scholarly journals Behavioral Psychology’s Matching Law Describes the Allocation of Covert Attention: A Choice Rule for the Mind

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gene Heyman ◽  
Sebastian Moncaleano
Keyword(s):  
Matching Law ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Probability Matching ◽  
Board Games ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Key Pecking ◽  
Reward Contingencies ◽  
Objective Basis ◽  
Economic Analyses ◽  
The Mind

The matching law describes the allocation of behavior over a wide range of settings, including laboratory experimental chambers, forest foraging patches, sports arenas, and board games. Interestingly, matching persists in settings in which economic analyses predict quite different distributions of behavior (and it also differs systematically from “probability matching”). We tested whether the matching law also describes the allocation of covert cognitive processes. Sixty-four participants viewed two, small, vertically arranged adjacent stimuli that projected an image that fit within the fovea. A trial-version of the reward contingencies used in matching law experiments determined which stimulus was the target. The amount of time the stimuli were available was tailored to each subject so that they were not able to make use of the information in both stimuli even though an eye-tracking experiment confirmed that they saw both. The implication of this restriction is that subjects had to decide which stimulus to attend to prior to each trial. The only available objective basis for this decision was the relative frequencies that a stimulus was the target. Although shifts in attention were covert, and the procedure did not provide explicit reinforcers, the matching law equation described the division of attention between two small, briefly presented stimuli as accurately as it describes the allocation of key pecking between two illuminated disks in hungry pigeons.

scholarly journals To maximize or randomize? An experimental study of probability matching in financial decision making

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0252540
Author(s):  
Andrew W. Lo ◽  
Katherine P. Marlowe ◽  
Ruixun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Probabilistic Reasoning ◽  
Computer Game ◽  
Matching Law ◽  
Probability Matching ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Financial Decision ◽  
The Common ◽  
Probability And Statistics

Probability matching, also known as the “matching law” or Herrnstein’s Law, has long puzzled economists and psychologists because of its apparent inconsistency with basic self-interest. We conduct an experiment with real monetary payoffs in which each participant plays a computer game to guess the outcome of a binary lottery. In addition to finding strong evidence for probability matching, we document different tendencies towards randomization in different payoff environments—as predicted by models of the evolutionary origin of probability matching—after controlling for a wide range of demographic and socioeconomic variables. We also find several individual differences in the tendency to maximize or randomize, correlated with wealth and other socioeconomic factors. In particular, subjects who have taken probability and statistics classes and those who self-reported finding a pattern in the game are found to have randomized more, contrary to the common wisdom that those with better understanding of probabilistic reasoning are more likely to be rational economic maximizers. Our results provide experimental evidence that individuals—even those with experience in probability and investing—engage in randomized behavior and probability matching, underscoring the role of the environment as a driver of behavioral anomalies.

scholarly journals Activity in the brain’s valuation and mentalizing networks is associated with propagation of online recommendations

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa C. Baek ◽  
Matthew Brook O’Donnell ◽  
Christin Scholz ◽  
Rui Pei ◽  
Javier O. Garcia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Word Of Mouth ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Opinion Change ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Mentalizing System

AbstractWord of mouth recommendations influence a wide range of choices and behaviors. What takes place in the mind of recommendation receivers that determines whether they will be successfully influenced? Prior work suggests that brain systems implicated in assessing the value of stimuli (i.e., subjective valuation) and understanding others’ mental states (i.e., mentalizing) play key roles. The current study used neuroimaging and natural language classifiers to extend these findings in a naturalistic context and tested the extent to which the two systems work together or independently in responding to social influence. First, we show that in response to text-based social media recommendations, activity in both the brain’s valuation system and mentalizing system was associated with greater likelihood of opinion change. Second, participants were more likely to update their opinions in response to negative, compared to positive, recommendations, with activity in the mentalizing system scaling with the negativity of the recommendations. Third, decreased functional connectivity between valuation and mentalizing systems was associated with opinion change. Results highlight the role of brain regions involved in mentalizing and positive valuation in recommendation propagation, and further show that mentalizing may be particularly key in processing negative recommendations, whereas the valuation system is relevant in evaluating both positive and negative recommendations.

The Fragmented Mind

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Implicit Attitudes ◽  
David Lewis ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Belief State ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship

Mental fragmentation is the thesis that the mind is fragmented, or compartmentalized. Roughly, this means that an agent’s overall belief state is divided into several sub-states—fragments. These fragments need not make for a consistent and deductively closed belief system. The thesis of mental fragmentation became popular through the work of philosophers like Christopher Cherniak, David Lewis, and Robert Stalnaker in the 1980s. Recently, it has attracted great attention again. This volume is the first collection of essays devoted to the topic of mental fragmentation. It features important new contributions by leading experts in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and philosophy of language. Opening with an accessible Introduction providing a systematic overview of the current debate, the fourteen essays cover a wide range of issues: foundational issues and motivations for fragmentation, the rationality or irrationality of fragmentation, fragmentation’s role in language, the relationship between fragmentation and mental files, and the implications of fragmentation for the analysis of implicit attitudes.

scholarly journals Free or paid: the uses of Roses Citadel (Catalonia)

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-120
Author(s):  
Josep Burch ◽  
Modest Fluvià ◽  
Ricard Rigall ◽  
Albert Saló ◽  
Gabriel Alcalde
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Economic Analyses ◽  
Social Use ◽  
The Town

Purpose The Roses Citadel is a bastioned fortification that has archaeological remains from the Greek, Roman and medieval periods in its interior. Currently, the area inside the Citadel is used for a wide range of activities; some directly related with the heritage item, others associated with its use as a public space for the town. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the economic interest of charging an entrance fee vs the alternative of free access and offers a framework to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach The proposal is to consider the marginal cost of increasing the number of users and to carry out a travel cost analysis. It is vital to take into account the results of specifically economic analyses, but the evaluations of social policies should also be considered, and should have a considerable weight in decision making. Findings It is proposed that free entry would bring about an increase in the number of visitors and users of Roses Citadel. In turn, this increase would lead to a greater social use of this heritage asset, and a chance for the least privileged sectors of society to use the site more. Financial resources for the maintenance of the asset would not be raised through entry fees, but through contributions relating to the increase in the social consideration of the site. Originality/value In the context of a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of paying an entry fee for heritage assets, the example of Roses Citadel provides several factors for consideration. It shows that payment of an entry fee affects use of the site by society, and particularly by the local community, whereas free access leads to a wide range of opportunities for use.

scholarly journals The Metamorphosis of the Victim of Crime: From Crime to Culture and the Implications for Justice

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 4-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Walklate
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Side Effects ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Trauma Narrative ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Bear Witness ◽  
As If

Beck (2015: 81) observes, metamorphosis ‘is proceeding latently, behind the mind walls of unintended side effects, which are being constructed as ‘natural’ and ‘self-evident’. Thus Beck’s concept of metamorphosis conceives of social change as unnoticed and unacknowledged. Such change is evident in the contemporary ever present invocation of the ‘victim’ in a wide range of different, crime-soaked circumstances. This paper is concerned to explore this metamorphosis of the ‘victim’ in reflecting on two narratives: the victim narrative and the trauma narrative. The contemporary conflation of these two narratives has led Agamben (1999: 13) to suggest that policy has proceeded as if ‘“testis” (the testimony of a person as a third party in a trial or a law suit) can be conflated with “superstes” (a person who has lived through something and can thereby bear witness to it)’. The paper makes the case that this conflation has consequences for understandings of justice.

Meaningful Video Games

2011 ◽  
pp. 312-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Brock Schafer ◽  
Gino Yu
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
World View ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Somatic Awareness ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Skin Response ◽  
Psychological Transformation ◽  
Objective Basis ◽  
The Mind

The development of more meaningful video games is becoming increasingly possible by recent advances in video game technologies, neurosciences, and biofeedback. In the near future, meaningful video games will be designed to facilitate personal-psychological transformation. Unlike “serious games” that focus on education and “conditioning” the mind, meaningful games will cultivate emotional intelligence, somatic awareness, and archetypal integration in order to “un-condition” the mind and thereby facilitate psychologically meaningful personal transformations. Meaningful game research will access the dynamics of psychological transformation in order to enhance archetypal awareness, intuition, and insight on the part of players. Within the genre of meaningful video games, Drama-Based Games (DBG) add an unprecedented dimension for psychological engagement and decision-making. Because they extend psychological player immersion to the dimension of “physical” interactivity, (DBG) incorporate the full range of psychological functions defined by Carl Jung. Because psychological experiences are correlated with physiological processes, DBG may be used as research instruments for quantifying diverse biometric-psychological interactions that occur during game play. Advances in electronics now enable the real-time and non-intrusive capturing of physiological data such as brain waves (e.g., electroencephalography), heart-rate variability, skin response, and facial expression. This data can provide an objective basis for measuring dimensions of the cognitive unconscious in test subjects as they respond to game experiences. The ultimate goal of research is to provide veridical data relative to the psychological parameters of an increasingly mediated global environment—a Psychecology—and to study the ensuing world-view.

scholarly journals P061: Post-market surveillance of a serious board game: the GridlockED experience

CJEM ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (S1) ◽  
pp. S85
Author(s):  
S. Hale ◽  
T. Chan
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Patient Flow ◽  
Board Game ◽  
Board Games ◽  
Institutional Review ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Post Market ◽  
Disaster Scenario ◽  
Main Barrier

Introduction: In 2016, a team at McMaster began developing GridlockED, an educational (or “serious”) board game designed to teach medical learners about patient flow in the emergency department. As serious board games are a relatively new phenomenon in medical education, there is little data on how marketed games are actually used once received by end-users. In this study our goal was to better understand the demographics and game usage for purchasers of the GridlockED board game, which will inform the further improvement or expansion of the game. Methods: Individuals who expressed interest in purchasing gridlockED via our online storefront were sent an anonymous online survey via Google Form. The survey collected demographic and qualitative data with a focus on the respondent's role in medicine, how they have used GridlockED, who they have played GridlockED with, and what changes or additions to GridlockED they would like to see. We also asked about changes for a potential mass-market version of the game targeted towards non-medical individuals. Individuals who did not purchase the game were asked about their barriers to purchase. We received an exemption for this study from our institutional review board. Results: 42 responses (out of 300 individuals on our mailing list, 14% response rate) were collected. Responding purchasers were from 16 different roles in healthcare and 11 different countries. The top 5 roles were: EM trainee, Community EM MD, Academic EM MD, Physicians from other specialties, and EM program director. The majority of respondents were Canadian (38%), with America (21%), New Zealand (10%), and Turkey (7%) the only other countries to have more than 2 respondents. 50% reported having played the game, with the most common use cases being for fun (76%), for teaching trainees (33%) or training with colleagues (19%). For those who did not purchase, price was the largest barrier (81%). 50% of respondents expressed interest in a disaster scenario expansion pack, with 33% interested in set lesson plans. Conclusion: GridlockED attracted interest from a wide range of medical professionals, both in terms or role and location. Users mainly reported using the game for fun, with fewer users using the game for teaching/training purposes. The main barrier to purchase was the game's price.

scholarly journals A Conceptual Tool for Climate Change Risk Assessment

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (21) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. T. Higgins ◽  
Jonah V. Steinbuck
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Management Decision ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Climate Risks ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Climate Change Risks ◽  
Economic Analyses

Abstract This study develops a new conceptual tool to explore the potential societal consequences of climate change. The conceptual tool delineates three quasi-independent factors that contribute to the societal consequences of climate change: how climate changes; the sensitivity of physical systems, biological resources, and social institutions to climate change; and the degree of human dependence on those systems, resources, and institutions. This conceptual tool, as currently developed, is not predictive, but it enables the exploration of the dependence of climate change risks on key contributing factors. In exploring a range of plausible behaviors for these factors and methods for their synthesis, the authors show that plausible assumptions lead to a wide range in potential societal consequences of climate change. This illustrates that the societal consequences of climate change are currently difficult to constrain and that high-consequence climate change outcomes are not necessarily low probability, as suggested by leading economic analyses. With careful implementation, this new conceptual tool has potential to increase public understanding of climate change risks, to support risk management decision making, or to facilitate communication of climate risks across disciplinary boundaries.

Psychotherapy: The Search for Chaos and the Discovery of Determinism

1994 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Langs ◽  
Anthony Badalamenti
Keyword(s):  
Science Studies ◽  
Psychoanalytic Theory ◽  
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy ◽  
Chaotic Attractors ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Science Domain ◽  
Formal Science ◽  
The Mind

The search for a science of psychoanalysis is introduced by defining three modes of psychoanalytic science: domain, statistical-stochastic, and formal. The paper outlines the domain science propositions of the communicative approach to psychoanalytic psychotherapy and indicates how this version of psychoanalytic theory led to the development of an extensive series of statistical-stochastic and formal science studies of the communications between patients and therapists. The formal science efforts which began as a mathematical search for chaotic attractors revealed instead a deep determinism within the psychotherapeutic dialogue. Three specific laws of the mind and human communication have been identified. The research is centred on how we communicate (the communicative vehicle) rather than what we express (the contents). After describing a wide range of unexpected and unprecedented results, the paper concludes with a discussion of some of the clinical implications of these findings and of the new formal science of psychoanalysis created by these investigations.

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