Distributed representation as a principle for the analysis of cockpit information displays

This article examines the representational properties of cockpit information displays from the perspective of distributed representations (Zhang & Norman, 1994). The basic idea is that the information needed for many tasks in a cockpit is distributed across the external information displays in the cockpit and the internal minds of the pilots. It is proposed that the relative distribution of internal and external information is the major factor of a display's representational efficiency. Several functionally equivalent but representationally different navigation displays are selected to illustrate how the principle of distributed representations is applied to the analysis of the representational efficiencies of cockpit information displays.     

Scale-invariance as a unifying psychological principle

How can the classical psychological laws be explained and unified? It is proposed here that scale-invariance is a unifying principle. Distributions of many environmental magnitudes are observed to be scale invariant; that is, the statistical structure of the world remains the same at different measurement scales [Mandelbrot, B., 1982. The Fractal Geometry of Nature (2nd Edn.). W.H. Freeman, San Francisco, CA; Bak, P., 1997. How Nature Works: The Science of Self-organized Criticality. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK]. We hypothesise that the perceptual-motor system reflects and preserves these scale invariances. This allows derivation of several of the most widely applicable psychological laws governing perception and action across domains and species (Weber's, Stevens', Fitts' and Piéron's Laws). We suggest that these fundamental laws reflect accommodation of the perceptuo-motor system to the scale-invariant physical world and therefore have a common foundation.     

Conditioned hyperventilation as a factor in animal, infant, and adult apnea: a theoretical analysis of experimental and clinical data

An apnea hypothesis is proposed termed Conditioned Hyperventilation. An organism (animal, infant, or adult) can become conditioned to anticipate traumatic terminal breathing. The resulting hyperventilation produces excessive oxygen, which triggers apnea, allowing an increase in carbon dioxide. This apnea serves as an additional unconditioned stimulus (UCS) causing the hyperventilation (apnea) to increase. Organic blockage can also serve as the UCS. Apnea may be reduced or prevented by monitoring and extinguishing hyperventilation through the use of behavioral modification techniques, or biofeedback. Infant lung collapse during the first six months is suggested as one UCS in infants.     

Bayesian data analysis as a tool for behavior analysts

Bayesian approaches to data analysis are considered within the context of behavior analysis. The paper distinguishes between Bayesian inference, the use of Bayes Factors, and Bayesian data analysis using specialized tools. Given the importance of prior beliefs to these approaches, the review addresses those situations in which priors have a big effect on the outcome (Bayes Factors) versus a smaller effect (parameter estimation). Although there are many advantages to Bayesian data analysis from a philosophical perspective, in many cases a behavior analyst can be reasonably well‐served by the adoption of traditional statistical tools as long as the focus is on parameter estimation and model comparison, not null hypothesis significance testing. A strong case for Bayesian analysis exists under specific conditions: When prior beliefs can help narrow parameter estimates (an especially important issue given the small sample sizes common in behavior analysis) and when an analysis cannot easily be conducted using traditional approaches (e.g., repeated measures censored regression).     

Influence analysis for the factor analysis model with ranking data

Influence analysis is an important component of data analysis, and the local influence approach has been widely applied to many statistical models to identify influential observations and assess minor model perturbations since the pioneering work of Cook (1986) . The approach is often adopted to develop influence analysis procedures for factor analysis models with ranking data. However, as this well‐known approach is based on the observed data likelihood, which involves multidimensional integrals, directly applying it to develop influence analysis procedures for the factor analysis models with ranking data is difficult. To address this difficulty, a Monte Carlo expectation and maximization algorithm (MCEM) is used to obtain the maximum‐likelihood estimate of the model parameters, and measures for influence analysis on the basis of the conditional expectation of the complete data log likelihood at the E‐step of the MCEM algorithm are then obtained. Very little additional computation is needed to compute the influence measures, because it is possible to make use of the by‐products of the estimation procedure. Influence measures that are based on several typical perturbation schemes are discussed in detail, and the proposed method is illustrated with two real examples and an artificial example.     

Authenticity as a foundational principle of medical ethics

Increasingly, contemporary medical ethicists have become aware of the need to explicate a foundation for their various models of applied ethics. Many of these theories are inspired by the apparent incompatibility of patient autonomy and provider beneficence. The principle of patient autonomy derives its current primacy to a large extent from its legal origins. However, this principle seems at odds with the clinical reality. In the bioethical literature, the notion of authenticity has been proposed as an alternative foundational principle to autonomy. This article examines this proposal in reference to various existentialist philosophers (Heidegger, Sartre, Camus and Marcel). It is concluded that the principle of autonomy fails to do what it is commonly supposed to do: provide a criterion of distinction that can be invoked to settle moral controversies between patients and providers. The existentialist concept of authenticity is more promising in at least one crucial respect: It acknowledges that the essence of human life disappears from sight if life's temporal character is reduced to a series of present decisions and actions. This also implies that the very quest for a criterion that allows physicians to distinguish between sudden, unexpected decisions of their patients to be or not to be respected, without recourse to the patient's past or future, is erroneous.     

Mean performance and the factor analysis of learning data

The difference in factor structure resulting from the factorization of correlations, covariances, and cross products is discussed. Factoring cross products has the advantage of retaining information on both means and variances; this method of factoring learning data is recommended. The conditions under which factoring covariances and cross products lead to the same essential structure are investigated.     

Development of form similarity as a Gestalt grouping principle in infancy

Given evidence demonstrating that infants 3 months of age and younger can utilize the Gestalt principle of lightness similarity to group visually presented elements into organized percepts, four experiments using the familiarization/novelty-preference procedure were conducted to determine whether infants can also organize visual pattern information in accord with the Gestalt principle of form similarity. In Experiments 1 and 2, 6- to 7-month-olds, but not 3- to 4-month-olds, presented with generalization and discrimination tasks involving arrays of X and O elements responded as if they organized the elements into columns or rows based on form similarity. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that the failure of the young infants to use form similarity was not due to insufficient processing time or the inability to discriminate between the individual X and O elements. The results suggest that different Gestalt principles may become functional over different time courses of development, and that not all principles are automatically deployed in the manner originally proposed by Gestalt theorists.     

Aperiodicity as a factor in choice

Four pigeons were trained to peck at either of two response-keys. Pecks at either key occasionally produced a secondary reinforcer, in the presence of which further pecks occasionally produced food, the primary reinforcer. All pigeons showed a consistent preference for variable (as compared to fixed) interval schedules of primary reinforcement.     

Family as a factor in delinquency

50 adjudicated delinquents were given academic and psychological tests and a self-report of delinquency according to the learning disability/delinquency study of the National Criminal Justice Service of 1980. 31 learning disabled delinquents were identified. The test of proportions compared learning disabilities in delinquent (n = 31) and nondelinquent (ns = 24 and 43) samples. The Mann-Whitney U test compared the reported number of categories of delinquent behavior in the three groups. A typical delinquent of this rural area tends to be a white male with average or above intelligence and a learning disability. His family is large; his parents are divorced. He comes from a poorer economic and cultural background. A dysfunctional family can be a center wherein delinquency grows; on the other hand, a strong family can nurture and protect when peers and school fail.