Preschool children favor copying a successful individual over an unsuccessful group

The human aptitude for imitation and social learning underpins our advanced cultural practices. While social learning is a valuable evolutionary survival strategy, blind copying does not necessarily facilitate survival. Copying from the majority allows individuals to make rapid judgments on the value of a trait, based on its frequency. This is known as the majority bias: an individual's tendency to copy the behavior elicited by the largest number of individuals in a population. An alternative approach is to follow those who are the most proficient. While there is evidence that children do show both processes, no study has directly pitted them against each other. To do this, in the current experiment 36 children aged between 4 and 5 years watched live actors demonstrate, as a group or individually, how to open novel puzzle boxes. Children exhibited a bias to the majority when group and individual methods were successful, but favored the individual if the group method was unsuccessful. Affiliating children with the unsuccessful majority group did not impact on this pattern.     

On the (non)persuasive power of a brain image

The persuasive power of brain images has captivated scholars in many disciplines. Like others, we too were intrigued by the finding that a brain image makes accompanying information more credible (McCabe & Castel in Cognition 107:343-352, 2008). But when our attempts to build on this effect failed, we instead ran a series of systematic replications of the original study—comprising 10 experiments and nearly 2,000 subjects. When we combined the original data with ours in a meta-analysis, we arrived at a more precise estimate of the effect, determining that a brain image exerted little to no influence. The persistent meme of the influential brain image should be viewed with a critical eye.     

Rayo’s Metametaphysics

Abstract

In his important book The Construction of Logical Space (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), Agustín Rayo lays out a distinctive metametaphysical view and applies it fruitfully to disputes concerning ontology and concerning modality. In this article, I present a number of criticisms of the view developed, mostly focusing on the underlying metametaphysics and Rayo’s claims on its behalf.     

Beiträge zur Psychologie der Gestalt

Zusammenfassung Im Teil I bestätigten wir das Resultat von Fuchs über den Einfluß einer Form auf die Farbe ihrer Teile und erbrachten einiges Material zur quantitativen Bestimmung dieses Einflusses. Liegen von 12 auf der Peripherie eines Kreises angeordneten gelben Scheibchen einige hinter einem blauen Episcotister, so werden diese von den außerhalb liegenden gelb gefärbt. Der Grad dieser Färbung hängt ab 1. von dem Verhältnis der Zahl der außen liegenden Scheibchen zu der Zahl der im Episcotisterfeld befindlichen, 2. von figuralen Faktoren: je stärker der figurale Zusammenhang zwischen den Scheibchen drinnen und draußen, um so stärker die färbende Wirkung.Im II. Teil versuchten wir den Faktoren nachzugehen, von denen die Durchsichtigkeit eines Episcotisters konstanter Öffnung abhängt. Als solche Faktoren ergaben sich: Helligkeit des Hintergrundes, Helligkeit des Episcotisters (beide wirken im entgegengesetzten Sinn), Helligkeitsdifferenz zwischen Episcotister und Hintergrund und Ausgeprägtheit der auf dem Hintergrund erscheinenden Figur. Es ergaben sich Bedingungen, unter denen der Episcotister unsichtbar wurde, und es ließ sich diese Unsichtbarkeit als höchster Grad von Durchsichtigkeit auffassen. Die Durchsichtigkeit ging ferner Hand in Hand mit anderen Strukturbeschaffenheiten des Episcotisters, auch die phänomenale Helligkeit des Episcotisters war von dem Grad seiner Durchsichtigkeit nicht unabhängig.     

Reply to critics

ABSTRACT

In this reply to critics, I reply to Stephanie Leary’s, Kris McDaniel’s, Tristram McPherson’s and David Plunkett’s articles on my book Choosing Normative Concepts. One central theme in the replies concerns what is the best strategy for the so-called ardent realist when it comes to responding to the challenge I present in the book. Another central theme concerns the criticisms of my characterizations of what normative concepts and normative properties are.     

Framing Effects in International Relations

Framing is the least well-developed central concept of prospect theory. Framing is both fundamental to prospect theory and remarkably underdeveloped in the prospect theory literature. This paper focuses on the many subtypes and variations of framing: thematic vs. evaluative; successful vs. failed; productive vs. counterproductive; purposeful, structural and interactive framing; counterframing; loss frames vs. gain frames; revolving framing vs. sequential framing; framing by a third party; and framing vs. priming. The bulk of the paper provides an analysis of framing and framing effects in foreign policy settings with an emphasis on U.S. foreign policy. We highlight framing effects during the Cold War, the Persian Gulf War, the current ``war on terrorism', and other IR/foreign policy settings. Our examination highlights the extent to which presidents and other significant world leaders use framing to shape policy debates and national security choices.     

Pentecostal theology of mission in the making

While Pentecostals are known for productive and widespread mission work, theological reflection has not kept up with praxis. In recent years, however, a number of leading Pentecostal theologians have started to reflect on key issues such as what are the underlying motifs and distinguishing features as well as urgent challenges facing Pentecostal mission, social concern and relation to other religions, among others. This essays attempts to offer a state‐of‐art critical survey based on English speaking literature at the international level.     

Role clarity,role conflict,and vitality at work: The role of the basic needs

This study aimed to provide new information on the relationships between vitality at work and role clarity, role conflict, and psychological basic need satisfaction. Participants of the cross‐sectional study were 110 employees in a preventive intervention program. Associations between the focal constructs were examined with regression and bootstrapping analyses. The results suggest that the role clarity is associated with subjective vitality at work through higher autonomy and higher competence, and that role conflict is negatively associated with subjective vitality at work through lower autonomy and lower relatedness. Additionally, an interaction between the role characteristics was observed, suggesting that the strength of the association between role clarity and competence, and the strength of the indirect association between role clarity and vitality through competence may vary depending on the level of role conflict. The findings are consistent with the notion that that managers and co‐workers may affect the opportunities of individuals to achieve need satisfaction and feel energized by delineating and negotiating role‐related factors at work. Need satisfaction, in turn, is an antecedent of well‐being and motivation. Employees should feel able to clarify role ambiguities with their supervisor or co‐workers and thus reduce the role conflicts imposed by the expectations of various stakeholders. Limitations of the study include the self‐rating methodology, cross‐sectional design, and properties of the sample restricting generalizability.