Informational and motivational components of social reinforcement

Thirty-six four-year-old children of each sex were tested in a two-choice marble dropping task. There were three Ss in each cell of a 3 × 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design. The factors investigated were: reinforcement condition (Contingent, Yoked, Nonreinforcement), sex, base preference level (strong vs weak), Base Rate Level (high vs low). The dependent variables were: base preference ratio, base rate, preference ratio change, rate change. The contingently reinforced Ss had significantly higher preference change scores than Ss in the other two reinforcement conditions but only at the high base preference level. The Ss in both the contingent and yoked groups had higher rate change scores than Ss in the nonreinforcement group. The results were interpreted as indicating social reinforcement may have two effects, one a cue function and the other an effect on S's motivational system. The results indicate that regression effects do not operate in the two-choice task and that crossing baseline levels of performance is an effective way to control baseline differences in analyses of change in the two-choice task.     

A new apparatus for the study of avoidance conditioning in fishes

An apparatus for the study of avoidance conditioning in fishes is described. The chamber is cylindrical in shape, with shocking electrodes placed above and below the animals, and response is defined as swimming a predetermined distance in either direction along a circumferential path. This apparatus has several advantages over the conventional shuttlebox: (1)There is little constraint on the direction of swimming; (2) the magnitude of response (swimming distance) required for avoidance can easily be varied over a wide range; and (3) variation in the effectiveness of shock with the position of the animal relative to the position of the electrodes is minimized. Some sample data obtained in a free-operant experiment with goldfish are presented.     

Linguistic meaning related differences in evoked potential topography: English, Swiss-German, and imagined

Functionally different neural populations for processing different categories of word meaníng are suggested by the topography of event-related EEG scale-field distributions. Noun and verb meanings of English and Swiss-German homophones produced differences in anterior-posterior topography during the first 300 to 350 msec of the response. Similar results were found for a degraded-speech stimulus when subjects imagined noun and verb meanings. Anterior—posterior scalp-field differences appeared both in an analysis of the positions of field maximal and minimal values; and in principal component analysis of ERPs.     

In defense of representation

The computational paradigm, which has dominated psychology and artificial intelligence since the cognitive revolution, has been a source of intense debate. Recently, several cognitive scientists have argued against this paradigm, not by objecting to computation, but rather by objecting to the notion of representation. Our analysis of these objections reveals that it is not the notion of representation per se that is causing the problem, but rather specific properties of representations as they are used in various psychological theories. Our analysis suggests that all theorists accept the idea that cognitive processing involves internal information-carrying states that mediate cognitive processing. These mediating states are a superordinate category of representations. We discuss five properties that can be added to mediating states and examine their importance in various cognitive models. Finally, three methodological lessons are drawn from our analysis and discussion.     

Das dialogische Prinzip als Hermeneutische Maxime

Ohne ZusammenfassungDieser Aufsatz ist dem Berliner Germanisten Alfred Kelletat in dankbarer Verehrung gewidmet.     

Assessment Center for Pilot Selection: Construct and Criterion Validity and the Impact of Assessor Type

Cette recherche a examiné la validité d'un centre d'évaluation pour la sélection de pilotes. Les scores de N = 1,036 participants ont été utilisés pour étudier la validité de construit. Un sous-échantillon de participants performants a été suivi et les évaluations des pairs ont été retenus comme mesures du critère. Les résultats démontrent une première évidence de validité de construit et de critère pour cet outil d'évaluation des compétences interpersonnelles et liées à la performance. Par ailleurs, les résultats ont aussi montré que le type d'évaluateur (psychologue vs pilote) modère la validité prédictive des scores du centre d'évaluation. Cet effet "type d'évaluateur" dépend de la sorte de variables prédictives. Les résultats sont discutés et des implications pratiques sont suggérées.
This study examined the validity of an assessment center in pilot selection as a new field of application. Assessment center ratings of N = 1,036 applicants were used to examine the construct validity. A subsample of successful applicants was followed up and peer ratings were chosen as criterion measures. The results provide first evidence of the construct and criterion validity of this assessment center approach for rating interpersonal and performance-related skills. Furthermore the type of assessor (psychologist versus pilot) moderates the predictive validity of the assessment center ratings. This type-of-assessor effect depends on the kind of predictor variables. The results are discussed and practical implications are suggested.     

Exceptional intelligence and easygoingness may hurt your prospects: Threshold effects for rated mate characteristics

Prospective mate characteristics such as kindness, intelligence, easygoingness, and physical attraction are ranked consistently highly by both men and women. However, rank measurement does not allow for determinations of what level of a mate characteristic is rated most desirable. Based on a more informative percentile scale measurement approach, it was reported recently that mean desirability ratings of IQ in a prospective partner peaked at the 90th percentile, with a statistically significant reduction from the 90th to the 99th percentiles. The purpose of this investigation was to replicate the recently reported non‐linear desirability effect associated with IQ, in addition to the evaluation of three other valued mate characteristics: easygoing, kindness, and physical attraction. Based on a sample of 214 young adults, it was found that all four mate characteristics peaked at the 90th percentile. However, the IQ and easygoing mean desirability ratings evidenced statistically significant mean reductions across the 90th to the 99th percentiles, whereas kindness and physical attraction did not. Finally, the objectively and subjectively assessed intelligence of the participants was not found to be associated with the participants’ desirability ratings of IQ. We interpreted the results to be consistent with a broadly conceptualized threshold hypothesis, which states that the perceived benefits of valued mate characteristics may not extend beyond a certain point. However, mate characteristics such as intelligence and easygoing become somewhat less attractive at very elevated levels, at least based on preference ratings, for reasons that may be biological and/or psycho‐social in nature.     

A Theory of Bayesian Groups

A group is often construed as one agent with its own probabilistic beliefs (credences), which are obtained by aggregating those of the individuals, for instance through averaging. In their celebrated “Groupthink”, Russell et al. (2015) require group credences to undergo Bayesian revision whenever new information is learnt, i.e., whenever individual credences undergo Bayesian revision based on this information. To obtain a fully Bayesian group, one should often extend this requirement to non‐public or even private information (learnt by not all or just one individual), or to non‐representable information (not representable by any event in the domain where credences are held). I propose a taxonomy of six types of ‘group Bayesianism’. They differ in the information for which Bayesian revision of group credences is required: public representable information, private representable information, public non‐representable information, etc. Six corresponding theorems establish how individual credences must (not) be aggregated to ensure group Bayesianism of any type, respectively. Aggregating through standard averaging is never permitted; instead, different forms of geometric averaging must be used. One theorem—that for public representable information—is essentially Russell et al.'s central result (with minor corrections). Another theorem—that for public non‐representable information—fills a gap in the theory of externally Bayesian opinion pooling.