On theoretical and realizable ideal conditions in psychophysics: Magnitude and category scales and their relation

By spacing 10 stimuli (white noise) between 40 and 110 dB according to two criteria [equal response ambiguity (ERA) and equal discriminability (ED)], an attempt was made to construct an “ideal” case for magnitude estimation and category rating. The “ideal” case is defined by linear and constant Weber functions (SDs as a function of scale values) for the two scales, respectively. Altogether, three group and two individual magnitude and category rating experiments were run with these two spacings. It was found that the ERA spacing approximated the ideal case well for both Weber functions and the ED spacing only for the Weber function of the category scale. The general psychophysical differential equation that relates scale values and Weber functions for the two scales allowed good prediction of the category scales from the magnitude scales and the Weber functions. The data suggested a distinction between phenotypic (empirical) and genotypic Weber functions, analogous to “real” and “ideal” cases in physics.     

BRIGHTNESS SCALES FOR MONOCHROMATIC LIGHT

By means of amethod of ratio estimation, scale values were obtained for the subjective brightness of various physical intensities of monochromatic light of various wave lengths. In a second experiment the scale was constructed by a method of magnitude estimation. The brightness functions were studied by plotting the scale values against stimulus intensity for each wave length. The two experiments gave essentially the same results. It was shown: (1) Brightness of monochromatic light is a power function of stimulus intensity. The exponent of the function is approximately one-third for all wave lengths. (2) Properties of the brightness functions can explain certain empirical relations between brightness, hue and saturation.     

EMPIRICAL TEST OF A MODEL RELATING MAGNITUDE AND CATEGORY SCALES

E isler , H. Empirical test of a model relating magnitude and category scales. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1962, 3 , 88–96.—The function K =α log( φ+ q/k) +β seems to describe the relation between category scale values K and subjective magnitudes φ. The additive constant q/k is obtained from the S ds of the magnitude estimates.
The model was empirically confirmed for the loudness and softness of white noise scaled by the methods of magnitude estimation and category rating.     

Syntax- und Semantikkoordination im Dialog

Coordination of Syntax and Semantics in Discourse Summary. 'Coordination' as used here is understood in the following way: Agents solve problems in on-going dialogue under mutual control and according to stable, well-understood patterns. In task-oriented dialogue the social frame for coordination is fixed. The need for coordination among agents arises because of differences in information, the dominant dialogue pattern 'directive - reply', and because of incompatibilities with respect to speakers' ontologies, language variation and agents' focus management. We discuss three dialogue examples showing coordination in some detail. In all of them the coordination problem is solved via a side sequence. Side sequences can be implemented either as autonomous dialogue contributions or they can be fused into the utterances they start from. Grammars treating 'syntax-in-dialogue' and, above all, side sequences, have to meet several constraints: They must describe various forms of extraposition to the right and long distance dependencies, produce and analyse by increments, and shift from production to reception and vice versa. All these patterns will be of relevance for the man-machine-interaction focused upon in the research unit “Situated Artificial Communicators“. It is suggested to set up the theory of grammar needed to accomplish all that within a theory of n-Person Cooperative Games. Zusammenfassung. Koordination im Dialog bedeutet, daß auftretende Probleme unter wechselseitiger Kontrolle der Agenten nach festgelegten Verfahren gelöst werden. In aufgabenorientierten Dialogen ist der soziale Rahmen für Koordination festgelegt. Koordination wird erforderlich wegen des Informationsgefälles zwischen Instrukteur und Konstrukteur, des dominanten Dialogmusters “Direktive geben“ - “Direktive befolgen“ sowie der Unterschiede in den Bereichen Sprecherontologie, Sprachvariation und Fokussteuerung. Wir geben drei Dialogbeispiele für Koordination, bei denen das Koordinationsproblem über eine Nebensequenz gelöst wird. Nebensequenzen, sog. “Verständigungssequenzen“, können als klar begrenzter, autonomer Subdialog realisiert oder in die Ausgangsäußerung eingefügt sein. Eine Syntax für den Dialog, insbesondere für Nebensequenzen und deren Einbettung, muß spezielle Konstruktionen wie Ausklammerung und Nachtrag erfassen, inkrementell operieren und zwischen Produktion und Rezeption hin- und herschalten können. Über alle diese Fähigkeiten sollte ein Situierter Künstlicher Kommunikator verfügen. Es wird vorgeschlagen, das dazu benötigte Grammatikmodell im Rahmen einer Theorie der Kooperativen Mehr-Personen-Spiele zu konzipieren.     

Individual ambidexterity: the duality of exploration and exploitation and its relationship with innovative performance

Organizational ambidexterity has been established as an important antecedent of organizational innovation and performance. Recently, researchers have started to argue that ambidexterity is not only essential at the organizational, but also at the individual level. Thus, to be innovative, individuals need to engage in both explorative and exploitative behaviours. However, questions remain regarding the optimal balance of explorative and exploitative behaviours and how ambidexterity can be operationalized. At the organizational level, most empirical research utilized either the difference between, or the product of, exploration and exploitation. In this article, we criticize these approaches on conceptual and methodological grounds and argue for an alternative operationalization of ambidexterity: polynomial regression and response surface methodology. In two diary studies with daily and weekly data, we demonstrate the advantages of this approach. We discuss implications for ambidexterity research and innovation practice.     

Ape metaphysics: object individuation without language

Developmental research suggests that whereas very young infants individuate objects purely on spatiotemporal grounds, from (at latest) around 1 year of age children are capable of individuating objects according to the kind they belong to and the properties they instantiate. As the latter ability has been found to correlate with language, some have speculated whether it might be essentially language dependent and therefore uniquely human. Existing studies with non-human primates seem to speak against this hypothesis, but fail to present conclusive evidence due to methodological shortcomings. In the present experiments we set out to test non-linguistic object individuation in three great ape species with a refined manual search methodology. Experiment 1 tested for spatiotemporal object individuation: Subjects saw 1 or 2 objects simultaneously being placed inside a box in which they could reach, and then in both conditions only found 1 object. After retrieval of the 1 object, subjects reached again significantly more often when they had seen 2 than when they had seen 1 object. Experiment 2 tested for object individuation according to property/kind information only: Subjects saw 1 object being placed inside the box, and then either found that object (expected) or an object of a different kind (unexpected). Analogously to Experiment 1, after retrieval of the 1 object, subjects reached again significantly more often in the unexpected than in the expected condition. These results thus confirm previous findings suggesting that individuating objects according to their property/kind is neither uniquely human nor essentially language dependent. It remains to be seen, however, whether this kind of object individuation requires sortal concepts as human linguistic thinkers use them, or whether some simpler form of tracking properties is sufficient.     

Diakonia Trinitatis Dei as/and Transformational Development

The paper acknowledges that different agencies acting against poverty and participating in poverty alleviation use different languages, for example, diakonia versus development and transformational development, while dealing with the same issues. Against the background of poverty in South Africa as well as development policies from South Africa, this paper discusses the importance of diakonia as founded in the trinitarian God, Father, Son, and Spirit. Using a missional paradigm, the paper discusses the missio Dei as it unites with the covenant, forgiveness, empowerment, and to make God known. The paper concludes that although diakonia has a more holistic and comprehensive approach, it is important to use language which is generally understood and accepted. It therefore suggests using the term “transformational development” to educate society about the concept of diakonia.     

Effects of redundant auditory stimuli on reaction time

Auditory redundancy gains were assessed in two experiments in which a simple reaction time task was used. In each trial, an auditory stimulus was presented to the left ear, to the right ear, or simultaneously to both ears. The physical difference between auditory stimuli presented to the two ears was systematically increased across experiments. No redundancy gains were observed when the stimuli were identical pure tones or pure tones of different frequencies (Experiment 1). A clear redundancy gain and evidence of coactivation were obtained, however, when one stimulus was a pure tone and the other was white noise (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 employed a two-alternative forced choice localization task and provided evidence that dichotically presented pure tones of different frequencies are apparently integrated into a single percept, whereas a pure tone and white noise are not fused. The results extend previous findings of redundancy gains and coactivation with visual and bimodal stimuli to the auditory modality. Furthermore, at least within this modality, the results indicate that redundancy gains do not emerge when redundant stimuli are integrated into a single percept.