alternate at random.     

Information Channels and Biomarkers of Disease

Current research in molecular epidemiology uses biomarkers to model the different disease phases from environmental exposure, to early clinical changes, to development of disease. The hope is to get a better understanding of the causal impact of a number of pollutants and chemicals on several diseases, including cancer and allergies. In a recent paper Russo and Williamson (Med Stud, 2012) address the question of what evidential elements enter the conceptualisation and modelling stages of this type of biomarkers research. Recent research in causality has examined Ned Hall’s distinction between two concepts of causality: production and dependence (Hall in Causation and counterfactuals. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 225–276, 2004). In another recent paper, Illari (Philos Technol, p 20, 2011b) examined the relatively under-explored production approach to causality, arguing that at least one job of an account of causal production is to illuminate our inferential practices concerning causal linking. Illari argued that an informational account solves existing problems with traditional accounts. This paper follows up this previous work by investigating the nature of the causal links established in biomarkers research. We argue that traditional accounts of productive causality are unable to provide a sensible account of the nature of the causal link in biomarkers research, while an informational account is very promising.     

Plato on Necessity and Disorder

In the Timaeus, Plato makes a distinction between reason and necessity. This distinction is often accounted for as a distinction between two types of causation： purpose oriented causation and mechanistic causation. While reason is associated with the soul and taken to bring about its effects with the good and the beautiful as the end, necessity is understood in terms of a set of natural laws pertaining to material things. In this paper I shall suggest that there are reasons to reconsider the latter part of this account and argue for a non-mechanistic understanding of necessity. I will first outline how the notion of necessity is introduced in the dialogue. Next I will show how a mechanistic account of necessity fails to capture Plato＇s purpose of treating it as a causal factor; and, finally, I will argue that this purpose is better understood as an attempt, on Plato＇s part, to account for the causal origin of disorder and irrationality, an origin articulated in terms of a pre-cosmic situation and the notoriously difficult notion of the third kind.     

Autonomic and behavioral evidence of "implicit" memory in amnesia

A profoundly amnesic patient with a left retrosplenial-fornix lesion was tested on a recognition task that evaluated both verbal and electrodermal aspects of new learning. In addition, "implicit memory" tasks (mirror reading and perceptual identification) were given. The patient displayed strong evidence of learning on all tasks although the results of this learning were not represented in explicit recall or recognition. These findings suggest that autonomic as well as behavioral evidence can index spared memory functions in amnesia. The specific meaning of electrodermal recognition and its possible place in the distinction between implicit and explicit memory is discussed.     

Some effects of acoustic attributes of speech on the processing of phonetic feature information

How do acoustic attributes of the speech signal contribute to feature-processing interactions that occur in phonetic classification? In a series of five experiments addressed to this question, listeners performed speeded classification tasks that explicitly required a phonetic decision for each response. Stimuli were natural consonant-vowel syllables differing by multiple phonetic features, although classification responses were based on a single target feature. In control tasks, no variations in nontarget features occurred, whereas in orthogonal tasks nonrelevant feature variations occurred but had to be ignored. Comparison of classification times demonstrated that feature information may either be processed separately as independent cues for each feature or as a single integral segment that jointly specifies several features. The observed form on processing depended on the acoustic manifestations of feature variation in the signal. Stop-consonant place of articulation and voicing cues, conveyed independently by the pattern and excitation source of the initial formant transitions, may be processed separately. However, information for consonant place of articulation and vowel quality, features that interactively affect the shape of initial formant transitions, are processed as an integral segment. Articulatory correlates of each type of processing are discussed in terms of the distinction between source features that vary discretely in speech production and resonance features that can change smoothly and continuously. Implications for perceptual models that include initial segmentation of an input utterance into a phonetic feature representation are also considered.     

Task-defined associations are mode specific for selection of relevant dimension but mode independent for selection of location mapping

When compatible and incompatible mappings of a location-relevant task are mixed, or a location-relevant task is mixed with a task for which stimulus location is irrelevant, the benefit of the compatible mapping is eliminated for physical locations and enhanced for location words. Two experiments examined the influence of presenting the location information for the mixed conditions in different stimulus modes (physical location or word). Experiment 1 showed that the effects of mixing location-relevant and location-irrelevant tasks on the spatial compatibility and Simon effects are reduced when the location information is presented in different modes for the two tasks. Experiment 2 showed, in contrast, that the mode distinction had little influence on the effects of mixed compatible and incompatible mappings for location-relevant tasks: The compatibility effect was eliminated for physical locations and enhanced for words, as when there is no mode distinction. Thus, when location is relevant for one task and colour for the other, the task-defined associations of locations to responses are mode specific, but when location is relevant for both tasks, the associations are mode independent.     

Task-defined associations are mode specific for selection of relevant dimension but mode independent for selection of location mapping

When compatible and incompatible mappings of a location-relevant task are mixed, or a location-relevant task is mixed with a task for which stimulus location is irrelevant, the benefit of the compatible mapping is eliminated for physical locations and enhanced for location words. Two experiments examined the influence of presenting the location information for the mixed conditions in different stimulus modes (physical location or word). Experiment 1 showed that the effects of mixing location-relevant and location-irrelevant tasks on the spatial compatibility and Simon effects are reduced when the location information is presented in different modes for the two tasks. Experiment 2 showed, in contrast, that the mode distinction had little influence on the effects of mixed compatible and incompatible mappings for location-relevant tasks: The compatibility effect was eliminated for physical locations and enhanced for words, as when there is no mode distinction. Thus, when location is relevant for one task and colour for the other, the task-defined associations of locations to responses are mode specific, but when location is relevant for both tasks, the associations are mode independent.