Comparing two methods of visual abstraction to human data

The ability to “visually abstract” a given pattern with a neural network and abstract the same pattern by using a regression/correlation analysis was investigated. Both methods were compared with human subjects performing the same task. To visually abstract a particular shape, both quantitative methods broke the shape down into its linear, quadratic, and cubic components. Using an IBM-compatible personal computer, 10 test patterns were analyzed with a neural network (designed using Brainmaker Professional and trained with known linear, quadratic, and cubic shapes) and a regression/correlation model (designed using Lotus 1-2-3). The 10 test patterns were also analyzed by 22 human subjects. The neural network data were found to be highly correlated with the human data [r(8) = .90,p < .01]. The regression/correlation model’s data were also found to be significantly correlated with the human data [r(8) = .77,p < .01]. These findings demonstrate the successful modeling of Rumelhart’s (1991) regression/correlation approach to visual abstraction.     

Fifth grade school adjustment and later arrest rate: A longitudinal study of middle school antisocial boys

This study investigated the efficacy of three different regression models in predicting arrest rate over the fifth to seventh grade range for a sample of antisocial and at risk control middle school boys (N=76). These boys were selected from a larger sample of approximately 200 boys and their families for inclusion in a long term longitudinal study beginning in the fourth grade. Subjects in the present study were identified when they were in the fifth grade and school measures of adjustment were recorded annually for them on two occasions (fall, spring) through the ninth grade. Predictors were derived from the following variables: (a) teacher ratings of social skills; (b) direct observations of academic engagement in classroom settings; (c) direct observations of the playground social behavior of target subjects and peers; and (d) discipline contacts with the principal's office as extracted from archival school records. These predictor variables appeared to assess respectively teacher related and peer related forms of school adjustment. The regression models investigated yielded R-Squares of approximately 30 between arrest rate and two to three predictor variables in each analysis. However, following the deletion of two subject cases that represented extreme instances of underprediction (i.e., subjects who were arrested [i.e., seven arrests each] but whose fifth grade behavioral profiles suggested they would not be), the obtained R-Squares increased to approximately .55. Implications of the findings for the early screening and identification of at risk students are discussed.     

Behavioral Causality Orientations and Investment Decisions Following Negative Feedback

Individual differences in the locus of causality for behavior are seldom considered in tests of regulatory events (e. g., feedback and coercion). This study examined the relationship between Deci and Ryan's (1985a) causality orientation constructs and decision makers' behavioral intention responses to negative feedback following an initial decision. A laboratory experiment involved 98 Singaporean business students in a commitment escalation context in which sunk costs for an initial investment failure could be recovered by reinvesting in that prospect in preference to selecting an alternative that had previously performed better. Consistent with various theories of the escalation effect, in which subjects responsible for prior negative outcomes tend to reinvest in the initially chosen project, control orientation was positively associated with reinvestment and impersonal orientation was negatively related to reinvestment. The influence of personality on reinvestment/withdrawal behavior was moderated by the experimental condition of responsibility for the initial sunk cost. We discuss the implications of these findings for the construct validity of the causality orientations, the role of personality in commitment escalation, and the important role that individual differences in perceptions of regulatory events may play in determining behavior.     

Wittgenstein's philosophies of mathematics

Wittgenstein's philosophy of mathematics has long been notorious. Part of the problem is that it has not been recognized that Wittgenstein, in fact, had two chief post-Tractatus conceptions of mathematics. I have labelled these the calculus conception and the language-game conception. The calculus conception forms a distinct middle period. The goal of my article is to provide a new framework for examining Wittgenstein's philosophies of mathematics and the evolution of his career as a whole. I posit the Hardyian Picture, modelled on the Augustinian Picture, to provide a structure for Wittgenstein's work on the philosophy of mathematics. Wittgenstein's calculus period has not been properly recognized, so I give a detailed account of the tenets of that stage in Wittgenstein's career. Wittgenstein's notorious remarks on contradiction are the test case for my theory of his transition. I show that the bizarreness of those remarks is largely due to the calculus conception, but that Wittgenstein's later language-game account of mathematics keeps the rejection of the Hardyian Picture while correcting the calculus conception's mistakes.The following abbreviations are used in this article to refer to Wittgenstein's works: WWK: Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle: Conversations Recorded by Friedrich Waismann, ed. B. F. McGuinness, trans. J. Schulte and B. F. McGuinness, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1979; CAM I: Wittgenstein's Lectures: Cambridge, 1930–32, ed. D. Lee, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982; CAM II: Wittgenstein's Lectures: Cambridge, 1932–35; ed. A. Ambrose, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982; PG: Philosophical Grammar, ed. R. Rhees, trans. A. Kenny, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1974; BIB: The Blue and Brown Books, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1958; LFM: Wittgenstein's Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics: Cambridge, 1939, ed. C. Diamond, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1976; RFM: Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, ed. G. H. von Wright, R. Rhees, G. E. M. Anscombe, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe, revised ed., Cambridge: MIT Press, 1978; PI: Philosophical Investigations, ed. G. E. M. Anscombe, R. Rhees, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe, New York: Macmillan Company, 1953; Z: Zettel, ed. G. E. M. Anscombe, G. H. von Wright, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970.References to PI and Z are to remark number; references to RFM are to part number (Roman numerals) and remark number (Arabic numerals); and references to the other works are to page numbers. As the evolutionary nature of Wittgenstein's work is an important theme of this article, following the abbreviation for the book in the text I have put in brackets the date of the book or the part of the book from which the quotation comes.     

The parameter preferences of acquired motor programs for rapid,discrete movements: I. Transfer of training

Sixty subjects made discrete movements to visual targets without concurrent visual feedback. After 160 acquisition trials with a single target/movement, subjects were divided into five groups for transfer. The major independent variable was the relationship between the acquisition and transfer movements. For three groups, extent, duration, or velocity was the same in acquisition and in transfer, with the other two parameters changing. For the remaining two groups, either all parameters were changed or no parameters were changed (i.e., subjects performed the same movement). It was found that, as long as one parameter remained the same, subjects performed as well as if nothing were changed. Only when all parameters were changed did performance deteriorate. The results are in direct contrast to those of Newell and Zelaznik (1980) and provide no support for their conclusion that velocity is a more important parameter than movement duration or extent.     

Effect of physical attractiveness on opposite- and same-sex evaluations

After reading an essay attributed to a college freshman, male and female college students evaluated both the essay's quality and the writer's ability. By means of a photograph, the subjects knew writer's sex and physical attractiveness (high, medium, or low). The essays also varied in “objective” quality (high, medium, or low). Significant main effects for essay quality were found in all dependent measures and a sigrdficant main effect for physical attractiveness was found for Composite Essay Quality. Analysis of significant three-way interac-tions between physical attractiveness, sex-of-subject, and sex-of-writer for the Composite Essay Quality and Writer's Overall Ability revealed that individuals of high and medium physical attractiveness were evaluated differently by members of the opposite sex or same sex. That is, highly attractive individuals received the highest evaluations from members of the opposite sex, while individuals of medium physical attractiveness received the highest evaluations from members of the same sex. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of physical attractiveness to relationships between members of the same and opposite sex.     

Input and output for microprocessors

Several alternative strategies for input and output for microprocessors are described, with examples for 8080 machines and the S-100 bus. The strategies are compared in terms of cost, complexity, flexibility, and speed in typical psychology laboratory tasks. Flag testing, interrupt processing, and direct memory access are considered in both parallel and serial modes.     

Language learning impairment: Integrating research and remediation

Timing cues present in the acoustic waveform of speech provide critical information for the recognition and segmentation of the ongoing speech signal. Research has demonstrated that deficient temporal perception rates, that have been shown to specifically disrupt acoustic processing of speech, are related to specific language-based learning impairments (LLI). Temporal processing deficits correlate highly with the phonological discrimination and processing deficits of these children. Electrophysiological single cell mapping studies of sensory cortex in brains of primates have shown that neural circuitry can be remapped after specific, temporally cohesive training regimens, demonstrating the dynamic plasticity of the brain. Recently, we combined these two lines of research in a series of studies that addressed whether the temporal processing deficits seen in LLIs can be significantly modified through adaptive training aimed at reducing temporal integration thresholds. Simultaneously, we developed a computer algorithm that expanded and enhanced the brief, rapidly changing acoustic segments within ongoing speech and used this to provide intensive speech and language training exercises to these children. Results to date from two independent laboratory experiments, as well as a large national clinical efficacy trial, demonstrate that dramatic improvements in temporal integration thresholds, together with speech and language comprehension abilities of LLI children, results from training with these new computer-based training procedures.