Disparate roads to certainty processing strategy choices under need for closure

This paper describes a programme of research addressing an intriguing inconsistency in research findings about cognitive processes under a high need for cognitive closure (NFC). While early studies demonstrated that individuals who seek closure opt for closed-minded cognitive strategies, a growing body of research has identified a number of circumstances in which individuals who are high in NFC engage in effortful, open-minded information processing to an even greater extent than their low NFC counterparts. This has posed the challenge of delineating the circumstances under which people motivated to reduce uncertainty (i.e., attain closure) engage in effortful and open-minded cognition from those situations in which they rely on simplistic, low-effort strategies. This also calls for theoretical advancement in NFC theory. We discuss our proposed solution to this puzzle and the implications of this model for real-world social phenomena.     

Influence of Instruction on Velocity and Accuracy in Soccer Kicking of Experienced Soccer Players

ABSTRACT. The authors’ aim was to investigate the speed-accuracy tradeoff in soccer kicking with the dominant and nondominant foot by using different types of instructions prioritizing speed or accuracy in experienced soccer players. Ten male soccer players were randomly given 1 of the 4 instructions that differed in aspects of the kick they should emphasize and what the secondary aim would be (speed or accuracy). It was found that ball velocity was affected by instruction in the expected way: emphasis on accuracy and ball velocity reduced for both kicking feet. In addition kicking accuracy increased when emphasizing this, but only with the dominant foot indicating that Fitts’ law only was found in kicks with the dominant foot.     

Socratic Trees

The method of Socratic proofs (SP-method) simulates the solving of logical problem by pure questioning. An outcome of an application of the SP-method is a sequence of questions, called a Socratic transformation. Our aim is to give a method of translation of Socratic transformations into trees. We address this issue both conceptually and by providing certain algorithms. We show that the trees which correspond to successful Socratic transformations—that is, to Socratic proofs—may be regarded, after a slight modification, as Gentzen-style proofs. Thus proof-search for some Gentzen-style calculi can be performed by means of the SP-method. At the same time the method seems promising as a foundation for automated deduction.     

Erotetic Search Scenarios

The concept of search scenario is explicated in terms of erotetic logic, i.e., the logic of questions. Different kinds of erotetic search scenarios are characterized. The basic logical properties of erotetic search scenarios are analyzed.     

Role of Mental Simulations in the Weight Loss Process

Two experiments were conducted to verify the influence of various mental simulations on the effectiveness and persistence of weight loss processes. In study one, 40 female students (aged 19–27, M = 23) who were eager to lose weight were randomly assigned to one of four groups: positive outcome simulation, process simulations, mixed simulations (process followed by negative outcome), and control (no simulations). Students from the mixed and process simulation groups lost significantly more weight after five weeks than participants from the outcome simulation and control groups. A total of 106 females (aged 19–45, M = 29) participated in study two, in which five types of mental simulations were tested. Besides the images used in study one, process followed by positive outcome simulations and negative outcome simulations were implemented. Results showed that process followed by positive outcome simulations lead to the highest persistence in the weight loss process, while process followed by negative outcome simulations induced the greatest reduction in weight. Both studies revealed self-regulatory benefits from mental simulations in difficult and long-term personal goal attainment.     

Emergence from brain architectures: a new cognitive science?

The way in which artificial intelligence has developed over the last 50 years has had a major role in shaping cognitive science as it is today. This has generated computational models of behaviour. The connectionist revival of the 1980s added a tinge of neurodynamics to this. Here I suggest that some post-connectionist work in artificial intelligence is turning towards an understanding and formalisation of the mechanisms of brain architectures which contribute to an emergence of cognition providing a closer link between brain mechanisms and experienced brain states. This even addresses the neurological basis of consciousness.     

Time-course of hemispheric preference for processing contralateral relevant shapes: P1pc, N1pc, N2pc, N3pc

A most sensitive and specific electrophysiological indicator of selective processing of visual stimuli is the N2pc component. N2pc is a negative EEG potential peaking 250 ms after stimulus onset, recorded from posterior sites contralateral to relevant stimuli. Additional deflections preceding or following N2pc have been obtained in previous studies, possibly produced by specific stimulus features or specific prime-target sequences. To clarify the entire time-course of the contralateral- ipsilateral (C-I) difference recorded from the scalp above visual cortex in response to left-right pairs of targets and distracters, C-I differences were here compared between two types of stimuli and between stimuli that were or were not preceded by masked neutral primes. The C-I difference waveform consisted of several peaks, termed here P1pc (60-100 ms after target onset), N1pc (120-160 ms), N2pc (220-280 ms), and N3pc (360-400 ms). Being markedly enhanced when stimuli were preceded by the neutral primes, P1pc may indicate a response to stimulus change. Also, when stimuli were primed, N2pc reached its peak earlier, thereby tending to merge with N1pc. N3pc seemed to increase when target discrimination was difficult. N1pc, N2pc, and N3pc appear as three periods of one process. N3pc probably corresponds to L400 or SPCN as described in other studies. These observations suggest that the neurophysiological basis of stimulus-driven focusing of attention on target stimuli is a process that lasts for hundreds of milliseconds, with the relevant hemisphere being activated in an oscillating manner as long as required by the task.     

Asymmetry in structural adaptation: The differential impact of centralizing versus decentralizing team decision-making structures

This study tested predictions derived from Structural Adaptation Theory (SAT) on the longitudinal effects of centralizing and decentralizing decision-making structures in teams. Results from 93 four-person teams working on a command and control simulation generally supported SAT, documenting that it was more difficult for teams to adapt to a centralized decision-making structure after formerly working within a decentralized structure, than it was to adapt in the alternative direction. The negative effects of centralized shifts were mediated by efficiency and adaptability, in the sense that former decentralized teams experienced the negative aspects of centralization (lack of adaptability), but not the positive aspects (efficiency). The dangers of employing structural reconfiguration to solve certain problems in teams are discussed, especially if these changes are based upon expectations generalized from cross-sectional research that did not directly observe teams that experienced true structural change.     

A depictive neural model for the representation of motion verbs

In this paper, we present a depictive neural model for the representation of motion verb semantics in neural models of visual awareness. The problem of modelling motion verb representation is shown to be one of function application, mapping a set of given input variables defining the moving object and the path of motion to a defined output outcome in the motion recognition context. The particular function-applicative implementation and consequent recognition model design presented are seen as arising from a noun-adjective recognition model enabling the recognition of colour adjectives as applied to a set of shapes representing objects to be recognised. The presence of such a function application scheme and a separately implemented position identification and path labelling scheme are accordingly shown to be the primitives required to enable the design and construction of a composite depictive motion verb recognition scheme. Extensions to the presented design to enable the representation of transitive verbs are also discussed.