Handling Locally Stratified Inconsistent Knowledge Bases

This paper investigates the idea of reasoning, in a local (or contextual) way, under prioritized and possibly inconsistent knowledge bases. Priorities are not supposed to be given globally between all the beliefs in the knowledge base, but locally inside sets of pieces of information responsible for inconsistencies. This local stratification offers more flexibility for representing priorities between beliefs. Given this local ordering, we discuss five basic definitions of influence relations between conflicts. These elementary notions of influence between two conflicts A and B exhaustively explore the situations where solving A leads to solve B. Then we propose natural approaches to restore the coherence of a knowledge base on the basis of influence relations between locally-stratified conflicts.     

Power and the Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations

This study examines how the illusion of transparency in negotiation differs depending on whether one is the powerful or less powerful negotiator. The illusion of transparency is the tendency for individuals to overestimate the extent to which their internal states and intentions are apparent to an outside observer. Thus, this illusion equals the difference between perceived and actual transparency. We predict that less powerful negotiators experience more perceived transparency than do powerful negotiators and that powerful negotiators exhibit greater actual transparency than do less powerful negotiators. The main hypothesis that the illusion of transparency is greater for less powerful negotiators than for powerful negotiators was supported.     

False memories for a robbery in young and older adults

The aim of the present study was to analyse memory performance in young and older adults based on a robbery scenario. The study examined free recall and the recognition of actions, people and details, as well as the Remember/Know/Guess judgements that accompanied recognition. Recognition was evaluated both immediately and 1 week later, although performance was not affected by the retention interval. In the free recall task, the older adults remembered less information than the younger adults but we found no differences between the two with regard to errors. Participants accepted more false actions, thus achieving higher recognition accuracy for people and details. They also categorized false alarms for actions more often as remember than as know or guess judgements. This pattern of results was more pronounced in the older adults, suggesting that aging is an important factor in false memories for events. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Learning orthography in adulthood: A magnetoencephalographic study

Previous work demonstrated that there were differences between literate and comparable illiterate adult subjects. These differences were found in the performance on several tests and on patterns of activation on PET and fMRI. In the present study subjects that learned to read and to write in adulthood (being previously completely illiterate) were compared to controls, that is subjects that learned at school at the proper age. Magnetoencephalography was done while subjects were reading words. Results showed that, although the reading performance was the same in both groups while performing the task, the pattern of source distribution was different between groups. There were more late sources in right temporo‐parietal areas of late literates compared to controls and more late sources in left inferior frontal cortex in control subjects. It is concluded that learning to read in adulthood is a process supported by different brain structures from the ones used when learning occurs at the proper age. This may suggest that the same task can be similarly performed by relying on diverse functional brain anatomic networks.     

Unconscious processing of color and form in metacontrast masking

Three experiments employed a metacontrast masking procedure to examine the extent and nature of priming effects from visual stimuli not consciously perceived. The results showed effects of unconscious stimuli on subsequent target responses that (1) were more consistent, reliable, and not subject to strategic control, as compared with consciously perceived stimuli (Experiment 1); (2) produced both facilitation and interference of subsequent processing (Experiment 2); and (3) did not influence indirect response-related levels of processing (Experiment 3). These results demonstrate that color and form attributes of unconscious stimuli are sufficiently registered within the visual system to influence behavior, and that some of these unconscious effects occur at early levels of stimulus encoding, prior to higher level perceptual and response-related processes.     

Maternal perceptions of the sleep patterns of premature infants at seven months corrected age compared to full-term infants

It has been reported that 83%–87% of full-term infants regularly sleep through the night (from midnight to 5 a.m.) by 6 months of age, but there is little information about the sleep patterns of premature infants. The purpose of the current study was to identify maternal perceptions of the sleep patterns of premature infants. Parents of 32 premature infants with birth weight below 1,750 gm and of 13 full-term infants completed a 24-hour sleep record in 30-minute epochs for 1 week at 7 months of chronological (term) or corrected age (premature). Mean birth weight of premature infants was 1,278 ± 340 gm, with a gestational age of 30.4 ± 2.7 weeks. The daily total sleep time, longest sleep segment, frequency of sleep-wake transitions, and percentage of night sleep (8 p.m.–8 a.m.), averaged from the 1-week sleep record and number of night wakenings per week, were used as indicators of sleep patterns. The longest reported sleep segments of premature infants were significantly shorter than those of full-term infants (8.2 ± 2 hours versus 9.6 ± 1 hour, p < 0.01) and the number of night wakenings per week was significantly greater (3.13 ± 3 versus 0.54 ± 7, p < 0.005). Total reported sleep time, percentage of night sleep, and sleep-wake transitions did not differ significantly between premature and full-term infants. However, analysis of feeding events revealed that premature infants received significantly more feedings between midnight and 5 a.m. (M = 0.31 + 3 versus M = 0.06 + 1, p < 0.001). We conclude that sleep pattern diaries kept by parents indicate that premature infants have developed a diurnal sleep rhythm by 7 months corrected age, but they still have shorter sleep segments and they awaken more during the night than term infants.     

Potentiation of odor by taste in rats: tests of some nonassociative factors

The contribution of nonassociative neophobia and sensitization to the potentiation of odor by taste in rats was tested in three experiments. In Experiment 1, neophobia for almond odor (O), saccharin taste (T), and odor-taste compound (OT) cues was tested before and after noncontingent lithium chloride poisoning and compared with conditioned aversions produced by OT-LiCl temporal pairing. The OT compound potentiated unconditioned neophobia, but there was no evidence of poison-enhanced neophobia, disinhibition of neophobia, or sensitization by noncontingent LiCl; temporal pairing produced aversions for the compound and its elements. In Experiment 2, generalization to a novel odor was tested after O-LiCl or compound OT-LiCl pairing. The potentiated odor aversion did not generalize to the novel odor; it was specific to the odor paired with taste and LiCl. In Experiment 3, potentiation of the odor component by a discriminant or nondiscriminant taste component was tested. Potentiation was evident only when a novel discriminant taste was in compound with odor prior to LiCl poisoning. These studies support an associative "indexing" hypothesis of the potentiation effect in rats.     

Sex-role orientation and stereotypes about male-female sexuality

An experiment was conducted to examine the stereotypes about human sexuality held by persons of different sex-role orientations. Sex-typed and androgynous subjects were given bogus information about the sexual experience of another person. This other person was either a male or a female and either high or low in sexual experience. The subjects were then shown some erotic slides and asked to predict how sexually aroused the target person would be by viewing these stimuli. Additionally, the subjects were asked to rate the target person on traits of a sexual and evaluative nature. The results showed, as predicted, that the sexual experience of a female target influences how much sexual arousal is attributed to her. Female targets of high experience were attributed more arousal than inexperienced female targets. For male targets, no such difference was found. Ratings of the targets on an evaluative dimension revealed a double standard: Sexually experienced females were rated lower than were inexperienced females; no difference was found for male targets. In addition, sex-typed subjects tended to express more traditional stereotypes of sexuality than androgynous subjects. The influence that these stereotypes may have in guiding malefemale interactions is discussed.This article is based on the author's doctoral dissertation, submitted to Kansas State University. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of William Giffitt, and his helpful comments and suggestions.     

THE DEVELOPMENT AND GENERALIZATION OF DELAYED IMITATION1

An individual's behavior can be identified as imitative if it temporally follows the behavior of another individual and if its topography is controlled by the demonstrated behavior [Baer, Peterson, and Sherman (Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1967, 10 , 405–416)]. This definition takes into account both temporal and topographical characteristics of the behavior in question. More recent research in the area of imitation has interpreted the temporal component of the above definition differentially by limiting imitation to those topographically similar responses occurring within 3, 5, or 10 sec after a model's demonstration. Yet, Gewirtz and Stingle (Psychological Review, 1968, 75 , 375–397) pointed out that much of the imitation seen in young children is not of this immediate nature, but instead occurs sometime after a model's response. They further suggest that this type of imitative behavior can be characterized as a response class and is susceptible to development and modification as a function of consequences delivered to subjects contingent on this type of delayed responding. Four retarded children, three initially imitative and one nonimitative, were individually trained to imitate a number of motor responses in an immediate and a delayed fashion. Immediate imitation was defined as a response similar to a model's demonstration occurring within 5 sec after the model's demonstration; delayed imitation was defined as a response similar to a model's demonstration occurring more than 5 sec, but not more than 25 sec, after the model's demonstration. A reversal (ABAB) design was employed to examine the experimental development of a generalized delayed imitative repertoire. Untrained probe responses were demonstrated to subjects systematically through the ongoing training. Generalized immediate and delayed imitation were observed in each subject; this generalization was restricted to the type of imitation currently undergoing training. This development of a generalized imitation repertoire was observed in each subject. That is, these subjects imitated some responses that had never been specifically trained. More importantly, a training package consisting of prompting, fading, and consequences for delayed imitation functioned to develop generalized delayed imitation. These data exemplify a special case of generalization that was a function of the most recent training history of immediate or delayed imitation. The reversal design demonstrated that imitations of nontrained models were either delayed or immediate, depending upon which form of imitation was currently receiving training. Therefore, for each form of imitation trained, delayed or immediate, a corresponding response class was demonstrated. These data relate to data reported by Garcia, Baer, and Firestone (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1971, 4 , 101–112). The association lies in the proposition that there are identifiable boundaries of generalized imitation and that these boundaries are functionally related to previous training histories.     

PARENTAL TRAINING OF THE PLURAL MORPHEME IN NORMAL TODDLERS1

Experimental studies with young normal children can provide useful strategy for the functional analysis of language. Research by Whitehurst (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1972, 13 , 502–515) exemplifies this approach, in which 2-yr-old children were exposed to a training procedure that involved imitation and differential reinforcement for a two-word productive sequence of the adjective-noun form. Results indicated that these young children could be trained to produce rudimentary novel utterances that were grammatically appropriate. More recently, Hursh and Sherman (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1973, 15 , 328–339) reported the existence of a functional relationship between parental modelling and reinforcement of vocalizations, and increased instances of these vocalizations in young (15- to 20-month-old) children. These demonstrations relate to a summary of findings with linguistically deviant populations discussed by Sherman (Advances in Child Development, 1971). The present study attempts to extend these “generative” investigations to normal children and to provide useful information for those interested in teaching speech forms to them. Modelling and differential reinforcement were used by three mothers to establish the use of the plural morpheme in the speech of their 19- to 25-month-old children. During training trials, verbal praise was presented contingent on correct labelling of singular and plural items, while correct labelling was modelled if the child responded incorrectly. Children learned to label specifically trained sets of singular and plural items and also exhibited correct labelling when asked to label never-trained singular and plural items. After establishing correct usage, the same training procedures were used to train reversed labelling (plural responses to single items and singular responses to plural items). This produced a corresponding reversal of responding (both trained and untrained items) by each child for the plural items but not for singular items. Correct singular and plural labelling was recovered by returning to the initial procedures.