Complex problem solving: a case for complex cognition?

Complex problem solving (CPS) emerged in the last 30 years in Europe as a new part of the psychology of thinking and problem solving. This paper introduces into the field and provides a personal view. Also, related concepts like macrocognition or operative intelligence will be explained in this context. Two examples for the assessment of CPS, Tailorshop and MicroDYN, are presented to illustrate the concept by means of their measurement devices. Also, the relation of complex cognition and emotion in the CPS context is discussed. The question if CPS requires complex cognition is answered with a tentative “yes.”     

Social Categorization and the Perception of Groups and Group Differences

The classification of human beings into distinct groups is a fundamental feature of social perception. Problematic phenomena, such as prejudice, discrimination, and intergroup conflict, are commonly traced back to categorization. We explore the minimal conditions under which categorization occurs and the basic mechanisms by which it affects cognition and behavior. We show that comparisons between groups are not necessary for categorization, reveal the conditions under which people overestimate or underestimate differences between groups, and sketch a model showing how social categorization gives rise to differences in the evaluation of ingroups and outgroups and to differences in the accuracy of judgments of ingroups and outgroups. We conclude with reflections on intergroup conflict and the role of moral judgment in such conflicts.     

The event reconstruction method: An efficient measure of experience‐based job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is predominantly measured as global attitudinal judgment which requires employees to summarize their experiences across different job situations. In contrast, experience‐based measures assess momentary thoughts and feelings of the employees in specific job situations. This paper introduces the event reconstruction method (ERM) as an efficient measure of experience‐based job satisfaction that is less invasive and less time consuming compared with traditional experience sampling methods. An initial validation study is reported with N=193 employees from a German wholesale company. As expected, job satisfaction measured with the ERM was different from attitudinal job satisfaction. Also, consistent with expectations, experience‐based job satisfaction was a better predictor of self‐reported helping behaviour, whereas attitudinal job satisfaction was a better predictor of turnover intentions. Finally, comparing the ERM results with the results of a similar study using a traditional experience sampling method ( Fisher, 2002 ) revealed very similar patterns.     

Neurophilosophical perspectives of neuroimaging in forensic psychiatry—giving way to a paradigm shift?

Forensic psychiatry is concerned with the relationship between psychiatric abnormalities and legal violations and crimes. Due to the lack of available biological criteria, evaluation and therapy in forensic psychiatry have so far been restricted to psychosocial and mental criteria of offenders' personalities. Recent advances in neurosciences allow a closer approach to the neural correlates of personality, moral judgments and decision-making. We propose to discuss the introduction of biological criteria in the field of forensic psychiatry and to establish rules as to what extent such biological criteria will be a better and more reliable choice in judging mentally ill criminals by using all available information that can be obtained by biological means. Psychosocial and subjective criteria in forensic evaluation will be more and more accomplished by biopsychosocial and objective criteria. The responsibility of having committed a criminal act will no longer be exclusively defined by judging free and voluntary decision-making, but rather by brain-behavior relationships. What is often referred to as psychosocially determined mental processes thus could be complemented by estimating the degree of biopsychosocially determined neural processes. We conclude that such a process could contribute to a paradigm shift in forensic psychiatry, which will have profound implications for offenders, forensic psychologists and psychiatrists, the law and society in general.     

Perfectionism and performance in a new basketball training task: Does striving for perfection enhance or undermine performance?

ObjectivesIn the psychology of sport and exercise, the question of how perfectionism affects performance is highly debated. While some researchers have identified perfectionism as a hallmark quality of elite athletes, others see perfectionism as a maladaptive characteristic that undermines, rather than helps, athletic performance. Against this background, the purpose of the present study was to investigate how different aspects of perfectionism predict performance and performance increments.MethodA study was conducted with 122 undergraduate athletes to investigate how perfectionism during training affects performance and performance increments in a series of trials with a new basketball training task. Two aspects of perfectionism were examined: striving for perfection and negative reactions to imperfection.DesignThe design was a correlational prospective design.ResultsResults showed that striving for perfection during training predicted higher performance in the new task. In contrast, negative reactions to imperfection predicted lower performance when athletes attempted the task for the first time, once the positive influence of striving for perfection on task performance was partialled out. However, negative reactions to imperfection did not undermine performance in the consecutive trials. On the contrary, athletes with both high levels of striving for perfection and high levels of negative reactions to imperfection showed the greatest performance increments over the series of trials.ConclusionThe findings suggest that perfectionism is not necessarily a maladaptive characteristic that generally undermines sport performance. Instead, when learning a new training task, perfectionism may enhance performance and lead to performance increments over repeated trials.     

Diffusion model analysis with MATLAB: A DMAT primer

The Ratcliff diffusion model has proved to be a useful tool in reaction time analysis. However, its use has been limited by the practical difficulty of estimating the parameters. We present a software tool, the Diffusion Model Analysis Toolbox (DMAT), intended to make the Ratcliff diffusion model for reaction time and accuracy data more accessible to experimental psychologists. The tool takes the form of a MATLAB toolbox and can be freely downloaded from ppw.kuleuven.be/okp/dmatoolbox. Using the program does not require a background in mathematics, nor any advanced programming experience (but familiarity with MATLAB is useful). We demonstrate the basic use of DMAT with two examples.     

Exploiting redundancy for flexible behavior: unsupervised learning in a modular sensorimotor control architecture

Autonomously developing organisms face several challenges when learning reaching movements. First, motor control is learned unsupervised or self-supervised. Second, knowledge of sensorimotor contingencies is acquired in contexts in which action consequences unfold in time. Third, motor redundancies must be resolved. To solve all 3 of these problems, the authors propose a sensorimotor, unsupervised, redundancy-resolving control architecture (SURE_REACH), based on the ideomotor principle. Given a 3-degrees-of-freedom arm in a 2-dimensional environment, SURE_REACH encodes 2 spatial arm representations with neural population codes: a hand end-point coordinate space and an angular arm posture space. A posture memory solves the inverse kinematics problem by associating hand end-point neurons with neurons in posture space. An inverse sensorimotor model associates posture neurons with each other action-dependently. Together, population encoding, redundant posture memory, and the inverse sensorimotor model enable SURE_REACH to learn and represent sensorimotor grounded distance measures and to use dynamic programming to reach goals efficiently. The architecture not only solves the redundancy problem but also increases goal reaching flexibility, accounting for additional task constraints or realizing obstacle avoidance. While the spatial population codes resemble neurophysiological structures, the simulations confirm the flexibility and plausibility of the model by mimicking previously published data in arm-reaching tasks.     

The role of coping, anxiety, and stress in depression post-acute coronary syndrome

Depressive symptoms are common and can affect prognosis following acute coronary syndromes (ACS). This study examined the psychological factors, coping, anxiety, and perceived stress associated with depression following ACS. Psychological variables were assessed in 15 females and 66 males (M = 57 years, SD = 12). Repeated measures at 2, 12, and 24 weeks post-ACS compared depression, anxiety, perceived stress, and coping resources as determined by the Cardiac Depression Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-II, State Trait Anxiety Inventory, Perceived Stress Scale, and Coping Resources Inventory. Depression, anxiety, and perceived stress remained high in the depressed group across time. Coping scores at 2 weeks post-ACS predicted depression scores at 24 weeks post-ACS. It appears that trait anxiety and coping resources are related to depressive symptoms post-ACS.     

RULES AND REASON

Wittgenstein's rule‐following considerations (PI §§185–242) have often been discussed in terms of the debate occasioned by Kripke's interpretation of the so‐called ‘paradox’ of rule‐following. In the present paper, some of the remarks that stood in the centre of that debate are looked at from a very different perspective. First, it is suggested that these remarks are, among other things, meant to bring out that, to the extent we can speak of ‘reason’ in the context of rule‐following, it is a very restricted form of reason – one which is basically to be understood as a kind of conformity. Second, by telling part of the story of the genesis of the relevant remarks it is pointed out that there is a certain tension between the ‘liberating’ character of earlier remarks bearing on rule‐following (PI §§81ff.) and the ‘sinister’ side of later remarks like §§198–202, which helps explain why it took Wittgenstein such a long time to arrive at the views expressed in his rule‐following considerations.     

PERCEPTIONS OF BEHAVIORAL CONSISTENCY:

Abstract— Actors view behavior relevant for personality traits as more variable than observers do. This study was designed in replicate this actor-observer effect (AOE) in a common-target paradigm, test whether actors, observers, or both are intuitively aware of the AOE, and examine the effects of social projection on people's awareness of the AOE. Within each actor-observer pair, subjects described the actor on a series of trait adjectives and rated the consistency of relevant behavior. They then predicted the other person's ratings. The AOE emerged, and actors, but not observers, were aware of the effect On average, actors correctly predicted that observers rated actors' behavior as more consistent than actors themselves did Correlational analyses showed that actors and observers were equally prone to project their own ratings lo their matched partners