Critical Notices

Abstract

I argue that a practice can only be taken to be one of apparent rule following if it contains a practice of policing moves within the practice. So the existence of an apparently rule‐governed practice entails the existence of, what I call, a policing practice. I then argue that this entailment cannot be reconciled with a non‐factualist construal of the policing practice. Thus non‐factualism about the policing practice is false. Factualism about the policing practice entails realism about rules. So I conclude that we ought to be realists about rules. Finally I distinguish a position which I call ultra‐realism about rules and note that this too is a casualty of the view developed here.     

Solution‐Focused Therapy as a Culturally Acknowledging Approach With American Indians

Limited literature is available applying specific theoretical orientations with American Indians. Solution‐focused therapy may be appropriate, given the client‐identified solutions, the egalitarian counselor/client relationship, the use of relationships, and the view that change is inevitable. However, adaption of scaling questions and the miracle question may be necessary. Hay una limitada cantidad de literatura disponible que aplique orientaciones teóricas específicas con indios americanos. La terapia centrada en soluciones puede ser apropiada, dadas las soluciones identificadas por los clientes, la relación igualitaria entre consejero y cliente, el uso de relaciones y la visión de que el cambio es inevitable. Sin embargo, puede que sea necesario adaptar las preguntas de escala y la pregunta del milagro.     

Fonctions exécutives,vieillissement cognitif et variations stratégiques

Aging is characterized by a decrease of cognitive performance in most of cognitive domains. One of the most fundamental issues is then to know what are the underlying mechanisms of these age-related changes in human cognition. Recent research suggests that in addition to speed of processing and working memory capacities, age-related impairment in executive functioning plays an important role in the cognitive decline associated to aging. Above and beyond performance, current research shows that the mediating role of executive function in age-related changes in cognitive performance occurs via changes in strategies variations (i.e., repertoire, distribution, execution, and selection of the strategies used to accomplish a cognitive task). In this article, we illustrate both strategic variations and underlying executive control mechanisms in two important cognitive domains : episodic memory and problem solving.     

The Role of Subsidies in Coordination Games with Interconnected Risk

Can subsidies promote Pareto‐optimum coordination? We found that partially subsidizing the cooperative actions for two out of six players in a laboratory coordination game usually produced better coordination and higher total social welfare with both deterministic and stochastic payoffs. Not only were the subsidized players more likely to cooperate (choose the Pareto‐optimum action), but the unsubsidized players increased their expectations on how likely others would cooperate, and they cooperated more frequently themselves. After removal of the subsidy, high levels of coordination continued in most groups with stochastic payoffs but declined in deterministic ones. This carry‐over disparity between the deterministic and stochastic settings was consistent with the economic theories that agents were more likely to keep the status quo option under uncertainty than without uncertainty. Hence, players with stochastic payoffs were more likely to keep the high coordination level (status quo) brought by the subsidy in the previous subsidy session. A post‐game survey also indicated that with stochastic payoffs, players focused on risk reduction. Temporary subsidies promoted lasting coordination because even after subsidy was removed, players still assumed that others players would prefer reduced risks from cooperation. With deterministic payoffs, however, the subsidy might crowd out other rationales for coordination, with many players indicating that the subsidy was the only reason for anyone to cooperate. Hence, the coordination level dropped when the subsidy was removed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Equilibrium and Harmony of Emotional Conflicts in Cooperation: Between Chinese Traditional Culture and Modern Artificial Intelligence

Equilibrium and harmony elevate human emotions like pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy to the highest ontological level. We are puppets of our emotions and feelings, without the possibility of parole. By implanting complex emotional reactions in the operating system of sex robots, we have created a virtual relationship that mimics human intimacy. In this way, a thing—in this case, a machine—takes on human characteristics. This could be called the humanization of things. Not only can things be humanized, humans can also be reified. If, by imitating neural networks and deep learning, intelligent robots are to make great strides in their ability to think, they may come into the possession of emotions and feelings. In traditional Chinese culture, equilibrium and harmony form the highest and most pervasive principle, value, and morality for nature, society, and life. The state of equilibrium (zhong 中 ) and harmony (he 和 ) is the fundamental root from which springs the world and the universal path that it must pursue. When we view emotional equilibrium and harmony in light of the theoretical doctrine of harmony and cooperation, the emotional lives of humans and machines are integrated and combined with the state of equilibrium and harmony to achieve the greatest good. Moreover, this can resolve all kinds of crises amid the emotions and feelings of humanoids created by humans, notably by leveraging the outstanding intelligence of humans to maintain the emotions of humanoids in a state of equilibrium and harmony. To this end, we must perform regulatory actions in several aspects. First, we must modulate emotions and feelings. Second, we must achieve a state of equilibrium, which can put all things in the right positions, allowing them to be nourished and flourish. Third, we must strive for mutual empathy between humans and machines, which can pave the way for collaborative creation in harmony, as well as their integration, camaraderie, emotional understanding, mutual respect and harmonious love.     

La parole au travail a-t-elle un genre ? Dialogues hôtesse de l’air/steward en résolution de problème

Few studies have investigated the way conversational work is divided between men and women in work or problem-solving contexts. This study analyzed dialogues in the workplace between 13 pairs of male and female flight attendants asked to solve a problem adapted from the Wason task. Most previous work suggests that men speak more, interrupt more, and show a greater propensity to put forward a solution. Conversely, women’s speech acts tend to be mainly of an acquiescent or questioning type. Only the hypotheses concerning interruptions, acquiescence and putting forward a solution were confirmed.     

Drivers and outcomes of salespersons’ value opportunity recognition competence in solution selling

Abstract

In B2B markets, firms seek to provide customer solutions instead of merely selling goods or services. As boundary-spanners, salespeople are pivotal for implementing this strategic shift. Yet, extant literature provides limited insights into salesperson’s resources and competencies required for customer solutions, particularly in the early phases of solution selling. This research focuses on salesperson’s value opportunity recognition competence (VOR), which is a central requirement for salespeople to be able to navigate the early phases of solution selling. Analyzing large-scale, multi-level data of 799 salespeople and their respective sales managers in 29 sales organizations, the authors investigate the role of different salesperson resources and work environment characteristics for strengthening their VOR. The authors find that salespeople need both customer and technical knowledge, but customer knowledge is more important. Salespeople also can substitute individual technical knowledge with strong internal relations, but strong customer relations are no substitute for individual knowledge about customers’ business models and processes. Formalization turned out to be a double-edged sword in the context of VOR development, while transformational leadership has positive effects only. The findings bear concrete implications for improving the selection, training, and work environment of solution salespeople.