Cue discovery in probabilistic environments: Uncertainty and experimentation.

It is argued that cue discovery is an important part of the task of learning from experience in probabilistic environments. Cue discovery involves the identification of new valid predictive cues, and their incorporation into the learner's mental model. In contrast, previous work in "multiple-cue probability learning" has focused principally on learning the quantitative characteristics of given cue–criterion relations. In two studies presented here, 36 college students learned to predict the behavior of a computer-controlled graphic display. The criterion behavior was a function of four to six cues, including several not explicitly identified. Analyses of test results, verbal reports, and behavior during learning indicate that subjects used outcome feedback to accomplish cue discovery. This process was accomplished more effectively when subjects were permitted to experiment by designing their own learning experiences. A distinction is drawn between a system whose behavior is unpredictable because of the presence of unknown controlling variables, and one that contains "random" error. Cue discovery may be more difficult in the latter case, but is accomplished nonetheless. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective attention in human associative learning and recognition memory.

Four experiments examined the role of selective attention in a new causal judgment task that allowed measurement of both causal strength and cue recognition. In Experiments 1 and 2, blocking was observed; pretraining with 1 cue (A) resulted in reduced learning about a 2nd cue (B) when those 2 cues were trained in compound (AB+). Participants also demonstrated decreased recognition performance for the causally redundant Cue B, suggesting that less attention had been paid to it in training. This is consistent with the idea that attention is preferentially allocated toward the more predictive Cue A, and away from the less predictive Cue B (e.g., N. J. Mackintosh, 1975). Contrary to this hypothesis, in Experiments 3 and 4, participants demonstrated poorer recognition for the most predictive cues, relative to control cues. A new model, which is based on N. J. Mackintosh's (1975) model, is proposed to account for the observed relationship between the extent to which each cue is attended to, learned about, and later recognized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cue competition effects and young children’s causal and counterfactual inferences.

The authors examined cue competition effects in young children using the blicket detector paradigm, in which objects are placed either singly or in pairs on a novel machine and children must judge which objects have the causal power to make the machine work. Cue competition effects were found in a 5- to 6-year-old group but not in a 4-year-old group. Equivalent levels of forward and backward blocking were found in the former group. Children’s counterfactual judgments were subsequently examined by asking whether or not the machine would have gone off in the absence of 1 of 2 objects that had been placed on it as a pair. Cue competition effects were demonstrated only in 5- to 6-year-olds using this mode of assessing causal reasoning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cue familiarity but not target retrievability enhances feeling-of-knowing judgments.

Two hypotheses concerning people's ability to predict later memory performance for unrecalled items were investigated. The target retrievability hypothesis states that feeling-of-knowing judgments (FKJs) are based on partial target information, and the cue familiarity hypothesis asserts that they are based on recognition of the cues. In Exps 1 and 2, Ss either generated or read the targets of paired associates. Half of the cues had been primed in a pleasantness-rating task. The generation manipulation increased recall but had no effect on FKJs. Cue priming had no effect on recall but increased FKJs. In Exp 3, using general information questions primed after the initial recall attempt, both cue and target priming increased FKJs. Exp 4, which remedied difficulties in Exp 3, showed no effect of target priming, whereas cue priming increased FKJs. The results favor the cue familiarity hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cue reactivity as a predictor of drinking among male alcoholics.

Social learning theories suggest that conditioned responses may increase the risk for relapse. Responses to alcohol use cues (cue reactivity) are associated with variables suggestive of risk but little research exists on the relationship of cue reactivity to treatment outcome. Alcoholic men admitted for detoxification to a treatment program (n?=?45) underwent a cue reactivity assessment protocol, and 91% received 3-mo follow-up interviews. Greater salivary reactivity predicted greater frequency of drinking during follow-up. Attentional factors added independent variance to the prediction of drinking outcome, with greater attention to stimulus or to response predicting less drinking. Cue reactivity did not predict length of hospital stay or latency to first drink. Results are discussed in the context of information processing, social learning theories, and clinical implications for relapse prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Situational influences on the predictive value of client behavior: Implication for Bayesian prediction.

Research on clinical assessment has shown that situational variables can influence the behavior clients exhibit, and it is suggested that situational variables can also influence the predictive value of client behavior. Even identical behaviors may differ markedly in their predictive implications as a function of the assessment situation. Data on judgments of maladjustment by psychodynamic and behavioral clinicians are given a Bayesian analysis, which implies that clinicians must be sensitive to variations in both the base rate and the diagnostic ratio. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word recognition cues used in matching verbal stimuli within and between auditory and visual modalities.

Administered a matching-to-sample task to 60 first graders under 4 conditions, 2 intra- and 2 intermodal. The 5 matching cues (letters and segments) were used differentially within the 4 conditions with the initial segment selected most frequently in all conditions. The 5 cues were also used differentially across the 4 task conditions. Cue choice was related to reading achievement in the visual-to-visual matching condition, with the good readers using the final word segment cue significantly more often than the initial and final consonant cue. The reading achievement of those selecting the reversal, initial word segment, or final word segment did not differ. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relation between feelings of knowing and the number of neighboring concepts linked to the test cue

We investigated whether feeling-of-knowing judgments are influenced by the number of different neighboring concepts linked to the test cue in long-term memory as measured using association norms. The purpose was to evaluate contrasting predictions made by the partial-retrieval hypothesis and the competition hypothesis. The partial-retrieval hypothesis assumes the more neighboring concepts activated by the test cue, the higher the feeling of knowing. In contrast, the competition hypothesis assumes that feelings of knowing are sensitive to competition between neighboring concepts, and it predicts that the fewer neighboring concepts activated by the cue, the higher the feeling of knowing. The findings were compatible with the competition hypothesis showing that both feeling-of-knowing and prediction-of-knowing ratings always were higher, the fewer different concepts were linked to the test cue. We obtained an identical pattern of results using different kinds of cues including taxonomic category names, ending sounds, and meaningfully related associates. We consider different ways that these findings could be reconciled with the partial-retrieval hypothesis, and we also discuss implications for other explanations of feeling-of-knowing effects.     

Comprehension and memory in the solution of verbal arithmetic problems by mentally retarded and nonretarded individuals.

This study assessed the effects of cue words, problem contexts, memory aids, and number of computational steps on the solution of simple addition and subtraction problems by mildly mentally retarded adolescents and nonretarded children of comparable mental age and computational ability. Results indicated that accuracy, and presumably problem representation, were affected by the cue word and context variables. Cue words, which facilitated the performance of all Ss, apparently were relied on as problem-solving crutches by both groups. Context, manipulated by the varying of problem cover stories, influenced the performance of the mentally retarded Ss only, which suggests that their failure to delete irrelevant details from problem representations may have contributed to relatively poor overall performance. Finally, though memory aids may have facilitated the retention of quantitative information, they did not facilitate problem comprehension and accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of cue salience on the behavior of obese and normal subjects.

Hypothesized that a Body Weight * Cue Salience interaction would occur in determining responsiveness to external cues. Ss were 37 normal and 33 obese male high school students. Obese Ss were expected to be more responsive than normal Ss to highly salient external cues and less responsive to low salient cues. Salience was manipulated by varying the loudness of an auditory cue. Results support the hypothesis (p     

Influence of behavior perceptions and gender on teachers' judgments of students' academic skill.

Evaluated the hypothesis that gender and behavior, as perceived by teachers, affect judgments of the academic skill of their students. A path model was proposed to describe the relationships among tested academic skill, gender, behavior grades, and teachers' academic judgments. The model was evaluated separately in each of 3 grades (kindergarten–2nd) in 2 locations, with scholastic grades and structured ratings in specific academic skill areas as the dependent variables. Results showed that, after tested academic skill and gender were controlled for, teachers' perceptions of students' behavior constituted a significant component of their scholastic judgments. This effect was more pronounced for the judgments of boys because, in Grades 1 and 2, their conduct was perceived as less adequate than was girls' behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Separating cue encoding from target processing in the explicit task-cuing procedure: Are there "true" task switch effects?

Six experiments were conducted to separate cue encoding from target processing in explicitly cued task switching to determine whether task switch effects could be separated from cue encoding effects and to determine the nature of the representations produced by cue encoding. Subjects were required to respond to the cue, indicating which cue was presented (Experiments 1, 3a, and 4a) or which task was cued (Experiments 2, 3b, and 4b), before performing the cued task on the target. Cue encoding was successfully separated from target processing when the cue response indicated which task was cued but not when it indicated which cue was presented. Task switch effects were found when this separation was successful, suggesting that there are "true" task switch effects independent of cue encoding. Analysis of the conditions required for successful separation suggested that cue encoding results in a semantic categorical representation of the task to be performed rather than verbal or phonological representations of individual cues. Implications for the authors' past modeling of task-switching performance are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinician assessments of patient difficulty.

Studied global judgments of case difficulty made by expert clinicians (a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and a social worker) after viewing a complete session of psychotherapy. The 2nd session of 48 short-term (12 sessions) psychotherapy patients with posttraumatic stress disorder, adjustment reaction, major depressive episode, panic disorder, or uncomplicated bereavement was videotaped for judging. Difficulty was conceptualized as a subjective sense of the amount of effort the clinician would have to apply in the treatment of the case. Results show that difficulty ratings by the clinicians correlated most strongly with 2 variables—the patient's pretherapy level of self-reported symptomatic distress (measured by the SCL-90) and the extent to which the patient presented the therapist with double-binding relationship dilemmas, as rated by independent clinicians. Patient difficulty was also modestly correlated with therapy outcome. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol Increases Reliance on Cues That Signal Acts of Control.

This study examined the effects of alcohol on the ability to execute and inhibit behavior in a context in which preliminary information signaled the likelihood that a response should be executed or suppressed. Adults (N = 24) performed a cued go/no-go task that required quick responses to go targets and suppression of responses to no-go targets. Cue dependency was manipulated by varying the predictive validity of the cues, and performance was tested under 3 doses of alcohol: 0.00 g/kg, 0.45 g/kg, and 0.65 g/kg. Dose-dependent increases in cue dependence were only observed with highly predictive cues. Results suggest that alcohol-induced increases in stimulus control over behavior might be most likely in situations when stimulus control over behavior has already been established. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavior setting utilization by emotionally disturbed college students.

Examined the relationship between personality variables and the use of social settings using 25 male and 21 female emotionally disturbed college students. Data were gathered from MMPI scores, clinical judgments of mental health professionals, and the Activity Record. The latter instrument was used to determine Ss' use of a variety of naturally occurring behavior settings during a typical day. A factor analysis yielded a structure which generally supported the hypothesis of interrelations among personality variables and use of behavior settings. As predicted, factors of action-oriented behavior emerged. It would appear that knowledge of personality variables and clinical judgments can be used to predict use of social behavior settings and, conversely, that the behavior settings used by a S are an indication of personality and type of psychopathology. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Increased priming interference at a long SOA with brief masked targets.

Tests prediction of a model of priming proposed by B. E. McLeod and R. E. Walley (1989) in which interference (ITF) is caused by inhibitory processes between nodes in semantic memory. This model predicts that ITF normally found in a high cue validity condition at long stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) will be considerably increased when a brief target is masked. 80 male and female, native English-speaking Ss participated; within S variables were prime type, prime relatedness, and target condition. 192 trials were given in 2 blocks of 96 trials; 25% were nonword trials. The task was a primed lexical decision with an SOA of 800 ms. Cue validity was high or low; targets were brief, masked in either block 1 or block 2 of trials. In the high cue validity condition, both reaction time (RT) and error data show increased ITF when the brief target was masked. Results confirm that target node activation is considerably reduced. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in the use of proximity and eye contact in judgments of affiliation in preschool children.

Investigated sex differences in preschool children's use of nonverbal cues in judgments of affiliation in 2 experiments. Ss were a total of 40 male and 40 female 3-6 yr olds. Results of Exp I show that although both 4-yr-old boys and girls used proximity cues in judging liking, only girls showed an increase in the accuracy of use of this cue by age 6. At age 4 neither boys nor girls were functioning above chance in their use of eye contact cues in judgments of affiliation, and again girls alone showed improvement by age 6. Exp II demonstrates that discrimination training involving the proximity cue facilitated the correct use of this cue in the judgments of 4-yr-old girls but not in boys. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of behavioral experience in judging risks.

This study used conditional risk assessments to examine the role of behavioral experiences in risk judgments. Adolescents and young adults (ages 10–30; N?=?577) were surveyed on their risk judgments for natural hazards and behavior-linked risks, including their personal experiences with these events. Results indicated that participants who had experienced a natural disaster or engaged in a particular risk behavior estimated their chance of experiencing a negative outcome resulting from that event or behavior as less likely than individuals without such experience. These findings challenge the notion that risk judgments motivate behavior and instead suggest that risk judgments may be reflective of behavioral experiences. The results have implications for health education and risk communication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction enhancement through the use of moderator variables.

In order to increase the ability of clinicians to predict the subsequent behavior of 76 inmates in a juvenile correctional institution, moderator variables, i.e., variables which were correlated with degree of predictability of inmates as measured by the relative magnitudes of the difference scores between predictor and criterion variables were developed. These moderator variables were then used to remove less predictable Ss from a cross-validation sample, resulting in a moderate increase in the correlation between predictor and criterion variables when 1/3 of the least predictable Ss were removed, and a more substantial increase when 1/2 of the least predictable Ss were similarly removed. The method showed considerable potential value as a means of facilitating more accurate classifications of inmates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)