‘Numerical trap’. A new look at outcome representation in studies on choice behaviour

In almost all experimental studies on choice behaviour the consequences of choices are limited to denumerable goods (usually money) and represented in a numerical way. It is argued that a different way of representing consequences would cause differences in social orientations. In an exploratory study (1) the kind of consequences (money, satisfaction with money and satisfaction with the situation) and (2) the way of representing consequences (numbers, rectangles, and faces) were varied. No differences were found between the three kinds of consequences represented by rectangles. Representation of money by numbers did not differ from representation of money by rectangles. However, subjects in the condition in which satisfaction with money was represented by faces were more cooperative and altruistic and less equality-oriented than subjects in the corresponding condition in which satisfaction with money was represented by rectangles. Additional correlational analyses showed differences between ways of representing consequences. It was concluded that both for theory and for future research it is important to consider how consequences are represented.     

How an unfamiliar thing should be called

An empirical method is described to derive good names for unfamiliar objects. It is based on three principles: (1) The names should be within users' linguistic capacities; (2) names should be informationally efficient; (3) names should form a classification system. The principles lead to a three-step method: (1) Subjects generate names for the objects; (2) a subset of the names, which fulfills the principles, is selected; (3) how good the names are is tested by matching and recall tasks. Steps 2 and 3 are iterated to improve the nnames. The names that result are natural, short, easily matched with their physical referents, and well recalled. The method is generalizable and ought to be useful in a large variety of situations where names for unfamiliar objects are needed.This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research Contract No. N00014-78-C-0433 to the first author. This report is No. 111 of the Institute of Cognitive Science's Technical Report Series.     

Individualistic formal approach to deontic logic

Some people approve of certain general rules of behavior, or some concrete cases. The others disapprove of or are indifferent to them. In this paper I suggest an axiom system which formalizes the use of these utterances. It may be considered as a special (individualistic) approach to deontic logic.     

Erotetic implications

Three semantic relations are analyzed: the relation of implication of a question by a question and a set of declarative sentences, the relation of implication of a question by a question, and the relation of strong implication of a question by a question and a set of declarative sentences. The connections between these concepts and the concepts of relative soundness, partial answerhood and presupposition are examined. The principal results are theorems about, to speak generally, epistemic reducibility of well-posed questions to sequences of implied yes-no questions.     

Broadening the concept of temperament: From disposition to hypothetical construct

This article discusses the personological vs. relational approach to temperament. The first approach, which views temperament as a relatively permanent and cross-situationally consistent disposition, is dominant. The present article presents arguments in favour of broadening the concept of temperament. This newly broadened concept will also include relatively stable determinants of behaviour dynamics specific to certain classes of situations. Moreover, temperament is defined as an element of the system of stimulation regulation. Temperament is viewed as a hypothetical construct. The surplus meaning characteristic of such hypothetical constructs is associated in this case with optimum stimulation as a regulatory standard, and with properties of the system of stimulation regulation. It is also connected with the open question of the degree of differentiation of temperament dimensions.     

The emergence of personality: Dynamic foundations of individual variation

We conceptualize personality and individual variation from the perspective of dynamical systems. People’s thoughts, feelings, and predispositions for action are inherently dynamic, displaying constant change due to internal mechanisms and external forces, but over time the flow of thought and action converges on a narrow range of states—a fixed-point attractor—that provides cognitive, affective, and behavioral stability. An attractor for personal dynamics develops through two mechanisms: the synchronization of individuals’ internal states in social interaction, and the self-organization of thoughts and feelings with respect to a higher-order property (e.g., goal, self-concept). We present formal models of both processes and instantiate each in computer simulations. Discussion centers on the implications of interpersonal synchronization and self-organization dynamics for issues in personality psychology, including shared vs. non-shared environmental influences on personality development, the expression of personality in social interaction, personal stability vs. change, personal vs. situational causation, and the emergence of self-concept.     

Socratic Proofs and Paraconsistency: A Case Study

This paper develops a new proof method for two propositional paraconsistent logics: the propositional part of Batens' weak paraconsistent logic CLuN and Schütte's maximally paraconsistent logic Φ_v. Proofs are de.ned as certain sequences of questions. The method is grounded in Inferential Erotetic Logic.     

Second-Order Quantifier Elimination in Higher-Order Contexts with Applications to the Semantical Analysis of Conditionals

Second-order quantifier elimination in the context of classical logic emerged as a powerful technique in many applications, including the correspondence theory, relational databases, deductive and knowledge databases, knowledge representation, commonsense reasoning and approximate reasoning. In the current paper we first generalize the result of Nonnengart and Szałas [17] by allowing second-order variables to appear within higher-order contexts. Then we focus on a semantical analysis of conditionals, using the introduced technique and Gabbay’s semantics provided in [10] and substantially using a third-order accessibility relation. The analysis is done via finding correspondences between axioms involving conditionals and properties of the underlying third-order relation. Presented by Wojciech Buszkowski