Aesthetics as evaluative forms of agency to perceive and design reality: A reply to aesthetic realism

Following a naturalist-realist point of view, this paper attempts to contribute to the metaphysical question of whether or not reality includes aesthetics. During evolution, cognitive agents have constructed (goal-directed) regulatory abilities forming anticipatory contents in the form of feelings regarding opportunities for interaction. These feelings are considered to be the fundamental part of an evaluative or (what in this paper considered as aesthetic) behavior through which agents show a preference to aspects of their external world. Thus, ‘aesthetic’ denotes an agential behavior based on an organization of processes integrated in a form that identifies, evaluates, and compares sources of interaction-success or error in specific aspects of external reality. While agents approach the same aspects of reality as they all interact with the same world, our claim is that aesthetic normativity cannot be an objective feature of this reality. This model overcomes problems of correspondence in the sense that an agent's actions and thoughts ought to react to any pre-given (aesthetic) quality or norm, while at the same time it emphasizes the self-directedness of aesthetic behavior that enables the development of creative forms of cognition.     

Introspection during visual search

Recent advances in the field of metacognition have shown that human participants are introspectively aware of many different cognitive states, such as confidence in a decision. Here we set out to expand the range of experimental introspection by asking whether participants could access, through pure mental monitoring, the nature of the cognitive processes that underlie two visual search tasks: an effortless “pop-out” search, and a difficult, effortful, conjunction search. To this aim, in addition to traditional first order performance measures, we instructed participants to give, on a trial-by-trial basis, an estimate of the number of items scanned before a decision was reached. By controlling response times and eye movements, we assessed the contribution of self-observation of behavior in these subjective estimates. Results showed that introspection is a flexible mechanism and that pure mental monitoring of cognitive processes is possible in elementary tasks.     

I Spy With My Dominant Eye

The authors investigated how visual information from the nondominant and dominant eyes are utilized to control ongoing dominant hand movements. Across 2 experiments, participants performed upper-limb pointing movements to a stationary target or an imperceptibly shifted target under monocular-dominant, monocular-nondominant, and binocular viewing conditions. Under monocular-dominant viewing conditions, participants exhibited better endpoint precision and accuracy. On target jump trials, participants spent more time after peak limb velocity and significantly altered their trajectories toward the new target location only when visual information from the dominant eye was available. Overall, the results suggest that the online visuomotor control processes that typically take place under binocular viewing conditions are significantly influenced by input from the dominant eye.     

P3b反映基于相似性的图形类别归纳决策过程(309)

先前关于归纳推理的研究没有探讨过图形类别归纳任务中决策过程的事件相关电位(ERPs)特征。该研究采用图形材料,通过记录和分析图形类别归纳推理任务的结论评估阶段的脑电信号,探讨了不同类别条件下图形归纳推理决策过程的ERP特征。实验结果显示,推理决策过程中,当前提为一些狗具有某种属性特征时,结论一致类别(狗类及马类)比结论不一致类别下(椅子类)的归纳推理诱发了更大的P3b的波幅; 而结论一致类别下,类别内(狗类)比类别外(马类)推理诱发更大的后部脑区的P3b的波幅,反映了相似性对类别归纳的贡献。该研究为理解类别归纳过程的决策阶段的动态加工过程提供了神经电生理学证据。研究结果进一步支持了类别归纳的相似性理论模型。     

Psychometric assessment of the processes of change scale for sun protection

The fourteen-factor Processes of Change Scale for Sun Protection assesses behavioral and experiential strategies that underlie the process of sun protection acquisition and maintenance. Variations of this measure have been used effectively in several randomized sun protection trials, both for evaluation and as a basis for intervention. However, there are no published studies, to date, that evaluate the psychometric properties of the scale. The present study evaluated factorial invariance and scale reliability in a national sample (N = 1360) of adults involved in a Transtheoretical model tailored intervention for exercise and sun protection, at baseline. Invariance testing ranged from least to most restrictive: Configural Invariance (constraints only factor structure and zero loadings); Pattern Identity Invariance (equal factor loadings across target groups); and Strong Factorial Invariance (equal factor loadings and measurement errors). Multi-sample structural equation modeling tested the invariance of the measurement model across seven subgroups: age, education, ethnicity, gender, race, skin tone, and Stage of Change for Sun Protection. Strong factorial invariance was found across all subgroups. Internal consistency coefficient Alpha and factor rho reliability, respectively, were .83 and .80 for behavioral processes, .91 and .89 for experiential processes, and .93 and .91 for the global scale. These results provide strong empirical evidence that the scale is consistent, has internal validity and can be used in research interventions with population-based adult samples.     

Therapeutic processes in group therapy: Intersections between general change mechanisms and motivational stages of change from patient perspective

Intersections between Grawe’s General Psychotherapy and Prochaska’s Transtheoretical Model were investigated in group therapy in a longitudinal design. It was assumed that general change mechanisms have an impact on patients’ stages of change. Specifically, the main hypotheses were that experiential change mechanisms (ECM; clarification of meaning, problem actuation, emotional bond and group cohesion) should be especially relevant for early stages of change (precontemplation and contemplation), whereas behavioral change mechanisms (BCM; resource activation, mastery/coping and task and goals) should be especially relevant for late stages of change (action and maintenance). Therefore, 140 outpatients attending different types of group therapy, with a typical duration of 8 sessions, were investigated. Patients completed the Form for the Evaluation of Therapeutic Processes in Group Therapy (FEPiG), the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment, short version (URICA-S) and several symptomatology measures (BDI-II, BSCL and IIP-32) at two measuring times. Intersections were analysed through correlational analyses, cross-lagged panels and a path-analytic model, supporting the hypotheses. Specifically, results suggested that experiencing ECM at t1 predicted higher levels of reported contemplation at t2. Patients experiencing higher levels of BCM at t1 reported higher levels of action at t2. Clinical implications of the results are discussed.     

Identity Negotiations of Colombian International Students

Research has pointed to challenges and positive aspects of the international student experience, but it has been mainly outcome-oriented and has not addressed the ongoing identity negotiations of these students as they navigate a new cultural setting. The aim of this study was to illustrate the application of a sociocultural/dialogical framework to the analysis of identity processing by international students. Based on interviews with 14 Colombian university students in the United States, the analysis identified meanings (positionings) relative to the experience, tensions between meanings and, for some students, abstractions that served to resolve the tensions. We suggest that this dialogical framework promotes needed attention to the dynamic, ongoing nature of identity meaning creation.     

Mistaking randomness for free will

Belief in free will is widespread. The present research considered one reason why people may believe that actions are freely chosen rather than determined: they attribute randomness in behavior to free will. Experiment 1 found that participants who were prompted to perform a random sequence of actions experienced their behavior as more freely chosen than those who were prompted to perform a deterministic sequence. Likewise, Experiment 2 found that, all else equal, the behavior of animated agents was perceived to be more freely chosen if it consisted of a random sequence of actions than if it consisted of a deterministic sequence; this was true even when the degree of randomness in agents’ behavior was largely a product of their environments. Together, these findings suggest that randomness in behavior—one’s own or another’s—can be mistaken for free will.     

On the influence of causal beliefs on the feeling of agency

The sense of agency is the experience of being the origin of a sensory consequence. This study investigates whether contextual beliefs modulate low-level sensorimotor processes which contribute to the emergence of the sense of agency. We looked at the influence of causal beliefs on ‘intentional binding’, a phenomenon which accompanies self-agency. Participants judged the onset-time of either an action or a sound which followed the action. They were induced to believe that the tone was either triggered by themselves or by somebody else, although, in reality, the sound was always triggered by the participants. We found that intentional binding was stronger when participants believed that they triggered the tone, compared to when they believed that another person triggered the tone. These results suggest that high-level contextual information influences sensorimotor processes responsible for generating intentional binding.     

Attention during visual secondary tasks in driving: Adaptation to the demands of the driving task

Visual attention in driving with visual secondary task is compared for two visual secondary tasks. N = 40 subjects completed a 1 h test drive in a motion-base driving simulator. During the drive, participants either solved an externally paced, highly demanding visual task or a self paced menu system task. The secondary tasks were offered in defined critical and non-critical driving situations. Eye movement behavior was analyzed and compared for both tasks. Before starting the secondary tasks, eye movement behavior shows a smaller standard deviation of gaze as well as longer fixation durations for both tasks. The comparison between the two tasks indicates that drivers use the possibilities the self paced task offers: during the secondary task, they monitor the driving scene with longer fixations and show a greater standard deviation of gaze position. Furthermore, independently of the type of secondary task, drivers adapt their eye movement behavior to the demands of the situation. In critical driving situations they direct a larger proportion of glance time to the driving task. Last, the relation between glance behavior and collisions is analyzed. Results indicate that collisions go together with an inadequate distribution of attention during distraction. The results are interpreted regarding the attentional processes involved in driving with visual secondary tasks. Based on the similarities and differences between the two secondary tasks, a cognitive approach is developed which assumes that the control of attention during distraction is based on a mental situational model of the driving situation.