Exemplar effects in categorization and multiple-cue judgment.

Categorization and multiple-cue judgment are similar tasks, but the influential models in the two areas are different in terms of the computations, processes, and neural substrates that they imply. In categorization, exemplar memory is often emphasized, whereas multiple-cue judgment generally is interpreted in terms of integration of Cues that have been abstracted in training. In 3 experiments the authors investigated whether these conclusions derive from genuine differences in the processes or are accidental to the different research methods. The results revealed large individual differences and a shift from exemplar memory to cue abstraction when the criterion is changed from a binary to a continuous variable, especially for a probabilistic criterion. People appear to switch between qualitatively distinct processes in the 2 tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Go with the flow: How to master a nonlinear multiple-cue judgment task.

The authors examined the cognitive processes that participants use in linear and nonlinear multiple-cue judgment tasks, hypothesizing that people are unable to use explicit cue abstraction in a nonlinear task, instead turning to exemplar memory. Experiment 1 confirmed that people are unable to use cue abstraction in nonlinear tasks but failed to confirm the hypothesized, spontaneous shift to exemplar memory. Instead, the participants appeared to be trapped in persistent and futile attempts to abstract the cue-criterion relations. Only after being instructed to rely on exemplar memory in Experiment 2 did they master the nonlinear task. The results suggest that adaptive shifts of representation need not occur spontaneously and that analytical thought may sometimes harm performance in nonlinear tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The mapping model: A cognitive theory of quantitative estimation.

How do people make quantitative estimations, such as estimating a car's selling price? Traditionally, linear-regression-type models have been used to answer this question. These models assume that people weight and integrate all information available to estimate a criterion. The authors propose an alternative cognitive theory for quantitative estimation. The mapping model, inspired by the work of N. R. Brown and R. S. Siegler (1993) on metrics and mappings, offers a heuristic approach to decision making. The authors test this model against established alternative models of estimation, namely, linear regression, an exemplar model, and a simple estimation heuristic. With 4 experimental studies the authors compare the models under different environmental conditions. The mapping model proves to be a valid model to predict people's estimates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processes in story understanding.

The major goal of the author's research has been to discover how readers overcome the limited capacity of working memory to discover the rich pattern of causal relationships found in even the simplest stories. The specific purpose of the series of experiments presented in this article is to discover what happens when the goals and actions are widely separated in the text, and when the actions are not associated with a coherence break. The results suggest that some readers retrieve the goal from long-term memory while others do not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting sentencing for low-level crimes: Comparing models of human judgment.

Laws and guidelines regulating legal decision making are often imposed without taking the cognitive processes of the legal decision maker into account. In the case of sentencing, this raises the question of whether the sentencing decisions of prosecutors and judges are consistent with legal policy. Especially in handling low-level crimes, legal personnel suffer from high case loads and time pressure, which can make it difficult to comply with the often complex rulings of the law. To understand the cognitive processes underlying sentencing decisions, an analysis of trial records in cases of larceny, fraud, and forgery was conducted. Applying a Bayesian approach, five models of human judgment were tested against each other to predict the sentencing recommendations of the prosecution and to identify the crucial factors influencing sentencing decisions. The factors influencing sentencing were broadly consistent with the penal code. However, the prosecutors considered only a limited number of factors and neglected factors that were legally relevant and rated as highly important. Furthermore, testing the various cognitive judgment models against each other revealed that the sentencing process was apparently not consistent with the judgment policy recommended by the legal literature. Instead, the results show that prosecutors’ sentencing recommendations were best described by the mapping model, a heuristic model of quantitative estimation. According to this model, sentencing recommendations rely on a categorization of cases based on the cases’ characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Origin of Exemplar Effects in Rule-Driven Categorization.

S. W. Allen and L. R. Brooks (1991) have shown that exemplar memory can affect categorization even when participants are provided with a classification rule. G. Regehr and L. R. Brooks (1993) argued that stimuli must be individuated for such effects to occur. In this study, the authors further analyze the conditions that yield exemplar effects in this rule application paradigm. The results of Experiments 1-3 show that interchangeable attributes, which are not part of the rule, influence categorization only when attention is explicitly drawn on them. Experiment 4 shows that exemplar effects can occur in an incidental learning condition, whether stimulus individuation is preserved or not. The authors conclude that the influence of exemplar learning in rule-driven categorization stems from the attributes specified in the rule or in the instructions, not from the stimulus gestalts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Wanted: A New Psychology of Exemplars.

Present-day exemplar theory faces difficult challenges, and important questions have arisen about the kinds of exemplar effects and processes that are empirically supported, and about the kind of exemplar theory that could still be constructive. One question concerns whether exemplar generalization in memory and categorization is broad and collective - extending to many related exemplars stored in memory - or whether it is focused and singular - extending only to highly similar (nearly identical) exemplars. The present article considers this continuum from broad to narrow generalization. I demonstrate that in prominent memory and category tasks - tasks in which exemplar theory predicts broad generalization - generalization i.s in psychological reality very tightly focused. These demonstrations could ground a new, productive exemplar theory that is true to psychological process as humans conduct themselves in memory and category tasks. This new psychology may actually reprise the traditional exemplar theory that predated our sophisticated, mathematical exemplar models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive components of deficit awareness in Alzheimer's disease.

Awareness of deficit was examined in 24 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their spouses (for a total of 48 participants) using performance prediction-postdiction and questionnaire discrepancy (QD) paradigms. Participants estimated their own memory performances as well the performances of spouses and of a fictional, memory-disordered patient observed on videotape. Patients overpredicted self-performances, but the extent of overestimation decreased for postdictions. Patients and caregivers accurately estimated caregiver performances but overestimated performances of the fictional patient. QD data revealed that patients underestimated their difficulties performing daily functioning tasks as compared with caregiver reports. Awareness of deficit is a complex ability, involving dissociable cognitive processes. AD patients may display intact immediate awareness of memory dysfunction but fail to incorporate incidents of memory failure into generalized self-belief systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subjective Probability Intervals: How to Reduce Overconfidence by Interval Evaluation.

Format dependence implies that assessment of the same subjective probability distribution produces different conclusions about over- or underconfidence depending on the assessment format. In 2 experiments, the authors demonstrate that the overconfidence bias that occurs when participants produce intervals for an uncertain quantity is almost abolished when they evaluate the probability that the same intervals include the quantity. The authors successfully apply a method for adaptive adjustment of probability intervals as a debiasing tool and discuss a tentative explanation in terms of a naive sampling model. According to this view, people report their experiences accurately, but they are naive in that they treat both sample proportion and sample dispersion as unbiased estimators, yielding small bias in probability evaluation but strong bias in interval production. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquiring a Cognitive Skill With a New Repeating Version of the Tower of London Task.

A computerized version of the Tower of London task was used to investigate cognitive skill learning. Thirty-six healthy volunteers were assigned to either a random condition (nonrecurring problems), or to a sequence condition in which, unbeknownst to the subjects, a repeating sequence of three problems was presented. Indices of execution, planning, and total time, as well as number of moves performed, were used to measure behavioural change. Subjects' performance improved in both conditions across blocks of practice. A distinct learning effect related to the repeating sequence was also observed. This suggests that a specific skill that reflects procedural learning of the strategies, rules, and procedures pertaining to repeating problems can develop over and above a more general skill at solving cognitive planning problems with practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of short-term memory capacity and task experience for overconfidence in judgment under uncertainty.

Research with general knowledge items demonstrates extreme overconfidence when people estimate confidence intervals for unknown quantities, but close to zero overconfidence when the same intervals are assessed by probability judgment. In 3 experiments, the authors investigated if the overconfidence specific to confidence intervals derives from limited task experience or from short-term memory limitations. As predicted by the naive sampling model (P. Juslin, A. Winman, & P. Hansson, 2007), overconfidence with probability judgment is rapidly reduced by additional task experience, whereas overconfidence with intuitive confidence intervals is minimally affected even by extensive task experience. In contrast to the minor bias with probability judgment, the extreme overconfidence bias with intuitive confidence intervals is correlated with short-term memory capacity. The proposed interpretation is that increased task experience is not sufficient to cure the overconfidence with confidence intervals because it stems from short-term memory limitations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correction to Mikels et al. (2010).

Reports an error in "Following your heart or your head: Focusing on emotions versus information differentially influences the decisions of younger and older adults" by Joseph A. Mikels, Corinna E. L?ckenhoff, Sam J. Maglio, Laura L. Carstensen, Mary K. Goldstein and Alan Garber (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 2010[Mar], Vol 16[1], 87-95). The wrong author order was listed. The correct order is presented in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2010-06152-007.) Research on aging has indicated that whereas deliberative cognitive processes decline with age, emotional processes are relatively spared. To examine the implications of these divergent trajectories in the context of health care choices, we investigated whether instructional manipulations emphasizing a focus on feelings or details would have differential effects on decision quality among younger and older adults. We presented 60 younger and 60 older adults with health care choices that required them to hold in mind and consider multiple pieces of information. Instructional manipulations in the emotion-focus condition asked participants to focus on their emotional reactions to the options, report their feelings about the options, and then make a choice. In the information-focus condition, participants were instructed to focus on the specific attributes, report the details about the options, and then make a choice. In a control condition, no directives were given. Manipulation checks indicated that the instructions were successful in eliciting different modes of processing. Decision quality data indicate that younger adults performed better in the information-focus than in the control condition whereas older adults performed better in the emotion-focus and control conditions than in the information-focus condition. Findings support and extend extant theorizing on aging and decision making as well as suggest that interventions to improve decision-making quality should take the age of the decision maker into account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioural demands direct attentional strategies: The 1993 Banff Annual Seminar in Cognitive Science.

The Banff Annual Seminar in Cognitive-Science (BASICS) was founded in 1982 and has met each spring since then in Banff, Alberta, Canada. BASICS was originated to provide an informal atmosphere for the in-depth discussion of a wide variety of research topics within the broadly defined domain of cognitive science. The purpose of the present paper is to summarize and find commonalties among the individual abstracts which follow. The first speaker, Norman Brown began his talk with the premise that a valid model of the estimation process is essential to an understanding of the process of encoding and representing event frequency. In the second talk, John Duncan continued the theme as to how psychological processes are selected according to the current demands of behaviour. The third talk of the first day of the conference was by Nancy Kanwisher. This investigator has been in the forefront of the journals lately for her work with the phenomenon known as repetition blindness (RB). The final talk of the first day of BASICS was given by one of the most prominent figures in the study of visual attention, Anne Treisman. The first talk of the second day of the conference was given by Tom Carr. Carr's talk was aimed at understanding the process by which new information is integrated into the semantic memory system. The last talk of the conference was by Robert Rafal whose work examines the neuropsychological aspects of visual attention. The emerging theme of this year's conference, that humans exercise strategic control over attentional mechanisms, was addressed by all the speakers in a way that proved highly informative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Redux of Cognitive Consistency Theories: Evidence Judgments by Constraint Satisfaction.

The authors suggest that decisions made from multiple pieces of evidence are performed hy mechanisms of parallel constraint satisfaction, which are related to cognitive consistency theories. Such reasoning processes are bidirectional--decisions follow from evidence, and evaluations of the evidence shift toward coherence with the emerging decision. Using a factually complex legal case, the authors observed patterns of coherence shifts that persisted even when the distribution of decisions was manipulated (Study 1) and influenced by the participants' attitudes (Study 2). The evaluations of the evidence cohered with the preferred decision even when participants changed their preference (Study 3). Supporting the bidirectionality of reasoning. Study 4 showed that assigning participants to a verdict affected their evaluation of the evidence. Coherence shifts were observed also in related background knowledge. This research suggests that cognitive consistency theories should play a greater role in the understanding of human reasoning and decision making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive Approaches to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The Evolution of Multirepresentational Theorizing.

The evolution of multirepresentational cognitive theorizing in psychopathology is illustrated by detailed discussion and analysis of a number of prototypical models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Network and schema theories, which focus on a single, explicit aspect/format of mental representation, are compared with theories that focus on 2 or more explicit representational elements. The author argues that the latter theories provide a more complete account of PTSD data, though are not without their problems. Specifically, it is proposed that at least 3 separate representational elements-associative networks, verbal/propositional representations, and schemas-are required to generate a comprehensive cognitive theory of PTSD. The argument that the development of multirepresentational cognitive theory in PTSD is a paradigm case for the development of similar theories in other forms of psychopathology is elaborated, and a brief agenda is proposed promoting 2 levels of theorizing-deep, formal theory alongside more localized, applied theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social Cognitive Predictors of Domain and Life Satisfaction: Exploring the Theoretical Precursors of Subjective Well-Being.

Central variables of social cognitive theory were adapted to forge an integrative model of well-being, which was designed to offer greater utility for therapeutic and self-directed change efforts than the dominant personality view of well-being. The authors present 2 studies using versions of the social cognitive model to predict domain-specific and overall life satisfaction. In both studies--one nomothetic, the other idiographic in measurement approach--findings indicated that satisfaction in particular life domains is predicted by domain-specific social cognitive variables (e.g., self-efficacy, perceived goal progress, environmental resources). Domain satisfaction in valued life domains also explained unique variance in overall life satisfaction, even after controlling for trait positive affectivity or extraversion. Implications for theory, research, and counseling aimed at well-being promotion and maintenance are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Following your heart or your head: Focusing on emotions versus information differentially influences the decisions of younger and older adults.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 16(2) of Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied (see record 2010-12508-005). The wrong author order was listed. The correct order is presented in the erratum.] Research on aging has indicated that whereas deliberative cognitive processes decline with age, emotional processes are relatively spared. To examine the implications of these divergent trajectories in the context of health care choices, we investigated whether instructional manipulations emphasizing a focus on feelings or details would have differential effects on decision quality among younger and older adults. We presented 60 younger and 60 older adults with health care choices that required them to hold in mind and consider multiple pieces of information. Instructional manipulations in the emotion-focus condition asked participants to focus on their emotional reactions to the options, report their feelings about the options, and then make a choice. In the information-focus condition, participants were instructed to focus on the specific attributes, report the details about the options, and then make a choice. In a control condition, no directives were given. Manipulation checks indicated that the instructions were successful in eliciting different modes of processing. Decision quality data indicate that younger adults performed better in the information-focus than in the control condition whereas older adults performed better in the emotion-focus and control conditions than in the information-focus condition. Findings support and extend extant theorizing on aging and decision making as well as suggest that interventions to improve decision-making quality should take the age of the decision maker into account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How Many Dimensions Underlie Judgments of Learning and Recall? Evidence From State-Trace Methodology.

The authors used state-trace methodology to investigate whether a single dimension (e.g., strength) is sufficient to account for recall and judgments of learning (JOLs) or whether multiple dimensions (e.g., intrinsic and extrinsic factors) are needed. The authors separately manipulated the independent variables of intrinsic and extrinsic cues, determining their state traces for recall and JOLs. In contrast to the supposition that intrinsic cues have similar effects on both recall and JOLs whereas extrinsic cues affect JOLs less strongly than recall (i.e., 2 dimensions underlying recall and JOLs), the authors found repeated support for the sufficiency of a single dimension for both recall and JOLs (not only immediate JOLs but also delayed JOLs) across a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Everyday memory compensation: The impact of cognitive reserve, subjective memory, and stress.

To determine the potential importance of several unexplored covariates of everyday memory compensation, the authors examined relations between responses on the Memory Compensation Questionnaire (a self-report measure of everyday memory compensation) and cognitive reserve (education and verbal IQ), subjective memory, and life stress in 66 older adults (mean age = 70.55 years). Key results indicated that compensation occurred in people (a) whose IQ level was greater than their education level (representing cognitive reserve “discordance”) but not in people whose IQ was commensurate with their education (representing cognitive reserve “concordance”); (b) who had greater perceived memory errors; and (c) who experienced heightened stress. Further, high-stress older adults compensated whether perceived memory errors were low or high, but low-stress older adults compensated only if they perceived high memory errors. Bootstrapped confidence intervals around model betas provided further support for estimate reliability. These results suggest boundary conditions for the concept of cognitive reserve, and highlight the importance of subjective memory and life stress for defining contexts in which compensation may occur. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive Processes in Stereotype Formation: The Role of Correct Contingency Learning for Biased Group Judgments.

Three studies investigated contingency learning and stereotype formation in a scenario about group membership and behavior with a confounding context factor. The studies tested predictions from theoretical accounts of biased group judgments in terms of simplistic reasoning, parallel distributed memory, and pseudocontingencies. Study 1 revealed a positive correlation between erroneous stereotype formation and learning of the true contingencies with the confounding factor. Study 2 showed that a focus manipulation during encoding moderated the correlation between stereotype formation and contingency learning but not the strength of the erroneous stereotype. Study 3 used a quasiexperimental comparison between participants with biased versus unbiased group judgments and extended the findings of a positive relation between stereotype formation and contingency learning. The results support an explanation of biased group judgments by pseudocontingencies; that is, unwarranted inferences from accurately perceived bivariate correlations in complex environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)