TMS to the “occipital face area” affects recognition but not categorization of faces

The human cortical system for face perception is comprised of a network of connected regions including the middle fusiform gyrus (“fusiform face area” or FFA), the inferior occipital cortex (“occipital face area” or OFA), and the superior temporal sulcus. The traditional hierarchical feedforward model of visual processing suggests information flows from early visual cortex to the OFA for initial face feature analysis to higher order regions including the FFA for identity recognition. However, patient data suggest an alternative model. Patients with acquired prosopagnosia, an inability to visually recognize faces, have been documented with lesions to the OFA but who nevertheless show face-selective activation in the FFA. Moreover, their ability to categorize faces remains intact. This suggests that the FFA is not solely responsible for face recognition and the network is not strictly hierarchical, but may be organized in a reverse hierarchical fashion. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to temporarily disrupt processing in the OFA in neurologically-intact individuals and found participants’ ability to categorize intact versus scrambled faces was unaffected, however face identity discrimination was significantly impaired. This suggests that face categorization but not recognition can occur without the “earlier” OFA being online and indicates that “lower level” face category processing may be assumed by other intact face network regions such as the FFA. These results are consistent with the patient data and support a non-hierarchical, global-to-local model with re-entrant connections between the OFA and other face processing areas.     

Mirror,mirror on the wall,who’s the fairest of them all? Thinking that one is attractive increases the tendency to support inequality

Five studies tested the hypothesis that self-perceived attractiveness shapes people’s perceptions of their social class (subjective SES), which, in turn, shape how people respond to inequality and social hierarchies. Study 1 found that self-perceived attractiveness was associated with support for group-based dominance and belief in legitimizing ideologies, and that these relationships were mediated by subjective social class. Subsequent experiments showed that higher self-perceived attractiveness increased subjective SES, which in turn, increased SDO (Study 2 and Study 5); promoted stronger beliefs in dispositional causes of inequality (Study 3); and reduced donations to a movement advocating for social equality (Study 4). By contrast, lower self-perceived attractiveness decreased subjective SES, which in turn, led to a greater tendency to reject social hierarchies and to construe inequality in terms of contextual causes. These effects emerged even after controlling for power, status, and self-esteem, and were not simply driven by inducing people to see themselves positively on desirable traits (Study 4 and Study 5).     

A Sense of Powerlessness Fosters System Justification: Implications for the Legitimation of Authority,Hierarchy, and Government

In an attempt to explain the stability of hierarchy, we focus on the perspective of the powerless and how a subjective sense of dependence leads them to imbue the system and its authorities with legitimacy. In Study 1, we found in a nationally representative sample of U.S. employees that financial dependence on one's job was positively associated with the perceived legitimacy of one's supervisor. In Study 2, we observed that a general sense of powerlessness was positively correlated with the perceived legitimacy of the economic system. In Studies 3 and 4, priming experimental participants with feelings of powerlessness increased their justification of the social system, even when they were presented with system‐challenging explanations for race, class, and gender disparities. In Study 5, we demonstrated that the experience of powerlessness increased legitimation of governmental authorities (relative to baseline conditions). The processes we identify are likely to perpetuate inequality insofar as the powerless justify rather than strive to change the hierarchical structures that disadvantage them.     

Identifying influential segments from word co-occurrence networks using AHP

Identifying important segments in textual data seems to be an important area of research for various applications including topic modelling, trend detection, summarization and event detection. In existing research work, different metrics have been studied to analyse the word co-occurrence network. This research work contributes towards non-semantic and an unsupervised topic identification using the word co-occurrence networks. In this research work, keyphrase have been identified by preserving the lexical sequence using a directed and weighted word co-occurrence network. Further AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) model based upon four significant attributes of the word co-occurrence networks have been proposed to rank the keyphrases. Most frequently occurring segment is identified as an influential segment. Experimental results proved high effectiveness of the proposed approach. Results for the First Story Detection, 72 Twitter TDT, synthesized Rio Olympics dataset have been discussed to demonstrate its potential in precisely discovering influential segments.     

几种常用非补偿型认知诊断模型的比较与选用：基于属性层级关系的考量

当前国际上开发了60多种认知诊断计量模型(Fu &; Li, 2007), 各种模型各具特点, 实际应用者应根据实际情况选用恰当的模型。本研究以属性层级关系为切入点, 采用Monte Carlo模拟的研究方法, 比较了属性层级关系正确及有误两种情况下, 当前国际上常用的五种认知诊断模型的性能, 以充分考察不同认知诊断模型对属性层级关系的依赖程度, 及属性层级关系的错误界定对各认知诊断模型诊断正确率的影响, 从而为实际运用者在认知诊断模型选用上提供借鉴和参考。     

An evaluation of three methods of saying "no" to avoid an escalating response class hierarchy

We evaluated the effects of three different methods of denying access to requested high-preference activities on escalating problem behavior. Functional analysis and response class hierarchy (RCH) assessment results indicated that 4 topographies of problem behaviors displayed by a 13-year-old boy with high-functioning autism constituted an RCH maintained by positive (tangible) reinforcement. Identification of the RCH comprised the baseline phase, during which computer access was denied by saying "no" and providing an explanation for the restriction. Two alternative methods of saying "no" were then evaluated. These methods included (a) denying computer access while providing an opportunity to engage in an alternative preferred activity and (b) denying immediate computer access by arranging a contingency between completion of a low-preference task and subsequent computer access. Results indicated that a hierarchy of problem behavior may be identified in the context of denying access to a preferred activity and that it may be possible to prevent occurrences of escalating problem behavior by either presenting alternative options or arranging contingencies when saying "no" to a child's requests.     

Chinese values in Singapore: Traditional and modern

A series of three studies was conducted to test the internal structure of the Chinese value hierarchy (CVH) in Singapore. Study 1 identified the empirically best–fit model with six factors: Prudence, Industry, Civic–Harmony, Moral Development, Social Power and Moderation. Relative magnitudes and interfactor correlations suggested that these factors could be further grouped into two superordinate clusters: (i) The Modern factor, with significantly higher magnitude, consisted of Prudence, Industry, Civic–Harmony and Moral Development; and (ii) the Tradition factor, with lower magnitude, consisted of Social Power and Moderation. Study 2 surveyed university students with differential preference for language usages: English or Chinese. Both language groups were equally high on the Modern factor, but the Chinese–language–preferred group showed a significantly higher endorsement for the Tradition factor, Chinese Worldview (CWV) and Chinese Health Beliefs (CHB). Further convergent validation for the Modern and the Tradition factors was provided by investigating their correlations with traditional Chinese beliefs and practices for the two language groups separately. Study 3 tested generation differences in CVH. University participants (Self) were compared with their parents (Parents) and friends (Friends). There were no differences between Self and Friends on both the Modern and Tradition factors, CWV and individual differences of modernity. Parents and Self did not differ on individual differences of modernity. Parents, however, were higher on the Modern factor, the Tradition factor and CWV. Results were discussed to support the concept of 'multiple modernity' (Tu, 1900) in Asian societies, and the 'revised convergence hypothesis' proposed by Yang (1988).     

Rationality and reflection

Christine Korsgaard claims that an agent is less than fully rational if she allows some attitude to inform her deliberation even though she cannot justify doing so. I argue that there is a middle way, which Korsgaard misses, between the claim that our attitudes neither need nor admit of rational assessment, on the one hand, and Korsgaard's claim that the attitudes which inform our deliberation always require justification, on the other: an agent needs reasons to opt out of her concerns – not reasons to opt into them or to stay in. As long as an agent has no good reason to abandon some concern of hers, she is reasonable to harbour it, and to allow it to inform her view of what reasons she has. A rational agent must therefore have the capacity to form higher-order attitudes toward her concerns; but rationality only requires that she exercise that capacity when she has some good reason to do so.