Rationality as the Capacity for Understanding

In this essay, I develop and defend a virtue‐theoretic conception of rationality as a capacity whose function is understanding, as opposed to mere truth or correctness. I focus on two main potential advantages of this view. First, its ability to explain the rationality of forms of explanatory reasoning, and second, its ability to offer a more unified account of theoretical and practical rationality.     

Psychopathy in a forensic sample – the factor structure of the PCL:SV in a Danish forensic sample

The research literature reveals an ongoing debate regarding the most appropriate conceptualization of psychopathic personality disorder. Specifically, it is discussed to what degree antisocial behavior is part of the conceptualization of the psychopathy construct and what constitutes the best factor model of the Psychopathy Checklist scales. The aim of the present study is to consider the underlying factor structure of the PCL:SV (Psychopathy Checklist Screening Version) in a Danish sample as well as considering the role of antisocial behavior in the psychopathy construct. Data from a Danish forensic patient sample (N = 225) was used and item response theory (IRT), aonfirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and structural equations model (SEM) analyses were carried out. Overall, the findings suggest appropriate item and model fit for the PCL:SV as well as superiority of the three‐factor model over the four‐factor model. The results are discussed in relation to the broader concept of personality disorder as well as clinical practice in regards to violence risk assessments and treatment of psychopathy.     

Development and learning: a TASC-based perspective of the acquisition of perceptual-motor behaviors

The concepts of development and learning are discussed in terms of different theoretical orientations to the study of motor behavior. It is argued that although these concepts are commonly used to discuss various aspects of change across the life span, there is little agreement regarding the definition of these terms and even whether these are useful concepts for researchers studying change over time. A theoretical approach, the TASC-based approach is presented as an alternative account for examining change over time. The TASC label stands for a focus on particular tasks, adaptation and selection of behaviors as a function of constraints. This account is grounded in evolutionary theory and assumes that variability, selection, and adaptation are central to change over time within individuals. Emphasis is placed on the tasks individuals attempt to solve in achieving particular goals given the constraints of the local environment and the organism. An alternative manner to conceptualize the concepts of development and learning are presented within the TASC-based approach.     

A dynamical systems interpretation of epigenetic landscapes for infant motor development

This paper presents a unified dynamical systems theory of motor learning and development and addresses the normative order and timing of activities in the infant motor development sequence. The emphasis is on the role of intention in modulating the epigenetic landscapes to the emerging forms of infant motor development and how the evolution of attractor landscape dynamics in infancy arises from the multiple time scales of constraints to action. The development of prone progression in infancy is exemplified as a case study and experimental hypotheses of the theory of attractor landscape dynamics and infant motor development are provided.     

“I think you did it!”: Examining the effect of presuming guilt on the verbal output of innocent suspects during brief interviews

Innocent suspects interviewed by a guilt‐presumptive versus innocence‐presumptive or neutral interviewer may tend more to display non‐verbal behaviours which neutral judges consider indicative of guilt. We examined the effects of interviewer's presumption of guilt on innocent mock suspects' alibis. Participants (N = 90) provided an alibi to convince an interviewer of their innocence of a theft after she implied that she believed that they were guilty or innocent or that she had no belief about their veracity. On the basis of existing conflicting findings for suspects' verbal behaviour during accusatory interviews, we predicted that alibis in the guilt‐belief condition would contain the highest or lowest number of correct details with overall higher or poorer accuracy rates, respectively. Although participants perceived the interviewer's presumptive approach, the number of correct details provided and accuracy rates of alibis did not differ significantly between conditions. We propose explanations to these findings and future research paths.     

Subitizing and its subprocesses

 When people are presented with small sets of elements such as dots they can very easily determine their number. This ability has been called subitizing. The present paper reports results from four experiments. The discussion focuses on the question whether one or two psychological processes have to be assumed for this task of subitizing. Taken together our results support the two-process theories. In particular, a distinction between a process of separation and a process of enumeration is suggested. Experiments 3 and 4 support the canonical pattern hypothesis. Canonical patterns are processed substantially faster than noncanonical patterns. Furthermore, if a complex pattern can be broken down into small canonical patterns, then participants follow a partition and add strategy. Accepted: 22 December 1999     

Visual information about past,current and future properties of irregular target paths in isometric force tracking

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - In visual-motor tracking, information about past, current, and future properties of a target path can be available but, because they are typically...     

Elucidating the Functional Relationship Between Working Memory Capacity and Psychometric Intelligence: A Fixed-Links Modeling Approach for Experimental Repeated-Measures Designs

Numerous studies reported a strong link between working memory capacity (WMC) and fluid intelligence (Gf), although views differ in respect to how close these two constructs are related to each other. In the present study, we used a WMC task with five levels of task demands to assess the relationship between WMC and Gf by means of a new methodological approach referred to as fixed-links modeling. Fixed-links models belong to the family of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and are of particular interest for experimental, repeated-measures designs. With this technique, processes systematically varying across task conditions can be disentangled from processes unaffected by the experimental manipulation. Proceeding from the assumption that experimental manipulation in a WMC task leads to increasing demands on WMC, the processes systematically varying across task conditions can be assumed to be WMC-specific. Processes not varying across task conditions, on the other hand, are probably independent of WMC. Fixed-links models allow for representing these two kinds of processes by two independent latent variables. In contrast to traditional CFA where a common latent variable is derived from the different task conditions, fixed-links models facilitate a more precise or purified representation of the WMC-related processes of interest. By using fixed-links modeling to analyze data of 200 participants, we identified a non-experimental latent variable, representing processes that remained constant irrespective of the WMC task conditions, and an experimental latent variable which reflected processes that varied as a function of experimental manipulation. This latter variable represents the increasing demands on WMC and, hence, was considered a purified measure of WMC controlled for the constant processes. Fixed-links modeling showed that both the purified measure of WMC (β = .48) as well as the constant processes involved in the task (β = .45) were related to Gf. Taken together, these two latent variables explained the same portion of variance of Gf as a single latent variable obtained by traditional CFA (β = .65) indicating that traditional CFA causes an overestimation of the effective relationship between WMC and Gf. Thus, fixed-links modeling provides a feasible method for a more valid investigation of the functional relationship between specific constructs.