Configurality in judgment: Is it a bias?

Past research has shown that the relationship between cue and judgment often depends on the level of other cues (configural relationship). It is not clear, however, if this relationship is environmentally appropriate. To examine this issue, I compare configural models of the judgment with configural models of the criterion associated with this judgment. Two databases are analyzed. In one, the cues are the parents’ educational level, the judgment is the educational expectations of the child, and the criterion is the actual educational achievement. In the other, the cues are the MMPI scores of psychiatric patients, the judgment is the clinical psychologists’ estimation of the degree of pathology, and the criterion is the actual pathology. The analysis of both databases revealed that configurality characterizes the judgment but not the criterion.     

Personality, Mythology and Religion

This paper contrasts Judaism and Hellenism with regard to two opposing personality types: the “participant” and the “separant.” “Participant” means the identification of the ego with people, objects or symbols outside the self, and the desire to have one's separate identity in fusion with these externals. “Separation” implies the opposite. Hellinism is identified with the separate Sisyphean culture, and Judaism with the participant Tantalic culture.     

INTERRUPTING IRONIC PROCESSES

Abstract— Research on ironic mental control processes makes the under appreciated point that attempts to solve problems sometimes make them worse. Social scientists now know much about what ironic processes look like less about why they occur and too little about how to change them. Features of the exacerbation process itself suggest parsimonious approaches to treatment based on interrupting the "solutions" that keep ironic mental processes going (e.g. compliance-based paradoxical intervention). Extending Wegner's explication of ironic interpersonal (mental) processes we propose that ironic interpersonal (social) processes also maintain many human problems in this area will benefit from attending more to how problems persist between people as well as within them.     

Referenzsemantik in der Partnermodellierung

How can we explain that an assertion on something perceived can be understood in the same manner by somebody who cannot perceive that scene? This problem bases the interest in computational linguistics in how listener modeling could possibly be harmonized with reference semantics. Mental images substituting real perception appear as a way out. The architecture of the listener model has to be adapted to the creation and use of such pictorial data structures. Furthermore, the relation between the latter and a verbal (i. e., propositional) representation must be understood. The resulting architecture of a listener model with reference semantics can be employed to solve communicational problems from three general classes in a better way, as is demonstrated by an example implementation.     

The psychology of moderate prediction : II. Leniency and uncertainty

In this paper we demonstrate that intuitive numerical predictions can be somewhat regressive. This moderation of predictions is asymmetric: predictions are more regressive at low than at high values of the predictor. This pattern is analyzed in terms of the operation of multiple heuristics. The representativeness heuristic is responsible for predictions in which extremity of the predicted variable is matched to extremity of the predictor. Matching is modified by a variety of intuitions that promote moderation per se; we lump these together under the heading of weak regressiveness. Third is leniency, a heuristic suggesting that the higher the uncertainty, the more positive should be the predictions. The first experiment demonstrates leniency in isolation from the other heuristics: in multivariate prediction, inconsistent predictors yield more positive predictions. Experiment 2 demonstrates asymmetric regression in a situation where all three heuristics are assumed to have effects. The third experiment exhibits leniency in the context of explanation of regression phenomena (rather than in numerical prediction). The final experiment explores the relation between the three heuristics and experience with multiple determination (Ganzach & Krantz, in press). It demonstrates increased moderation of predictions when subjects are required to generate a predicted value of an intermediate variable, for example, when the prediction of GPA from Intelligence is made subsequent to a prediction of Motivation.