Better than

It is commonly held that rational preferences must be acyclic. There have, however, been cases that have been put forward as counterexamples to this view. This paper focuses on the following question: If the counterexamples are compelling and rational preferences can be cyclic, what should we conclude about the presumed acyclicity of the “better than” relation? Building on some revisionary suggestions concerning acyclicity and betterness, I make a case for hanging on to the presumption that “better than” is acyclic even if “is rationally preferred to” is not. As I explain, the divergence my view makes room for does not threaten to make “better than” judgments less relevant to choice than judgments about rational preference. To the contrary, it makes them more relevant. Toward the end of the paper, I extend my results to the relation “is morally better than” in light of the possibility that there might be moral preferability cycles.

     

Correction to: Non-transitive Better than Relations and Rational Choice

Philosophia - There is a mistake in the definition of the covering criterion on page 6.     

Non-transitive Better than Relations and Rational Choice

Philosophia - This paper argues that decision problems and money-pump arguments should not be a deciding factor against accepting non-transitive better than relations. If the reasons to accept...     

Why Doomsday Arguments are Better than Simulation Arguments

Inspired by anthropic reasoning behind Doomsday arguments, Nick Bostrom's Simulation Argument says: people who think advanced civilisations would run many fully‐conscious simulated minds should also think they're probably simulated minds themselves. However, Bostrom's conclusions can (and should) be resisted, especially by sympathisers with Doomsday or anthropic reasoning. This paper initially offers a posterior‐probabilistic ‘Doomsday lottery’ argument against Bostrom's conclusions. Suggestions are then offered for deriving anti‐simulation conclusions using weaker assumptions. Anti‐simulation arguments herein use more (epistemically and metaphysically) robust reference classes than Bostrom's argument, require no Principles of Indifference, abide better by the total evidence requirement, and yet use empirically plausible priors and likelihoods. However, while Doomsday arguments are probabilistically, epistemically and metaphysically stronger than the Simulation Argument, anthropic reasoning can (and should) refrain from embracing either.     

The whole moves less than the spin of its parts

When individually moving elements in the visual scene are perceptually grouped together into a coherently moving object, they can appear to slow down. In the present article, we show that the perceived speed of a particular global-motion percept is not dictated completely by the speed of the local moving elements. We investigated a stimulus that leads to bistable percepts, in which local and global motion may be perceived in an alternating fashion. Four rotating dot pairs, when arranged into a square-like configuration, may be perceived either locally, as independently rotating dot pairs, or globally, as two large squares translating along overlapping circular trajectories. Using a modified version of this stimulus, we found that the perceptually grouped squares appeared to move more slowly than the locally perceived rotating dot pairs, suggesting that perceived motion magnitude is computed following a global analysis of form. Supplemental demos related to this article can be downloaded from app.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Better safe than sorry: Simplistic fear-relevant stimuli capture attention

It has been consistently demonstrated that fear-relevant images capture attention preferentially over fear-irrelevant images. Current theory suggests that this faster processing could be mediated by an evolved module that allows certain stimulus features to attract attention automatically, prior to the detailed processing of the image. The present research investigated whether simplified images of fear-relevant stimuli would produce interference with target detection in a visual search task. In Experiment 1, silhouettes and degraded silhouettes of fear-relevant animals produced more interference than did the fear-irrelevant images. Experiment 2, compared the effects of fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant distracters and confirmed that the interference produced by fear-relevant distracters was not an effect of novelty. Experiment 3 suggested that fear-relevant stimuli produced interference regardless of whether participants were instructed as to the content of the images. The three experiments indicate that even very simplistic images of fear-relevant animals can divert attention.     

Better safe than sorry: simplistic fear-relevant stimuli capture attention

It has been consistently demonstrated that fear-relevant images capture attention preferentially over fear-irrelevant images. Current theory suggests that this faster processing could be mediated by an evolved module that allows certain stimulus features to attract attention automatically, prior to the detailed processing of the image. The present research investigated whether simplified images of fear-relevant stimuli would produce interference with target detection in a visual search task. In Experiment 1, silhouettes and degraded silhouettes of fear-relevant animals produced more interference than did the fear-irrelevant images. Experiment 2, compared the effects of fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant distracters and confirmed that the interference produced by fear-relevant distracters was not an effect of novelty. Experiment 3 suggested that fear-relevant stimuli produced interference regardless of whether participants were instructed as to the content of the images. The three experiments indicate that even very simplistic images of fear-relevant animals can divert attention.     

救人一命 胜造七级浮屠

在广东省潮阳峡山妙吉祥堂，有一位出家于五台山圆照寺的著名僧医释妙空。1991年，他的恩师清海上师圆寂后，他带着恩师“慈悲利济，普度众生”的遗愿，回到故里，建起了妙吉祥堂金刚道场，树起了五台山黄教的法幢，弘扬起了师爷能海上师所传的密法。他不仅率领四众弟子修持密法，而且伏案疾书，出版了《赞文殊菩萨偈注释》和《销释金刚科仪宝卷集注会要》等书。     

Disliked Music can be Better for Performance than Liked Music

Although liked music is known to improve performance through boosting one's mood and arousal, both liked music and disliked music impair serial recall performance. Given that the key acoustical feature of this impairment is the acoustical variation, it is possible that some music may contain less acoustical variation and so produce less impairment. In this situation, unliked, unfamiliar music could be better for performance than liked, familiar music. This study tested this by asking participants to serially recall eight‐item lists in either quiet, liked or disliked music conditions. Results showed that performance was significantly poorer in both music conditions compared with quiet. More importantly, performance in the liked music condition was significantly poorer than in the disliked music condition. These findings provide further illustration of the irrelevant sound effect and limitations of the impact of liked music on cognition. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

芬太尼用于无痛胃镜检查优于等效剂量瑞芬太尼的临床研究

在无痛胃镜检查中观察并比较等效剂量瑞芬太尼和芬太尼血流动力学指标、氧饱和度的影响以及不良反应的发生率。择期无痛胃镜检查ASAⅠ级～Ⅱ级的患者90例,随机分为丙泊酚＋芬太尼组（PF组,n=40）和丙泊酚＋瑞芬太尼组（PR组,n=50）,记录患者睫毛反射消失时间、胃镜操作时间、苏醒时间以及用药前（T1）、睫毛反射消失时（T2）、胃镜过咽喉部时（T3）、胃镜退出时（T4）、苏醒时（T5）等时点血流动力学指标和氧饱和度。结果两组患者较术前都有明显的血压下降,PR组窦性心动过缓20例（40．8%）、PF组8例（20．0％）,PR组窦性心动过缓发生率明显增加（P〈0．05）。用于无痛胃镜检查麻醉时,瑞芬太尼不良反应较多,芬太尼相对更为安全。     

Better Safe than Sorry: Risking Irresponsibility by Seeking Uncertainty

Research findings differ as to whether choosing a risky option is an efficient strategy for decision makers seeking to avoid responsibility for potential failures. A risky choice may leave the final outcome to chance factors, but the decision maker can still be held responsible for choosing risk. Further, it is unclear whether a risky choice is a responsible choice. The present article investigates the putative relationship between risk‐taking and responsibility by drawing a distinction between being responsible for the outcome (R1) versus acting responsibly (R2). Four experiments were performed, in which participants were presented with scenarios describing decision makers facing a choice between a risky (uncertain) option and a riskless (certain) option, framed in terms of losses or equivalent gains. The results showed that decision makers who chose the risky alternative were judged to have acted in a less responsible manner (R2), while still being held equally responsible for the outcome (R1), unless they were ignorant of the risks involved. Choosing risk did not absolve decision makers from blame, despite being less causal and less in control than those who chose the riskless option. Risky decision makers were also judged to be more personally involved. The dissociation between R1 and R2 ratings confirms earlier findings and serves to clarify an alleged relationship between risky choices and responsibility aversion. Framing effects for own choices were found in both scenarios. In contrast, responsibility ratings were only slightly affected by frame. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The desire to lose one's identity

The desire to merge identities with an intimate partner was found to be negatively related to psychoticism but related to other social desires, such as the desire for physical closeness and identifying with the achievements of others.     

错认总比错过好——面孔视错觉的发生机制及其应用

面孔视错觉现象表现为个体从其他事物中感知到并不存在的面孔。面孔视错觉要素已广泛应用于艺术、广告及商品中,起到吸引注意、促进消费的作用。同时,先前的研究通过采用各种范式,发现患者在面孔视错觉的产生上同常人的差异,以及视错觉与视幻觉之间的联系。根据视觉加工通路的不同,相关范式可分为视错觉监测范式,以及视错觉辨认范式。前者侧重于基于提取的类面孔特征所做出的快速预测,后者侧重于主观期望引导个体对物体特征的提取,两者最终均会影响到后续的认知判断。日后研究可从面孔视错觉的发生机制出发,结合自上而下和自下而上两种加工通路,为面孔视错觉产生机制提供理论依据,并拓宽该要素在临床诊断及商业广告领域上的应用。     

Better than average: alternatives to statistical summary representations for rapid judgments of average size

People can perceive the individual features of an object by focusing attention on it and binding the features together at a location. Some perceptual processing can occur without focusing attention on each object, though; people may even be able to extract summary information about the sizes of all the objects in a display, essentially computing the mean size at a glance. Evidence that people can judge the mean size of an array efficiently and accurately has been used to support the strong claim that people use a global, parallel process to extract a statistical summary of the average size of the objects in the display. Such claims are based both on the accuracy of performance and on the supposition that performance exceeds what would be possible with serial, focused attention. However, these studies typically have not examined the limits of performance with focused-attention strategies. Through experiments and simulations, we show that existing evidence for mean size perception can be explained through various focused-attention strategies, without appealing to a new mechanism of average size perception. Although our evidence does not eliminate the possibility that people do perceive the average size of all the objects in a display, it suggests that simpler mechanisms can accommodate the existing data.     

It is Better to Receive than to Give: Advice Network Effects on Job and Work-Unit Attachment

Purpose  The purpose of this paper was to investigate the relationship between advice-giving, advice-receiving, and employee work attitudes. We argue that (1) both advice-receiving and advice-giving will be positively related to job involvement; (2) advice-receiving will be more strongly associated with work-unit commitment than advice-giving; and (3) job involvement will mediate the relationship between advice-receiving and work-unit commitment. Design/methodology/approach  We conducted an empirical study of admissions department employees at a large university in southwest Pennsylvania in the United States. Respondents completed surveys which included questions related to demographics, social network ties, and attitudes. Findings  We found that while advice-giving and advice-receiving were positively related to job involvement, only advice-receiving was positively related to work-unit commitment. Job involvement fully mediated the relationship between advice-receiving and work-unit commitment. Implications  Our study (1) shows that advice-giving and advice-receiving are related to important work-related attitudes in organizations; (2) highlights the importance of the directionality of advice flow, as employees who received as opposed to provided advice tended to have higher levels of work-unit commitment; and (3) demonstrates that social network ties were related to work-unit attachment through job involvement. Originality/value   We examine job involvement and work-unit commitment using a social network analysis thus providing new insights about the relationships between advice-giving, advice-receiving and these important variables. An earlier version of this paper won the Best Paper Award at the 2005 Southwest Academy of Management Conference. The authors would like to dedicate this paper to Margie Jonnet.     

Divided attention: the whole is more than the sum of its parts

A divided attention situation is more than the sum of its component single tasks. Emergent aspects of the whole situation must also be considered. Three examples illustrate this. (a) When several complex stimuli (e.g., letters) are identified at once, their perceived components or features must be appropriately bundled together. Otherwise, components of two different stimuli may appear combined. This (emergent) problem is shown to depend on attention to multiple stimuli, not simply their presentation. (b) In the psychological refractory period (PRP) situation, especial difficulties arise when stimulus-response mappings are different for first and second reactions. It appears that for each reaction there is some (emergent) uncertainty over which mapping to use. This is only one of many possible emergent processes in the PRP situation. (c) When the two hands perform different actions (internally programmed sequences of taps), there is some tendency for each hand to carry out the action assigned to the other. This again is only a small part of the (emergent) problem of motor coordination. Thus the simple idea of competition for limited resources captures only a part of the problem of divided attention. Performance under divided attention will reflect an interaction between resource limitation, single task processes, and emergent aspects of the whole situation.