More data trumps smarter algorithms: Comparing pointwise mutual information with latent semantic analysis

Computational models of lexical semantics, such as latent semantic analysis, can automatically generate semantic similarity measures between words from statistical redundancies in text. These measures are useful for experimental stimulus selection and for evaluating a model’s cognitive plausibility as a mechanism that people might use to organize meaning in memory. Although humans are exposed to enormous quantities of speech, practical constraints limit the amount of data that many current computational models can learn from. We follow up on previous work evaluating a simple metric of pointwise mutual information. Controlling for confounds in previous work, we demonstrate that this metric benefits from training on extremely large amounts of data and correlates more closely with human semantic similarity ratings than do publicly available implementations of several more complex models. We also present a simple tool for building simple and scalable models from large corpora quickly and efficiently.     

To prove or to improve? Which motive distorts perceptions of personality controllability?

This research extends past work on positive illusions and self-goals by examining motivated perceptions of how much control people think they have over changing their personality traits. A self-validation motivation should cause individuals to view their personality weaknesses as uncontrollable (to avoid blame for having them) and their personality strengths as controllable (to take credit for having them). A self-growth motivation should cause individuals to view their weaknesses as controllable (to view them as improvable) and their strengths as uncontrollable (to view them as unchanging). Studies 1 and 2 find evidence for self-validation in perceptions of trait controllability. Study 3 finds this pattern to be stronger for validation-seeking individuals but weaker for growth-seeking individuals. Studies 3 and 4 find that being primed with one's successful self-improvements or one's future self can attenuate the self-validation. The potential implications of distorted perceptions of trait controllability for both well-being and self-change are discussed.     

Rorschach Comprehensive System data for a sample of 75 Danish 9-year-old children: a pilot study

This article provides a normative study documenting how 75 Danish nonpatient 9-year-old children respond to the Rorschach test. The children were selected randomly from nine different parts of Denmark and tested with the Rorschach by 10 different psychologists. All examiners were familiar with the Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 2003), and before the data collection they participated in a 3-day workshop performed by the research group that focused on administration, inquiry, and scoring issues. Among the results are an average R of 23.6 and an average Lambda of 2.01 (median = 1.18). Slightly more than 60% of the sample had an Avoidant style (63%); 41% had a CDI of 4 or 5; and 33% were positive on the HVI. In terms of perception and thinking, average values were .44 for X+%, .27 for X-%, and 9.4 for the WSum6.     

Learning is impaired by activated intentions

Two experiments examined the task interference that sometimes accrues from having an intention. In standard prospective memory tasks, latency is often slower to an ongoing task performed concurrently with having an intention than it is when no intention is given. If the locus of this slowing resulted from different attentional allocation policies in the two cases, we predicted that the process of learning a word list would be impaired if participants had an intention rather than if they did not. Four different event-based prospective memory tasks were used in Experiment 1 to demonstrate that worse free recall of a word list resulted when studied with a concurrent intention than with a control condition that had no intention. In that experiment, linking an intention to a distal context that was to occur after learning did not impair free recall. Two time-based tasks were used in Experiment 2 to demonstrate that possessing a time-based prospective memory also hinders learning, unless the intention is linked to a future context that is expected to occur after the study session. In the latter case, no impairment was obtained.     

Aging and situation model processing

Over the past several years, a number of studies have been done that assess processing at the level of the situation model in relation to issues of aging (Morrow, Leirer, & Altieri, 1992; Radvansky, Copeland, Berish, & Dijkstra, 2003; Radvansky, Copeland, & Zwaan, 2003; Stine-Morrow, Gagne, Morrow, & DeWall, 2004; Stine-Morrow, Morrow, & Leno, 2002). In contrast to age-related declines that have been demonstrated at surface form and textbase levels of processing, no such declines have been found in the creation and updating of situation models (Radvansky, 1999). This review focuses on the relevant factors in cognitive aging and situation model processing and places them within the larger frameworks of language processing, working memory capacity, and aging.     

Toward A Very Idea Of Representation

The actual approaches of Cognitive Science offer a partial explanation of cognition. In this paper, our main point is to catch some key elements from these approaches, that can be taken together in a future perspective for a better explanation of cognition. The key elements (levels of analysis, primitives, processes, structures, threshold,self-organisation, bidirectionality, emergency, habituation, tasks, theinteraction between levels and also the interactions between the elements of the cognitive system and the environment) help us to stress the need of the representations. Then, we arediscussing the following dichotomies: procedural-declarative,consciousness-unconsciousness, implicit-explicit. Finally, we will try to motivate the necessity of an abstract theory of representation in Cognitive Science. ``The sensitive things aren't, but the ideas are'.Plato     

Modeling cognitive load effects of conversation between a passenger and driver

Cognitive load from secondary tasks is a source of distraction causing injuries and fatalities on the roadway. The Detection Response Task (DRT) is an international standard for assessing cognitive load on drivers’ attention that can be performed as a secondary task with little to no measurable effect on the primary driving task. We investigated whether decrements in DRT performance were related to the rate of information processing, levels of response caution, or the non-decision processing of drivers. We had pairs of participants take part in the DRT while performing a simulated driving task, manipulated cognitive load via the conversation between driver and passenger, and observed associated slowing in DRT response time. Fits of the single-bound diffusion model indicated that slowing was mediated by an increase in response caution. We propose the novel hypothesis that, rather than the DRT’s sensitivity to cognitive load being a direct result of a loss of information processing capacity to other tasks, it is an indirect result of a general tendency to be more cautious when making responses in more demanding situations.     

The contribution of role satisfaction,meaning in life and work–home conflict to explaining well-being among working grandparents

Background and objectives: The study aimed to examine the relationship of satisfaction with occupied roles as well as the sense of meaning in life and experience of work–home conflict to well-being among working grandparents in Israel.

Design and methods: The research sample consisted of 316 employed grandparents aged 50–80 (153 grandfathers and 163 grandmothers), who were employed in various types of organizations. Data were collected using structured questionnaires. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

Results: The research findings indicate that the sense of meaning in life mediated the relationship between role satisfaction and the two types of work–home conflict. A significant relationship was found between “work interferes with family” conflict and negative affect. Higher personal resources were associated with higher meaning in life. Gender was not related to the experience of work–home conflict or to any of the outcome variables.

Conclusions: The centrality of meaning in life in the model that explains the experience of work–home conflict and its outcomes among working grandparents, derives from its mediating role in the relationship between the experience of role satisfaction and both types of role conflict, as well as from its direct impact on positive and negative affect.     

Concordance among readers of self-help books about important ideas

Amount of agreement among readers about the relevant information in a self-help psychology book was measured to assess whether readers' choices are unique or overlapping. 15 men and 14 women attended two 1-hr. sessions in which they read and marked relevant information in the first 60 pages of a self-help psychology book. Comparison of the amount and pattern of marking across pages and lines on five specific pages showed that there was a statistically significant amount of agreement on which pages contained relevant ideas and which lines contained important concepts. There were no differences between men and women.     

Task interference from event-based intentions

Task interference occurs in prospective memory tasks when an intention deleteriously affects performance on an ongoing activity in some way. Several studies have shown that task interference can manifest itself in slower latencies to perform an ongoing task. Recent evidence demonstrates that associating intentions to certain performance contexts affects prospective memory performance (see, e.g., Cook, Marsh, & Hicks, 2005). In the present study, an intention was associated with a particular stimulus class, such as pictures or words. We found that task interference could be reduced when participants could reliably predict that the material about to be processed was irrelevant to the intention. This material-specific interference effect was found on a trial-by-trial basis in a random sequence of two different kinds of materials across two experiments and with blocking manipulation in another experiment. These results demonstrate that task interference is not a monolithic construct; rather, it results from dynamic and flexible attentional allocation strategies that can change on a trial-by-trial basis.