Optimal decision-making theories: linking neurobiology with behaviour

This article reviews recently proposed theories postulating that, during simple choices, the brain performs statistically optimal decision making. These theories are ecologically motivated by evolutionary pressures to optimize the speed and accuracy of decisions and to maximize the rate of receiving rewards for correct choices. This article suggests that the models of decision making that are proposed on different levels of abstraction can be linked by virtue of the same optimal computation. Also reviewed here are recent observations that many aspects of the circuit that involves the cortex and basal ganglia are the same as those that are required to perform statistically optimal choice. This review illustrates how optimal-decision theories elucidate current data and provide experimental predictions that concern both neurobiology and behaviour.     

The actor's behavioral history,his current role,and the divergence between actor and observer responsibility attributions

The actor's behavioral (High or Low) and role (High, Medium, or Low) respectability were varied in an actor-observer attribution study. A scenario described the actor's background combination of behavioral and role respectability and an event in which the actor participated. Subjects assigned actor and situational responsibilities to the event from their own viewpoint and from their perceptions of the actor's viewpoint. Subjects' awareness of the attributional divergence between actors and observers (Jones, E. E. & Nisbett, R. E. In Attribution: Perceiving the causes of behavior. New York: General Learning Press, 1971) and the information (public versus private) utilized by each were reflected in the results.     

The method of axiomatic rejection for the intuitionistic propositional logic

We prove that the intuitionistic sentential calculus is -decidable (decidable in the sense of ukasiewicz), i.e. the sets of theses of Int and of rejected formulas are disjoint and their union is equal to all formulas. A formula is rejected iff it is a sentential variable or is obtained from other formulas by means of three rejection rules. One of the rules is original, the remaining two are ukasiewicz's rejection rules: by detachement and by substitution. We extensively use the method of Beth's semantic tableaux.To the memory of Jerzy SupeckiTranslated from the Polish by Jan Zygmunt. Preparation of this paper was supported in part by C.P.B.P. 08-15.     

An analysis of the conceptual framework underlying definitions of learning disabilities

Various theoretical perspectives have contributed to the different types of definitions of learning disabilities (LD) that have been developed since the category was first established. To date, there has been little consensus on the definition of learning disabilities. In the present study, three kinds of definitions, ability-achievement discrepancy, low achievement, and scatter, were examined to determine the extent to which there was common variance. The subject were 48 school-identified LD children and 96 non-LD children. Both samples had previously been administered a battery of psychoeducational tests. These data were used to classify each child as LD or non-LD according to each of 14 operational definitions. A factor analysis resulted in two distinct groupings of LD students; low achievement accounted for over four times as much variance as ability-achievement discrepancy. Scatter did not contribute independently to classification. The implications for LD-identification practices are discussed.     

Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors