Reasoning with conditionals

This paper reviews the psychological investigation of reasoning with conditionals, putting an emphasis on recent work. In the first part, a few methodological remarks are presented. In the second part, the main theories of deductive reasoning (mental rules, mental models, and the probabilistic approach) are considered in turn; their content is summarised and the semantics they assume for if and the way they explain formal conditional reasoning are discussed, in particular in the light of experimental work on the probability of conditionals. The last part presents the recent shift of interest towards the study of conditional reasoning in context, that is, with large knowledge bases and uncertain premises.     

When the smile is a cue to familiarity

The question discussed in the two following experiments concerns the effect of facial expressions on face recognition. Famous and unknown faces with neutral or smiling expression were presented for different inspection durations (15 ms vs 1000 ms). Subjects had to categorise these faces as famous or unknown (Experiment 1), or estimate their degree of familiarity on a rating scale (Experiment 2). Results showed that the smile increased ratings of familiarity for unfamiliar faces (Experiments 1 and 2) and for famous faces (Experiment 2). These data are discussed in the framework of current face-recognition models and are interpreted in terms of social value of the smile. It is proposed that the smiling bias found here acts at the level of the decision process.     

What's Scene and Not Seen: Influences of Movement and Task Upon What We See

Studies concerning the processing of natural scenes using eye movement equipment have revealed that observers retain surprisingly little information from one fixation to the next. Other studies, in which fixation remained constant while elements within the scene were changed, have shown that, even without refixation, objects within a scene are surprisingly poorly represented. Although this effect has been studied in some detail in static scenes, there has been relatively little work on scenes as we would normally experience them, namely dynamic and ever changing. This paper describes a comparable form of change blindness in dynamic scenes, in which detection is performed in the presence of simulated observer motion. The study also describes how change blindness is affected by the manner in which the observer interacts with the environment, by comparing detection performance of an observer as the passenger or driver of a car. The experiments show that observer motion reduces the detection of orientation and location changes, and that the task of driving causes a concentration of object analysis on or near the line of motion, relative to passive viewing of the same scene.     

Of monkeys and men: Impatience in perceptual decision-making

For decades sequential sampling models have successfully accounted for human and monkey decision-making, relying on the standard assumption that decision makers maintain a pre-set decision standard throughout the decision process. Based on the theoretical argument of reward rate maximization, some authors have recently suggested that decision makers become increasingly impatient as time passes and therefore lower their decision standard. Indeed, a number of studies show that computational models with an impatience component provide a good fit to human and monkey decision behavior. However, many of these studies lack quantitative model comparisons and systematic manipulations of rewards. Moreover, the often-cited evidence from single-cell recordings is not unequivocal and complimentary data from human subjects is largely missing. We conclude that, despite some enthusiastic calls for the abandonment of the standard model, the idea of an impatience component has yet to be fully established; we suggest a number of recently developed tools that will help bring the debate to a conclusive settlement.     

Impact of Rater Beliefs Regarding Performance Appraisal and Its Organizational Context on Appraisal Quality

The relationship between attitudes and beliefs regarding performance appraisal and its organizational context and three measures of rating quality (i.e., rating level, discrimination among ratees, discrimination among rating dimensions) were examined. Eighteen of twenty-four directional predictions about the correlations between attitudinal measures and rating behavior measures were supported. However, because of the expected weak to moderate relationships between predictors and criteria and the use of small samples, statistical power was generally low, and many of the individual observed correlations failed to reach significance. Nevertheless, the consistent pattern of support for the directional predictions suggests that the attitudes and beliefs studied here provide a useful basis for understanding performance appraisal behaviors.     

Perceptions of self-oriented and other-oriented help-providers

Two studies were conducted to assess the relationship between an individual's self-described motivation for being a help-provider (i.e., a lawyer in Study 1 and a physi-cian in Study 2) and college undergraduates' perceptions of, and desire to seek assis-tance from, that help-provider. The major findings were incongruent with the notion inferred from the helping literature that altruistically motivated help-providers would be consistently evaluated more favorably than, and preferred over, egoistically moti-vated help-providers. Specifically, whereas the other-oriented help-providers were rated as more likable, honest, and less devious than the self-oriented help-providers, the self-oriented help-providers were rated as more ambitious, competent, and as earning more money than the other-oriented help-providers. Moreover, although the participants' “desire to hire” a particular help-provider was found to be associated with: (1) their perceptions of the help-provider's characteristics (Studies 1 and 2), (2) their own self-reported characteristics (Study 1), and (3) their anticipated affective state prior to seeking assistance (Studies 1 and 2), no clear relation was found in either study between the help-provider's motivation and the participants' desire to seek assistance from that help-provider. In contrast to the ambivalence demonstrated in response to the altruistically and egoistically motivated professional help-providers in Studies 1 and 2, participants in a preliminary study of perceptions of “everyday” helpers demonstrated a clear preference for altruistically motivated assistance (al-though these participants' evaluations were found to be influenced by the closeness of the relationship between the helper and recipient, the type of help provided, the participants' gender, and the gender of the helper-recipient dyad). Considered to-gether, the pattern of results suggests the broad range of situational and individual difference variables that may affect perceptions of, and reactions to, self-oriented and other-oriented help-providers.     

Modifying law enforcement training simulators for use in basic research

Several approaches to using simulation as a method for teaching good judgment in the use of firearms by law enforcement officers and military personnel were investigated for their potential applications to research: the GAMMA Live Fire Video Training System, the FireArms Training Systems Simulator (FATS), and the Judgment Under Stress Training (JUST) simulator. Each instrument uses real-time, computer-controlled, life-sized projected video images of scenarios that may or may not present a threat, and handguns that fire real or simulated ammunition. The subjects respond to a sequence of “shoot/no-shoot” judgment scenarios resulting in data on judgment, reaction time, and accuracy. The JUST simulator was found to be more easily modifiable in capturing data on performance at microanalytic levels. Although true interactive simulations are not feasible with this system, this was not seen as a hindrance to its usefulness for research.     

Obsessive-compulsive behaviours in specific situations: the relative influence of appraisals of control, responsibility and threat

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by repeated and persistent attempts by the individual to control their thoughts and by taking action through rituals in order to prevent feared or personally distressing outcomes. While cognitive theories of OCD have generated supportive research findings and effective treatments, they have not considered broader control beliefs that may motivate aspects of OC-phenomenology. We have previously proposed that broader control beliefs, specifically desire for control and sense of control, may play a role in OC-symptoms (Moulding & Kyrios, 2006). In the present study, non-clinical participants (N=219) were presented with four hypothetical scenarios relevant to an OCD-checking concern, and using a manipulation paradigm, the relationship between control constructs and appraisals hypothesized to be relevant to OCD (threat, responsibility) was examined. Desire for control was moderately affected to responsibility and threat appraisals, while sense of control did not relate to these constructs. The relationship between aspects of OC-phenomenology and appraisals of control, responsibility and threat were also investigated. Higher desire for control predicted both affect and action, while a lower sense of control predicted higher distress and action, over-and-above appraisals of threat and responsibility. Control appraisals were particularly relevant to use of action, and to affect in the low responsibility situations. A possible interactive model of desire for control, threat and responsibility is discussed.