The Impact of Asymmetric Partial Feedback on Response‐Bias

For many decisions we make, we are more likely to receive feedback about some outcomes than about others, and thus we must operate under conditions of asymmetric partial feedback. In this paper, we examine the effects of asymmetric partial feedback on decision making across three experiments. Experiment 1 examines the effects of four partial feedback schedules on decision making in a single‐attribute auditory detection task. Experiment 2 examines these same schedules in the context of a simulated experiment in which virtual participants perform a multi‐attribute choice task. Experiment 3 then examines effects of one partial feedback schedule representative of a real‐world decision‐making domain (personnel selection) using an ecologically informed multi‐attribute choice task. All three experiments reveal that asymmetric partial feedback primarily impacts on response‐bias, a parameter of signal detection theory. These findings can be explained in terms of decision makers' attempts to maximize accuracy and the fact that shifts in response‐bias will, under partial feedback, produce misleading impressions of greater accuracy. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

应激性生活事件对森林公安民警心理健康的影响

目的:探讨应激性生活事件对森林公安民警心理健康的影响。方法:对160名森林公安民警采用症状自评量表和生活事件量表进行心理状态评定和生活事件调查分析,并分析应激性生活事件对森林公安民警心理健康的影响。结果:共发放问卷160份,收回有效问卷124份。森林公安民警的心理健康水平及各因子得分均高于国内常模,除强迫因子和精神病性因子外,差异不显著;应激性生活事件中家庭有关问题强度频度偏重,工作学习中的问题强度频度次之,社交及其它问题强度频度最轻;森林公安民警的应激性生活事件与心理健康水平成正相关,应激性生活事件能有效预测森林公安民警的心理健康状况。结论:森林公安民警的心理问题比较突出,应激性生活事件能有效预测森林公安民警的心理健康状况。     

Examining cognitive development from a conceptual change point of view: The framework theory approach

Sexual socialization refers to how, through social interaction, an individual acquires and internalizes culture-specific knowledge, values and attitudes about sexuality. Little, however, is known about how an individual's genetic characteristics modify this process, or if individuals gravitate towards specific environments according to their genetic characteristics. The aim was to explore whether adolescents' genetic predispositions modify environmental influences on peer-group sexual attitudes. Using a Finnish population-based sample of twins and their siblings (n = 9534), it was found that genetic effects influenced peer-group sexual attitudes in men (52%) and women (46%), thus offering evidence for gene–environment correlation. Men showed less restricted peer-group sexual attitudes than women. Some indications of different genes influencing environmental exposure in men and women were found.     

Illusory correlations revisited: The role of pseudocontingencies and working-memory capacity

Three experiments investigate illusory correlations in a feedback learning paradigm. Diverging from a standard paradigm, in which stimuli consist of joint observations of group–behaviour pairs, participants were asked to guess the group reference of positive and negative stimulus behaviours. They only knew that one group was larger than the other, and the stimulus series soon revealed that positive (negative) behaviours appeared more frequently in the stimulus series than negative (positive) behaviours. Regardless of whether feedback of the actual group reference was provided or not, the predominant valence was more strongly associated with the large than the small group. This illusory-correlation effect was evident in memory-based measures at the end of the stimulus series as well as in the online predictions during stimulus presentation. The strength of illusory correlations increased with decreasing working-memory capacity, operationalized either by an interpersonal differences measure or a cognitive-load manipulation. The occurrence of illusory correlations in the absence of joint observations about group–valence pairs (in the no-feedback condition and in the early phase of the online prediction task) can be explained as a reflection of pseudocontingency inferences.     

Predicting the biological variability of environmental rhythms: Weak or strong anticipation for sensorimotor synchronization?

The internal processes involved in synchronizing our movements with environmental stimuli have traditionally been addressed using regular metronomic sequences. Regarding real-life environments, however, biological rhythms are known to have intrinsic variability, ubiquitously characterized as fractal long-range correlations. In our research we thus investigate to what extent the synchronization processes drawn from regular metronome paradigms can be generalized to other (biologically) variable rhythms. Participants performed synchronized finger tapping under five conditions of long-range and/or short-range correlated, randomly variable, and regular auditory sequences. Combining experimental data analysis and numerical simulation, we found that synchronizing with biologically variable rhythms involves the same internal processes as with other variable rhythms (whether totally random or comprising lawful regularities), but different from those involved with a regular metronome. This challenges both the generalizability of conclusions drawn from regular-metronome paradigms, and recent research assuming that biologically variable rhythms may trigger specific strong anticipatory processes to achieve synchronization.     

Canonical Correlation and Chi-Square: Relationships and Interpretation

A 2 × 2 chi-square can be computed from a phi coefficient, which is the Pearson correlation between two binomial variables. Similarly, chi-square for larger contingency tables can be computed from canonical correlation coefficients. The authors address the following series of issues involving this relationship: (a) how to represent a contingency table in terms of a correlation matrix involving r - 1 row and c - 1 column dummy predictors; (b) how to compute chi-square from canonical correlations solved from this matrix; (c) how to compute loadings for the omitted row and column variables; and (d) the possible interpretive advantage of describing canonical relationships that comprise chi-square, together with some examples. The proposed procedures integrate chi-square analysis of contingency tables with general correlational theory and serve as an introduction to some recent methods of analysis more widely known by sociologists.     

Influence of Practice Schedule on Testing Schema Theory Predictions in Adults

Since the publication of Schmidt’s (1975) schema theory of motor learning, numerous studies have assessed the variability of practice hypothesis. Of these, only research using children as subjects has provided consistent results. Findings from adult studies have been equivocal. Two experiments were conducted to assess the possibility that the schedule of variable practice during acquisition may be a clue to this equivocality, since only experiments (using adults as subjects) that have provided random variability of practice conditions have consistently supported the tenets of schema theory. Using a two movement rapid timing task, subjects learned to control their actions under one (constant) or four (variable) parameters, with variable practice conducted under either a blocked or a randomized schedule. Results for variable error and absolute constant error showed that random-variable practice provided strong support for the schema theory prediction, whereas blocked-variable practice provided only relatively weak support. Two contrasting implications of these results are discussed with respect to support versus non-support for Schmidt’s schema theory.     

The Manifest Association Structure of the Single-Factor Model: Insights from Partial Correlations

The association structure between manifest variables arising from the single-factor model is investigated using partial correlations. The additional insights to the practitioner provided by partial correlations for detecting a single-factor model are discussed. The parameter space for the partial correlations is presented, as are the patterns of signs in a matrix containing the partial correlations that are not compatible with a single-factor model.     

Mental causation as multiple causation

The paper argues that mental causation can be explained from the sufficiency of counterfactual dependence for causation together with relatively weak assumptions about the metaphysics of mind. If a physical event counterfactually depends on an earlier physical event, it also counterfactually depends on, and hence is caused by, a mental event that correlates with (or supervenes on) this earlier physical event, provided that this correlation (or supervenience) is sufficiently modally robust. This account of mental causation is consistent with the overdetermination of physical events by mental events and other physical events, but does not entail it.