A computational model of event segmentation from perceptual prediction

People tend to perceive ongoing continuous activity as series of discrete events. This partitioning of continuous activity may occur, in part, because events correspond to dynamic patterns that have recurred across different contexts. Recurring patterns may lead to reliable sequential dependencies in observers' experiences, which then can be used to guide perception. The current set of simulations investigated whether this statistical structure within events can be used 1) to develop stable internal representations that facilitate perception and 2) to learn when to update such representations in a self-organizing manner. These simulations demonstrate that experience with recurring patterns enables a system to accurately predict upcoming stimuli within an event, to identify boundaries between such events based on transient increases in prediction error, and to use such boundaries to improve prediction about subsequent activities.     

On Being Happy and Mistaken on a Good Day: Revisiting Forgas’s (1998) Mood-Bias Result

Forgas (1998) reported “on being happy and mistaken,” finding that a happy mood increased the fundamental attribution error (FAE) compared to a sad mood. However, the standard attitude-attribution paradigm used by Forgas might contain demand characteristics, to which happy people might be especially susceptible. In addition, Goldenberg and Forgas (2012) showed that a happy mood decreased a form of the FAE. Using the questioner-contestant paradigm, we replicated Forgas’s result, but only when participants were already having a “good day.”     

The relationship between cognitive errors,coping strategies,and clients' experiences in session: An exploratory study

Aim: Cognitive errors (CE) and coping strategies (CS) can bear weight on how individuals relate to others and perceive interpersonal relationships. However, there is little research into how clients' erroneous beliefs and maladaptive coping strategies can interfere with the therapeutic process. This study utilised a sample of healthy clients to explore the relationship between their CEs and CSs and their evaluation of therapy. Method: Therapy sessions of undergraduate student clients (N =26) were rated using the Cognitive Error Rating Scale (CERS – 3rd edition), the Coping Patterns Rating Scale (CPRS;), the Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ) and the Session Impact Scale (SIS). Results: Clients who engaged in dichotomous thinking endorsed problem solving less and were more likely to feel unsupported and misunderstood by the therapist. Clients who discounted the positive tended to feel more pressured and judged by therapists. Conversely, those who engaged in problem solving were more likely to find sessions deeper and more valuable as compared to those who reacted to stressful events by submission, escape, or opposition. Implications: Better understanding how and when a client's cognitive errors and coping mechanisms are at play during therapy can help clinicians to address them and intervene appropriately.     

新手考官的工作记忆和人格对其评分有效性的影响——以无领导小组讨论为例

相对于其它评价中心技术而言,在无领导小组讨论中考官因素对评分结果的影响尤为重要.本研究主要探讨无领导小组讨论中新手考官的工作记忆与人格对其评分有效性的影响.结果发现,首先,新手考官的评分者一致性较低,评分准确度较差.其次,工作记忆和人格的部分因素分别从不同方面影响新手考官的评分有效性,具体表现在：（1）利他性越强,新手考官评分总均值的准确性越高,且评分结果越宽松;（2）新手考官的决断性越强,对所有应聘者做出有效区分的准确性越高;（3）新手考官的沉稳性越高,对各维度的区分越有效;（4）注意转换和抑制能力对新手考官的晕轮效应及其在各个维度上进行区分的准确度有抑制作用.     

Prediction of true test scores from observed item scores and ancillary data

In many educational tests which involve constructed responses, a traditional test score is obtained by adding together item scores obtained through holistic scoring by trained human raters. For example, this practice was used until 2008 in the case of GRE^®General Analytical Writing and until 2009 in the case of TOEFL^® iBT Writing. With use of natural language processing, it is possible to obtain additional information concerning item responses from computer programs such as e‐rater^®. In addition, available information relevant to examinee performance may include scores on related tests. We suggest application of standard results from classical test theory to the available data to obtain best linear predictors of true traditional test scores. In performing such analysis, we require estimation of variances and covariances of measurement errors, a task which can be quite difficult in the case of tests with limited numbers of items and with multiple measurements per item. As a consequence, a new estimation method is suggested based on samples of examinees who have taken an assessment more than once. Such samples are typically not random samples of the general population of examinees, so that we apply statistical adjustment methods to obtain the needed estimated variances and covariances of measurement errors. To examine practical implications of the suggested methods of analysis, applications are made to GRE General Analytical Writing and TOEFL iBT Writing. Results obtained indicate that substantial improvements are possible both in terms of reliability of scoring and in terms of assessment reliability.     

Children’s scale errors and object processing: Early evidence for cross-cultural differences

Scale errors are observed when young children make mistakes by attempting to put their bodies into miniature versions of everyday objects. Such errors have been argued to arise from children’s insufficient integration of size into their object representations. The current study investigated whether Japanese and UK children’s (18–24 months old, N = 80) visual exploration in a categorization task related to their scale error production. UK children who showed greater local processing made more scale errors, whereas Japanese children, who overall showed greater global processing, showed no such relationship. These results raise the possibility that children’s suppression of scale errors emerges not from attention to size per se, but from a critical integration of global (i.e., size) and local (i.e., object features) information during object processing, and provide evidence that this mechanism differs cross-culturally.     

Prolonged exposure in patients with chronic PTSD: predictors of treatment outcome and dropout

The present study investigated predictors of treatment outcome and dropout in two samples of PTSD-patients with mixed traumas treated using prolonged imaginal exposure. Possible predictors were analysed in both samples separately, in order to replicate in one sample findings found in the other. The only stable finding across the two groups was that patients who showed more PTSD-symptoms at pre-treatment, showed more PTSD-symptoms at post-treatment and follow-up. Indications were found that benzodiazepine use was related to both treatment outcome and dropout, and alcohol use to dropout. Demographic variables, depression and general anxiety, personality, trauma characteristics, feelings of anger, guilt, and shame and nonspecific variables regarding therapy were not related to either treatment outcome or dropout, disconfirming generally held beliefs about these factors as contra-indications for exposure therapy. It is concluded that it is difficult to use pre-treatment variables as a powerful and reliable tool for predicting treatment outcome or dropout. Clinically seen, it is therefore argued that exclusion of PTSD-patients from prolonged exposure treatment on the basis of pre-treatment characteristics is not justified.     

Tactile order memory: evidence for sequence learning phenomena found with other stimulus types

We examine serial order memory for sequences of tactile stimuli and investigate whether established characteristics of order memory, namely serial position effects, error distributions, and Hebb repetition learning, are observed with tactile memory. Visually obscured participants received six tactile stimulations: one to each of six fingers. At test, participants lifted the six fingers in the order of stimulation. For every third trial participants received the same order of stimulation (i.e. the Hebb sequence). Serial recall accuracy produced the canonical bowed serial position function found for immediate serial recall. In addition, recall for the Hebb sequence improved relative to the filler sequences, providing the first demonstration of the Hebb repetition effect with tactile stimuli. Analysis of errors revealed close similarities to that reported with verbal and visual stimuli. This experiment further generalises established features of order memory to tactile memory, supporting the utilisation of an analogous order memory mechanism across stimuli.