Cryptonormative Judgments

A cryptonormative judgment, roughly speaking, is a judgment that is presented by the agent who makes it as non‐normative (either generally or in some particular respect), but that is in fact normative (either generally or in that particular respect). The idea of cryptonormativity is familiar from debates in social theory, social psychology, and continental political philosophy, but has to my knowledge never been treated in analytic metaethics, moral psychology or epistemology except in passing. In this paper, I argue, first, that cryptonormative judgments are pervasive: familiar cases from everyday life are most naturally diagnosed as cryptonormative judgments. Secondly, they reveal that normative judgment is a state that can be quite deeply non‐transparent to its bearer, in a way that is not, for example, assimilable to the phenomenon of self‐deception. Thirdly, they shed light on debates over amoralism and lend some support to a picture of normative psychology that links normative judgment constitutively to motivation. In the conclusion, I make some remarks about the social and political insidiousness of cryptonormativity, looking forward to future work.     

Judgments of proportions

This study investigated the processes that underlie estimates of relative frequency. Ss performed 4 tasks using the same stimuli (squares containing black and white dots); they judged "percentages" of white dots, "percentages" of black dots, "ratios" of black dots to white dots, and "differences" between the number of black and white dots. Results were consistent with the theory that Ss used the instructed operations with the same scale values in all tasks. Despite the use of the correct operation, Ss consistently overestimated small proportions and underestimated large proportions. Variations in the distributions of actual proportions affected the extent to which Ss overestimated small proportions and underestimated large proportions in the direction predicted by range-frequency theory. Results suggest that proportion judgments, and by analogy probability judgments, should not be taken at face value.     

意图信息在物权判断和道德判断中的作用

意图会影响人们的道德判断，但尚不清楚意图在物权判断中的作用。本研究以156名非法学专业的大学生为被试，通过包含不同意图（恶意/善意/无意）的故事情景，考察了在损失求偿和获益分享情境中人们的物权判断和道德判断。结果发现，在损失求偿情境中，不管是出于善意、恶意还是无意，被试均判断行为者应当赔偿他人损失，但不认为善意和无意的行为者应受谴责。在获益分享情境中，被试仅认为善意的行为者应当分享给他人带来的收益且应当受赞扬，但不认为恶意和无意的行为者应当受到赞扬。综合来看，意图对常人物权判断和道德判断的影响不一致，物权判断比道德判断较少受意图信息的影响，涉及更多的理性思维，反映其具有领域特异性。     

Range Model of Judgments

Judgments of unfamiliar objects are likely to take the psychological form of a range rather than a precise point estimate as is commonly assumed in consumer research. A range model of attitude judgments is formulated to investigate attitude shifts after exposure to a persuasive message. In Study 1, the message was not only shown to affect consumers’ point‐estimate judgments but also their range judgments about the attribute targeted by the information. A message consistent with the consumer's pretrial attitude caused the range to narrow, and a message that was inconsistent with the consumer's pretrial attitude caused the range to widen asymmetrically in the direction of the message. In Study 2, judgment ranges were shown to have psychological validity in that a model based on whether the believed and desired judgment ranges overlap predicted purchase intention better than the conventional model that is based on differences in point estimates.     

Judgments of associative memory

Judgments of associative memory (JAM) were indexed by ratings given to pairs of cue and response words. The normed probabilities, p(response|cue), were obtained from free association norms. The ratings were linearly related to the probabilities. The JAM functions were characterized by high intercepts ( approximately 50 on a 100 point scale) and shallow slopes (<0.5). The JAM function generalized across materials and method of rating. The function was not affected by expectancies or semantic similarity. Attempts to alter the function by making alternative responses more available were unsuccessful. A computer simulation model (MINERVA 2) exhibited the linear JAM function and successfully accounted for more complex phenomena (like the joint influence of forward and backward associative strengths on ratings). The shallow JAM slope appears to result from a fundamental lack of discrimination among associative strengths. The high intercept appears to result partly from an independent post-mnemonic source of bias producing over-estimation of association.     

On Judgments of Approximately Equal

Although precision is often important in quantitative judgment, sometimes, it is valuable to recognize that two quantities are roughly the same. Fuzzy‐trace theory suggests that approximately equal judgments rely on gist representations (i.e., meaningful fuzzy categories of quantity). We conducted three experiments to investigate approximately equal judgments with number pairs presented in different formats, both with and without semantic content (breast cancer statistics). In each study, the ratio of the smaller divided by larger number predicted approximately equal judgments. Experiment 1 also examined how knowledge of breast cancer, presentation format (frequencies vs. percentages), and differences in gist comprehension of breast cancer information influence fuzzy equality judgments. As predicted by the fuzzy‐trace theory concept of denominator neglect, approximately equal judgments were more sensitive, as measured by signal detection theory (SDT) analyses, when presented as percentages. In both experiments with breast cancer statistics, people were more likely to judge number pairs approximately equal when they were embedded in sentences about breast cancer, and breast cancer knowledge predicted increased perception of equality, when appropriately consistent with reliable sources, and increased judgment sensitivity. In Experiment 2, a simple intervention focusing on gist meaning increased source‐consistent approximately equal judgments, increased SDT judgment sensitivity, and decreased SDT response bias. In Experiment 3, using number pairs devoid of semantic context spanning four orders of magnitude, we further examined ratio similarity. Overall, more knowledgeable judges and those who better understood the gist of meaningful numbers were more likely to judge literally different numbers as “approximately equal” rather than make precise discriminations that were meaningless. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Judgments of learning and improvement

Can learners accurately judge the rate of their learning? Rates of learning may be informative when study time is allocated across materials, and students' judgments of their learning rate have been proposed as a possible metacognitive tool. Participants estimated how much they improved between presentations in multitrial learning situations in which n-gram paragraphs (in Experiments 1 and 2) or word pairs (Experiments 3 and 4) were learned . In the first experiment, participants rated improvement on a percentage scale, whereas on the second and third, judgments were given on a 0–6 scale. Experiment 4 used both a percentage scale and an absolute number scale. The main result was that judgments of improvement were poorly correlated with actual improvement and, in one case, were negatively correlated. Although judgments of improvement were correlated with changes in judgments of learning, they were not reliable indicators of actual improvement. Implications are discussed for theoretical work on metacognition.     

Preadolescents' Social Judgments: The Relationship Between Self-Endorsement of Traits and Gender-Related Judgments of Female Peers

The present study investigated therelationship between preadolescents' and earlyadolescents' inferences and judgments of a target girl,their self-endorsement of traditionally feminine andmasculine traits, the gender of the playmates and thegender-typedness of the game. Preadolescents and earlyJewish Israeli adolescents males and females (n = 251)were shown a video film portraying a female targetplaying a feminine, masculine or neutral game witheither boys or girls and then made a variety ofinferences and judgments about the target. The gender ofthe playing partners and the gender-typedness of thegame were found to influence preadolescents'inferences of female targets' traits, roles andoccupations, but not their motivational-emotionaljudgments. Gender differences emerged such that theinferences of boys were more often in accordance withtraditional gender stereotypes. Selfendorsement oftraits did not seem to influence preadolescents'judgments, except in those of the cross-gender children.The results are discussed within the framework of genderschema theories.     

Metacognitive Judgments and Control of Study

ABSTRACT— Recent evidence indicates that people's judgments of their own learning are causally related to their study behavior and not epiphenomenal. I argue here that people use these metacognitions in an effort to selectively study material in their own region of proximal learning. First they attempt to eliminate materials that are already well learned. Then they progress successively from studying easier to more difficult materials. Successful implementation of this metacognitively guided strategy enhances learning. The necessary components are, first, that the metacognitions be accurate, and second, that the appropriate choices are implemented for study. With these parts in place, the individual is in position to effectively take control of his or her own learning.     

学习判断的练习伴随低估效应

学习判断是元认知判断的一种重要形式,是个体对随后的记忆成绩的预测。当个体在多次学习－测验任务中学习词对时,学习判断出现了练习伴随低估效应。研究者对此进行了大量的实验并提出了多种理论,如线索应用模型,提取流畅性假说和基点－校正假说。但是,Koriat等人通过分析发现练习伴随低估效应可能不是单一因素作用的结果,而是多种效应共同影响作用的表现,并由此提出了记忆去偏差假说。文章指出了目前研究中还存在的问题以及未来研究的方向     

Therapist Judgments of Clients' Sex-role Problems

Thirty therapists belonging to the Michigan Society of Consulting Psychologists rated the bipolar adjectives of the Sex-Role Stereotypes Questionnaire as to which pole was a problem for their average male and female clients. Female clients were viewed as too feminine on both socially desirable and socially undesirable adjectives. The problems of male clients were not viewed in sex stereotypic ways on the specific stereotypes. Asked directly, therapists reported that sex-role expectations create problems for both male and female clients. The findings contradict the hypothesis that therapists see the problems of women in therapy as nonconformity to the feminine stereotype.     

Judgments of Occupations from Printed Photographs

Summary

Judgments of occupations were made from printed photographs, presented in series of pairs, the subject having been informed as to the occupational groups represented in the pairs. For all comparisons of groups, more right than wrong judgments were made. These differences were found to be reliable, and varied from slight (for comparisons of politicians with men of letters) to moderate (for comparisons of politicians with business men). The differences do not, however, warrant the existence of occupational types.

The asserted bases of judgment were found to be numerous and inconsistent, and are believed to be more frequently rationalizations, i.e., justifications, than the real determinants of judgment.     

Judgments of communicative intent in conversation

In conversation people make specific statements that are intended to accomplish some particular social action (e.g., to praise, criticize or sympathize). To communicate effectively, people must consensually perceive the intentions of each other’s messages. In this research we examined the degree of consensus in judgments of communicative intent. Participants engaged in separate, brief conversations with three friends, watched videotapes of their interactions, and judged the communicative intent of 6 randomly selected statements. Observers also judged these statements under one of three conditions: audio-visual, audio, or text. Analyses showed that participants agreed strongly in their judgments of intent and that observers also agreed in their judgments, but not as much as participants.     

The Moral Judgments of Chinese Students

Abstract

The Defining Issues Test (DIT) was translated into Chinese and administered to 84 male and 84 female Chinese subjects in Hong Kong. No significant sex differences in all of the stage scores derived from DIT ratings and rankings were found. In addition, the Pearson correlation matrix of Stage 2 through 6 scores for the females but not for the males approximated a simplex-like pattern. The unrotated factor loadings of the Principal Components Analysis for the female subjects provided clear support to the claim of an ordered sequence of Kohlberg's stages measured by the DIT. The factor loadings on the higher stages (4, 5, and 6), however, were less discriminating and consistent in the male factor pattern.