A variant of the anomalous motion illusion based upon contrast and visual latency

We examined a variant of the anomalous motion illusion. In a series of experiments, we ascertained luminance contrast to be the critical factor. Low-contrast random dots showed longer latency than high-contrast ones, irrespective of whether they were dark or light (experiments 1 -3). We conjecture that this illusion may share the same mechanism with the Hess effect, which is characterised by visual delay of a low-contrast, dark stimulus in a moving situation. Since the Hess effect is known as the monocular version of the Pulfrich effect, we examined whether illusory motion in depth could be observed if a high-contrast pattern was projected to one eye and the same pattern of low-contrast was presented to the other eye, and they were binocularly fused and swayed horizontally. Observers then reported illusory motion in depth when the low-contrast pattern was dark, but they did not when it was bright (experiment 4). Possible explanations of this inconsistency are discussed.     

Examination of the content of individualism/collectivism scales in cultural comparisons of the USA and Japan

The definitions of individualism/collectivism and the content of scale items used to assess them could explain the lack of cross-cultural differences reported in some research. Specifically, existing scales may not adequately assess expected cultural differences. In study 1 , a new scale was given in Japan and the USA. Three factors were identified in both cultures. Japanese scored higher on the others focus factor but scored lower on the helping others factor than the US Americans. In study 2 , a forced choice version replicated results in study 1 . In studies 3 and 4 , the factor structure and cultural differences were replicated and the convergent and the divergent validities of the scale were examined. Results indicate that Japanese may be more others oriented depending on the item content.     

Cognitive tendencies of focusing on positive and negative information

We hypothesized individual differences in the tendency to attend to, think about, and focus on positive (or negative) information. A scale measuring these individual differences was constructed and its validity and reliability were examined in three studies. Attention to positive information was related to positive affectivity, extraversion, BAS, optimism. Attention to negative information was related to negative affectivity, neuroticism, BIS, and optimism (inversely). Validity was partially confirmed by a person perception task: individuals high in attention to positive information perceived the character in a story as happy. Attention to positive information was a partial mediator of the relation between extraversion and positive affect and attention to negative information was a partial mediator of the relation between neuroticism and negative affect.     

Children perseverate to a human's actions but not to a robot's actions

Previous research has shown that young children commit perseverative errors from their observation of another person's actions. The present study examined how social observation would lead children to perseverative tendencies, using a robot. In Experiment 1, preschoolers watched either a human model or a robot sorting cards according to one dimension (e.g. shape), after which they were asked to sort according to a different dimension (e.g. colour). The results showed that children's behaviours in the task were significantly influenced by the human model's actions but not by the robot's actions. Experiment 2 excluded the possibility that children's behaviours were not affected by the robot's actions because they did not observe its actions. We concluded that children's perseverative errors from social observation resulted, in part, from their socio-cognitive ability.     

The effect of repeated writing on memory

Repeated writing, or rehearsal by writing, is a common memory strategy for the Japanese, especially when learning new logographic characters. The to-be-remembered items are written down not as external prompts, as with reminder notes, but to be memorized in the course of writing them down over and over again. In this study, we investigated whether the strategy was effective, and if so, in which condition. Experiment 1 showed that repeated writing improved memory for graphic designs but not for Chinese characters, words, or syllables. Experiment 2 showed that the effect occurred for both Japanese and American subjects, suggesting that it was not the result of a cultural background associated with a logographic language. Instead, the effect seemed to be accounted for by the encoding specificity of visual-motor information, because repeated writing improved free recall— that included writing—but did not improve recognition (Experiment 3). In Experiment 4, the strategy was applied to learning the Arabic alphabet. Finally, similarities between repeated writing and     

Effects upon rats' responses on a running wheel of single alternation of large and small rewards and external cues

Thirty-two rats were trained to run on a running wheel for one or six pellets of food, in either single alternation (SA) or quasi-random sequences of reward magnitude and with external cues either informing or not informing the rats of the reward magnitude. Reward-magnitude discrimination was clearly shown when the informative cues were given, but without such cues the SA patterning of responding appeared only late in training. The reward-magnitude discrimination developed most quickly when internal (SA) cues and external informative cues were both present; the effects of these two classes of cues on discrimination were interactive rather than additive. Possible explanations are given for the superior discrimination under the condition where both the internal and external cues were present over the condition when only the external cues were present.     

World‐Pictures and Wittgensteinian Certainty

Although certainty is a fundamental notion in epistemology, it is less studied in contemporary analytic epistemology than other important notions such as knowledge or justification. This paper focuses on Wittgensteinian certainty, according to which the very basic dimension of our epistemic practices, the elements of our world‐pictures, are objectively certain, in that we cannot legitimately doubt them. The aim of the paper is to offer the best philosophical way to clarify Wittgensteinian certainty, in a way that is consonant with Wittgenstein's fundamental insights. The paper critiques two alternative proposals for clarifying Wittgensteinian certainty that are philosophically unsatisfying: the rule view and the proposition view. Finally, it instead shows how viewing world‐pictures as pictures, in the sense of unclear conceptions, is a more philosophically fruitful approach to understanding world‐pictures.     

Eye Movements in Strategic Choice

In risky and other multiattribute choices, the process of choosing is well described by random walk or drift diffusion models in which evidence is accumulated over time to threshold. In strategic choices, level‐k and cognitive hierarchy models have been offered as accounts of the choice process, in which people simulate the choice processes of their opponents or partners. We recorded the eye movements in 2 × 2 symmetric games including dominance‐solvable games like prisoner's dilemma and asymmetric coordination games like stag hunt and hawk–dove. The evidence was most consistent with the accumulation of payoff differences over time: we found longer duration choices with more fixations when payoffs differences were more finely balanced, an emerging bias to gaze more at the payoffs for the action ultimately chosen, and that a simple count of transitions between payoffs—whether or not the comparison is strategically informative—was strongly associated with the final choice. The accumulator models do account for these strategic choice process measures, but the level‐k and cognitive hierarchy models do not. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.