An expert–novice comparison of feature choice

Perceptual experts have learned to rapidly and accurately perceive the structural regularities that define categories and identities within a domain. They extract important features and their relations more efficiently than novices. We used fingerprint examination to investigate expert–novice differences in feature choice. On each fingerprint within our set, experts and novices selected one feature they thought was most useful for distinguishing a particular print and one feature they thought was least useful. We found that experts and novices often differed in the features they chose, and experts tended to agree more with each other. However, any such expert–novice difference appeared to depend on the image at hand typically emerging when salient or more conspicuous features of a fingerprint were unclear. We suggest that perceptual training ought to direct attention to useful features with the understanding that what is useful may change depending on the clarity of the stimuli.     

Infidelity, race, and gender: An evolutionary perspective on asymmetries in subjective distress to violations-of-trust

Asymmetries in subjective distress were observed among African American and white (N = 191) men and women who were asked to imagine a partner being emotionally and sexually unfaithful, and a partner committing other paired, gender-linked viola-tions-of-trust. More women than men were distressed by imagining a partner forming a deep emotional attachment to another person and more men than women were distressed by imagining a partner enjoying passionate sexual intercourse with another person. In addition, more men than women were distressed by male-linked violations, such as a partner no longer trying to look attractive, and more women than men were distressed by female-linked violations, such as a partner no longer wanting to work. The results contribute to a growing body of cross-cultural research reporting gender differences in distress to emotional and sexual infidelity. The results also provide cross-cultural validation of the extension of an evolutionary perspective to under-standing gender differences in subjective distress to other biologically relevant viola-tions-of-trust.     

Relationships between ability requirements and human errors in job tasks

This article describes a program of research investigating the relations between abilities required to perform job tasks and human error probabilities while performing these tasks. Study 1, using objectively derived human errors made in performing Air Force job tasks, evaluated an ability-requirements classification methodology and found that error rates were related to the numbers, types, and levels of different abilities required. In Study 2, subject matter expert panels used the methodology to identify the ability requirements of tasks in 2 different jobs found in each of 2 types of nuclear power plants. This study, using a task-anchored scale of human error probability, replicated the findings of Study 1, identified 2 ability requirements that cross-validated in predicting task-error probabilities across both jobs and plants, and identified other abilities specific to error probabilities in each job.     

Modality,invariance, and logical truth

Conclusion Let us sum up. We began with the question, What is the interest of a model-theoretic definition of validity? Model theoretic validity consists in truth under all reinterpretations of non-logical constants. In this paper, we have described for each necessity concept a corresponding modal invariance property. Exemplification of that property by the logical constants of a language leads to an explanation of the necessity, in the corresponding sense, of its valid sentences. I have fixed upon the epistemic modalities in characterizing the logical constants: to be a logical constant in the language of a population is to be invariant over a modality describing complete possible epistemic states of that population (or an idealized analogue thereof). The grounds for this characterization are these: (1) It leads, I believe, to an extensionally reasonable demarcation of the logical constants, including clear cases and excluding clear non-cases. It gives a principled criterion for deciding unclear cases. (2) It provides an analysis of the topic-neutrality of logic. (3) It leads to an explanation of the epistemic necessity of the logical truths in terms of the topic-neutrality of the logical constants.All the same, it is reasonable to ask, even if the suggested demarcation of logic is extensionally correct, whether it can reasonably be expected to be fundamental. The epistemic invariance of an expression is a rather striking property, one which we should want to explain. What is missing, then, is an explanation of the distinguishing epistemic properties of the constants in terms of more fundamental properties involving their understanding and use. It would be these that properly define the nature, not just the extent, of logic.     

Ear of input as a determinant of pitch-memory interference

Six experiments to evaluate the effect of presentation ear on pitch-memory interference were conducted using undergraduates as listeners. The task was to compare the pitch of two tones that were separated by an interval that included eight interpolated tones; the interpolated tones were presented either ipsilaterally or contralaterally to the presentation ear of the comparison tones. When the ear of interpolated-tone presentations was blocked, and therefore predictable, ipsilateral interference was greater than contralateral. In contrast, when the interpolated-tone presentation ear was varied randomly from trial to trial, ipsilateral and contralateral interferences were equivalent. These results are analogous to results found in previously reported auditory backward recognition masking (ABRM) experiments and suggest that the ABRM effect may be due, in part, to pitch-memory interference. Implications for theories of auditory processing and memory are discussed.     

Social evaluation and the empathy-altruism hypothesis

Archer, Diaz-Loving, Gollwitzer, Davis, and Foushee (1981) suggested that feeling empathy for a person in need may lead to increased helping because the empathic individual wants to avoid negative social evaluation. As support for this suggestion, they claimed that empathy leads to increased helping only under socially evaluative circumstances. We conducted two studies to test this claim. In Study 1 subjects were led to believe that no one--including the person in need--would ever know if they declined to help. In this situation, which was designed to be totally devoid of the potential for negative social evaluation for not helping, there was still a positive relationship between self-reported empathic emotion and offering help. In Study 2 empathy (low versus high) and social evaluation (low versus high) were manipulated in a 2 X 2 design. Once again there was a positive relationship between empathy and offering help when the potential for social evaluation was low as well as high. Results of both studies, then, suggest that the motivation to help evoked by empathy is not egoistic motivation to avoid negative social evaluation. Instead, the observed pattern was what would be expected if empathy evokes altruistic motivation to reduce the victim's need.     

Spiritual well-being in older adults: Harmonious interconnectedness

The current study was designed to identify indicators of spiritual well-being in persons 65 years of age and over, using a grounded theory approach through the constant comparative method of data analysis. The basic social process of harmonious interconnectedness was discovered. This process was the unifying force between categories and within each identified category. The study has implications for health care personnel in that it provides a basis for assessing spiritual well-being in patients.This study was partially funded by a special project grant from Marquette University.     

Defensive burying of aversive fluids in rats: The possible role of odor

Defensive burying of flavored fluids paired with lithium chloride injections was examined. Rats showed little inclination to bury conditioned saccharin or salt solutions (Experiments 1 and 2). However, they buried tabasco sauce or dilute milk solutions readily (Experiment 3). It was hypothesized that the amount of olfactory stimulation provided by a solution may determine whether a rat engages in burying. This hypothesis received support in a final experiment which demonstrated that rats readily buried an arbitrarily selected odorous solution which was previously paired with lithium chloride. Thus the present experiments begin the process of identifying the circumstances under which burying does and does not occur.