Allusive thinking (cognitive looseness) and the propensity to perceive “meaningful” coincidences

This study aimed at evaluating relations between the disposition to make “meaningful” associations between random events and potentially predisposing factors related to a more “loose” cognitive control, that is, loose associative processing (allusive thinking) and poorer inhibition of irrelevant memory content. As the findings of this study suggest, individuals with a higher disposition to perceive coincidences produced a higher rate of unusual associations in the Bridge-the-Associative-Gap test than low scorers, and showed poorer inhibition of no longer relevant memory content in the Recent Probes Task. These relationships were independent from individual differences in paranormal belief. Performance in a random generation task (Mittenecker Pointing Test) yielded no support for an important role of a biased concept of randomness in the perception of coincidences. The findings suggest that common mechanisms may underlie the propensity to perceive meaningful coincidences, cognitive looseness, and positive schizotypy.     

Theoretical and empirical review of multinomial process tree modeling

We review a current and popular class of cognitive models calledmultinomial processing tree (MPT) models. MPT models are simple, substantively motivated statistical models that can be applied to categorical data. They are useful as data-analysis tools for measuring underlying or latent cognitive capacities and as simple models for representing and testing competing psychological theories. We formally describe the cognitive structure and parametric properties of the class of MPT models and provide an inferential statistical analysis for the entire class. Following this, we provide a comprehensive review of over 80 applications of MPT models to a variety of substantive areas in cognitive psychology, including various types of human memory, visual and auditory perception, and logical reasoning. We then address a number of theoretical issues relevant to the creation and evaluation of MPT models, including model development, model validity, discrete-state assumptions, statistical issues, and the relation between MPT models and other mathematical models. In the conclusion, we consider the current role of MPT models in psychological research and possible future directions.     

Allusive thinking (cognitive looseness) and the propensity to perceive “meaningful” coincidences

This study aimed at evaluating relations between the disposition to make “meaningful” associations between random events and potentially predisposing factors related to a more “loose” cognitive control, that is, loose associative processing (allusive thinking) and poorer inhibition of irrelevant memory content. As the findings of this study suggest, individuals with a higher disposition to perceive coincidences produced a higher rate of unusual associations in the Bridge-the-Associative-Gap test than low scorers, and showed poorer inhibition of no longer relevant memory content in the Recent Probes Task. These relationships were independent from individual differences in paranormal belief. Performance in a random generation task (Mittenecker Pointing Test) yielded no support for an important role of a biased concept of randomness in the perception of coincidences. The findings suggest that common mechanisms may underlie the propensity to perceive meaningful coincidences, cognitive looseness, and positive schizotypy.     

Multiple bases for young and older adults' judgments of learning in multitrial learning

Prior work has suggested that participants use a memory-for-past-tests (MPT) heuristic for judgments of learning (JOLs) in a multitrial learning scenario. That is, when learning the same material in multiple sessions, previous memory performance can be used as a basis for later memory predictions. We explored this issue by evaluating the impact of healthy aging on the use of MPT across trials. Young adults and healthy older adults learned pairs of words, made JOLs, and received a memory test in three study-test trials on the same material. Results indicated that both young and older adults relied on MPT as a basis for JOLs and changes in MPT across trials were nominal. Further, only the most-recent past test influenced JOLs, whereas earlier tests were unrelated to later judgments. JOLs were also influenced by prior-trial JOLs and were related to subsequent memory performance on the same trial. We suggest that these data support both indirect- and direct-memory mechanisms as the bases for the MPT heuristic. Further, in a multitrial learning scenario, in which the same information was being learned, young and older adults used the same bases for their JOLs.     

多项式加工树模型在社会心理学中的应用

多项式加工树（multinomial processing tree, MPT）从理论模型出发,使用多项式模型来拟合行为数据并估计理论模型中各个加工过程发生的可能性。该模型能够有效分离和量化不同心理过程,被广泛应用于社会认知研究之中,如态度、刻板印象等。本文首先介绍该模型的基本原理及其实现,并以道德判断为例说明其在社会心理学中的最新应用。最后,总结其对社会心理学研究的意义,即可以作为一种方法提高研究的效度和精度,具有较高的实用价值,并指出其潜在不足。     

Beta-MPT: Multinomial processing tree models for addressing individual differences

Traditionally, multinomial processing tree (MPT) models are applied to groups of homogeneous participants, where all participants within a group are assumed to have identical MPT model parameter values. This assumption is unreasonable when MPT models are used for clinical assessment, and it often may be suspect for applications to ordinary psychological experiments. One method for dealing with parameter variability is to incorporate random effects assumptions into a model. This is achieved by assuming that participants’ parameters are drawn independently from some specified multivariate hyperdistribution. In this paper we explore the assumption that the hyperdistribution consists of independent beta distributions, one for each MPT model parameter. These beta-MPT models are ‘hierarchical models’, and their statistical inference is different from the usual approaches based on data aggregated over participants. The paper provides both classical (frequentist) and hierarchical Bayesian approaches to statistical inference for beta-MPT models. In simple cases the likelihood function can be obtained analytically; however, for more complex cases, Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms are constructed to assist both approaches to inference. Examples based on clinical assessment studies are provided to demonstrate the advantages of hierarchical MPT models over aggregate analysis in the presence of individual differences.     

The role of memory for past test in the underconfidence with practice effect

According to the Memory for Past Test (MPT) heuristic, judgments of learning (JOLs) may be based, in part, on memory for the correctness of answers on a previous test. The authors explored MPT as the source of the underconfidence with practice effect (UWP; A. Koriat, L. Sheffer, & H. Ma'ayan, 2002), whereby Trial 1 overconfidence switches to underconfidence by Trial 2. Immediate and delayed JOLs were contrasted because only immediate JOLs demonstrate UWP. Consistent with MPT for immediate JOLs, Trial 1 test performance better predicted Trial 2 JOLs than did Trial 2 test performance. Delayed JOLs showed the reverse. Furthermore, items forgotten on Trial 1 but remembered on Trial 2 contributed disproportionately to UWP, but only with immediate JOLs.     

多项式加工树模型次序约束的量化分析及其应用

多项式加工树（MPT）模型是一种认知测量模型,能够对潜在认知过程进行测量和检验。已有研究探讨了二链MPT模型次序约束的重新参数化问题,本研究探讨了MPT模型次序约束的量化分析方法并从二链推广到多链,同时归纳出MPT模型参数向量内和参数向量间两参数次序约束量化分析的结论。数据分析结果表明该方法不仅在MPT模型框架下验证了潜在参数次序关系,而且给出了约束的量化指标,为潜在认知测量提供更有意义的解释。     

Assessing the validity of multinomial models using extraneous variables: an application to prospective memory

The class of multinomial processing tree (MPT) models has been used extensively in cognitive psychology to model latent cognitive processes. Critical for the usefulness of a MPT model is its psychological validity. Generally, the validity of a MPT model is demonstrated by showing that its parameters are selectively and predictably affected by theoretically meaningful experimental manipulations. Another approach is to test the convergent validity of the model parameters and other extraneous measures intended to measure the same cognitive processes. Here, we advance the concept of construct validity (Cronbach & Meehl, 1955 ) as a criterion for model validity in MPT modelling and show how this approach can be fruitfully utilized using the example of a MPT model of event-based prospective memory. For that purpose, we investigated the convergent validity of the model parameters and established extraneous measures of prospective memory processes over a range of experimental settings, and we found a lack of convergent validity between the two indices. On a conceptual level, these results illustrate the importance of testing convergent validity. Additionally, they have implications for prospective memory research, because they demonstrate that the MPT model of event-based prospective memory is not able to differentiate between different processes contributing to prospective memory performance.     

TreeBUGS: An R package for hierarchical multinomial-processing-tree modeling

Multinomial processing tree (MPT) models are a class of measurement models that account for categorical data by assuming a finite number of underlying cognitive processes. Traditionally, data are aggregated across participants and analyzed under the assumption of independently and identically distributed observations. Hierarchical Bayesian extensions of MPT models explicitly account for participant heterogeneity by assuming that the individual parameters follow a continuous hierarchical distribution. We provide an accessible introduction to hierarchical MPT modeling and present the user-friendly and comprehensive R package TreeBUGS, which implements the two most important hierarchical MPT approaches for participant heterogeneity—the beta-MPT approach (Smith & Batchelder, Journal of Mathematical Psychology 54:167-183, 2010) and the latent-trait MPT approach (Klauer, Psychometrika 75:70-98, 2010). TreeBUGS reads standard MPT model files and obtains Markov-chain Monte Carlo samples that approximate the posterior distribution. The functionality and output are tailored to the specific needs of MPT modelers and provide tests for the homogeneity of items and participants, individual and group parameter estimates, fit statistics, and within- and between-subjects comparisons, as well as goodness-of-fit and summary plots. We also propose and implement novel statistical extensions to include continuous and discrete predictors (as either fixed or random effects) in the latent-trait MPT model.     

A novel method for assessing rival models of recognition memory

A general comparison is made between the multinomial processing tree (MPT) approach and a strength-based approach for modeling recognition memory measurement. Strength models include the signal-detection model and the dual-process model. Existing MPT models for recognition memory and a new generic MPT model, called the Multistate (MS) model, are contrasted with the strength models. Although the ROC curves for the MS model and strength model are similar, there is a critical difference between existing strength models and MPT models that goes beyond the assessment of the ROC. This difference concerns the question of stochastic mixtures for foil test trials. The hazard function and the reverse hazard function are powerful methods for detecting the presence of a probabilistic mixture. Several new theorems establish a novel method for obtaining information about the hazard function and reverse hazard function for the latent continuous distributions that are assumed in the strength approach to recognition memory. Evidence is provided that foil test trials involve a stochastic mixture. This finding occurred for both short-term memory procedures, such as the Brown–Peterson task, and long-term list-learning procedures, such as the paired-associate task. The effect of mixtures on foil trials is problematic for existing strength models but can be readily handled by MPT models such as the MS model. Other phenomena, such as the mirror effect and the effect of target-foil similarity, are also predicted accurately by the MPT modeling framework.     

MPTinR: Analysis of multinomial processing tree models in R

We introduce MPTinR, a software package developed for the analysis of multinomial processing tree (MPT) models. MPT models represent a prominent class of cognitive measurement models for categorical data with applications in a wide variety of fields. MPTinR is the first software for the analysis of MPT models in the statistical programming language R, providing a modeling framework that is more flexible than standalone software packages. MPTinR also introduces important features such as (1) the ability to calculate the Fisher information approximation measure of model complexity for MPT models, (2) the ability to fit models for categorical data outside the MPT model class, such as signal detection models, (3) a function for model selection across a set of nested and nonnested candidate models (using several model selection indices), and (4) multicore fitting. MPTinR is available from the Comprehensive R Archive Network at http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/MPTinR/.     

认知抑制对艺术创造力的影响:认知风格的调节作用

以114名大学生为被试, 采用Mittenecker指向测验和粘贴画任务考察了认知抑制能力与艺术创造力的关系, 并采用镶嵌图形测验考察了认知风格在其中所起的调节作用。研究结果表明:(1)认知抑制能力与艺术创造力之间呈现负相关, 认知抑制对于个体的创造程度、沟通传播水平和艺术创造综合印象可以起到显著的负向预测作用, 对于个体艺术创造的可爱程度和想象水平可以起到边缘显著的负向预测作用;(2)认知风格在认知抑制能力与艺术创造力的关系中起着调节作用, 主要表现为认知抑制能力对于场依存个体的创造程度、想象水平和沟通传播水平具有显著的预测作用, 对于场独立个体的艺术创造力则不具有预测作用。     

多项式加工树模型在再认启发式中的应用

摘 要 再认启发式利用再认线索进行决策。以往研究采用一致率、击中率、虚报率和区分指数来表示再认启发式使用,然而这些方法都存在局限。多项式加工树模型能够分离不同的认知加工过程,为了解决再认使用与知识使用的混淆,研究者提出一种多项式加工树模型 r-model 测量再认启发式的使用。本文将重 点介绍 r-model,具体包括 r-model 的内容、数据分析以及考虑个体差异的分层 r-model。最后,从 r-model 的模型修正和边界条件两个方面提出未来研究方向。 关键词 再认启发式;流畅启发式;多项式加工树;贝叶斯分层模型     

Multinomial processing tree models: An implementation

Multinomial processing tree (MPT) models have been widely used by researchers in cognitive psychology. This paper introduces MBT.EXE, a computer program that makes MPT easy to use for researchers. MBT.EXE implements the statistical theory developed by Hu and Batchelder (1994). This user-friendly software can be used to construct MPT models and conduct statistical inferences, including point and interval estimation, hypothesis testing, and goodness of fit. Furthermore, this program can be used to examine the robustness of MPT models. Algorithms for parameter estimation, hypothesis testing, and Monte Carlo simulation are presented.     

Representing parametric order constraints in multi-trial applications of multinomial processing tree models

Binary multinomial processing tree (MPT) models parameterize the multinomial distribution over a set of J categories, such that each of its parameters, θ₁,θ₂,…,θ_S, is functionally independent and free to vary in the interval [0,1]. This paper analyzes binary MPT models subject to parametric order-constraints of the form 0?θ_s?θ_t?1. Such constraints arise naturally in multi-trial learning and memory paradigms, where some parameters representing cognitive processes would naturally be expected to be non-decreasing over learning trials or non-increasing over forgetting trials. The paper considers the case of one or more, non-overlapping linear orders of parametric constraints. Several ways to reparameterize the model to reflect the constraints are presented, and for each it is shown how to construct a new binary MPT that has the same number of parameters and is statistically equivalent to the original model with the order constraints. The results both extend the mathematical analysis of the MPT class as well as offering an approach to order restricted inference at the level of the entire class. An empirical example of this approach is provided.     

Bounds on variances of estimators for multinomial processing tree models

When there are order constraints among the parameters of a binary, multinomial processing tree (MPT) model, methods have been developed for reparameterizing the constrained MPT into an equivalent unconstrained MPT. This note provides a theorem that is useful in computing bounds on the estimator variances for the parameters of the constrained model in terms of estimator variances of the parameters of the unconstrained model. In particular, we show that if X and Y are random variables taking values in [0,1], then Var[XY]?2(Var[X]+Var[Y]).     

Pooling data versus averaging model fits for some prototypical multinomial processing tree models

For a study with multinomial data where there are n_g individuals and with each person having n_r test trials, the question arises as to how to fit the parameters of a multinomial processing tree (MPT) model. Should each parameter be estimated for each individual and then averaged to obtain a group estimate, or should the frequencies in the multinomial categories be pooled so that the model is fit once for the entire group? This basic question is explored with a series of Monte Carlo simulations for some prototypical MPT models. There is a general finding of a pooling advantage for the case where there is a single experimental condition. Also when there are different experimental conditions, there is reduced bias for detecting condition differences for a method based on the pooled data. Although the focus of the paper is on multinomial models, a general theorem is advanced that establishes a basic condition that determines whether there is or is not a difference between the averaging of individual estimates and the estimate based on the pooled data.