Element Comparisons In Repertory Grid Technique: Results And Consequences Of A Monte Carlo Study

The analysis of “quasi” grids containing arrays of random numbers was used to explore common interelement distances. Using the Unit of Expected Distance for standardization (Slater, 1976), interelement distances were computed for huge numbers of quasis and the parameters for their distributions specified. The distributions of interelement distances depended on the size of the grids (i.e., the number of constructs). The distances were not symmetrically distributed; there was a marked skewness in distribution. The “significance” of distances (Slater, 1976) should be redefined. The clinical and methodological relevance of the results is demonstrated. Solutions to the statistical problems are suggested.     

The role of health anxiety in online health information search

This article is one of the first to empirically explore the relationship between health anxiety and online health information search. Two studies investigate how health anxiety influences the use of the Internet for health information and how health anxious individuals respond to online health information. An exploratory survey study with 104 Dutch participants indicates that health anxiety is related to an increase in online health information search. Moreover, results suggest that health anxious individuals experience more negative consequences from online health information search. Findings from an experimental study (n=120) indicate that online health information results in greater worries among health anxious individuals compared to nonhealth anxious individuals only if the information stems from a trustworthy governmental Web site. Information from a less trustworthy online forum does not lead to greater worries among health anxious individuals. In sum, the Internet appears to play a pivotal role in the lives of health anxious individuals.     

Judgment aggregation and the problem of tracking the truth

The aggregation of consistent individual judgments on logically interconnected propositions into a collective judgment on those propositions has recently drawn much attention. Seemingly reasonable aggregation procedures, such as propositionwise majority voting, cannot ensure an equally consistent collective conclusion. In this paper, we motivate that quite often, we do not only want to make a factually right decision, but also to correctly evaluate the reasons for that decision. In other words, we address the problem of tracking the truth. We set up a probabilistic model that generalizes the analysis of Bovens and Rabinowicz (Synthese 150: 131?C153, 2006) and use it to compare several aggregation procedures. Demanding some reasonable adequacy constraints, we demonstrate that a reasons- or premise-based aggregation procedure tracks the truth better than any other procedure. However, we also illuminate that such a procedure is not in all circumstances easy to implement, leaving actual decision-makers with a tradeoff problem.     

Walter the banker: the conjunction fallacy reconsidered

In a famous experiment by Tversky and Kahneman (Psychol Rev 90:293–315, 1983), featuring Linda the bank teller, the participants assign a higher probability to a conjunction of propositions than to one of the conjuncts, thereby seemingly committing a probabilistic fallacy. In this paper, we discuss a slightly different example featuring someone named Walter, who also happens to work at a bank, and argue that, in this example, it is rational to assign a higher probability to the conjunction of suitably chosen propositions than to one of the conjuncts. By pointing out the similarities between Tversky and Kahneman’s experiment and our example, we argue that the participants in the experiment may assign probabilities to the propositions in question in such a way that it is also rational for them to give the conjunction a higher probability than one of the conjuncts.     

Moving along the mental time line influences the processing of future related words

Abstract concepts like numbers or time are thought to be represented in the more concrete domain of space and the sensorimotor system. For example, thinking of past or future events has a physical manifestation in backward or forward body sway, respectively. In the present study, we investigated the reverse effect: can passive whole-body motion influence the processing of temporal information? Participants were asked to categorize verbal stimuli to the concepts future or past while they were displaced forward and backward (Experiment 1), or upward and downward (Experiment 2). The results showed that future related verbal stimuli were categorized faster during forward as compared to backward motion. This finding supports the view that temporal events are represented along a mental time line and that the sensorimotor system is linked to that representation. We showed that body motion is not just an epiphenomenon of temporal thoughts. Passive whole-body motion can influence higher-order temporal cognition.     

The development of basic mechanisms of pattern vision: spatial frequency channels

The mature visual system possesses mechanisms that analyze visual inputs into bands of spatial frequency. This analysis appears to be important to several visual capabilities. We have investigated the development of these spatial-frequency channels in young infants. Experiment 1 used a masking paradigm to test 6-week-olds, 12-week-olds, and adults. The detectability of sine wave gratings of different spatial frequencies was measured in the presence and the absence of a narrowband noise masker. The 12-week data showed that at least two spatial-frequency channels with adultlike specificity are present at 12 weeks. The 6-week data did not reveal the presence of narrowband spatial-frequency channels. Experiment 2 used a different paradigm to investigate the same issue. The detectability of gratings composed of two sine wave components was measured in 6-week-olds and adults. The results were entirely consistent with those of experiment 1. The 12-week and adult data indicated the presence of narrowband spatial-frequency channels. The 6-week data did not. The results of these experiments suggest that the manner in which pattern information is processed changes fundamentally between 6 and 12 weeks of age.     

Assessment of prealbumin in cerebrospinal fluid

The paper describes statistical relationship between prealbumin and total protein in lumbal CSF of a control group and a total group of patients with neurological diseases. The equations of the regression lines and the boundary lines of the distribution areas did not significantly differ between both groups. Therefore, prealbumin seems to be not qualified for differential diagnosis. On the other hand, its application to characterize functional states of blood-brain-CSF barrier systems is discussed.     

A perspective on the study of social attitudes

Argues that the comparative neglect of the cognitive component and social origins of social attitudes has produced serious inadequacies in social psychology and limited its social relevance. Discusses critically the question of how far social change can be brought about by changing attitudes. The argument is exemplified with reference to the literature on authoritarianism and recent British research on racial prejudice and mass communication. Concludes that the psychology of social attitudes needs to take greater account of the way the production and communication of culture are related to social structure and change.