Shaw’s stored information as a quantitative measure of sequential structure

In this paper, we describe a method to study the sequential structure in interevent times. The technique uses the stored information of an iterative map developed by-Shaw (1984). The stored information is a quantitative measure of the sequential organization or predictability in data. This paper discusses the concept of stored information and provides a FORTRAN routineto compute the stored information of interevent time data. Several synthetic data sets with known sequential structures are examined. Finally, we present some initial results from computing the stored information of experimental interresponse time data.     

Topics in semantic representation

Processing language requires the retrieval of concepts from memory in response to an ongoing stream of information. This retrieval is facilitated if one can infer the gist of a sentence, conversation, or document and use that gist to predict related concepts and disambiguate words. This article analyzes the abstract computational problem underlying the extraction and use of gist, formulating this problem as a rational statistical inference. This leads to a novel approach to semantic representation in which word meanings are represented in terms of a set of probabilistic topics. The topic model performs well in predicting word association and the effects of semantic association and ambiguity on a variety of language-processing and memory tasks. It also provides a foundation for developing more richly structured statistical models of language, as the generative process assumed in the topic model can easily be extended to incorporate other kinds of semantic and syntactic structure.     

Clinical practice as natural laboratory for psychotherapy research: a guide to case-based time-series analysis

Both researchers and practitioners need to know more about how laboratory treatment protocols translate to real-world practice settings and how clinical innovations can be systematically tested and communicated to a skeptical scientific community. The single-case time-series study is well suited to opening a productive discourse between practice and laboratory. The appeal of case-based time-series studies, with multiple observations both before and after treatment, is that they enrich our design palette by providing the discipline another way to expand its empirical reach to practice settings and its subject matter to the contingencies of individual change. This article is a user's guide to conducting empirically respectable case-based time-series studies in a clinical practice or laboratory setting.     

Receiver operating characteristics for the brief symptom inventory depression, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism scales in a large sample of clinical inpatients

A commonly used screening tool for psychopathology, the Brief Symptom Inventory, provides normative data for assessing current mental functioning across multiple domains. Using data from 654 psychiatric inpatients, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were conducted for three scales, Depression, Paranoid Ideation, and Psychoticism. t ratios identified significant group differences on the Depression scale between patients diagnosed with or without depression but no differences on the Paranoid Ideation and Psychoticism scales between patients diagnosed with or without schizophrenia. Area under the curve for Depression was .65, indicating that the scale improved diagnostic prediction somewhat beyond chance; for Paranoid Ideation, the area was .52 and for Psychoticism, the area was .53, indicating that these two scales did not significantly improve diagnostic prediction beyond chance.     

The association of parenting style and child age with parental limit setting and adolescent MySpace behavior

Parent and teen MySpace user pairs completed online surveys administered in June (N = 266) and September 2006 (N = 341) to assess relationships between parenting styles and limit setting and monitoring of online behaviors, the prevalence of Internet dangers and pre-teen and teen MySpace behaviors. Cross-comparison measures of MySpace usage, parenting style, limit setting/monitoring, MySpace problems, and media perceptions were used. Parenting styles were strongly related to adolescent MySpace experiences, behaviors, and attitudes, with some age differences. Parents with older children were more likely to have Neglectful or Indulgent parenting styles and less likely to set limits on online behavior. The extent of sexual solicitation, pornography, and cyberbullying was relatively low as compared with studies asserting a high incidence of Internet-related problems. Parents' high estimates of online dangers were not matched by their low rates of setting limits and monitoring teens. Theoretical and practical perspectives of the results are offered to enhance social networking experiences for parents and their children.     

The folk strike back; or,why you didn’t do it intentionally,though it was bad and you knew it

Recent and puzzling experimental results suggest that people’s judgments as to whether or not an action was performed intentionally are sensitive to moral considerations. In this paper, we outline these results and evaluate two accounts which purport to explain them. We then describe a recent experiment that allegedly vindicates one of these accounts and present our own findings to show that it fails to do so. Finally, we present additional data suggesting no such vindication could be in the offing and that, in fact, both accounts fail to explain the initial, puzzling results they were purported to explain.

Prejudice as Self‐Control Failure1

Research has suggested that whereas stereotypical attitudes may be automatically activated, the response to these stereotypes can be controlled. Anything that interferes with self‐control may result in more biased behavior. The ego strength model hypothesizes that after exerting self‐control, subsequent self‐control performance will suffer. Hence, depletion of ego strength may lead to increased prejudice. In 2 studies, depletion was found only to affect individuals who normally try to control their prejudicial responses. Participants who do not normally try to control their use of stereotypes were equally prejudiced, regardless of their level of ego strength. The results have implications for prejudice and stereotyping, as well as models of self‐control.     

Refining the Inferential Model of Scientific Understanding

In this article, I use a mental models computational account of representation to illustrate some details of my previously presented inferential model of scientific understanding. The hope is to shed some light on possible mechanisms behind the notion of scientific understanding. I argue that if mental models are a plausible approach to modelling cognition, then understanding can best be seen as the coupling of specific rules. I present our beliefs as ‘ordinary’ conditional rules, and the coupling process as one where the consequent of one ordinary rule (OR) matches and activates the antecedent of the rule to which it is coupled in virtue of the activation of an intermediate ‘inference’ rule. I argue that on this approach knowledge of an explanation is the activation of ORs in a cognitive hierarchy, while understanding is achieved when those activated ORs are also coupled via correct inference rules. I do not directly address issues regarding the plausibility of mental models themselves. This article should therefore be seen as an exercise in refining the inferential model within an already presupposed computational setting, not one of arguing for the psychological adequacy of computational approaches.