Interpersonal Pattern Dynamics and Adaptive Behavior in Multiagent Neurobiological Systems: Conceptual Model and Data

ABSTRACT

Ecological dynamics characterizes adaptive behavior as an emergent, self-organizing property of interpersonal interactions in complex social systems. The authors conceptualize and investigate constraints on dynamics of decisions and actions in the multiagent system of team sports. They studied coadaptive interpersonal dynamics in rugby union to model potential control parameter and collective variable relations in attacker–defender dyads. A videogrammetry analysis revealed how some agents generated fluctuations by adapting displacement velocity to create phase transitions and destabilize dyadic subsystems near the try line. Agent interpersonal dynamics exhibited characteristics of chaotic attractors and informational constraints of rugby union boxed dyadic systems into a low dimensional attractor. Data suggests that decisions and actions of agents in sports teams may be characterized as emergent, self-organizing properties, governed by laws of dynamical systems at the ecological scale. Further research needs to generalize this conceptual model of adaptive behavior in performance to other multiagent populations.     

Psychophysics of Kinesthesis

A horizontal straight-arm movement was used to determine the relationship between the physical stimulus continuum and the psychological continuum of kinesthetic extent of arm movement. A power function with an exponent of 1.075 best described this relationship. In addition, to classify extent of movement as belonging to either a prothetic or metathetic continuum, the category scale was derived. According to the functional criteria described by Stevens (1957), extent of movement was subserved by a metathetic process which would indicate that, for the present task, judgments were made through the use of positional cues rather than amplitude cues.     

Geometries and Dynamics of a Rod Determine How It Is Used for Reaching

Displacing an object with a hand-held rod provided a simple paradigm for studying tool use. The authors asked how reaching was affected by manipulations of rod properties. Adults held a rod (length = .10 to 1.5 m), with its tip in the air; walked toward an object on a table; chose a place to stop; and displaced the object with the rod's tip. In 3 experiments (Ns = 9, 22, and 17 participants), the authors manipulated rod length, mass, and mass distribution to determine whether and how geometric and dynamic properties affected the chosen distance and the posture. Both the chosen stopping distance and the postures were well accommodated to rod characteristics. Postural adaptations took place only in the arm, which was organized as a synergy. Predictably, rod length explained most of the variance, but small and reliable differences in both distance and posture depended on mass and mass distribution. The chosen distance anticipated not only rod length but also the upcoming posture needed to control the rod.     

Perceptual Estimates of Motor Skill Proficiency Are Constrained by the Stability of Coordination Patterns

This study demonstrated that motor skill proficiency ratings are constrained by the same order parameter dynamics that constrain action production and action perception processes. Participants produced rhythmic actions simulated by an animated stick figure of the human arm. The primary finding was that participants’ proficiency ratings covaried most with relative phase (φ) variability compared to mean relative phase. In-phase (φ = 0°) was produced with the least variability and received the highest proficiency rating, whereas the patterns φ = ±150° were attempted with the most variability and received the lowest proficiency ratings. A temporal delay in attempting to produce the animated pattern had a large impact on produced relative phase, yet had little impact on the proficiency ratings. Proprioceptive processes provide individuals information on motor skill proficiency. The lead or lag motion of the hand to forearm segment of the animated arm was identified consistently through visual processes and revealed asymmetries in the mapping of visual input to motor output. The results are consistent with concepts from the dynamic pattern theory of coordination and are discussed with regard to relative phase as an informational variable that constraints the perception-action system across many levels.     

Preference for Sex of Child Among Primiparous Women

Primiparous American women (N = 140) were questioned during their third trimester concerning their choice of sex of offspring and their willingness to use sex preselection techniques (if available). Eighty-two women expressed no preference for sex of offspring; of the remaining 58, 33 chose girls and 25 chose boys. Of the 26 women who indicated they would have used preselection technology, 13 chose boys and 13 chose girls. Fifty-three percent of the sample indicated they would not have used preselection techniques; 29% were undecided. These results were at variance with earlier studies that indicated a consistent choice of male firstborns, especially in nonpregnant samples. The discrepancy is discussed in terms of a move from boy preference to no preference and a gradual weakening of societal bias against women.     

Acculturation,Adaptation and Saudade Among Portuguese Migrants

Saudade is a psychological reaction to the absence of significant others and familiar places. This investigation examined differences in saudade in a sample of 227 Portuguese adults without migratory experience, and 202 Portuguese migrants living in Switzerland. Within the migrant group, the relation between saudade and acculturation and adaptation factors was also examined. Results indicate that migrants experienced higher levels of saudade than did non-migrants. Length of residence abroad influenced the level of saudade: the longer the time spent abroad the less saudade was felt. Acculturation and adaptation factors accounted for 44% of the explained variance in saudade. Among acculturation factors, higher Portuguese proficiency and separation, and lower assimilation predicted more saudade. Among the adaptation factors, higher sociocultural adaptation problems and lower migration satisfaction also predicted higher saudade. It is hoped that investigation on saudade continues, and suggestions are made for further research.     

Adolescents and Microcomputers: Sex Differences,Proxemics, Task and Stimulus Variables

Questionnaires concerning attitudes toward use of microcomputers at home, in school, and at video arcades were administered to 879 high school students. Direct observations of adolescent proxemics and sex differences, and of various parameters of video games in 18 video arcades were made. A thorough and representative content analysis of sex bias of microcomputer software advertising brochures was carried out. Results supported previous findings of overrepresentation of masculine culture in the adolescent world of microcomputers, particularly regarding video games. Various types of computer-related activity were not related to socioeconomic class of the parents or to academic grades except for use of home microcomputers, which was mildly positively related to socioeconomic class (r = .124, p < .001). Nearly half the activity in the arcades was strictly solitary. None of the arcade video games allowed for cooperative play. Most allowed only for sequential competition (86%) or simultaneous competition (7%); as many as 7% did not provide a display of the scores for a second player.     

Reducing the Gap in Reading Performance Between Israeli Lower- and Middle-Class First-Grade Pupils

This study investigated the impact of prompting to achieve a faster reading rate on the reading performance of 100 Israeli first-grade students from lower- and middle-class backgrounds. In both groups, reading comprehension and decoding skills improved under the fast-pace condition. However, the children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds showed the greatest degree of overall improvement. Having scored significantly lower at self-pace, disadvantaged pupils nearly attained the level demonstrated by advantaged children when reading at the faster pace. The enhanced reading skills exhibited under accelerated speed are explained.     

Ideological analytics: A study of evolving world values

This study analyses ideologies in a comparative perspective. It does so by treating ideologies as normative mental systems interacting with environmental physical realities and following their evolution in the contemporary world. As a result, it exemplifies a systematic method of undertaking a diagnosis, anagnosis, and prognosis of the global ideological situation.

The study introduces a relevance tree reflecting the conceptual framework of ideological analytics. On this basis, it presents three levels of generality which contain the outline of a substantive analysis. The examples given therein illustrate the model and could serve as prototypes for more detailed studies.

Finally, the study draws the main conclusions from the above generalizations by identifying the dialectical process of ideological dynamics. This process together with the non‐linear development of social systems produce the macrohistorical cycles of world evolution. Thus, the proposed hypothesis of dialectichaos can contribute to a better understanding oïideosocial change.