The methods of reflexivity

Abstract

This paper will explore different uses of the term reflexivity in qualitative research. After discussing the foundational role of phenomenology and hermeneutics in the practices of reflexivity, this paper will present four methodological approaches to reflexivity. Distinctions will be made between personal reflexivity, interpersonal reflexivity, methodological reflexivity, and contextual reflexivity, and examples of research from each perspective will be presented. It will be argued that integration of these perspectives is possible thanks to their common foundation in phenomenology and henneneutics, and an example of such integration in practice will be provided.     

The logic sense: exploring the role of executive functioning in belief and logic-based judgments

Abstract

The Default Interventionist account suggests that by default, we often generate belief-based responses when reasoning and find it difficult to draw the logical inference. Recent research, however, shows that in some instances belief judgments take longer, are more prone to error and are more affected by cognitive load. One interpretation is that some logical inferences are available automatically and require intervention in order to respond according to beliefs. In two experiments, we investigate the effortful nature of belief judgments and the automaticity of logical inferences by increasing the inhibitory demands of the task. Participants were instructed to judge conclusion validity, believability and either font colour or font style, to increase the number of competing responses. Results showed that conflict more strongly affects judgments of believability than validity and when inhibitory demands are increased, the validity of an argument impacts more on belief judgments. These findings align with the new Parallel Processing model of belief bias.     

Color Preference and Food Choice Among Children

The effects of color on children's food choices were investigated. Subjects were 120 children who were equally distributed among each of the combinations of age (5 vs. 9 years old), sex (male vs. female), food type (3 types of candies), and color (red, green, yellow, and orange) in a counterbalanced, factorial, analysis-of-variance design with repeated measures on subjects. A significant main effect for color indicated that children preferred foods that were red, green, orange, and yellow, in that order. Interpretation of this main effect was not interfered with by main effects or interaction terms involving age, sex, or food type, which served as alternative rival hypotheses.     

Computational cognitive modeling of the temporal dynamics of fatigue from sleep loss

Computational models have become common tools in psychology. They provide quantitative instantiations of theories that seek to explain the functioning of the human mind. In this paper, we focus on identifying deep theoretical similarities between two very different models. Both models are concerned with how fatigue from sleep loss impacts cognitive processing. The first is based on the diffusion model and posits that fatigue decreases the drift rate of the diffusion process. The second is based on the Adaptive Control of Thought – Rational (ACT-R) cognitive architecture and posits that fatigue decreases the utility of candidate actions leading to microlapses in cognitive processing. A biomathematical model of fatigue is used to control drift rate in the first account and utility in the second. We investigated the predicted response time distributions of these two integrated computational cognitive models for performance on a psychomotor vigilance test under conditions of total sleep deprivation, simulated shift work, and sustained sleep restriction. The models generated equivalent predictions of response time distributions with excellent goodness-of-fit to the human data. More importantly, although the accounts involve different modeling approaches and levels of abstraction, they represent the effects of fatigue in a functionally equivalent way: in both, fatigue decreases the signal-to-noise ratio in decision processes and decreases response inhibition. This convergence suggests that sleep loss impairs psychomotor vigilance performance through degradation of the quality of cognitive processing, which provides a foundation for systematic investigation of the effects of sleep loss on other aspects of cognition. Our findings illustrate the value of treating different modeling formalisms as vehicles for discovery.     

Megachiropteran bats (Pteropus) utilize human referential stimuli to locate hidden food

Spontaneous point-following behavior has been considered an indicator of advanced social cognition unique to humans. Recently, it has been suggested that a close evolutionary relationship with humans could result in similar social skills in domesticated species. An alternative view is that the mechanism is not genetic domestication alone but instead a combination of phylogenetic and ontogenetic variables. Here we test the necessity of phylogenetic domestication by investigating the point-following behavior of a captive population of nondomesticated megachiropteran bats (Pteropus pumilus, Pteropus rodricensis, Pteropus conspicillatus, Pteropus vampyrus). Three of five subjects were highly successful in following an unfamiliar human's point to a target location, providing the first empirical evidence of cross-species social referencing in bats. The three successful bats were all born in captivity and socialized to humans early in life, whereas unsuccessful bats were wild-born individuals. This study provides evidence that referential point following is not restricted to domesticated animals and indicates that early experience may be important. Megachiropteran bats may prove to be a useful model for studying social behaviors.     

Questioning the preparatory function of counterfactual thinking

Why do individuals mentally modify reality (e.g., “If it hadn’t rained, we would have won the game”)? According to the dominant view, counterfactuals primarily serve to prepare future performance. In fact, individuals who have just failed a task tend to modify the uncontrollable features of their attempt (e.g., “If the rules of the game were different, I would have won it”), generating counterfactuals that are unlikely to play any preparatory role. By contrast, they generate prefactuals that focus on the controllable features of their ensuing behavior (e.g., “If I concentrate more, I will win the next game”). Here, we test whether this tendency is robust and general. Studies 1a and 1b replicate this tendency and show that it occurs regardless of whether individuals think about their failures or their successes. Study 2 shows that individuals generate relatively few controllable counterfactuals, unless explicitly prompted to do so. These results raise some questions regarding the generality of the dominant view according to which counterfactuals mainly serve a preparatory function.     

Between-subject or within-subject measures of regret: Dilemma and solution

The “action effect,” according to which actions produce more regret than failures to act, has been shown to disappear in between-subject designs. This phenomenon is replicated in a first study. It is then argued that this disappearance is due to the inability of regret scales to capture differences in perceived regret when used in between-subject designs, a difficulty that is highlighted by a second study. A new method, the common reference method, is proposed in order to overcome this problem. This method is demonstrated in a third and fourth study, and its boundary conditions are discussed, together with its possible extensions.     

Personal values and immigrant group appraisal as predictors of voluntary contact with immigrants among majority students in Israel

What predicts whether young people will establish contacts with immigrants? Students are at a pivotal point in which the campus environment can enable substantial contact with immigrants, and where world views and behavioural patterns are formed which can follow through their adult lives. Through a value‐attitude‐behavior paradigm we examine a conceptual model in which appraisal of an immigrant group as a threat and/or benefit to the host society mediates the relationship between personal values and contact. Findings among 252 students in Israel showed that (1) threat/benefit appraisal of immigrants predicted voluntary contact; (2) personal values of self‐direction and hedonism directly predicted voluntary contact; and (3) Threat/benefit appraisal mediated the relationship between self‐direction and power and contact. Results suggest that increasing awareness of benefits of immigrants can promote positive inter‐group relations.