Coarse-to-fine eye movement behavior during visual search

It has previously been argued that, during visual search, eye movement behavior is indicative of an underlying scanning “strategy” that starts on a global, or “coarse,” scale but then progressively focuses to a more local, or “fine,” scale. This conclusion is motivated by the finding that, as a trial progresses, fixation durations tend to increase and saccade amplitudes tend to decrease. In the present study, we replicate these effects but offer an alternative explanation for them—that they emerge from a few stochastic factors that control eye movement behavior. We report the results of a simulation supporting this hypothesis and discuss implications for future models of visual search.     

Heterogeneity of treatment changes after psychodynamic therapy within a one year follow‐up: A replication study

Naturalistic psychotherapy effect studies commonly report effect sizes for the total sample. However, a previous study of SCL‐90 Global Severity Index (GSI) improvement in a large outpatient sample used a cluster analytic strategy and reported clinical relevant outcome trajectories that could be grouped into early within‐treatment improvement, late improvement in the follow‐up period, and deteriorating patients with slight improvement that was lost at follow‐up. We explore GSI outcome trajectories and clinical significant change in a sample of 320 patients at a public psychiatric outpatient psychodynamic group therapy unit, the majority with anxiety, personality, and mood disorders. The study revealed large discharge and follow‐up effect sizes but more than one third of the patients were without measurable improvement. The major clusters described above were confirmed, and revealed unique clinical and socio‐demographic characteristics. Late improvers, as compared with early improvers, were characterized by anxiety symptoms and lack of network support after controlling for GSI at admission. Similarly, deteriorating patients had longer duration of illness and less favourable social characteristics compared with the other two groups. Early improving patients were less likely to have participated in short‐term groups, and only one third participated in additional treatment compared with more than 69% of the other patients. Severe and socially affected psychiatric patients, and patients with anxiety and agoraphobic symptoms may be less optimally treated in short‐term time limited psychodynamic groups. There is an obvious need for diversity of treatment offers, better integration of psycho‐social treatment components, and long‐term open ended treatment.     

Trust and the value of overconfidence: a Bayesian perspective on social network communication

The paper presents and defends a Bayesian theory of trust in social networks. In the first part of the paper, we provide justifications for the basic assumptions behind the model, and we give reasons for thinking that the model has plausible consequences for certain kinds of communication. In the second part of the paper we investigate the phenomenon of overconfidence. Many psychological studies have found that people think they are more reliable than they actually are. Using a simulation environment that has been developed in order to make our model computationally tractable we show that in our model inquirers are indeed sometimes better off from an epistemic perspective overestimating the reliability of their own inquiries. We also show, by contrast, that people are rarely better off overestimating the reliability of others. On the basis of these observations we formulate a novel hypothesis about the value of overconfidence.     

The Probability of Guilt in Criminal Cases: Are People Aware of Being ‘Beyond Reasonable Doubt’?

Data from a series of studies presenting video recorded witness statements to laypersons and legal professionals were examined to trace the relationship between judged probability of guilt and the willingness to vote guilty or not guilty in hypothetical trials, in the absence of specific jury instructions. The results show that a majority of jury‐eligible young and elderly participants, and police officers, were willing to convict a defendant when the judged probability of guilt exceeded .6. This is considerably below the legally accepted standard of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, which usually is equated with a very high, around .9 perceived certainty. When jury deliberations were allowed, the threshold for conviction rose, approaching the standard evinced by trial judges under the same conditions. The results suggest that people prefer to vote for guilt according to a balance of probabilities principle, considering only the individual case, and disregarding the implied frequencies of false convictions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Building an Environmental Ethics from the Confucian Concepts of Zhengming and Datong

From the ‘DuPont factory’ case in China, one can see that contemporary ecology is faced with two underlying problems: A lack of responsibility toward the environment beyond being economically profitable, and a lack of care for what is outside of one’s immediate environment. For the purpose of confronting these two problems, I suggest two Confucian concepts: 1. zhengming 正名 (Rectification of names) and 2. datong 大同 (Great Harmony). These two concepts can be used to develop an environmental ethics and thus play a crucial role in solving the two above-mentioned problems. Zhengming is originally a political concept that was put forward by Confucius. According to this concept, everyone should fulfill their duty to the utmost in accordance with their individual roles. Datong is Confucius’ political ideal and emphasizes gong 公 (public) as a spirit for caring for tian xia 天下 (all under Heaven). A Confucian-style harmonious society is achieved by ‘letting every being manifest its mandate to the full’ (ge jin xing fen 各盡性分). When we turn toward the natural environment instead of political affairs, these concepts of zhengming and datong can become a proactive view of environmental ethics. From this view, zhengming emphasizes that ‘humans fulfill their responsibility of being humans’ (ren ren 人人). This means that humans should take responsibility toward the natural world, and one might say that ren ren implies an impetus for protecting the environment. Similarly, datong emphasizes caring for tian xia, by not limiting oneself to certain races, species, national boundaries, or geographical regions. Because of this, I believe that zhengming and datong can certainly resolve the above-mentioned problems: A lack of a sense of responsibility toward the environment, and a lack of a sense of care for what is outside of the confines of one’s immediate environment.     

Character: The Prospects for a Personality‐Based Perspective on Morality

In the early parts of the 20th century, character made up a major part of psychology, specifically of personality psychology. However, an influential observational study of children's moral behavior, conducted by Hartshorne, May, and colleagues in the 1920s, suggested that consistency in morality‐related behavior was lower than many people expected. Some psychologists interpreted such results to mean that there was no consistency in moral behavior and thus that there were no stable, meaningful individual differences in moral behavior – character did not exist. Recent years have witnessed a reinvigoration of character, ethics, and morality as objects of psychological study. Our purpose in this paper is to contribute to this reinvigoration by reviewing the use of the concept of “character” within psychology, considering whether the evidence supports the notion of moral character as a psychological construct, and suggesting new prospects for research on moral character.     

Acceptability,Feasibility, and Effectiveness of Internet-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in New York

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), consisting of exposure and response prevention (EX/RP), is both efficacious and preferred by patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), yet few receive this treatment in practice. This study describes the implementation of an Internet-based CBT program (ICBT) developed in Sweden in individuals seeking OCD treatment in New York. After translating and adapting the Swedish ICBT for OCD, we conducted an open trial with 40 adults with OCD. Using the RE-AIM implementation science framework, we assessed the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of ICBT. The Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) was the primary outcome measure. Of 40 enrolled, 28 participants completed the 10-week ICBT. In the intent-to-treat sample (N = 40), Y-BOCS scores decreased significantly over time (F = 28.12, df = 2, 49, p < . 001). Depressive severity (F = 5.87, df = 2, 48, p < . 001), and quality of life (F = 12.34, df = 2, 48, p < . 001) also improved. Sensitivity analyses among treatment completers (N = 28) confirmed the intent-to-treat results, with a large effect size for Y-BOCS change (Cohen’s d = 1.38). ICBT took less time to implement than face-to face EX/RP and participants were very to mostly satisfied with ICBT. On a par with results in Sweden, the adapted ICBT program reduced OCD and depressive symptoms and improved quality of life among individuals with moderate to severe OCD. Given its acceptability and feasibility, ICBT deserves further study as a way to increase access to CBT for OCD in the United States.     

Equivalence class formation as a function of preliminary training with pictorial stimuli

The present experiment investigated the effects of preliminary training with pictorial stimuli on the subsequent formation of three 5‐member equivalence classes (A?B?C?D?E) in 84 university students assigned to seven groups of 12. In the Abstract (ABS) group, all stimuli were abstract shapes. In the Picture (PIC) group, the C stimuli were pictures, and the remaining stimuli were the same abstract shapes as in the ABS group. For the remaining five groups, all stimuli were the same abstract shapes as in the ABS group. However, across groups, preliminary training involved either the establishment of conditional relations with simultaneous (SMTS) or delayed (DMTS) matching‐to‐sample with 0 s, 3 s, 6 s, or 9 s between the abstract C stimuli and the meaningful pictures. For the ABS and the PIC groups, 16.7% and 83.3% of participants formed classes, respectively. Preliminary training with SMTS and DMTS with 0 s, 3 s, and 6 s produced a linear increase in the likelihood of equivalence class formation, 41.7%, 50%, and 75%, respectively. Increasing the duration of delay further from 6 s to 9 s produced a substantial decline, 50%. This experiment extends knowledge about how including meaningful pictures enhances equivalence class formation.