Information-seeking behavior: exploring metacognitive control in pigeons

Metacognitive control may occur if an organism seeks additional information when the available information for solving a problem is inadequate. Such information-seeking behavior has been documented in primates, but evidence of analogous behavior is less convincing in non-primates. In our study, we adopted a novel methodological approach. We presented pigeons with visual discriminations of varying levels of difficulty, and on special testing trials, we gave the birds the opportunity of making the discrimination easier. We initially trained pigeons on a discrimination between same and different visual arrays, each containing 12 items (low difficulty), 4 items (intermediate difficulty), or 2 items (high difficulty). We later provided an “Information” button that the pigeons could peck to increase the number of items in the arrays, thereby making the discrimination easier, plus a “Go” button which, when pecked, simply allowed the pigeons to proceed to their final discriminative response. Critically, our pigeons’ choice of the “Information” button increased as the difficulty of the task increased. As well, some of our pigeons showed evidence of prompt and appropriate transfer of using the “Information” button to help them perform brand-new brightness and size discrimination tasks. Speculation as to the contents of pigeons’ private mental states may be unwarranted, but our pigeons did objectively exhibit the kind of complex, flexible, and adaptive information-seeking behavior that is deemed to be involved in metacognitive control.     

LATINAS WITHOUT WORK

This study examines stressors in family, occupational, and economic domains among 114 Latinas following job loss. These women had been displaced from their jobs for at least 18 months at the time of the initial survey. Stressors from the occupational stress domain were the greatest source of stress for these women. Despite the passage of over 18 months since job loss, 75% of these women remained unemployed. Women who valued the job they lost and who were older reported the highest level of occupational stress. In the economic stress domain, Latinas with greater involvement in the mainstream U.S. economy and its obligations, who also had less seniority, and less disposable income, reported the greatest levels of stress. An imbalance between demands imposed by financial obligations and inadequate financial resources appeared to be a major factor in the stress levels experienced in the economic stress domain. Although the present study is limited by a small sample size, the findings challenge the myth of benign stress associated with female unemployment in general, and with Latina unemployment in particular.     

Mental representations of obligatory and prohibitory traffic signs

Every traffic sign conveys a single proposition about traffic conditions. Drivers must integrate this proposition with their goals and other known facts to decide on an appropriate action in what amounts to a deduction task. For example, imagine that you are driving a car and you want to turn right at an intersection but there is a no right turn sign. You have to assess the options and make a decision (reach a conclusion). Theoretical accounts from research about reasoning can be applied to how we understand traffic signs and make inferences from them. This study includes two experiments that analysed how people decide whether a situation is allowed or not, taking into account the information provided by one sign - obligatory or prohibitory - or two signs - two obligatory or two prohibitory signs. The number of signs, that is, the complexity of the driving scene, was a key factor in this study. The two experiments differ in the presentation format of the two-sign experimental condition. In the first experiment, the signs were presented as two isolated signs. In the second experiment, the two signs were embedded in one. Equivalent results were found whether two isolated signs or two embedded signs were shown. When an obligatory sign was used at the junction, faster responses were obtained for allowed manoeuvres than for those not allowed. When a prohibitory sign was used, the results were the opposite. However, the advantage of prohibitory signs in the not-allowed situation was not replicated when people had to collect information from two prohibitory signs. Results showed that people integrate two obligatory sign messages - informing where one can go - more easily than two prohibitory sign messages - informing where not to go. Therefore, it could be said that each traffic sign elicits an internal mental model elaboration in which forbidden actions are explicitly labelled by means of attached "mental footnotes" indicating the epistemic status of "prohibitory information."     

Sadness, suicide, and their association with video game and internet overuse among teens: results from the youth risk behavior survey 2007 and 2009

We investigated the association between excessive video game/Internet use and teen suicidality. Data were obtained from the 2007 and 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a high school-based, nationally representative survey (N = 14,041 and N = 16,410, respectively). Teens who reported 5 hours or more of video games/Internet daily use, in the 2009 YRBS, had a significantly higher risk for sadness (adjusted and weighted odds ratio, 95% confidence interval = 2.1, 1.7-2.5), suicidal ideation (1.7, 1.3-2.1), and suicide planning (1.5, 1.1-1.9). The same pattern was found in the 2007 survey. These findings support an association between excessive video game and Internet use and risk for teen depression and suicidality.     

The dimensional nature of same-different discrimination behavior in pigeons

We studied the dimensional nature of same-different discrimination behavior in pigeons. Birds first learned to discriminate between simultaneously presented displays of 16 identical items (Same arrays) and 16 nonidentical items (Different arrays), conditional on the color of the background. After discrimination mastery, we tested the birds with Mixture arrays comprising both identical and nonidentical items. Accuracy increased and reaction time decreased as the disparity in entropy (a measure of variability) between the arrays increased. As well, within each entropy disparity level, lower entropy values were more discriminable than higher entropy values. These results accord with a logarithmic relation between entropy and discriminative behavior and, thus, with the idea that the discrimination of Same from Different arrays follows Weber's Law.     

The imprecise impermissivist’s dilemma

Synthese - Impermissivists hold that an agent with a given body of evidence has at most one rationally permitted attitude that she should adopt towards any particular proposition. Permissivists...