The coincidence effect in similarity and choice

Medin, Goldstone, and Markman (1995) recently described a series of parallel effects in similarity and choice. They suggested that similarity and choice are related in a nontrivial way such that choice may entail a similarity judgment to an explicit or constructed ideal. In this paper, the correspondences between similarity and choice were investigated with respect to a phenomenon in similarity known as thecoincidence effect. In coincidence (pronounced “coincide-ence”), two items that match on one dimension but have a large difference on another dimension receive a higher similarity rating than do two items that have only modest differences on both dimensions. We conducted five experiments in order to examine commonalities between similarity and choice processes with respect to coincidence. Four types of tasks were given: similarity ratings, desirability ratings, forced choice similarities (which of two items is most similar to a target), and forced choice preferences (which of two items one would prefer, given a target). We found a main effect for ratings as opposed to forced choices, with ratings showing greater coincidence effects than did choices. Similarity measures tended to produce more coincidence than did preference measures. The overall pattern of results suggests the presence of dimensional weighting processes sensitive to task characteristics and operating somewhat differently for similarity and decision making.     

Inductive acuity and the acquisition of language

This study attempted to assess the inductive explanation of language acquisition. It was predicted that inductive acuity, operationally defined by reference to Kagan's concept of Reflection-Impulsivity, would facilitate syntactic and semantic development. Results indicated that children who are superior inductors scored higher on semantic tests, but not on syntactic tests. It was suggested that distinct learning strategies may be involved in the acquisition of syntax and semantics. Various theoretical implications of these findings for models of language encoding were discussed. Suggestions for subsequent research were offered.     

The effect of social comparison information on learned helpless and mastery-oriented children in achievement settings

The present study investigates the effect of social comparison information on learned helpless and mastery-oriented children's attributions, behaviour, and affect following a failure experience. Ninety-one fifth grade children experienced failure in the context of high consensus or group failure feedback, low consensus or personal failure feedback or no social comparison feedback. The Jindings point to the robustness of the helpless and mastery response patterns: the behaviour of learned helpless children, as compared to mastery-oriented children, deteriorated following failure regardless of the social comparison feedback they recieved. However, the attributions made by the two groups of children differed. Mastery-oriented children appeared to use social comparison information more accurately in that they appropriately made higher task difficulty ratings when receiving group failure feedback than when receiving personal failure feedback. Learned helpless children were more likely to use a self-derogatory bias and made attributions to their low ability, even when presented with social comparison feedback that was contrary to their bias. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for education and for intervention with learned helpless childrens.     

Feature distribution and background knowledge in category learning

Three experiments examined the interactions of category structure and prior knowledge in category learning.Experiment 1 examined the distribution of atypical or 'crossover' features in category learning. In real categories, crossover features may be unevenly distributed found primarily in very unusual examples of a category (like whales or ostriches). In contrast, in many psychology experiments, each item has exactly one crossover feature. Even versus uneven distribution of crossover features did not affect category learning when the features were neutral. However, when the features were connected by prior knowledge, it was much harder for subjects to learn the structure with the uneven distribution of crossover features. Experiments 2 and 3 found similar results with a slightly less uneven condition. We conclude that learning is a function of the interaction of category structure and prior knowledge rather than either one alone. Furthermore, knowledge benefits learning even when the category contains contradictions of the knowledge, so long as the contradictions are not very salient.     

Variation in the speech signal as a window into the cognitive architecture of language production

The pronunciation of words is highly variable. This variation provides crucial information about the cognitive architecture of the language production system. This review summarizes key empirical findings about variation phenomena, integrating corpus, acoustic, articulatory, and chronometric data from phonetic and psycholinguistic studies. It examines how these data constrain our current understanding of word production processes and highlights major challenges and open issues that should be addressed in future research.     

The effects of spatial frequency overlap on face recognition

The effects of spatial frequency overlap between pairs of low-pass versus high-pass images on face recognition and matching were examined in 6 experiments. Overlap was defined as the range of spatial frequencies shared by a pair of filtered images. This factor was manipulated by processing image pairs with high-pass/low-pass filter pairs whose 50% cutoff points varied in their separation from one another. The effects of the center frequency of filter pairs were also investigated. In general, performance improved with greater overlap and higher center frequency. In control conditions, the image pairs were processed with identical filters and thus had complete overlap. Even severely filtered low-pass or high-pass images in these conditions produced superior performance. These results suggest that face recognition is more strongly affected by spatial frequency overlap than by the frequency content of the images.     

Newborn Screening for Cystic Fibrosis: Parents’ Preferences Regarding Counseling At the Time of Infants’ Sweat Test

Newborn screening (NBS) protocols for cystic fibrosis (CF) are the first regional population-based programs to incorporate DNA analysis into their procedures. Research about these programs can inform policy and practice regarding how best to counsel families with abnormal NBS results. The grounded theory method guided interviews with 33 families whose infants had abnormal CF NBS results. A dimensional analysis of these interviews provided a theoretical framework describing parents’ preferences regarding counseling during their infant's sweat test appointment. This framework describes the contexts and characteristics of the two main dimensions of parents’ preferences: factual information and emotional support. Factual information included learning about the probability of a CF diagnosis, CF disease facts, sweat test procedure, and CF genetics. Social support consisted of offering parents a choice about the timing and amount of CF information, showing empathy for their distress, instilling hope, personalizing counseling, and providing hospitality. This framework also explains the consequences of counseling that matched versus mismatched parental preferences in these domains. Counseling that matched parents preferences reduced parents’ distress while mismatched counseling tended to increase parents’ worry about their infant.     

Dopamine D2 receptors mediate reversal learning in male C57BL/6J mice

Dopamine is critical for directing goal-oriented behavior. We investigated dopamine D₂ receptor involvement in reversal learning and reinforcement efficacy in mice lacking functional dopamine D₂ receptors and their heterozygous and wild-type littermates. Mice discriminated between two odors to receive a food reinforcer: One odor signaled a reinforcer (S⁺); the other odor signaled no reinforcer (S⁻). After mice learned the S⁺/S⁻ relationship, we inverted the reinforcement contingencies. The necessary number of trials to relearn the new reinforcement contingencies served as our index of reversal learning. Mice lacking functional dopamine D₂ receptors repeatedly failed to inhibit previously reinforced responses during reversal trials. In a separate experiment, mice responded for reinforcers on a progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement. Mice lacking functional dopamine D₂ receptors earned significantly fewer reinforcers than did heterozygous mice. Our results suggest that dopamine D₂ receptors regulate reversal learning and influence the reinforcing efficacy of natural rewards.     

Considering rational self-interest as a disposition: organizational implications of other orientation

In contrast with major theories of attitudes and behavior, the authors propose that individuals are not equally motivated to pursue their self-interests. The authors show that differences in other orientation affect the extent to which actions and attitudes reflect self-interested calculation (instrumental rationality) and the extent to which beliefs represent their external environment (epistemic rationality). These differences have consequences for processes underlying a wide range of attitudes and behavior typically assumed to be rationally self-interested. Thus, the authors' model exposes a common explanation for diverse organizational phenomena. It also clarifies inconsistencies surrounding the validity of certain attitudinal and motivational models, the relationship between job attitudes and actions, cross-cultural differences in attitudes and behavior, escalation of commitment, and the relationship between chief executive officer characteristics and organizational performance.