Prejudice and the function of attitudes relating to Muslim Australians and Indigenous Australians

The aim of the present study was to examine prejudice against Muslim Australians and Indigenous Australians and the function of those attitudes using previously identified functions, direct experiential–schematic and value expressive, and including a new indirect experiential–schematic function. Respondents were categorised into two groups: accepting and rejecting. For the Muslim data there was no difference between accepting and rejecting groups regarding the value‐expressive function, but acceptors reported the experiential–schematic function to a greater extent than did rejectors. For the Indigenous data there was no difference between groups on the value‐expressive or the experiential–schematic function. With both target groups, rejectors reported the indirect experiential–schematic function more than acceptors. The value‐expressive function was higher for the Muslim data and the experiential–schematic function was higher for the Indigenous data. The importance of taking into account the function of respondents' attitudes, the distinction between source and function of attitudes, as well as specific issues surrounding target groups themselves, is discussed.     

老年人认知功能的变化轨迹：基于潜变量增长模型的分析

摘 要 本研究采用中国老年健康影响因素跟踪调查（CLHLS）的4次数据（2002,2005,2008,2011）,对老年人认知功能的变化趋势以及影响因素进行了探讨。结果显示：（1）老年人认知功能在4次测查中呈非线性的下降趋势。（2）日常生活活动能力较低的个体其认知功能也较低;老年人读书年限越高,其认知功能水平越高;女性的认知功能水平低于男性;不饮酒的老年人认知功能低于饮酒的老年人。（3）读书年限与饮酒会正向预测模型的斜率。     

Recognition failure of recallable words: Exception due to poor integration

The phenomenon of recognition failure of recallable words shows a remarkable regularity across a wide variety of experimental conditions. A quadratric function, referred to as the Tulving-Wiseman function, summarizes this regularity. A few cases of deviation from this function have been identified and classified into two categories of exceptions to this function. An experiment was designed to deal with one of these categories, namely the exception that occurs because of poor integration between cue and target information of studied word pairs. An index based on confidence ratings of recall responses was developed to assess variability in integration. Poor integration was demonstrated especially for one presentation of low associative word pairs, and significant deviations from the function was obtained for this condition. Hintzman's (1991, 1992) hypothesis about mathematical constraints of the Tulving-Wiseman function was discussed and refuted. Finally, an interpretation of negative deviations from the Tulving-Wiseman function was proposed.     

Variables affecting preference for signaled shock in a symmetrical changeover design

In a signaled-shock situation, the signal's presence serves a warning function (prediction of shock) whereas the signal's absence serves a safety function (prediction of nonshock periods). The relative contribution to preference for signaled shock made by these two potential sources of reinforcement was assessed using a symmetrical changeover procedure in which rats were permitted to control the amount of time spent in one of two mutually exclusive conditions, the signaled and unsignaled states. The stimulus conditions that prevailed in the signaled state differed for several groups of animals. For some groups, the safety function of signals was degraded while the warning function was left intact. For other groups, the warning function was degraded and the safety function was not. The availability of the unaltered feature was then manipulated in both sets of groups to determine its effect on preference for the signaled state. Changeover behavior was strongly related to the availability of the signal's safety function and weakly related to its warning function, indicating that the two variables contribute differentially to preference for signaled shock. Other sources of behavioral control, having little to do with the safety or the warning function of signals, were also demonstrated, suggesting the need for careful control procedures when using changeover behavior as a measure of preference.     

Biographical determinants of achieved eminence: a multivariate approach to the Cox data.

Ranked eminence of creators and leaders was hypothesized to be a function of both substantive (developmental and productive) variables and methodological artifacts. Cox's sample of 301 geniuses was reexamined using multiple-regression techniques. The results indicated that ranked eminence is (a) a curvilinear inverted-U function of education for creators but a negative linear function for leaders, (b) a positive linear function of versatility for leaders only, and (c) a curvilinear U-shaped function of life span for creators but a "backwards-J" function for leaders. Although creators are more intelligent than leaders, the correlation that Cox found between intelligence and ranked eminence was shown to be an artifact of data reliability and, especially, a timewise sampling bias. It was also shown that father's status has no direct impact on ranked eminence.     

Social discounting and delay discounting

Social discounting was measured as the amount of money a participant was willing to forgo to give a fixed amount (usually $75) to another person. In the first experiment, amount forgone was a hyperbolic function of the social distance between the giver and receiver. In the second experiment, degree of social discounting was an increasing function of reward magnitude whereas degree of delay discounting was a decreasing function of reward magnitude. In the third experiment, the shape of the function relating delayed rewards to equally valued immediate rewards for another person was predicted from individual delay and social discount functions. All in all, the studies show that the social discount function, like delay and probability discount functions, is hyperbolic in form. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do pulmonary function and smoking behavior predict cognitive function? findings from a british sample

Abstract

The relationship of smoking behavior, pulmonary function, and four measures of cognitive function was studied in a sample of 4,399 men and women (mean age = 44.7 f 17.1 years; age range: 18 to 94 years) randomly selected from British electoral registers. Each subject was assessed with a face-to-face structured interview (including demographic data, smoking history, and health-related questions) as well as cognitive testing [simple reaction time (SRT), choice reaction time (CRT), incidental memory, and spatial reasoning] and pulmonary function testing. Results indicated that smoking was associated with somewhat better performance on the CRT and memory tasks, and that smoking behavior was not associated with decrements in cognitive performance. Impaired pulmonary function was generally associated with poorer cognitive performance on all of the cognitive measures, suggesting that pulmonary function may be a relevant factor to consider in experimental studies of smoking and cognitive function among healthy adults.     

项目反应理论框架下多级评分项目的信息函数

目的是给出多级评分项目的信息函数计算公式,同时通过几个实例讨论了多级评分项目信息函数在实践中的应用。主要取得了如下成果：（1）首先通过一个例子给出了测验项目的样本空间;（2）以二参数逻辑斯蒂模型为基础,讨论了几种多级评分项目的概率函数,并在此基础上给出了多级评分项目的信息函数计算公式;（3）通过几个实例讨论了多级评分项目信息函数在实践中的应用     

Modeling the effect of reward amount on probability discounting

The present study with college students examined the effect of amount on the discounting of probabilistic monetary rewards. A hyperboloid function accurately described the discounting of hypothetical rewards ranging in amount from $20 to $10,000,000. The degree of discounting increased continuously with amount of probabilistic reward. This effect of amount was not due to changes in the rate parameter of the discounting function, but rather was due to increases in the exponent. These results stand in contrast to those observed with the discounting of delayed monetary rewards, in which the degree of discounting decreases with reward amount due to amount-dependent decreases in the rate parameter. Taken together, this pattern of results suggests that delay and probability discounting reflect different underlying mechanisms. That is, the fact that the exponent in the delay discounting function is independent of amount is consistent with a psychophysical scaling interpretation, whereas the finding that the exponent of the probability-discounting function is amount-dependent is inconsistent with such an interpretation. Instead, the present results are consistent with the idea that the probability-discounting function is itself the product of a value function and a weighting function. This idea was first suggested by Kahneman and Tversky (1979), although their prospect theory does not predict amount effects like those observed. The effect of amount on probability discounting was parsimoniously incorporated into our hyperboloid discounting function by assuming that the exponent was proportional to the amount raised to a power. The amount-dependent exponent of the probability-discounting function may be viewed as reflecting the effect of amount on the weighting of the probability with which the reward will be received.     

Modeling the body temperature throughout the day with a two-term function

A two-term function with potential and exponential terms is proposed to model the body temperature throughout the day. These terms can be related to thermogenic and thermolytic processes that are opposite but simultaneous. The first term, a potential function, reflects that the heat gain process is predominant; the second term is a negative exponential function and reflects the predominance of heat dissipation. The function also provides the time of the inflection between thermal opposite processes. The proposed two-term function and a cosine function were fitted to 335 temperature series of 24-h duration recorded in humans and animals. The percentage of variance accounted for by the two-term function was higher than that for the cosine approximation for the total sample and for those series whose shape was asymmetrical (n=75). Nevertheless, no significant differences between the percentage of variance accounted for by the two functions were found for those series whose shape was symmetrical (n=260). The results of different subgroups that differed in experimental conditions are discussed.     

Quick approximation of bivariate functions

This paper presents two experiments where participants had to approximate function values at various generalization points of a square, using given function values at a small set of data points. A representative set of standard function approximation models was trained to exactly fit the function values at data points, and models' responses at generalization points were compared to those of humans. Then one defined a large class of possible models (including the best two identified predictors) and the class maximal possible prediction accuracy was evaluated. A new model of quick multivariate function approximation belonging to this class was proposed. Its prediction accuracy was close to the maximum possible, and significantly better than that of all other models tested. The new model also provided a significant account of human response variability. Finally, it was shown that this model is more particularly suitable for problems in which the visual system can perform some specific structuring of the data space. This model is therefore considered as a suitable starting point for further investigations into quick multivariate function approximation, which is to date an inadequately explored question in cognitive psychology.     

Matching and naming objects by shape or function: age and context effects in preschool children

Three experiments tested preschoolers' use of abstract principles to classify and label objects by shape or function. Three- and 4-year-olds were instructed to match objects by shape or function. Four-year-olds readily adopted either rule, but 3-year-olds followed only the shape rule. Without a rule, 4-year-olds tended to match by shape unless object function was shown during matching (Experiment 2). Three-year-olds' ability to use a function rule was tested in several conditions (re-presenting functions; reminders to "use the rule"; repeating rule on every trial). None induced consistent function matching (Experiment 3). Supplemental memory and verbal tasks showed that 3-year-olds have trouble using function as an abstract basis of comparison. Naming data, however, show that preschoolers are learning that object labels are based on function. The results show preschoolers' growing flexibility in adopting abstract generalization rules and growing knowledge of conventions for extending words.     

Job Function,Sex, and Environment As Correlates of Work Perceptions and Attitudes1

The present study examined job function and sex differences in perceptions of the physical and social work environment and the relationship of the work environment to work perceptions and attitudes when function and sex are controlled. Research indicated that job function, but not sex, was related to environment perceptions for 426 employees in a state government agency. The social environment also emerged as a significant predictor of work involvement, trust, and satisfaction. Significant interactions between job function and environment indicated that the social environment was negatively related and the physical environment positively related to work perceptions for managerial employees. The reverse was found for employees in other job functions.     

Integration and cue overlap in recognition failure of recallable words

A highly systematic relation between the conditional probability of recognition given recall and the overall recognition hit rate has been demonstrated in a wide variety of experiments. A function describing this relationship was developed by Tulving & Wiseman (1975). Exceptions to this function have, in retrospect, been interpreted in terms of (a) a low integration between cue and target items, or (b) a high cue overlap between the two tests involved: recognition and recall. The experiment reported was designed to evaluate the joint and the separate contributions from integration and cue overlap for obtaining conformity with and exception from the Tulving-Wiseman function. In line with the predictions made, the results showed that these two factors in combination can account for data that fit the function and for exceptions above the function. In relative terms, the contribution from integration was somewhat more pronounced than that from cue overlap.     

Resource allocation decision making in an uncertain environment

This experiment investigated how individuals learn to allocate limited resources across competing activities in order to maximize their objective when the form of the objective function is uncertain. On each of 25 trials, subjects selected an allocation policy and received a corresponding profit. The objective function that was used to assign profits to allocations was unknown initially and was learned through trial by trial outcome feedback. A total of 144 subjects were randomly assigned to nine groups constructed from a 3 (objective function form) by 3 (amount of error variability) factorial design. Several measures of learning were analyzed including (a) the distance between the current and optimal allocation policy as a function of training, (b) the magnitude of change in allocation as a function of past profits, and (c) the direction of change in allocations as a function of the direction of change in past profits. The results provide evidence for an integrated approach to learning — a functional learning process based on global information about the shape of the objective function and a hill-climbing learning process based on local information about trial to trial improvements in profit.     

Inhibiting function of reinforcement: magnitude effects on variable-interval schedules

In two experiments, the performance of rats under constant-probability and arithmetic variable-interval schedules respectively was compared when the concentration of a liquid reinforcer was varied within sessions; in other sessions, half of the reinforcers were randomly omitted. When the discriminative function of the reinforcer as a signal for a decrease in the probability of reinforcement was attenuated (the constant-probability schedule) the postreinforcement pause duration was nevertheless an increasing function of reinforcer magnitude. This relationship was also present, but more marked, when the temporal discriminative function of the reinforcer was enhanced (the arithmetic schedule). These results suggested that reinforcement has an unconditioned suppressive effect on the reinforced response distinct from any discriminative function it may acquire. The reinforcement-omission effect, where response rate accelerates following omission, was observed when the reinforcer functioned as an effective temporal discriminative stimulus, but not when such temporal control was absent.     

The effects of a local negative feedback function between choice and relative reinforcer rate

Four pigeons were trained on two-key concurrent variable-interval schedules with no changeover delay. In Phase 1, relative reinforcers on the two alternatives were varied over five conditions from .1 to .9. In Phases 2 and 3, we instituted a molar feedback function between relative choice in an interreinforcer interval and the probability of reinforcers on the two keys ending the next interreinforcer interval. The feedback function was linear, and was negatively sloped so that more extreme choice in an interreinforcer interval made it more likely that a reinforcer would be available on the other key at the end of the next interval. The slope of the feedback function was -1 in Phase 2 and -3 in Phase 3. We varied relative reinforcers in each of these phases by changing the intercept of the feedback function. Little effect of the feedback functions was discernible at the local (interreinforcer interval) level, but choice measured at an extended level across sessions was strongly and significantly decreased by increasing the negative slope of the feedback function.     

Pigeons' discounting of probabilistic and delayed reinforcers

Pigeons' discounting of probabilistic and delayed food reinforcers was studied using adjusting-amount procedures. In the probability discounting conditions, pigeons chose between an adjusting number of food pellets contingent on a single key peck and a larger, fixed number of pellets contingent on completion of a variable-ratio schedule. In the delay discounting conditions, pigeons chose between an adjusting number of pellets delivered immediately and a larger, fixed number of pellets delivered after a delay. Probability discounting (i.e., subjective value as a function of the odds against reinforcement) was as well described by a hyperboloid function as delay discounting was (i.e., subjective value as a function of the time until reinforcement). As in humans, the exponents of the hyperboloid function when it was fitted to the probability discounting data were lower than the exponents of the hyperboloid function when it was fitted to the delay discounting data. The subjective values of probabilistic reinforcers were strongly correlated with predictions based on simply substituting the average delay to their receipt in each probabilistic reinforcement condition into the hyperboloid discounting function. However, the subjective values were systematically underestimated using this approach. Using the discounting function proposed by Mazur (1989), which takes into account the variability in the delay to the probabilistic reinforcers, the accuracy with which their subjective values could be predicted was increased. Taken together, the present findings are consistent with Rachlin's (Rachlin, 1990; Rachlin, Logue, Gibbon, & Frankel, 1986) hypothesis that choice involving repeated gambles may be interpreted in terms of the delays to the probabilistic reinforcers.     

Liking and memory for musical stimuli as a function of exposure

Three experiments examined changes in liking and memory for music as a function of number of previous exposures, the ecological validity of the music, and whether the exposure phase required focused or incidental listening. After incidental listening, liking ratings were higher for music heard more often in the exposure phase and this association was stronger as ecological validity increased. After focused listening, liking ratings followed an inverted U-shaped function of exposure for the most ecologically valid stimuli (initial increases followed by decreases), but this curvilinear function was attenuated or nonexistent for less valid stimuli. In general, recognition improved as a function of previous exposure for focused listeners, but the effect was attenuated or absent for incidental listeners.     

Effects of distance between standard and comparison lines on the Müller-Lyer illusion

The Müller-Lyer illusion was measured as a joint function of gap between fins and shaft and distance between standard and comparison lines. The results showed that the traditional function relating illusion to gap was present, but that the shape of the function was greatly influenced by the distance between standard and comparison lines. The mathematical formulation of assimilation theory provided adequate predictions under the assumption that the attentive field changes as a constant ratio of target size.