Exemplars and prototypes in natural language concepts: A typicality-based evaluation

Are natural language categories represented by instances of the category or by a summary representation? We used an exemplar model and a prototype model, both derived within the framework of the generalized context model (Nosofsky, 1984, 1986), to predict typicality ratings for 12 superordinate natural language concepts. The models were fitted to typicality ratings averaged across participants and to the typicality judgments of individual participants. Both analyses yielded results in favor of the exemplar model. These results suggest that higher-level natural language concepts are represented by their subordinate members, rather than by a summary representation.     

Are social value orientations expressed automatically? Decision making in the dictator game

Drawing on the social intuitionist model, the authors studied the hypothesis that social value orientations are expressed automatically in behavior. They compared spontaneous and more deliberated decisions in the dictator game and confirmed that social values determine behavior when responses are based on the automatic system. By means of both mediation and experimental analyses, the authors further demonstrate that the automatic expression of social value orientations is mediated by perceptions of interpersonal closeness. A reasoning process can subsequently override these automatic responses and disconnect decisions from perceptions of interpersonal closeness. This results in lower levels of other-regarding behavior, at least for prosocials.     

Self-Perceived Effects of Pornography Consumption in a Sample of Indonesian University Students

Self-perceived effects of pornography consumption were studied in a sample of university students in Indonesia—a conservative, Muslim majority country with strict anti-pornography laws. Using a cross-sectional design and a modified version of the Pornography Consumption Effect Scale (PCES), we assessed participants' reports of how pornography affected their sexual knowledge, attitude toward sex, sex life, perception of and attitude toward the opposite gender, and life in general. The area of attitude toward sex excepted, the study found that both men and women reported significantly larger positive than negative effects. Further, as compared to women, men reported significantly larger negative effects of their pornography consumption. For both genders, pornography-related variables were found to add significantly to the prediction of both positive and negative self-perceived effects of pornography consumption over and above a number of included control variables.     

Detecting intra- and inter-categorical structure in semantic concepts using HICLAS

In this paper, we investigate the hypothesis that people use feature correlations to detect inter- and intra-categorical structure. More specifically, we study whether it is plausible that people strategically look for a particular type of feature co-occurrence that can be represented in terms of rectangular patterns of 1s and 0s in a binary feature by exemplar matrix. Analyzing data from the Animal and Artifact domains, we show that the HICLAS model, which looks for such rectangular structure and which therefore models a cognitive capacity of detecting feature co-occurence in large data bases of features characterizing exemplars, succeeds rather well in predicting inter- and intra-categorical structure.     

Smoking cross-culturally: Risk perceptions among young adults in Denmark and the United States

Research examining smokers’ understanding of their smoking risk reveals that smokers acknowledge some risk but often deny or minimize personal risk. We examined risk perceptions of lung cancer among smokers and non-smokers in a smoking-lenient (Denmark) and a smoking-prohibitive (the United States) culture. Participants were 275 Danish students attending trade schools (mean age 22.6 years) and 297 US students attending community colleges in Florida (mean age 23.6 years). Results revealed cross-cultural differences suggesting that Danish smokers showed greater risk minimization than US smokers. In addition, in both countries the risk of a typical smoker was rated as lower by smokers than non-smokers, and smokers rated their personal risk as lower than they rated the risk of the typical smoker. Cross-cultural differences in moralization of smoking might be one explanation for these findings.     

Morally Relevant Features

This article summarizes the account of morality presented in Morality: Its Nature and Justification (Oxford, 1998), with emphasis on that aspect of morality that deals with justifying violations of the moral rules. Such justification requires a two-step procedure; the first is describing the situation using only morally relevant features. I list these features, noting how diverse they are, and describe their characteristics. The second step is estimating the consequences of publicly allowing a violation with the same morally relevant features, that is, allowing a violation when everyone knows that it is allowed to violate the rule in the same circumstances, and comparing this to the estimated consequences of not publicly allowing that kind of violation. I then explain why fully informed, impartial rational persons can sometimes disagree about whether a violation should be publicly allowed and note that such weakly justified violations are the controversial cases.