Behavioral routines in decision making: the effects of novelty in task presentation and time pressure on routine maintenance and deviation

This article examines the role of behavioral routines in decision making. In order to induce routines, participants were confronted with recurrent route decisions in a computer-controlled trucking game, which allows for manipulation of routine acquisition and strength. During the final round of the game, time pressure and novelty in task presentation were varied as between-factors. It was hypothesized that time pressure would increase the likelihood of routine maintenance and novelty would increase the likelihood of deviation. Besides individual choices, response latencies and self-reports were additionally assessed to measure the amount of deliberation during decision making. Results show that time pressure strongly increased the probability of routine maintenance, even though the situation indicated the inadequacy of the routine. In contrast, novelty in task presentation provoked routine deviation and increased deliberation, as evident from response latencies and self-reports. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preferred Attributes of Effective Conflict Resolvers in Seven Societies: Culture,Development Level,and Gender Differences1

This research examined variations in preferred personality attributes of conflict resolvers. Using a semantic differential scale, youth from Malaysia, Japan, China, Philippines, Australia, Germany, and the United States described an effective conflict resolver. ANOVA procedures tested whether culture, country's level of economic development, or gender produced significant variations on conflict resolver preferences. Results show that conflict resolvers can be described along a continuum that has a compassionate peacemaker on one side and a dominating peacemaker on the other. Cultural differences produced marginal significance. The stronger effects were results of variations in power positions. A compassionate peacemaker was preferred by respondents from developing societies, rather than by those from the wealthier countries, and by women more than men.     

The connection between social cohesion and personality: A multilevel study in the Kyrgyz Republic

As the discourse around societal cohesion grows and policy makers increasingly turn their attention towards improving cohesion, understanding its role for the lives of individuals becomes ever more important. Our study examines whether the social cohesion of the immediate living context is related to the strength of Big Five personality traits among individuals. Using data from a community survey of 6252 adults living in 30 rural sub-districts in the Kyrgyz Republic, where social cohesion is a sizable policy concern, we conduct a multilevel analysis of the relationship between sub-district cohesion and individual personality. Results indicate that higher levels of cohesion are significantly related to higher individual levels of agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness. However, no relationship is found with extraversion or neuroticism. Thus, where a social entity has higher cohesion, this entity will also have inhabitants with a greater prosocial and communal orientation towards others, greater conscientiousness and more openness to experience. These findings imply that social cohesion may be one geographical social indicator related to variation in personality traits. Moreover, the findings suggest that understanding social cohesion requires both macro- and micro-perspectives and that its connection to these particular personality traits should be taken into consideration.     

An information-theory approach to geometry for animal groups

Animal Cognition - One of the hardest problems in studying animal behaviour is to quantify patterns of social interaction at the group level. Recent technological developments in global positioning...     

The universal SNARC effect: the association between number magnitude and space is amodal

It is thought that number magnitude is represented in an abstract and amodal way on a left-to-right oriented mental number line. Major evidence for this idea has been provided by the SNARC effect (Dehaene, Bossini, & Giraux, 1993): responses to relatively larger numbers are faster for the right hand, those to smaller numbers for the left hand, even when number magnitude is irrelevant. The SNARC effect has been used to index automatic access to a central semantic and amodal magnitude representation. However, this assumption of modality independence has never been tested and it remains uncertain if the SNARC effect exists in other modalities in a similar way as in the visual modality. We have examined this question by systematically varying modality/notation (auditory number word, visual Arabic numeral, visual number word, visual dice pattern) in a within-participant design. The SNARC effect was found consistently for all modality/notation conditions, including auditory presentation. The size of the SNARC effect in the auditory condition did not differ from the SNARC effect in any visual condition. We conclude that the SNARC effect is indeed a general index of a central semantic and amodal number magnitude representation.     

Eine Kritik der poiëtischen Vernunft. Anmerkungen zur Wissenschaftstheorie vom technischen Gestalten

A Criticism of Poiëtical Reason. Remarks on Epistemological Philosophy of Technological Shaping. According to Aristoteles human reason can be divided into three independent properties: ?εωρια,πραξισ, and πoιησισ. The latter is required for the technological construction of actuality. Scrutinizing to the conception of μιμησισ it can be figured out that technological acting intends a representation of truth, not an imitation of nature. The concept of nature developed by sciences of modern times is discussed in its lawful disposition. To give some features of an epistemological philosophy of technological shaping first the difference between technological rules and laws of nature is examined. Second, three attributes of technological sciences in distinction to natural sciences are described. Finally, some shaping rules used by engineering sciences are presented. These rules need an epistemological investigation put through other wise than the philosophy of science.     

Information repetition in evaluative judgments: Easy to monitor,hard to control

The sampling approach [Fiedler, K. (2000a). Beware of samples! A cognitive-ecological sampling approach to judgment biases. Psychological Review, 107(4), 659–676.] attributes judgment biases to the information given in a sample. Because people usually do not monitor the constraints of samples and do not control their judgments accordingly, systematic judgment biases occur. Three experiments demonstrate this for an obvious sampling constraint, the emptiness of merely repeated information. When evaluating stock market shares, participants did not correct for the repetition of positive or negative information about a share. Although original and repeated information was reliably distinguished in estimates of occurrence (successful monitoring), preferences were misled by mere repetition of success and failure reports (unsuccessful control). This effect could even override a share’s actual success rate. Explicit instructions to ignore repetitions provided no remedy; however, a cognitive load manipulation reduced repetition’s undue influence. Possible reasons for and benefits of this lack of direct metacognitive control are discussed.     

Suchttherapie bei abhängigen Ärzten

Background

International studies indicate an increased incidence of substance abuse disorders among physicians. This article investigates specific variables in the work field and describes existing treatment programs.

Patients and methods

In a cross-sectional study 107 physicians with and 468 without substance abuse disorders were compared. Two highly developed treatment programs in Germany and Canada are described.

Results

The high work-load associated with the medical work environment leads to reduced performance and social isolation. Treatment programs for addicted physicians work with the concept of ?help before restriction“. The abstinence rate of the 5-year Canadian program is over 90%.

Conclusions

As a form of prevention, medical students should be systematically informed about work-related stress in the medical profession. Structured treatment programs should be implemented nationwide. The expert team ?Risk of addiction in physicians“ of the German Addiction Foundation, whose members are authors of this article, may be a small step in this direction.     

Construal Level Theory as an Integrative Framework for Behavioral Decision‐Making Research and Consumer Psychology

In this comment to Trope, Liberman and Makslak's lead article, I refrain from any attempt to review or recapitulate the growing body of research in social psychology in general and in consumer science in particular that is explicitly devoted to construal level theory (CLT). Rather, granting the status of CLT as a leading contemporary theory, with rich implications and applications in consumer science, I concentrate on recent phenomena in judgment and decision making for which CLT provides an implicit account. Specifically, CLT affords an integrative framework for understanding a whole variety of preference reversals—a major challenge for students of consumer behavior.