Background beliefs in Bayesian inference

We report five experiments in which the role of background beliefs in social judgments of posterior probability was investigated. From a Bayesian perspective, people should combine prior probabilities (or base rates) and diagnostic evidence with equal weighting, although previous research shows that base rates are often underweighted. These experiments were designed so that either piece of information was supplied either by personal beliefs or by presented statistics, and regression analyses were performed on individual participants to assess the relative influence of information. We found that both prior probabilities and diagnostic information significantly influenced judgments, whether supplied by beliefs or by statistical information, but that belief-based information tended to dominate the judgments made.     

Is phonological information mapped onto semantic information in a one-to-one manner?

Spoken word recognition models have to explain the influence of mismatching information on lexical activation. The effect of mismatching information is usually addressed with cross-modal semantic priming experiments using priming effects as a measure of the degree of lexical activation. Pseudowords phonologically related to a semantic associate of the target, e.g., *domato-PAPRIKA, serve as primes. Mismatch effects at the word form level are supposed to percolate unaltered to the semantic level. We show that cross-modal semantic priming might underestimate activation at the word form level. Targets (e.g., PAPRIKA) were preceded by either phonologically related pseudoword primes (e.g., *baprika) or semantically related pseudoword primes (e.g., *domato). Different priming and RT patterns were obtained for the two priming relations.     

Memory for multidimensional source information

Source memory may comprise recollection of multiple features of the encoding episode. To analyze the simultaneous representation and retrieval of those multiple features, a multinomial memory model is presented that measures memory for crossed dimensions of source information. The first experiment investigated the validity of the new model. The model showed an excellent statistical fit to empirical data, and the parameters of multidimensional source memory were sensitive to manipulations of source similarity on distinct dimensions. The second experiment used the model to test the hypothesis that source memory for individual context attributes is stochastically related in the case of conscious recollection but independent in the case of familiarity-based recognition judgments. The prediction was supported by the introduction of a "remember"-"know" distinction in a multidimensional source memory test.     

Rapid adaptation to auditory-visual spatial disparity

The so-called ventriloquism aftereffect is a remarkable example of rapid adaptative changes in spatial localization caused by visual stimuli. After exposure to a consistent spatial disparity of auditory and visual stimuli, localization of sound sources is systematically shifted to correct for the deviation of the sound from visual positions during the previous adaptation period. In the present study, this aftereffect was induced by presenting, within 17 min, 1800 repetitive noise or pure-tone bursts in combination with synchronized, and 20° disparate flashing light spots, in total darkness. Post-adaptive sound localization, measured by a method of manual pointing, was significantly shifted 2.4° (noise), 3.1° (1 kHz tones), or 5.8° (4 kHz tones) compared with the pre-adaptation condition. There was no transfer across frequencies; that is, shifts in localization were insignificant when the frequencies used for adaptation and the post-adaptation localization test were different. It is hypothesized that these aftereffects may rely on shifts in neural representations of auditory space with respect to those of visual space, induced by intersensory spatial disparity, and may thus reflect a phenomenon of neural short-term plasticity.     

Place learning in scopolamine-treated rats: the roles of distal cues and catecholaminergic mediation

Experiments 1 and 2 tested the hypothesis that cholinergic receptor antagonists impair place learning in a water maze by interfering with the processing of distal, visual cues. Extramaze cues were offered to rats in the form of geometrical patterns arranged on the inner circumference of a curtain surrounding the water maze. In Experiment 1 the animals were offered both the distal cues and proximal cues in the form of pingpong balls in fixed positions on the surface of the water while only distal cues were present in Experiment 2. Animals were injected with either scopolamine (0.5 mg/kg body wt) or saline 20 min prior to the daily place learning sessions. Upon reaching criterion level performance the animals were tested on "rotation" sessions on which the distal cues were displaced. The outcome of such "rotations" demonstrated that-regardless of the presence or absence of proximal cues-scopolamine-treated rats relied at least as much as normal animals on the distal cues. The acquisition phase of both Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated an almost complete lack of scopolamine-associated impairment in acquisition and performance of the place learning task. In Experiment 3 (when scopolamine was no longer administered) the subjects of Experiment 2 were exposed to a series of pharmacological "challenges" of their place learning performance and eventually to surgical ablation of the anteromedial prefrontal cortex. The outcome of the pharmacological challenges and the postoperative test of task performance demonstrated that the place learning performance of animals which had acquired the task under scopolamine was mediated by a neural substrate dissimilar to the substrate of task performance in normal animals. Rats acquiring the task while deprived of the cholinergic system demonstrated above-normal contributions to task mediation from catecholaminergic-probably dopaminergic-mechanisms and tentative results pointed to a "shift" toward prefrontal task mediation.     

Review of quantity and types of spirituality research in three health care databases (1962-1999): implications for the health care ministry

Using computer technology to identify the term "spiritual," these researchers present results of the 2306 citations and compare five criteria discovered with research reported in four pastoral counseling journals. The authors note the limitations of such a search and the possible implications of the findings for health care ministry.     

The effects of approach and avoidance motor actions on the elements of creative insight

The authors propose that the nonaffective bodily feedback produced by arm flexion and extension informs individuals about the processing requirements of the situation, leading to the adoption of differential processing styles and thereby influencing creativity. Specifically, the authors predicted that arm flexion would elicit a heuristic processing strategy and bolster insight processes, whereas arm extension would elicit a systematic processing strategy and impair insight processes. To test these predictions, the authors assessed the effects of these motor actions on 3 central elements of creative insight: contextual set-breaking, restructuring, and mental search. As predicted, in 6 experiments, arm flexion, relative to arm extension, facilitated insight-related processes. In a 7th experiment, arm extension, relative to arm flexion, facilitated analytical reasoning, supporting a cognitive tuning interpretation of the findings.     

On Modal Logics Characterized by Models with Relative Accessibility Relations: Part I

This work is divided in two papers (Part I and Part II). In Part I, we study a class of polymodal logics (herein called the class of "Rare-logics") for which the set of terms indexing the modal operators are hierarchized in two levels: the set of Boolean terms and the set of terms built upon the set of Boolean terms. By investigating different algebraic properties satisfied by the models of the Rare-logics, reductions for decidability are established by faithfully translating the Rare-logics into more standard modal logics. The main idea of the translation consists in eliminating the Boolean terms by taking advantage of the components construction and in using various properties of the classes of semilattices involved in the semantics. The novelty of our approach allows us to prove new decidability results (presented in Part II), in particular for information logics derived from rough set theory and we open new perspectives to define proof systems for such logics (presented also in Part II).     

Attribution of aggression to acts: a four-factor model

Factors determining why acts are regarded as aggressive were investigated in a sample of 303 subjects (140 males, 163 females, M age = 17.7 yr., SD = 1.4). A model was tested, according to which people base their attribution of aggression to acts on four factors: (1) intention (yes/no), (2) reason (attack/defense), (3) injury (death/injury/no injury), and (4) mode (weapon/bare hands/nonphysical means). All four factors contributed to the explanation of attribution of aggression, and the order of importance was the one mentioned above, intention being most important. The interaction between intention and reason was the second most important, contributing more than reason alone. The findings are consistent with the severity of punishment in sentences for different crimes of violence.     

Money Doesn't Talk, It Swears: How Economic Stress and Resistance Resources Impact Inner-City Women's Depressive Mood

We examined the differential impact of chronic versus acute economic stress on depressive mood among a sample of 1241 low-income, single, European and African American women. Based on Hobfoll's (1988, 1989) conservation of resources (COR) theory, we predicted that acute resource loss would be more distressing than chronic economic lack. That is, although chronically impoverished conditions are stressful, the attendant resource losses created will be more distressing. We further predicted that mastery and social support would be more beneficial in offsetting the negative consequences of acute resource loss than the negative consequences of chronic economic lack, because acute loss creates identifiable demands that resources may address. Hence, we hypothesized that mastery and social support would show stress buffering effects only for material loss, not chronic lack. The findings generally supported the hypotheses, but mastery buffered only European American women's resource loss and social support buffered only African American women's resource loss. The findings are discussed in light of implications for prevention within theoretical and cultural contexts.