Cognitive perspectives on opinion dynamics: the role of knowledge in consensus formation, opinion divergence, and group polarization

Feedback plays an important role in developing L2 writing in young learners. The article provides a brief overview of the history of giving feedback and of some contemporary views within this field. Special attention is paid to cognitive perspectives, such as the influence of written corrective feedback on shortterm memory, the influence of focused and unfocused written corrective feedback on error correction, the influence of written corrective feedback on a particular category of error, the influence of direct and indirect written corrective feedback and combinations of various types of written corrective feedback, and the influence of educational background and L2 learning background on the effectiveness of written corrective feedback in terms of sociocultural perspectives. The main aim of the article is to present readers (especially teachers) with the variety of aspects of giving written corrective feedback in developing L2 writing and thus in enabling young learners to develop their L2 writing skills more effectively.

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Consensus and Disagreement: The Role of Quantized Behaviors in Opinion Dynamics

SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization ◽

10.1137/16m1083402 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 56 (2) ◽

pp. 1058-1080 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Francesca Ceragioli ◽

Paolo Frasca

Keyword(s):

Opinion Dynamics

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Social Space in Simulation Models

Interdisciplinary Applications of Agent-Based Social Simulation and Modeling - Advances in Human and Social Aspects of Technology ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-5954-4.ch012 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 200-219

Author(s):

Davide Nunes ◽

Luis Antunes

Keyword(s):

Social Relations ◽

Social Space ◽

Opinion Dynamics ◽

Simulation Models ◽

Opinion Formation ◽

Consensus Formation ◽

Space Design ◽

Network Topologies ◽

Multiple Interaction ◽

Set Up

In real world scenarios, the formation of consensus is a self-organisation process by which actors have to make a joint assessment about a target subject, be it a decision making problem or the formation of a collective opinion. In social simulation, models of opinion dynamics tackle the opinion formation phenomena. These models try to make an assessment, for instance, of the ideal conditions that lead an interacting group of agents to opinion consensus, polarisation or fragmentation. This chapter investigates the role of social relation structure in opinion dynamics and consensus formation. The authors present an agent-based model that defines social relations as multiple concomitant social networks and explore multiple interaction games in this structural set-up. They discuss the influence of complex social network topologies where actors interact in multiple distinct networks. The chapter builds on previous work about social space design with multiple social relations to determine the influence of such complex social structures in a process such as opinion formation.

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Communication speeds up but impairs the consensus decision in a dyadic colour estimation task

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.191974 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (7) ◽

pp. 191974

Author(s):

Liutao Yu ◽

Chundi Wang ◽

Si Wu ◽

Da-Hui Wang

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Group Decision ◽

Daily Life ◽

Consensus Formation ◽

Exact Role ◽

Estimation Task ◽

Consensus Decision Making ◽

Consensus Decision ◽

Better Than

Communication plays an important role in consensus decision-making which pervades our daily life. However, the exact role of communication in consensus formation is not clear. Here, to study the effects of communication on consensus formation, we designed a dyadic colour estimation task, where a pair of isolated participants repeatedly estimated the colours of discs until they reached a consensus or completed eight estimations, either with or without communication. We show that participants’ estimates gradually approach each other, reaching towards a consensus, and these are enhanced with communication. We also show that dyadic consensus estimation is on average better than individual estimation. Surprisingly, consensus estimation without communication generally outperforms that with communication, indicating that communication impairs the improvement of consensus estimation. However, without communication, it takes longer to reach a consensus. Moreover, participants who partially cooperate with each other tend to result in better overall consensus. Taken together, we have identified the effect of communication on the dynamics of consensus formation, and the results may have implications on group decision-making in general.

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ENHANCING CONSENSUS UNDER OPINION BIAS BY MEANS OF HIERARCHICAL DECISION MAKING

Advances in Complex Systems ◽

10.1142/s0219525913500203 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 16 (06) ◽

pp. 1350020 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

NICOLAS PERONY ◽

RENÉ PFITZNER ◽

INGO SCHOLTES ◽

CLAUDIO J. TESSONE ◽

FRANK SCHWEITZER

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Hierarchical Structures ◽

Consensus Formation ◽

Hierarchical Decision Making ◽

Organizational Policies ◽

Final Population ◽

Bounded Confidence ◽

Hierarchical Decision ◽

The Impact

We study the role of hierarchical structures in a simple model of collective consensus formation based on the bounded confidence model with continuous individual opinions. For the particular variation of this model considered in this paper, we assume that a bias toward an extreme opinion is introduced whenever two individuals interact and form a common decision. As a simple proxy for hierarchical social structures, we introduce a two-step decision making process in which in the second step groups of like-minded individuals are replaced by representatives once they have reached local consensus, and the representatives in turn form a collective decision in a downstream process. We find that the introduction of such a hierarchical decision making structure can improve consensus formation, in the sense that the eventual collective opinion is closer to the true average of individual opinions than without it. In particular, we numerically study how the size of groups of like-minded individuals being represented by delegate individuals affects the impact of the bias on the final population-wide consensus. These results are of interest for the design of organizational policies and the optimization of hierarchical structures in the context of group decision making.

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Public Opinion toward Equal Opportunity Issues: The Role of Attitudinal and Demographic Forces among African Americans

Sociological Perspectives ◽

10.2307/1389305 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 35 (4) ◽

pp. 705-720 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Terri Susan Fine

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

African Americans ◽

Equal Opportunity ◽

Opinion Dynamics ◽

Policy Support ◽

African American Community ◽

Social Changes ◽

Disadvantaged Populations ◽

The Impact

This paper explores African American opinion toward equal opportunity issues using a demographic-attitudinal focus. Previous explorations have focused on black-white opinion comparisons. In this analysis, attitudinal forces, particularly core values, are identified as playing an influential role in policy support. Further, these patterns of values tend to reflect those expressed by whites on similar questions: the more individualistic and conservative one is, the less likely one is to support government intervention on African Americans behalf. In responding to questions concerning governmental responsibility, higher SES African Americans express stronger support than do their lower SES counterparts. This finding suggests that those who are experiencing “glass ceilings” are concerned about government guarantees of equal opportunity, despite their individualistic beliefs. This is inconsistent with previous explorations that analyze these beliefs among disadvantaged populations. The implications of social changes in the African American community and the impact of these changes on opinion dynamics are discussed.

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL COMPARISON IN GROUP POLARIZATION PHENOMENON

THE JAPANESE JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY ◽

10.2130/jjesp.21.167 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 167-173

Author(s):

TOKUMI UENO ◽

KAZUAKI YOKOGAWA

Keyword(s):

Social Comparison ◽

Polarization Phenomenon ◽

Group Polarization

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ON SPATIAL CONSENSUS FORMATION: IS THE SZNAJD MODEL DIFFERENT FROM A VOTER MODEL?

International Journal of Modern Physics C ◽

10.1142/s0129183103005467 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 14 (10) ◽

pp. 1331-1354 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

LAXMIDHAR BEHERA ◽

FRANK SCHWEITZER

Keyword(s):

Computer Simulations ◽

Nearest Neighbor ◽

Temporal Evolution ◽

Relaxation Times ◽

Nearest Neighbors ◽

Voter Model ◽

Consensus Formation ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

Update Rules

In this paper, we investigate the so-called "Sznajd Model" (SM) in one dimension, which is a simple cellular automata approach to consensus formation among two opposite opinions (described by spin up or down). To elucidate the SM dynamics, we first provide results of computer simulations for the spatio-temporal evolution of the opinion distribution L(t), the evolution of magnetization m(t), the distribution of decision times P(τ) and relaxation times P(μ). In the main part of the paper, it is shown that the SM can be completely reformulated in terms of a linear voter model (VM), where the transition rates towards a given opinion are directly proportional to frequency of the respective opinion of the second-nearest neighbors (no matter what the nearest neighbors are). So, the SM dynamics can be reduced to one rule, "Just follow your second-nearest neighbor". The equivalence is demonstrated by extensive computer simulations that show the same behavior between SM and VM in terms of L(t), m(t), P(τ), P(μ), and the final attractor statistics. The reformulation of the SM in terms of a VM involves a new parameter σ, to bias between anti- and ferromagnetic decisions in the case of frustration. We show that σ plays a crucial role in explaining the phase transition observed in SM. We further explore the role of synchronous versus asynchronous update rules on the intermediate dynamics and the final attractors. As compared to the original SM, we find three additional attractors, two of them related to an asymmetric coexistence between the opposite opinions.

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