Change Blindness Blindness: The Metacognitive Error of Overestimating Change-detection Ability

Recent research has demonstrated that subjects fail to detect large between-view changes to natural and artificial scenes. Yet, most people (including psychologists) believe that they would detect the changes. We report two experiments documenting this metacognitive error. In Experiment 1, students in a large General Psychology class were asked if they thought they would notice the change in four different situations previously tested by Levin and Simons (1997) and Simons and Levin (1998). Most claimed that they would have noticed even relatively small changes that real observers rarely detected. In Experiment 2, subjects were tested individually and half were asked to predict whether someone else would detect the changes. Subjects again overestimated the degree to which changes would be detected, both by themselves and by others. We discuss possible reasons for these metacognitive errors including distorted beliefs about visual experience, change, and stability.     

The Latent and Manifest Consequences of Work

Jahoda's (1979) distinction between manifest and latent consequences of work was tested on samples of employed and unemployed persons to determine if such a dichotomy can help explain the psychosocial effects of unemployment. Confirmatory factor analysis on data from 393 individuals from two large American cities failed to support the two consequences of work proposed by Jahoda. Instead, these data indicate that an intrinsic versus extrinsic model of work rewards can more accurately account for the patterns among ratings. The model of best fit was equally accurate for the employed and unemployed samples, suggesting that these groups have similar reactions to and reasons for working (or wanting to work). These results indicate that more than financial loss is suffered when jobs are lost involuntarily, and that we can fully understand the debilitating effects of unemployment only when we recognize the full scope of reasons why people work.     

Free Will as the Implied Negation of Our Conscious Physical Actions

In this paper, I have explained free will (classical libertarian version) as the implied negation of our conscious physical actions (routine actions). What we come across is liberty, which is purposive. The existence of free will, if possible, can only be traced in those states where our consciousness is in least connection with external world (eg. dreams or above). The spontaneity and absurdity of free will ensures that it will never accompany any purposive action. I have pointed out that it is important to proceed in the inverted direction (from determining free will in mind, to non-moral and then to moral conditions), rather than taking it for granted in morality. I have also tried to give an explanation for the illusion of free will during moral conditions. The major principles which I have used during this conversation are Anomalous Monism (Donald Davidson), Benjamin Libet’s ‘Half-second short delay’, Decision-making theories of Antonio Damasio and Daniel Dennett, Patricia Churchland’s notion of ‘Self-control’, Frankfurt’s ‘Theory of the Hierarchy of desires’ and occasional references to Freud’s and Jung’s psychoanalytic concepts, and Advaita Vedanta’s ‘states of consciousness’, etc.

     

The Creative Tripod: The Stitching and the Unstitching Revisited

The Psychological Record - There are no undebated definitions of “creativity,” and any definition will reflect how this rich topic is treated. Nearly 20 years ago I discussed how...     

The Effect of Practice on the Control of Sequential and Simultaneous Actions

The effect of practice on the control of sequential and simultaneous multilimb aiming responses was studied. In one group (n = l0), subjects pushed hand levers and foot pedals 20 deg. (plus or minus 1.5 deg.) forward in the following order: left hand, right hand, left foot, right foot. In the other group (n = l0), all subjects pushed both levers and pedals forward simultaneously for the same distance. The goal for both groups was to reduce movement time (MT). Analysis of the displacement and velocity records showed that sequential movements were made quicker and with fewer movement corrections than simultaneous movements. With practice, both groups reduced the MT and the number of movement corrections, suggesting that the accuracy of the initial propulsive phase of the movement became more precise. In addition, temporal interlimb correlations increased with practice, suggesting the development of a coordination factor related to multilimb movements, but little support was shown for the gear-shift analogy.     

Beauty is Good: The Appearance Culture,the Internalization of Appearance Ideals,and Dysfunctional Appearance Beliefs Among Tweens

Dysfunctional appearance beliefs have been identified as important risk factors in the development of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors among early adolescents. The current two‐wave study among 10–14‐year‐olds (N = 1,597, M_age = 11.25, SD = 1.05) aimed to delineate factors that contribute to the endorsement of such beliefs. Results showed that tweens discussed appearance‐related topics with their friends more often when they frequently watched tween television programs (all time 1). Both media exposure and peer conversations (time 1) were related to attributing benefits to attractiveness (time 1), which, in turn, predicted the internalization of appearance ideals (time 1). The internalization of appearance ideals positively predicted the endorsement of dysfunctional appearance beliefs 6 months later.     

The Spotlight Effect and the Illusion of Transparency: Egocentric Assessments of How We Are Seen by Others

We review a program of research that examines people's judgments about how they are seen by others. The research indicates that people tend to anchor on their own experience when making such judgments, with the result that their assessments are often egocentrically biased. Our review focuses on two biases in particular, the spotlight effect, or people's tendency tooverestimate the extent to which their behavior and appearance are noticed and evaluated by others, and the illusion of transparency, or people's tendency to overestimate the extent to which their internal states "leak out" and are detectable by others.     

Knowing our Reasons: Distinctive Self-Knowledge of Why We Hold Our Attitudes and Perform Actions

This paper argues that subjects at least sometimes learn why they hold an attitude or perform an action in a distinctive first-personal way, i.e., they learn of those facts in a manner that mere observers cannot. Subjects have this first-personal self-knowledge in virtue of first-personal self-knowledge of the reasons for which they hold an attitude or perform an action—their motivating reasons. This paper focusses on one’s reasons for holding an attitude. So, it is not just that subjects have distinctive access to the fact that they, say, believe that q; they also have distinctive access to the fact that they believe that p for the reason that p. I argue for this position contra the prevailing orthodoxy. Philosophers and psychologists often deny that subjects have distinctive access to why they hold their attitudes. Indeed, even many of those who claim that subjects can use a special method to learn that they have a given attitude deny that this method provides knowledge of why one holds that attitude.     

Extrinsic Value Orientation and Affective Forecasting: Overestimating the Rewards, Underestimating the Costs

ABSTRACT We examined affective forecasting errors as a possible explanation of the perennial appeal of extrinsic values and goals. Study 1 found that although people relatively higher in extrinsic (money, fame, image) compared to intrinsic (growth, intimacy, community) value orientation (REVO) are less happy, they nevertheless believe that attaining extrinsic goals offers a strong potential route to happiness. Study 2's longitudinal experimental design randomly assigned participants to pursue either 3 extrinsic or 3 intrinsic goals over 4 weeks, and REVO again predicted stronger forecasts regarding extrinsic goals. However, not even extrinsically oriented participants gained well-being benefits from attaining extrinsic goals, whereas all participants tended to gain in happiness from attaining intrinsic goals. Study 3 showed that the effect of REVO on forecasts is mediated by extrinsic individuals' belief that extrinsic goals will satisfy autonomy and competence needs. It appears that some people overestimate the emotional benefits of achieving extrinsic goals, to their potential detriment.     

The Manifest Association Structure of the Single-Factor Model: Insights from Partial Correlations

The association structure between manifest variables arising from the single-factor model is investigated using partial correlations. The additional insights to the practitioner provided by partial correlations for detecting a single-factor model are discussed. The parameter space for the partial correlations is presented, as are the patterns of signs in a matrix containing the partial correlations that are not compatible with a single-factor model.     

The Need for Dominance Scale of the Manifest Needs Questionnaire: Its Reliability and Validity

Le besoin d'une échelle de dominance dans le questionnaire Manifest Needs est démontre, pour rendre acceptables sa fidélité et sa validité. Des recherches complémentaires devraient permettre d'éprouver la fidélité interne de l'échelle, démontrer plus complètement sa valeur prédictive et améliorer notre compréhension des relations entre les concepts de dominance, d'autonomie et de réalisation.
The need for dominance scale of the Manifest Needs Questionnaire is shown to have acceptable reliability and validity. Further research should strive to improve the internal reliability of the scale, demonstrate more fully its predictive validity, and improve our understanding of the relationships between the constructs of dominance, autonomy, and achievement.     

重新思考马克思与正义：希腊的维度

作者认为马克思思想具有希腊的维度,古希腊伦理哲学中的本质主义、目的论和正义这三个要素深刻地影响了马克思对资本主义的分析和批判.在作者看来,马克思的历史理论是本质主义和目的论的,这与亚里士多德的影响密不可分.而马克思对正义的看法则深受伊壁鸠鲁的影响,即将一种历史的维度引入了关于正义的讨论,在这种观点的影响下,马克思在正义问题上采取了"有限相对主义"的立场,即认为资本主义就其本身来看是正义的,但是从社会主义的立场来,这种正义又是有限的和不足的.正因为历史地看待正义问题,所以马克思又用道德的语言来谴责资本主义.作者认为,这种"有限相对主义"和用道德的语言抨击资本主义之间的张力并不像某些学者认为的是一种矛盾,而是马克思处理问题的一种辩证方法.     

The Role of Recollection and Familiarity in the Context Variability Mirror Effect

Context variability refers to the number of preexperimental contexts that are associated with concepts. In four experiments, we investigated the basis for increased recognition memory for low context variability words. Low context variability was associated with greater recollection in the hit rates, and high context variability was associated with greater familiarity in the false alarms. Shortening the study time reduced recollection, but low context variability still influenced recollection in the hit rates. A modality change from study to test also reduced recollection but preserved recollective differences for low versus high context variability items. One interpretation of the results suggests that low context variability evokes more specific and, perhaps, idiosyncratic recollective associations during learning and that these associations support better recognition in the hit rates. By contrast, activating the larger number of associations for high context variability items may be mistaken for familiarity in the false alarm rates.     

The Zeal of the Convert Revisited

Social scientists have long been interested in the effects of conversion on religiosity. Drawing on data from the 2014 Pew Religious Landscape Survey, I revisit the zeal of the convert thesis by comparing the religiosity of both converts and cradle members within the main American religious traditions. My findings reveal that converts are not more zealous than lifelong members, in fact, converts tend to have lower levels of religious commitment. Switchers raised in strict denominations do exhibit greater zeal than cradle members. The discussion argues that people create new, hybrid forms of religious engagement based on elements from both their current and childhood religious identities. Conversion is less a sudden rupture involving dramatic, wholesale change; rather, it is a process in which some prior religious norms are retained alongside new ones.     

The Metaphysical Status of the Embryo: Some Arguments Revisited

abstract This paper re‐examines some well‐known and commonly accepted arguments for the non‐individuality of the embryo, due mainly to the work of John Harris. The first concerns the alleged non‐differentiation of the embryoblast from the trophoblast. The second concerns monozygotic twinning and the relevance of the primitive streak. The third concerns the totipotency of the cells of the early embryo. I argue that on a proper analysis of both the empirical facts of embryological development, and the metaphysical importance or otherwise of those facts, all three arguments are found wanting. None of them establishes that the embryo is not an individual human being from the moment of conception.     

The Effect of Age on Relative Timing Variability and Transfer

The purpose of this study was to investigate potential qualitative differences in relative timing across age both within and across speed conditions. Forty right-handed males performed 48 trials of a five-component coincident-timing task at one speed and then 16 more at a different speed. The independent variables were age (5-7, 8-10, 11-13 years, and adult), speed (slow and fast), and block order (training and transfer). The results indicated that within-speed relative timing consistency improved with increasing age for movement-time and pause-time components, while a cross-speed transfer improved with age only for pause time. Movement velocity emerged as a more stable timing parameter than movement time across speeds for all groups. The last movement-time component correlated highly with the total response times, suggesting that coincident-timing accuracy was controlled to a large degree by a final, fine-tuning correction. These results imply that developmental deficits in relative timing increase the attention demands of a given task, thereby reducing a child’s capacity to concurrently control his movements and monitor events in the environment.     

The Reverse-Caricature Effect Revisited: Familiarization With Frontal Facial Caricatures Improves Veridical Face Recognition

Prior research suggests that recognition of a person's face can be facilitated by exaggerating the distinctive features of the face during training. We tested if this 'reverse-caricature effect' would be robust to procedural variations that created more difficult learning environments. Specifically, we examined whether the effect would emerge with frontal rather than three-quarter views, after very brief exposure to caricatures during the learning phase and after modest rotations of faces during the recognition phase. Results indicate that, even under these difficult training conditions, people are more accurate at recognizing unaltered faces if they are first familiarized with caricatures of the faces, rather than with the unaltered faces. These findings support the development of new training methods to improve face recognition.     

The Expertise Question Revisited: Horizontal and Vertical Expertise

This article deals with the developments taking place in the field of family therapy from the expertise perspective, and as an expert practice. This development is looked at as a dialectical movement between two types of expertise, namely vertical and horizontal expertise. This spatial metaphor is put forward as a complementary alternative to the prevailing modern/postmodern debate. A brief account of the development of the study of science and of expertise is provided. The author suggests that the richness of current family therapeutic thinking owes something to both these different modes of expertise, the division not being as exclusive as some postmodernist authors suggest.