The relationship between purposiveness and information integration: The effect of metamotivational states on cognitive rules in sport

IntroductionInformation integration theory is based on an axiom of purposiveness (i.e. cognition is goal-motivated) and on an axiom of integration (i.e. an action or thought depends on the integration of several stimuli). The relationship between the two axioms has not previously been studied.ObjectiveTo explore the influence of metamotivational states on information integration. We looked at how 70 athletes combined four factors (autonomy, relatedness, competence, and the natural environment) when deciding whether or not to get involved in running under paratelic (activity-oriented) and telic (goal-oriented) conditions.MethodThe participants recorded their decision-making processes for two sets of 24 scenarios built from combinations of the four factors. Repeated-measures ANOVAs were applied to the data.ResultsAll four factors were taken into consideration by the participants when deciding whether or not to get involved in running. The participants used a conjunctive rule under the paratelic condition and an additive rule under the telic condition.ConclusionAn individual's metamotivational state may modify the cognitive algebra in information integration. Further research is required to confirm these initial findings.     

The acceptability of prophylactic mastectomy among lay people and health professionals: A pilot study

IntroductionWomen with certain genetic mutations have a risk of up to 85% of developing breast cancer. Bilateral prophylactic mastectomy is the most effective way to reduce risk of cancer.ObjectiveThis pilot study focuses on the acceptability of prophylactic breast surgery and examines, in a series of concrete cases, the cognitive processes by which health professionals and lay people make their judgments. This research also aims to identify the factors involved in these judgments. An additional objective is to determine whether there are groups with different patterns of responses.MethodWe recruited two samples in France, one comprising 90 lay people and the other 30 health professionals (n = 120) and asked them how acceptable it would be for a woman at a high risk of breast cancer to undergo a prophylactic surgery (mastectomy), in each of the 64 scenarios presented to them. The scenarios were all combinations of two levels of age, of marital status, of parenting status, of body appearance investment, of reconstructive surgery and also two levels of the person suggesting oncogenetic diagnosis.ResultsWe found that lay people and health professionals structured the factors in the scenarios in nearly the same way. They assigned importance to three factors: the most important one was reconstructive surgery, and then the age of the woman. The least important factor was the person who requested the genetic test. Furthermore, the age of the participants, and knowing a person who had cancer impacted the degree of acceptability assigned by participants. Being a lay person or a health professional did not have a direct impact on acceptability but influenced the integration of factors. In addition, cluster analysis showed that only a small group was opposed to mastectomy.ConclusionThis pilot study demonstrated that three factors have to be considered when judging the acceptability of prophylactic mastectomy and showed a common cognitive foundation for future discussion, at the levels of both clinical care and health policy, of the conditions under which prophylactic surgery might be acceptable.     

The Challenges of Large-Scale,Web-Based Language Datasets: Word Length and Predictability Revisited

Language research has come to rely heavily on large-scale, web-based datasets. These datasets can present significant methodological challenges, requiring researchers to make a number of decisions about how they are collected, represented, and analyzed. These decisions often concern long-standing challenges in corpus-based language research, including determining what counts as a word, deciding which words should be analyzed, and matching sets of words across languages. We illustrate these challenges by revisiting “Word lengths are optimized for efficient communication” (Piantadosi, Tily, & Gibson, 2011), which found that word lengths in 11 languages are more strongly correlated with their average predictability (or average information content) than their frequency. Using what we argue to be best practices for large-scale corpus analyses, we find significantly attenuated support for this result and demonstrate that a stronger relationship obtains between word frequency and length for a majority of the languages in the sample. We consider the implications of the results for language research more broadly and provide several recommendations to researchers regarding best practices.     

SPT效应的编码机制：项目特异性与项目关联性信息

SPT是增强了项目特异性信息还是增强了项目关联性信息一直是SPT效应研究的主题。研究从项目特异性信息和项目关联性信息两个层面综述了SPT效应编码机制的相关研究。在项目特异性信息方面,研究剖析了SPT增强项目特异性信息加工的具体内容、所采取的研究方式以及SPT增强项目特异性加工的原因。在项目关联信息方面,研究分类梳理了情景关联、项目与环境的关联以及类别关联在SPT效应中的作用。未来研究应着手探索SPT能够增强项目特异性加工的深层原因。     

Benefiting From Disagreement: Counterarguing Reduces Prechoice Bias in Information Evaluation

Confirmatory information processing (i.e., information distortion) is a robust phenomenon with no known mitigation. This research proposes that information distortion might be mitigated by disrupting its driver, namely, the need for cognitive consistency. Priming a counterarguing mindset should induce people to refute their emerging preferences, thereby disrupting the operation of cognitive consistency. Five studies confirm this prediction. Study 1 demonstrates that priming a counterarguing mindset decreases information distortion. Studies 2 and 3 replicate Study 1 and further show that the influence of a head start on choice diminishes when counterarguing is primed. Study 4 shows that priming counterarguing inhibits consistency‐related concepts. Finally, Study 5 demonstrates that counterarguing not only reduces distortion but also yields reduced commitment to the preferred alternative.     

Tactical steering behaviour under irrevocable visual occlusion

ObjectiveTo investigate the extent of a driver’s mental model with irrevocable visual occlusion and analysing the distance to crash.BackgroundDrivers have a mental model of the immediate surroundings which allows them to predict their own as well as others’ travel paths. To navigate safely through traffic, this mental model has to be updated frequently to remain valid. In between information sampling events, the mental model will become outdated over time, as the traffic system is dynamic.MethodA simulator study with 22 participants was conducted to investigate the information decay in the mental model. This was implemented by extending visual occlusion until the driver collided with another vehicle or ran off the road, thus providing an estimate of how long it takes until the mental model becomes obsolete.ResultsAn analysis of variance with the factors curve direction, curve radius and traffic showed that curve radius did not influence the distance to crash. Without traffic, drivers veered off the road sooner in right curves. Adding traffic eliminated this difference. Traffic ahead led to a shortened distance to crash. Compared to a tangential travel path from the current lateral position at the time of the occlusion, drivers crashed on average 2.6 times later than they would have, had they not had any mental model of the situation.ConclusionsThe drivers’ mental representation of the future situation seems to include information on how to act, to alleviate deviations in yaw angle, including and considering the presence of other road users.     

Places of Information Generation: Bridging Pannenberg’s Logos and Deacon’s Emerging Semiosis

Bridging Wolfhart Pannenberg’s comprehensive twentieth-century systematic theology of Creation and Terrence Deacon’s very thorough scientific account of material and biological development and evolution results in an integrative view of Creation from Trinitarian relationality to biomolecular processes. Pannenberg’s understanding of Logos guides the investigation of the progressive unfolding of forms toward the key construct of information generation which Deacon’s theory of emergence explains as selection dynamics. Modeling both space and form as a place where activity generates information synthesizes Pannenberg’s complementary activities of Logos and Spirit with Deacon’s emergent dynamics and semiosis to develop generative distinctions among a field of systems as a key component of a scientifically plausible theological anthropology.     

Violations of information structure: an electrophysiological study of answers to wh-questions

This study investigates brain responses to violations of information structure in wh-question-answer pairs, with particular emphasis on violations of focus assignment in it-clefts (It was the queen that silenced the banker). Two types of ERP responses in answers to wh-questions were found. First, all words in the focus-marking (cleft) position elicited a large positivity (P3b) characteristic of sentence-final constituents, as did the final words of these sentences, which suggests that focused elements may trigger integration effects like those seen at sentence end. Second, the focusing of an inappropriate referent elicited a smaller, N400-like effect. The results show that comprehenders actively use structural focus cues and discourse-level restrictions during online sentence processing. These results, based on visual stimuli, were different from the brain response to auditory focus violations indicated by pitch-accent [Hruska, C., Steinhauer, K., Alter, K., & Steube, A. (2000). ERP effects of sentence accents and violations of the information structure. In Poster presented at the 13th annual CUNY conference on human sentence processing, San Diego, CA.], but similar to brain responses to newly introduced discourse referents [Bornkessel, I., Schlesewsky, M., & Friederici, A. (2003). Contextual information modulated initial processes of syntactic integration: the role of inter- versus intrasentential predictions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 29, 871-882.].