A Comparison of Inverse-Wishart Prior Specifications for Covariance Matrices in Multilevel Autoregressive Models

Multilevel autoregressive models are especially suited for modeling between-person differences in within-person processes. Fitting these models with Bayesian techniques requires the specification of prior distributions for all parameters. Often it is desirable to specify prior distributions that have negligible effects on the resulting parameter estimates. However, the conjugate prior distribution for covariance matrices—the Inverse-Wishart distribution—tends to be informative when variances are close to zero. This is problematic for multilevel autoregressive models, because autoregressive parameters are usually small for each individual, so that the variance of these parameters will be small. We performed a simulation study to compare the performance of three Inverse-Wishart prior specifications suggested in the literature, when one or more variances for the random effects in the multilevel autoregressive model are small. Our results show that the prior specification that uses plug-in ML estimates of the variances performs best. We advise to always include a sensitivity analysis for the prior specification for covariance matrices of random parameters, especially in autoregressive models, and to include a data-based prior specification in this analysis. We illustrate such an analysis by means of an empirical application on repeated measures data on worrying and positive affect.     

When does prior knowledge disproportionately benefit older adults’ memory?

Material consistent with knowledge/experience is generally more memorable than material inconsistent with knowledge/experience – an effect that can be more extreme in older adults. Four experiments investigated knowledge effects on memory with young and older adults. Memory for familiar and unfamiliar proverbs (Experiment 1) and for common and uncommon scenes (Experiment 2) showed similar knowledge effects across age groups. Memory for person-consistent and person-neutral actions (Experiment 3) showed a greater benefit of prior knowledge in older adults. For cued recall of related and unrelated word pairs (Experiment 4), older adults benefited more from prior knowledge only when it provided uniquely useful additional information beyond the episodic association itself. The current data and literature suggest that prior knowledge has the age-dissociable mnemonic properties of (1) improving memory for the episodes themselves (age invariant), and (2) providing conceptual information about the tasks/stimuli extrinsically to the actual episodic memory (particularly aiding older adults).     

多重样例变异性与先前知识对样例学习效果的影响述评

样例学习研究表明多重样例的学习效果好于单个样例。然而研究者关于如何有效设计多重样例得出了不同的发现。通过综述已有关于多重样例学习的实证研究,总结出两个尚未得到解决的问题：（1）多重样例之间的相似或相异程度应该如何;（2）学生的先前知识在多重样例学习中的作用如何。针对已有研究的局限性,本文指出,具有不同先前知识的学生学习时感受到不同的关键属性,多重样例应该基于学生学习时的关键属性设计特定的变易范式以帮助学生学习。     

从恢复体验到地方依恋:环境偏好与居住时长的作用

探究源自环境的恢复体验(如,放松、平静等)对居住者地方依恋(包括地方依赖和地方认同两个维度)的预测作用,并分析其中的内在过程与情境条件。采用问卷研究法(N=410),结果发现:(1)恢复体验能显著正向预测个体地方依恋;(2)环境偏好在恢复体验与地方依恋之间起完全中介作用;(3)居住时长调节环境偏好与地方依恋(主要是地方认同)之间的关系。研究将有助于探寻环境心理学视角下的压力管理与城市管理协同路径。     

'You’re Being Unreasonable’: Prior and Passing Theories of Critical Discussion

A key and continuing concern within the pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation is how to account for effective persuasion disciplined by dialectical rationality. Currently, van Eemeren and Houtlosser offer one response to this concern in the form of strategic manoeuvring. This paper offers a prior/passing theory of communicative interaction as a supplement to the strategic manoeuvring approach. Our use of a prior/passing model investigates how a difference of opinion can be resolved while both dialectic obligations of reasonableness and rhetorical ambitions of argumentative success are simultaneously accommodated. The paper explores the model with particular reference to the pragma-dialectical rules of critical discussion, strategic manoeuvring and fallacious reasoning.     

Offline consolidation supersedes prior knowledge benefits in children's (but not adults’) word learning

Prior linguistic knowledge is proposed to support the acquisition and consolidation of new words. Adults typically have larger vocabularies to support word learning than children, but the developing brain shows enhanced neural processes that are associated with offline memory consolidation. This study investigated contributions of prior knowledge to initial word acquisition and consolidation at different points in development, by teaching children and adults novel words (e.g., ballow) that varied in the number of English word‐form “neighbours” (e.g., wallow, bellow). Memory for the novel word‐forms was tested immediately after training, the next day and 1 week later, to assess the time‐course of prior knowledge contributions. Children aged 7–9 years (Experiments 1, 3) and adults (Experiment 2) recalled words with neighbours better than words without neighbours when tested immediately after training. However, a period of offline consolidation improved overall recall and reduced the influence of word‐form neighbours on longer term memory. These offline consolidation benefits were larger in children than adults, supporting theories that children have a greater propensity for consolidating phonologically distinctive language information. Local knowledge of just a single word‐form neighbour was enough to enhance learning, and this led to the individual differences in word recall that were related to adults’ global vocabulary ability. The results support the proposal that the relative contributions of different learning mechanisms change across the lifespan, and highlight the importance of testing theoretical models of word learning in the context of development.     

儿童对他人情绪与过去经验的关系的认知

用设置故事情景的方法对儿童对他人情绪与过去经验的关系的认知进行了实验研究。研究表明,4～7岁儿童能够认知他人情绪与过去经验的关系,认知能力随年龄的增长不断提高。情绪效价和情绪情景的匹配性影响儿童对他人情绪与过去经验关系的认知。4、5岁儿童更能认识到正性情绪情景条件下体验到负性情绪的他人情绪与过去经验的关系,其得分显著高于其它情绪情景故事和行为故事。     

Visuo‐spatial abilities in autism: A review

Individuals with autism show various signs of heightened abilities in visuo‐spatial functioning. First, it is long‐established that they excel on embedded figures and block design tests relative to comparison participants. Second, some evidence suggests that processing global features is affected by inappropriate processing of the constituent elements of a stimulus. Third, they are more accurate than comparison participants in judging the shape of a slanted circle in a context in which ambient visual cues are eliminated. This suggests that their perception of the shape is less influenced by prior knowledge. Fourth, they are fast at searching for feature and conjunctive targets in a visual array. Contrary to earlier reports, however, they are susceptible to visual illusions. Also, they do show evidence of utilising prior knowledge when pairing a colour with an atypically coloured target. Accordingly, we conclude that there is something distinctive about autistic visuo‐spatial functioning, but not necessarily in ways that are predicted by the ‘weak central coherence’ hypothesis. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Male–male combats in a polymorphic lizard: residency and size,but not color,affect fighting rules and contest outcome

Theoretical models predict that the outcome of dyadic agonistic encounters between males is influenced by resource‐holding potential, resource value, and intrinsic aggressiveness of contestants. Moreover, in territorial disputes residents enjoy a further obvious competitive advantage from the residency itself, owing to the intimate familiarity with their territory. Costs of physical combats are, however, dramatically high in many instances. Thus, signals reliably reflecting fighting ability of the opponents could easily evolve in order to reduce these costs. For example, variation in color morph in polymorphic species has been associated with dominance in several case studies. In this study, we staged asymmetric resident‐intruder encounters in males of the common wall lizard Podarcis muralis, a species showing three discrete morphs (white, yellow, and red) to investigate the effects of asymmetries in color morph, residency, and size between contestants on the outcome of territorial contests. We collected aggression data by presenting each resident male with three intruders of different color morph, in three consecutive tests conducted in different days, and videotaping their interactions. The results showed that simple rules such as residency and body size differences could determine the outcome of agonistic interactions: residents were more aggressive than intruders, and larger males were competitively superior to smaller males. However, we did not find any effect of color on male aggression or fighting success, suggesting that color polymorphism in this species is not a signal of status or fighting ability in intermale conflicts. Aggr. Behav. 35:274–283, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.