Handling Inconsistencies in the Early Calculus

The early calculus is a popular example of an inconsistent but fruitful scientific theory. This paper is concerned with the formalisation of reasoning processes based on this inconsistent theory. First it is shown how a formal reconstruction in terms of a sub-classical negation leads to triviality. This is followed by the evaluation of the chunk and permeate mechanism (C&P) proposed by Brown and Priest in (Journal of Philosophical Logic, 33(4), 379–388, 2004) to obtain a non-trivial formalisation of the early infinitesimal calculus. Different shortcomings of this application of C&P as an explication of inconsistency tolerant reasoning are pointed out, both conceptual and technical. To remedy these shortcomings, an adaptive logic is proposed that allows for conditional permeations of formulas under the assumption of consistency preservation. First the adaptive logic is defined and explained and thereafter it is demonstrated how this adaptive logic remedies the defects C&P suffered from.     

Inconsistencies in repeated refugee status decisions

Consistency in civil servant decisions is paramount to upholding judicial equality for citizens and individuals seeking safety through governmental intervention. We investigated refugee status decisions made by a sample of civil servants at the Swedish Migration Agency. We hypothesized, based on the emotional demands such decisions bring with them, that participants would exhibit a compassion fade effect such that refugee status was less likely to be granted over time. To test this, we administered a questionnaire containing brief presentations of asylum seekers and asked participants to judge how likely they would be to give refugee status to the person. Crucially the first, middle, and final case presented were matched on decision relevant characteristics. Consistent with our hypothesis, we saw a significant decline in ratings. These effects were accentuated by the amount of time a participant had worked at the agency, consistent with depletion of affective resources, and attenuated in workers with greater responsibility and additional training. We conclude that active regulation of empathic and affective responses to asylum seekers may play a role in determining the outcome in refugee status decisions.     

Removing Inconsistencies in Assumption-based Theories Through Knowledge-Gathering Actions

In this paper, the problem of purifying an assumption-based theory KB, i.e., identifying the right extension of KB using knowledge-gathering actions (tests), is addressed. Assumptions are just normal defaults without prerequisite. Each assumption represents all the information conveyed by an agent, and every agent is associated with a (possibly empty) set of tests. Through the execution of tests, the epistemic status of assumptions can change from "plausible" to "certainly true", "certainly false" or "irrelevant", and the KB must be revised so as to incorporate such a change. Because removing all the extensions of an assumption-based theory except one enables both identifying a larger set of plausible pieces of information and renders inference computationally easier, we are specifically interested in finding out sets of tests allowing to purify a KB (whatever their outcomes). We address this problem especially from the point of view of computational complexity.     

Replication of Psycholinguistic Experiments and the Resolution of Inconsistencies

Non-exact replications are regarded as effective tools of problem solving in psycholinguistic research because they lead to more plausible experimental results; however, they are also ineffective tools of problem solving because they trigger cumulative contradictions among different replications of an experiment. This paper intends to resolve this paradox by putting forward a metatheoretical model that clarifies the criteria with the help of which various aspects of the effectiveness of the problem solving process can be differentiated and evaluated. The key point is the reconstruction of the relationship between original experiments and their non-exact replications by introducing the concept of ‘experimental complex’ and analysing the problem solving strategies that the researchers apply. The workability of the proposed metatheoretical model is illustrated with the help of three case studies.     

Individuating games

Synthese - Games, which philosophers commonly invoke as models for diverse phenomena, are plausibly understood in terms of rules and goals, but this gives rise to two puzzles. The first concerns...     

Rationality in games and institutions

Synthese - Against the orthodox view of the Nash equilibrium as “the embodiment of the idea that economic agents are rational” (Aumann, 1985, p 43), some theorists have proposed...     

National security games

Issues that arise in using game theory to model national security problems are discussed, including positing nation-states as players, assuming that their decision makers act rationally and possess complete information, and modeling certain conflicts as two-person games. A generic two-person game called the Conflict Game, which captures strategic features of such variable-sum games as Chicken and Prisoners' Dilemma, is then analyzed. Unlike these classical games, however, the Conflict Game is a two-stage game in which each player can threaten to retaliate — and carry out this threat in the second stage — if its opponent chose noncooperation in the first stage.Conditions for the existence of different pure-strategy Nash equilibria, or stable outcomes, are found, and these results are extended to situations in which the players can select mixed strategies (i.e., make probabilistic threats or choices). Although the Conflict Game sheds light on the rational foundations underlying arms races, nuclear deterrence, and other strategic situations, more detailed assumptions are required to tie this generic game to specific conflicts.Steven J. Brams gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the National Science Foundation under Grant No. SES85-20154, the Sloan Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation.D. Marc Kilgour gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada under Grant No. A8974.     

Inconsistencies in the Reporting of Perceived Trauma Severity Among Acute Physical Injury Survivors

This study aimed to identify and predict inconsistency in perceived trauma severity reports over time among trauma survivors. Hospitalized adult survivors of a traumatic injury completed trauma exposure assessments within 40 days post-injury and 6 weeks later (n = 77). The following trauma severity characteristics were examined: (1) threat of loss of life, (2) threat of loss of a body part, (3) threat of serious injury, and (4) peritraumatic emotionality. Potential predictors of inconsistency were also examined. About half of the reports regarding perceived trauma severity characteristics were inconsistent between the baseline to 6-week assessment. The inconsistent reports were mostly small and equally likely to be either more or less severe over time. Increases in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; especially avoidance) predicted increases in severity of life threat and threat of loss of a body part. Thus, acute reports of perceived trauma severity vary and are influenced by PTSD symptoms.     

视频游戏中的化身认同

化身认同是个体在使用和体验游戏化身的过程中,自我知觉发生暂时性改变,并与化身在情绪和认知上的联系暂时加强的心理现象,它为理解化身效应提供了新视角。目前,化身认同的测量模型主要有三维和四维结构模型,其神经机制也得到初步揭示。影响化身认同的因素主要包括游戏自身特点和个体因素。影响效果方面,化身认同与游戏体验、游戏成瘾、攻击行为和自我同一性的关系是目前关注的焦点。未来的研究,仍需深入探讨化身认同的概念与结构,研发更加有效的测量工具,拓展研究方法,丰富研究变量,并加强应用研究。     

Depth of strategic reasoning in games

Orthodox game theory assumes indefinitely recursive reasoning ('I think that you think that I think em leader '), but human decision-makers, who are limited by bounded rationality, cannot handle limitless layers of complexity. Recent research corroborates earlier findings that human players tend to operate at only one or two levels of strategic depth.     

Determining truth conditions in signaling games

Evolving signaling systems can be said to induce partitions on the space of world states as they approach equilibrium. Formalizing this claim provides a general framework for understanding what it means for language to “cut nature at its seams”. In order to avoid taking our current best science as providing the adaptive target for all evolving systems, the state space of the world must be characterized exclusively in terms of the coincidence of stimuli and payoffs that drives the evolution of cognitive complexity. Cognition exploits the reliable clustering of events in this space. Using this framework to analyze our ordinary concepts of truth and justification, it appears that while justification can be a simple matter of conforming to historically entrenched strategies, truth cannot be fully specified on the basis of the system’s causal history, but requires a robust clustering in the larger world state space.     

Modelling simultaneous games in dynamic logic

We make a proposal for formalizing simultaneous games at the abstraction level of player’s powers, combining ideas from dynamic logic of sequential games and concurrent dynamic logic. We prove completeness for a new system of ‘concurrent game logic’ CDGL with respect to finite non-determined games. We also show how this system raises new mathematical issues, and throws light on branching quantifiers and independence-friendly evaluation games for first-order logic.     

Subjective randomization in one-and two-person games

Following the study by Rapoport and Budescu (1992), two experiments are reported whose main purpose is to compare the generation of random sequences in one- and two-person games. The first experiment addresses the generation of trinary series in two-person zerosum games with asymmetric players. The second examines the generation of binary series using a between-subjects design, and compares the cognitive processes operating in one- and two-person games. Although both types of games result in similar deviations from randomness, they seem to induce qualitatively different cognitive processes.     

赌博游戏中的near-miss效应

near-miss效应是指在赌博中, 与一般的输钱和赢钱相比, “几乎赢(near-miss)”的输钱会诱发个体更高的生理唤醒和更强的赌博动机, 从而导致个体持续赌博的一种现象, 是导致赌博成瘾的主要诱因之一。针对这种现象的研究范式大致有三种：老虎机/类老虎机任务、轮盘任务和刮刮乐彩票任务。这种现象的理论解释目前主要有认知曲解假说、控制幻觉理论和受挫假说。near-miss效应的脑机制和病理研究才刚刚起步, 所涉及到的脑功能区域主要包括脑岛、腹侧纹状体等。未来的研究应在near-miss效应发生机制的理论模型建构、研究范式多样化、研究技术多模态化、病理机制和临床干预等方面进一步展开。