scholarly journals Performance of Azure-winged magpies in Aesop’s fable paradigm

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yigui Zhang ◽  
Cong Yu ◽  
Lixin Chen ◽  
Zhongqiu Li
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Training Transfer ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Solid Objects ◽  
Shaped Tube ◽  
Water Replacement ◽  
Analogical Problem ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Error Learning

AbstractIn this study, the improved Aesop’s fable paradigm—a series of experiments originally used to test whether some animals understand the causality associated with water replacement—was used to explore the cognitive ability of Azure-winged magpies (Cyanopica cyanus). Experimental results on causal cue tasks showed that the Azure-winged magpies prefer water-filled tubes over sand-filled tubes, heavy objects over light objects, and solid objects over hollow objects. However, they failed to notice the diameter and water level of the tubes. They also failed to pass the counterintuitive U-shaped tube task in arbitrary cue tasks. Our results demonstrated that Azure-winged magpies have a certain cognitive ability but not an understanding of causality, a characteristic comparable to that of other corvids. Moreover, Azure-winged magpies exhibited the ability of training transfer and analogical problem solving from the perspective of cognitive psychology. We believe that object-bias has little effect on Azure-winged magpies in this study. We can conclude that the Azure-winged magpies partially completed the tasks by trial-and-error learning.

scholarly journals Developing a Sense of Knowing and Acquiring the Skills to Manage Pain in Children with Profound Cognitive Impairments: Mothers’ Perspectives

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernie Carter ◽  
Janine Arnott ◽  
Joan Simons ◽  
Lucy Bray
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Method ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Reflective Learning ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
Mixed Method Study ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Pain Diary ◽  
Heterogenous Group ◽  
Error Learning

Children with profound cognitive impairment (PCI) are a heterogenous group who often experience frequent and persistent pain. Those people closest to the child are key to assessing their pain. This mixed method study aimed to explore how parents acquire knowledge and skills in assessing and managing their child’s pain. Eight mothers completed a weekly pain diary and were interviewed at weeks 1 and 8. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis and the quantitative data using descriptive statistics. Mothers talked of learning through a system of trial and error (“learning to get on with it”); this was accomplished through “learning to know without a rule book or guide”; “learning to be a convincing advocate”; and “learning to endure and to get things right.” Experiential and reflective learning was evident in the way the mothers developed a “sense of knowing” their child’s pain. They drew on embodied knowledge of how their child usually expressed and responded to pain to help make pain-related decisions. Health professionals need to support mothers/parents to develop their knowledge and skills and to gain confidence in pain assessment and they should recognise and act on the mothers’ concerns.

Administration of an organization undergoing change

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 691-708
Author(s):  
Abha Chatterjee ◽  
Sasanka Sekhar Chanda ◽  
Sougata Ray
Keyword(s):  
Transaction Cost Economics ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Change Implementation ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Organizational Life ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Inadequate Knowledge ◽  
Error Learning ◽  
Organizational Reality ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to develop conceptual arguments questioning the efficacy of administration by the transaction cost economics (TCE) approach in an organization undergoing a major change. Design/methodology/approach The focus is on three distinct dimensions of organizational life where, as per prior research, TCE is likely to be inadequate: interdependence across transactions, high reliance on managerial foresight and inseparability of administrative decisions made at different points in time. Findings The climate of coercion and surveillance engendered by administration based on TCE approaches – that punishes deviation from goals, even when they are framed on inadequate knowledge – forestalls creative problem-solving that is necessary to address unforeseen developments that arise during change implementation. Fiat accomplishes within-group compliance in the change project sub-teams, but between-group interdependencies tend to be neglected, hampering organizational effectiveness. Moreover, attempts to create independent spheres of accountability for concurrent fiats regarding pre-existing and new commitments breed inefficiency and wastage. Research limitations/implications The malevolent aspects of TCE-based administration contribute to organizational dysfunctions like escalation of commitment and developing of silos in organizations. Practical implications To succeed in effecting a major organizational change, meaningful relaxation of demands for delivering on prior goals is required, along with forbearance of errors made during trial-and-error learning. Originality/value TCE-based administration is deleterious to an organization attempting a major change. Supremacy accorded to resolution of conflicts in distinct hierarchical relationships by the mechanism of fiat fails to address the needs of an organizational reality where multiple groups are engaged in a set of interdependent activities and where multiple, interdependent organizational imperatives need to be concurrently served.

Posthuman Bliss?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan B. Levin
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Holistic Perspective ◽  
Living Well ◽  
Self Transcendence ◽  
The Mind

Transhumanists urge us to pursue the biotechnological heightening of select capacities, above all, cognitive ability, so far beyond any human ceiling that the beings with those capacities would exist on a higher ontological plane. Because transhumanists tout humanity’s self-transcendence via science and technology, and suggest that bioenhancement may be morally required, the human stakes of how we respond to transhumanism are unprecedented and immense. In Posthuman Bliss? The Failed Promise of Transhumanism, Susan B. Levin challenges transhumanists’ overarching commitments regarding the mind, brain, ethics, liberal democracy, knowledge, and reality in a more thoroughgoing and integrated way than has occurred thus far. Her critique shows transhumanists’ notion of humanity’s self-transcendence into “posthumanity” to be pure, albeit seductive, fantasy. Levin’s philosophical conclusions would stand even if, as transhumanists proclaim, science and technology supported their vision of posthumanity. They offer breezy assurances that posthumans will emerge if we but allocate sufficient resources to that end. Yet, far from offering theoretical and practical “proof of concept” for the vision that they urge upon us, transhumanists engage inadequately with cognitive psychology, biology, and neuroscience, often relying on questionable or outdated views within those fields. Having shown in depth why transhumanism should be rejected, Levin defends a holistic perspective on living well that is rooted in Aristotle’s virtue ethics but adapted to liberal democracy. This holism is thoroughly human, in the best of senses. We must jettison transhumanists’ fantasy, both because their arguments fail and because transhumanism fails to do us justice.

scholarly journals The Risk of Failure: Trial and Error Learning and Long-Run Performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Callander ◽  
Niko Matouschek
Keyword(s):  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Improve Performance ◽  
Risk Of Failure ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Error Learning ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Impact

Innovation is often the key to sustained progress, yet innovation itself is difficult and highly risky. Success is not guaranteed as breakthroughs are mixed with setbacks and the path of learning is typically far from smooth. How decision makers learn by trial and error and the efficacy of the process are inextricably linked to the incentives of the decision makers themselves and, in particular, to their tolerance for risk. In this paper, we develop a model of trial and error learning with risk averse agents who learn by observing the choices of earlier agents and the outcomes that are realized. We identify sufficient conditions for the existence of optimal actions. We show that behavior within each period varies in risk and performance and that a performance trap develops, such that low performing agents opt to not experiment and thus fail to gain the knowledge necessary to improve performance. We also show that the impact of risk reverberates across periods, leading, on average, to divergence in long-run performance across agents. (JEL D81, D83, O31, O38)

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