Regulatory focus systems and personal values

The present studies sought connections between two highly influential, but separate motivational systems: the regulatory foci and personal values. Study 1 (N = 173) showed that promotion focus was positively associated with Achievement and negatively with Tradition values, whereas prevention focus was positively associated with Conformity and Security values, and negatively with Self‐Direction and Stimulation values. Furthermore, interdependent self‐construal moderated trait prevention focus' associations with Power, Benevolence, Universalism, and Conformity values. Study 2 (N = 150) showed that a promotion‐framed message evoked more compliant behavior among those scoring high on Stimulation, Achievement, and Self‐Direction values, but that a prevention‐framed message evoked more compliance among those high in Conformity values. The results suggested that the regulatory foci are associated with certain values, and that these values may increase motivation in promotion‐ versus prevention‐relevant situations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Probabilistic Causation Can Account for the Use of Mechanistic Evidence

In a recent article in this journal, Federica Russo and Jon Williamson argue that an analysis of causality in terms of probabilistic relationships does not do justice to the use of mechanistic evidence to support causal claims. I will present Ronald Giere’s theory of probabilistic causation, and show that it can account for the use of mechanistic evidence (both in the health sciences—on which Russo and Williamson focus—and elsewhere). I also review some other probabilistic theories of causation (of Suppes, Eells, and Humphreys) and show that they cannot account for the use of mechanistic evidence. I argue that these theories are also inferior to Giere’s theory in other respects.     

Changes in student teachers' agency beliefs during a teacher education year,and relationships with observed classroom quality,and day‐to‐day experiences

Background Conceptualizations of teachers' agency beliefs converge around domains of support and instruction. Aim We investigated changes in student teachers' agency beliefs during a 1 year teacher education course, and related these to observed classroom quality and day‐to‐day experiences in partnership schools during the practicum. Samples Out of a sample of 66 student teachers who had responded to at least two out of four times to a questionnaire (18 men 48 women; mean age 26.4 years), 30 were observed during teaching, and 20 completed a 4‐day short form diary. Methods Confirmatory factor analysis validated two agency belief constructs. Multi‐level models for change investigated individual differences in change over time. Multi‐level path models related observation and diary responses to agency beliefs. Results Supportive agency belief was high and stable across time. Instructional agency belief increased over time, suggesting a beneficial effect of teacher education. This increase was predicted by observed classroom quality (emotional support and student engagement) and daily positive affect and agency beliefs. Conclusions Teacher education is successful in creating a context in which student teachers' supportive agency beliefs can be maintained and instructional agency beliefs can increase during the course.     

The effect of fearful faces on the attentional blink is task dependent

In a set of three rapid serial visual presentation experiments, we investigated the effect of fearful and neutral face stimuli on the report of trailing scene targets. When the emotional expression of the face stimuli had to be indicated, fearful faces induced a stronger attentional blink (AB) than did neutral faces. However, with identical physical stimulation, the enhancement of the AB by fearful faces disappeared when participants had to judge the faces’ gender. If faces did not have to be reported, no AB was observed. Thus, fearful faces exhibited an effect on the AB that crucially depended on the observer’s attentional set. Hence, the AB can be influenced by an emotional T1 when T1 has to be reported, but this influence is modulated by task context. This result indicates a close connection between temporal attention and emotional processing that is modulated by task context.     

The Observer XT: A tool for the integration and synchronization of multimodal signals

The Observer was originally developed as a manual event recorder for the collection, management, analysis, and presentation of observational data in animals. Because of the flexibility of later versions, it became clear that The Observer was suitable for almost any study involving collection of observational data in both animals and humans. Furthermore, the most recent version of The Observer (The Observer XT) allows the integration and synchronization of multimodal signals from various sources, such as observational, video, tracking, and physiological data. This article describes how The Observer XT was used to integrate and synchronize video, observational, tracking, and physiological data from an experiment carried out in 2001 at the Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences of Wageningen University and Research Centre. The integration and synchronization of these multimodal signals in The Observer XT allows the user to draw a more complete picture of the phenomena under study.     

Is Mathematics a Domain for Philosophers of Explanation?

In this paper we discuss three interrelated questions. First: is explanation in mathematics a topic that philosophers of mathematics can legitimately investigate? Second: are the specific aims that philosophers of mathematical explanation set themselves legitimate? Finally: are the models of explanation developed by philosophers of science useful tools for philosophers of mathematical explanation? We argue that the answer to all these questions is positive. Our views are completely opposite to the views that Mark Zelcer has put forward recently. Throughout this paper, we show why Zelcer’s arguments fail.     

Probabilities Associated with Precise and Vague Forecasts

Forecasts of future outcomes, such as the consequences of climate change, are given with different degrees of precision. Logically, more precise forecasts (e.g., a temperature increase of 3–4°) have a smaller probability of capturing the actual outcome than less precise forecasts (e.g., a temperature increase of 2–6°). Nevertheless, people often trust precise forecasts more than vague forecasts, perhaps because precision is associated with knowledge and expertise. In five experiments, we ask whether people expect highly confident forecasts to be associated with wider or narrower outcome ranges than less confident forecasts (Experiments 1, 2, and 5), and, conversely, whether they expect precise forecasts to be issued with higher or lower confidence than vague forecasts (Experiments 3 and 4). The results revealed two distinct ways of thinking about confidence intervals, labeled distributional (wide intervals seen as more probable than narrow intervals) and associative (wide intervals seen as more uncertain than narrow intervals). Distributional responses occurred somewhat more often in within‐subjects designs, where wide and narrow prediction intervals and high and low probability estimates can be directly compared, whereas separate evaluations (in between‐subjects design) suggested associative responses to be slightly more frequent. These findings are relevant for experts communicating forecasts through confidence intervals. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.