Individual differences in the vibrotactile perception of a “simple” pattern set

Discriminative capacities for vibrotactile spatiotemporal patterns were examined in 62 college students with three tasks: identification, masking, and discrimination of the letters “X” and “O” presented tactually on the Optacon, a reading machine for blind persons. Individual differences in performance and interrelations among scores within and across paradigms were explored. In identification, most persons quickly achieved consistently better than 90% performance, but others failed to identify the patterns above 80%, even after prolonged training. The same performance variance was found when the task was repeated by 23 Naval student pilots. Masking and discrimination measured susceptibility to interference when patterns followed one another closely in time. The resulting functions were typical, with poorest performance at short stimulus onset asynchronies. Again, a wide range of performance was seen. Individual performance, however, appeared to be consistent across tasks, suggesting that abilities in a variety of pattern-perception tasks might be predictable.     

Are conditioned stimuli determinants of oriented exploratory behavior in the rat?

To test Bindra and Palfai's hypothesis about enhancing and inhibitory motivational effects of a conditioned stimulus on exploratory behavior, rats in a first experiment were submitted to pairings of a tone with (a) water, (b) intermittent deliveries of water after a period of constant pairing. In a control condition, the tone was presented alone. The tone was subsequently presented during oriented exploration of a novel stimulus, in the conditioning context. There was no difference in exploratory performance between conditions. In a second experiment with another kind of stimulus change and a larger number of training trials, exploration did not increase when occurring during CS presentation. The lack of facilitation which is possibly the product of competition between exploration and magazine-directed responses, can also be interpreted as indicating that the effects of a conditioned stimulus are reinforcer specific and that the diffuse activity it generates in a situation different from the training one is not equivalent, as concerns the processes involved, to oriented exploratory behavior.     

Stimulus-reinforcer and response-reinforcer relations in the control of conditioned appetitive headpoking (“goal tracking”) in rats

Experiment 1 studied the effect of several Pavlovian appetitive conditioning procedures on rats' headpoking into a food tray (goal tracking). The procedures included forward delay conditioning, CS-alone extinction, differential conditioning, and simultaneous compound conditioned inhibition training. In general, the headpoke behaved in all of these treatments much like a Pavlovian CR; however, one could also say that the headpoke behaved like an adventitiously reinforced operant for which the CS was an S^D. Experiment 2, therefore, used the differential-nondifferential technique (E. Gamzu & D. R. Williams, Science, 1971, 171, 923–925), and Experiment 3 used an omission technique (F. D. Sheffield, in W. F. Prokasy, Ed., Classical conditioning, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1965; D. R. Williams & H. Williams, Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1969, 12, 511–520), to try to separate the role of stimulus-reinforcer and response-reinforcer relations in controlling the headpoke. These techniques proved inadequate. The results of Experiment 2 could be given either operant or Pavlovian interpretations. Those of Experiment 3 showed that headpoking is dominated by response-reinforcer, rather than by stimulus-reinforcer, relations when the two compete but forced no conclusion about which dominates when the two act together as in acquisition. Implications for pigeon autoshaping are discussed.     

Keeping the “Human in the Loop” in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Science and Engineering Ethics - The benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in medicine are unquestionable and it is unlikely that the pace of its development will slow down. From better...     

The Use of Sulfanilamide in the Treatment of “Sniffles” in Rats

A nonprojective measure of achievement motivation, the Lynn Questionnaire (7), was administered to 67 Western Samoans, 34 Cook Islanders, 84 Maoris, and 103 European New Zealanders in an urban work environment in New Zealand. Results indicated that Western Samoans had lower achievement motivation levels than the other three groups, Cook Islanders were lower than European New Zealanders and equivalent to Maoris, and Maoris did not vary from European New Zealanders. Findings were interpreted as supportive of previous New Zealand research and in accordance with cultural assimilation theory.     

“Scientific atheism” in the era of perestrojka

Conclusions It could be argued that some in the military, like certain local officials, are the last holdouts against the reform's ideological thaw toward religion, though Kharev's October–November, 1989, interview inOgonëk makes clear that there are still some higher-level forces in the apparatus who remain opposed to some of the changes. It could be that some of the reformers themselves are concerned about the pace of change. Even in their minds the thaw undoubtedly has limits. They may view the present controversy over restructuring scientific atheism and redefining socialism's attitude toward religion as a necessary and desirable part of the dialectical process. Thus, while encouraging a tactical and more humane detente toward religion, they have not yet moved to eliminate the basis for ideological hostility toward it. They simply want that hostility to be better channeled and controlled, while exploiting the political benefits that their new-found truce with religion offers. Looking at Gorbachevism, Soviet émigré observer Aleksandr Zinov'ev believes that the reform process in the sphere of internal political activity concerns only separate phenomena ... but by no means the very foundations of the social system, the system of power and ideology. That system, he believes, is not yet fundamentally changing in those terms. The final answer remains to be seen.The views expressed are those of the author and are not official views of the U.S. Government nor any department or agency.     

Variations in use of the term “or”

Two studies showed that adults' responses to questions involving the term or varied markedly depending upon the type of question presented. When presented with various objects (A's and B's) and asked to circle all things which are A or B subjects tended to circle A's as well as B's, whereas when asked to circle all the A's or B's subjects showed a relatively stronger tendency to circle one or the other. Moreover the nature of the sets of objects (As and Bs) influenced behavior as well. There was also evidence that the effects due to question wording or set type transferred.     

Eurocentric elements in the idea of “surrender-and-catch”

I wish to express my gratitude to Kurt H. Wolff for his support and to Farzin Vahdat for his patient reading and comments.     

Discussion of “The Therapeutics of the Fee in Psychoanalysis”

This discussion of Dr. Pauley’s paper (this issue) on the therapeutics of the fee first highlights the various valuable contributions Pauley makes. It applauds his unusual openness in sharing his internal vulnerability with patients around fees, his raising the question about why fee setting is so complicated for analysts and patients alike, his focusing on omnipotent fantasies in the transference and countertransference, and his uncovering of the multiple meanings money has for therapists beyond just their income. Berger picks up on Pauley’s invitation to therapists to be more curious about their own discomforts with money. Drawing on her own teaching, writing and clinical experience, she adds to Pauley’s more global ideas, stressing instead the more specific meaning of money in each treatment dyad. Among these specifics, Berger highlights the chronic avoidance of teaching about money in analytic institutes. She clarifies some Freudian ideas about how money can become tied up with anal witholding, and offers examples of how she got stuck with three patients around setting and raising their fees. Berger describes how these patients’ believed that their fees could mean safety, value or exploitation and how these attribuitions generated countertransference blind spots for her. The discussion urges clinicians to keep digging hard into themselves for the many meanings of money, to pay attention to the devil in their own details, and thereby maximize the richness of their work with patients around a topic so loaded for all of us.     

“Aha” effects in the generation of pictures

An "aha" effect in memory was first reported by Auble, Franks, and Soraci (1979). They demonstrated that recall was greater for sentences that were initially incomprehensible but which were eventually comprehended, as compared with sentences that were understood from the outset. The present studies extend this "aha" effect to memory for pictorial stimuli. In Experiment 1, a recall advantage for pictures encoded by connecting the dots as compared with those encoded by tracing or visual scanning occurred only in the absence of foreknowledge of the picture (i.e., an "aha" effect). In Experiment 2, we replicated this finding and obtained evidence that conceptually based, verbal foreknowledge does not function in a similar manner as does pictorial foreknowledge in suppressing the "aha" recall advantage. These results place important constraints on previous research on generation effects for visual stimuli and attest to the cross-modal generalizability of the "aha" effect.     

“Prototypes” and “fuzziness” in the logic of concepts

Prototypes and fuzziness are regarded in this paper as fundamental phenomena in the inherent logic of concepts whose relationship, however, has not been sufficiently clarified. Therefore, modifications are proposed in the definition of both. Prototypes are defined as the elements possessing maximal degree of membership in the given category such thatthis membership has maximal cognitive efficiency in representing theelement. A modified fuzzy set (m-fuzzy set) is defined on aclass (possibly self-contradictory collection) such that its core (the collection of elements with full membership) is aset (self-consistent collection) comprising the finite set of the prototypes. In this scheme of recursive representation the possibility of contradictions, which has been proven to be inevitable in the logic of concepts, islocalized. Finally a related model of the brain's pattern recognition mechanism is briefly summarized.     

On the determinants of other-regarding behavior: Field tests of the moral foundations questionnaire☆,☆☆,,

This paper examines moral foundations as a predictor of other-regarding behavior outside a laboratory setting. We link responses to the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) with direct measures of other-regarding behavior in two studies. In both studies, moral foundations (as measured by the MFQ) predict other-regarding behavior. Study 1 finds the return rate of a follow-up survey is positively predicted by individualizing foundations and negatively predicted by binding foundations, particularly authority. Study 2 finds the relationships between moral foundations and donations to pre-selected charities are highly sensitive to the inclusion of a veterans charity in the choice set. Individualizing foundations positively predict donations in non-veterans conditions, while loyalty (positively) and authority (negatively) predict donations in veterans conditions.     

The “voice of justice” vs. the “voice of care” in the assignment of criminal sanctions

According to Gilligan's model of moral reasoning, some people approach difficult decisions situationally and in response to needs and relationships of the people involved, often including themselves. People who think this way operate with a “care voice” and tend to be girls and women. Others do so with concerns about rights, obligations, and rules, employing conventional standards uniformly to be fair. These people operate with a “justice voice.” A study was conducted to assess the usefulness of the model for understanding student opinions of penalty for two hypothetical criminal offenders. Based upon data obtained from a self-administered written questionnaire and a quantitative index of “voice,” three themes emerged. First, most students exhibited concerns reflective of the two internal moral structures, the “care voice” and the “justice voice,” when they responded to queries about the proper function of criminal sanctions. This indicates that at least two equally legitimate yet competitive definitions of criminal justice exist. Second, gender and “voice” are associated, but not invariably. Third, “voice” is more helpful than gender for explaining penalty choices. The care model is associated with penalty choices that are responsive to needs of people involved in the situation, and the custodial nature of sanctions lends insight into these choices. The justice model is associated with the assignment of normative sanctions. Moreover, many students expressed a “model of voice,” or a view of fairness, that conflicts with the dominant model of the criminal justice system.     

Negative hysteresis in the behavioral dynamics of the affordance “graspable”

One commonly perceives whether a visible object will afford grasping with one hand or with both hands. In experiments in which differently sized objects of a fixed type are presented, the transition from using one of these manual modes to the other depends on the ratio of object size to hand span and on the presentation sequence, with size increasing versus decreasing. Conventional positive hysteresis (i.e., a larger transition ratio for the increasing sequence) can be accommodated by the order parameter dynamics that typify self-organizing systems (Lopresti-Goodman, Turvey, and Frank, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 73:1948–1965, 2011). Here we identified and addressed conditions of unconventional negative hysteresis (i.e., a larger transition ratio for the decreasing sequence). They suggest a second control parameter in the self-organization of affordance perception, one that is seemingly regulated by inhibitory dynamics occurring in the agent–task–environment system. Our experimental results and modeling extend the investigation of affordance perception within dynamical systems theory.     

“Don’t you want the dream?”: Psycho-social determinants of car share adoption

The benefits of car share, in terms of reduced car ownership and sustainable transport use have been widely recognised. Knowledge of motivators and barriers of car share adoption is crucial to inform policy, and yet this aspect has received little attention so far. This paper aims to comprehensively explore the range of psycho-social factors which determine the adoption of car share.In this study, two theoretical approaches were used to explore psycho-social determinants of car share adoption. First, the Theory of Planned Behaviour is used as a theoretical lens to identify the role of attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control in car share adoption. Second, the Theory of Innovation Diffusion is used to examine the process of adoption of car share and the barriers at different stages. While the former considers the determinants of the binary decision of becoming a car share, the latter unpacks the process of car share adoption. This qualitative study draws on data from five focus groups and 18 semi-structured interviews, conducted in Melbourne, Australia, with station-based car share member, ex-members and non-members.Insights confirmed that while cost, convenience and environmental concerns are important motivators, others factors also encourage car share use including sharing with the community, reducing/avoiding hassles related to car ownership (e.g. maintenance, parking) and, a desire to own fewer material possessions. Normative beliefs about car ownership, perceived difficulties in using car share (e.g. with children) and the planning and effort required to book and use car share were identified as some of the barriers. Barriers related to car share use varied depending on the stage of car share adoption. Initial barriers related to a lack of knowledge and normative beliefs about car ownership. The study also highlighted how motivators and barriers might vary for peer-to-peer and fleet-based car share. Insights from this study will be useful for car share operators and policymakers to address the practical and social barriers to car share adoption.     

On the Meaning of the Constant “c” in Modern Physics

In modern physics, the constant “c” plays a twofold role. On the one hand, “c” is the well known velocity of light in an empty Minkowskian space–time, on the other hand “c” is a characteristic number of Special Relativity that governs the Lorentz transformation and its consequences for the measurements of space–time intervals. We ask for the interrelations between these two, at first sight different meanings of “c”. The conjecture that the value of “c” has any influence on the structure of space–time is based on the operational interpretation of Special Relativity, which uses light rays for measurements of space–time intervals. We do not follow this way of reasoning but replace it by a more realistic approach that allows to show that the structure of the Minkowskian space–time can be reconstructed already on the basis of a restricted classical ontology (Mittelstaedt, Philosophie der Physik und der Raum-Zeit, Mannheim: BI-Wissenschaftsverlag, 1988 and Mittelstaedt, Kaltblütig: Philosophie von einem rationalen Standpunkt, Stuttgart: S. Hirzel Verlag, pp. 221–240, 2003), and that without any reference to the propagation of light. However, the space–time obtained in this way contains still an unknown constant. We show that this constant agrees numerically with “c” but that it must conceptually clearly be distinguished from the velocity of light. Hence, we argue for a clear distinction between the two faces of “c” and for a dualism of space–time and matter.     

The Spontaneous Generation of the Human in the “Heng Xian”

This essay argues that the “Heng Xian” bridges between two distinct discourses that were both prevalent in the late fourth century. One discourse focused on the origination of the natural world through a spontaneous process of differentiation, a position familiar from the Daodejing and “Tai yi sheng shui.” The other focused on the specific ways in which different kinds of things live, a position known primarily from Ru discussions centering on the concept of xing 性, the nature or spontaneous reactions of a particular kind of thing. The “Heng Xian” attempts to account for the specificity of human life—including language and social organization—while remaining within a naturalistic view grounded in spontaneity. The essay concludes by reflecting on what the “Heng Xian” tells us about the status of human institutions.     

Motivated reasoning in the prediction of sports outcomes and the belief in the “hot hand”

The present paper explores the role of motivation to observe a certain outcome in people’s predictions, causal attributions, and beliefs about a streak of binary outcomes (basketball scoring shots). In two studies we found that positive streaks (points scored by the participants’ favourite team) lead participants to predict the streak’s continuation (belief in the hot hand), but negative streaks lead to predictions of its end (gambler’s fallacy). More importantly, these wishful predictions are supported by strategic attributions and beliefs about how and why a streak might unfold. Results suggest that the effect of motivation on predictions is mediated by a serial path via causal attributions to the teams at play and belief in the hot hand.