Game Logic - An Overview

Game Logic is a modal logic which extends Propositional Dynamic Logic by generalising its semantics and adding a new operator to the language. The logic can be used to reason about determined 2-player games. We present an overview of meta-theoretic results regarding this logic, also covering the algebraic version of the logic known as Game Algebra.     

Further validation of the Penny Beliefs Scale - Weapons

The Penny Beliefs Scale - Weapons (PBS-W) comprises of 36 items that measure young people’s beliefs about carrying and using weapons. It was designed to facilitate our understanding of weapons carrying and use. The PBS-W has excellent internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha of .92), extremely good test-retest consistency (ICC = .83) and is significantly positively correlated with self-reported delinquency. In order to further demonstrate the utility of the PBS-W it was compared with other measures that would be expected to be associated with weapons carrying and use. The PBS-W, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-R-SV), the Maudsley Violence Questionnaire (MVQ), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), and the Brief Measure of Sensation Seeking (SS2) were administered to 189 school pupils in South Wales, aged between 16 and 18 years. Results demonstrated that the PBS-W is significantly positively correlated with EPQ Psychoticism (P), violent cognitions, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. Multiple regressions, controlling for gender and impression management (EPQ-Lie), showed that violent cognitions predicted beliefs about carrying and using weapons above and beyond P, sensation seeking and impulsivity. These findings suggest that violent cognitions are the single most powerful predictors of positive beliefs about carrying and using weapons.     

心理实验程序设计的模式化方法

心理实验程序设计是指将心理学的研究计划或设想转变成计算机可识别的程序的过程,是心理学研究中的一个重要环节。本文提出了心理实验程序设计的一套模式化方法——12345理论,即一个过程,两种类型,三大原则,四种模式,五个要素。12345理论具有较强的指导性和操作性,能够为心理学研究人员设计实验程序提供理论和方法指导,对心理实验程序设计体系的规范化或标准化的建立作出了有益的探讨。     

Further problems with projectivism

From David Hume onwards, many philosophers have argued that moral thinking is characterised by a tendency to ‘project’ our own mental states onto the world. This metaphor of projection may be understood as involving two empirical claims: the claim that humans experience morality as a realm of objective facts (the experiential hypothesis), and the claim that this moral experience is immediately caused by affective attitudes (the causal hypothesis). Elsewhere I argue in detail against one form of the experiential hypothesis. My main aim in this paper is to show that, considering recent psychological studies about folk metaethics and the relation between moral judgements and emotions, the causal hypothesis must be considered problematic too. First, the most common argument in favour of the causal hypothesis is based on an implausible premise and a dubious assumption. Second, ordinary people's moral experience is influenced by a non-affective factor, namely their openness to divergent moral views. And third, projectivism in general and its causal hypothesis in particular might not even hold true for affective moral judgements. This negative assessment of projectivism is significant both for our understanding of moral cognition as an empirical phenomenon and for metaethics.     

Further psychodrama with delinquent adolescents

It was postulated that an integration of behavioral-cognitive techniques within a psychodramatic group therapy framework would reduce delinquents' acting-out tendencies and improve ego strength. The population consisted of a control and an experimental group of adolescents aged 14 to 16 of both sexes that were adjudicated delinquent. There were ten adolescents in the control group and initially eleven adolescents in the experimental group (only seven completed the twelve ninety-minute sessions). Both pre- and posttest measures on the Jesness, the High School Personality Questionnaire, and the I-E Scale were administered to the two groups of subjects. The results showed that significant improvement occurred in the delinquents' asocial index (.01 level), ego strength (.05 level), and introversive tendencies (.01 level). This study demonstrated that behavioral contracting, monetary reinforcement, and alternative behavioral rehearsal can be effectively integrated with more traditional psychodramatic techniques to reduce delinquents' acting-out tendencies.     

Searching for Projection in the Rorschach

The issue of assumptions concerning projection and the Rorschach is discussed in relation to the Rorschach response process and the process of projection. Some data suggest that some minus answers may evolve because of projection, but the limited nature of the findings indicate that these types of projected answers will be difficult to identify in most cases. Findings concerning passive and aggressive movement responses, morbid content responses, and movement answers, coded using a new special score for positive cooperative interaction (COP) in human and animal movement responses, suggest that most projections will manifest in responses that depart from and/or embellish the stimulus field. Caution is recommended about attempting to interpret single answers that appear to be projections, because most any might be the product of simple stimulus classification.     

论思想实验与物质实验之异同

思想实验与物质实验同属于科学实验的范畴,有着相同的价值,相同的构成要素,相似的运作过程,在科学史中都曾发挥过重要的作用。但和物质实验相比较而言,人们对思想实验的形象、运行机制,以及它的巨大威力的来源等知之甚少。要想揭示思想实验的本原面目,对思想实验有一个清晰的认识,必须从我们所熟知的物质实验着手,将思想实验与物质实验的构成要素进行细致的比对。在比较中对思想实验的形象作出一个完整的刻画,为思想实验在科学中找到一个合适的定位,也有利于思想实验在当代科学前沿发挥更大的作用。     

Temporal summation and phenomenal simultaneity: Experiments with the radius display

This study explores the phenomenon of subjective simultaneity between multiple successive positions of a target, which consisted here of an illuminated radial line in both stepwise and continous rotation around a fixation point. In four experiments the span of phenomenal simultaneity (M) was measured under varying intensities of target and surround, and with two different estimation procedures. M was found to change as a power function of target intensity, with an exponent of -0.13 or -0.16, for both stroboscopic and continuous illumination of the target. Variation of surround intensity affected M only for 9 out of 15 subjects (Experiment III.) For these subjects M varied inversely with log I of the surround; for the remaining 6 subjects M remained approximately constant over a range of 5 log units of I. Auditory noise tended slightly to decrease M in the former group and to increase it in the latter. Under simultaneous continuous and stroboscopic illumination of the target a paradoxical, single-valued M was obtained (Experiment IV). Higher values of M were found when subjects attempted to estimate the number of apparently simultaneous radii (Experiment I). The function relating M to target intensity closely parallels that for the critical duration of temporal brightness summation. The possibility that both measures reflect the same underlying process is discussed.     

Increasing Class Participation in College Classrooms with the Good Behavior Game

Participation in college classrooms remains low, despite evidence that increased participation contributes to better grades. Incorporating active student educational strategies may help combat poor participation. The Good Behavior Game is a tool for improving various behaviors of children and adolescents in schools. However, strategies similar to the Good Behavior Game have not yet been assessed with young adults in college classrooms. We used an alternating treatments design to evaluate effects of a modified version of the Good Behavior Game on participation across three introductory psychology courses at a public university. We collected baseline data on class participation and then compared two variations of the Good Behavior Game—one included delivering a preferred reward to individuals on the winning team and one did not include a reward. Incorporating components of the Good Behavior Game increased class participation with and without a preferred reward, relative to baseline. Students reported preferring the game with a reward relative to the game with no reward and not playing the game. Because class participation has been correlated with better course grades, incorporating features of the Good Behavior Game may be a feasible approach for improving college students’ education.     

Projection, transitional phenomena, and the Rorschach

This article sheds light on the theoretical foundations of projective testing. Drawing on the psychoanalytic perspective, especially Winnicott's works, it elucidates the nature of projection and transitional relatedness, with particular reference to the Rorschach. This conceptualization of the Rorschach task is compared with Exner's more cognitive-behavioral orientation, which holds that the Rorschach is not a projective test. I suggest that Exner's Comprehensive System could become more truly comprehensive if it were integrated with a more complex understanding of the response process, allowing more importance to the role of stimuli from the inner world to counterbalance its focus on the processing of external stimulation. Clinical and research implications are discussed.