Exceptions that prove the rule--Using a theory of motivated social cognition to account for ideological incongruities and political anomalies: Reply to Greenberg and Jonas (2003).

A meta-analysis by J. T. Jost, J. Glaser, A. W. Kruglanski, and F. J. Sulloway (2003) concluded that political conservatism is partially motivated by the management of uncertainty and threat. In this reply to J. Greenberg and E. Jonas (2003), conceptual issues are clarified, numerous political anomalies are explained, and alleged counterexamples are incorporated with a dynamic model that takes into account differences between "young" and "old" movements. Studies directly pitting the rigidity-of-the-right hypothesis against the ideological extremity hypothesis demonstrate strong support for the former. Medium to large effect sizes describe relations between political conservatism and dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity; lack of openness to experience; uncertainty avoidance; personal needs for order, structure, and closure; fear of death; and system threat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"I know, you know": Epistemic egocentrism in children and adults.

This article reviews the evidence and theory pertaining to a form of perspective-taking failure--a difficulty in setting aside the privileged information that one knows to be unavailable to another party. The authors argue that this bias (epistemic egocentrism, or EE) is a general feature of human cognition and has been tapped by 2 independent and largely uncommunicating research traditions: the theory-of-mind tradition in developmental psychology and, with more sensitive probes, the "heuristics and biases" tradition in the psychology of human judgment. This article sets the stage for facilitating communication between these traditions as well as for the recognition of EE's breadth and potential interdisciplinary significance. The authors propose a life-span account and a tentative taxonomy of EE; and they highlight the interdisciplinary significance of EE by discussing its implications for normative ethics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When adults without university education search the Internet for health information: The roles of Internet-specific epistemic beliefs and a source evaluation intervention

In the present research, N = 48 adults without university education were tasked to conduct two web searches on unfamiliar health-related issues. Three research objectives were examined: the predictive value of individuals’ Internet-specific epistemic beliefs for their navigation behavior and post-search decisions in Web Search Task 1; the effects of a short source evaluation intervention on individuals’ navigation behavior and post-search decisions in Web Search Task 2; and the effects of the source evaluation intervention on individuals’ Internet-specific epistemic beliefs. Results showed that beliefs concerning the justification by multiple sources were positively related to the time spent on reliable objective web pages and to the likelihood to make a post-search decision that was in accordance with the objective pages. Beliefs that the Internet is a reliable knowledge resource were also positively related to the time spent on objective pages as well as to greater certainty in the post-search decision. Second, in Web Search Task 2, the intervention group spent more time on objective web pages, was more likely to make a decision that was in accordance with these pages, and was more certain of their decision than the control group. Third, one week after the intervention, individuals possessed stronger beliefs concerning the justification by multiple sources than before. In conclusion, the present research indicates that both adaptive Internet-specific beliefs and a short source evaluation intervention have positive effects on non-university educated adults’ online health information seeking and that their Internet-specific epistemic beliefs can be fostered through such an intervention.     

An efficient hybrid reliability analysis method with random and interval variables

Random and interval variables often coexist. Interval variables make reliability analysis much more computationally intensive. This work develops a new hybrid reliability analysis method so that the probability analysis (PA) loop and interval analysis (IA) loop are decomposed into two separate loops. An efficient PA algorithm is employed, and a new efficient IA method is developed. The new IA method consists of two stages. The first stage is for monotonic limit-state functions. If the limit-state function is not monotonic, the second stage is triggered. In the second stage, the limit-state function is sequentially approximated with a second order form, and the gradient projection method is applied to solve the extreme responses of the limit-state function with respect to the interval variables. The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method are demonstrated by three examples.     

Common Knowledge and Update in Finite Environments

Logics of knowledge have been shown to provide a useful approach to the high level specification and analysis of distributed systems. It has been proposed that such systems can be developed using knowledge- based protocols, in which agents' actions have preconditions that test their state of knowledge. Both computer-assisted analysis of the knowledge properties of systems and automated compilation of knowledge-based protocols require the development of algorithms for the computation of states of knowledge. This paper studies one of the computational problems of interest, the model checking problem for knowledge formulae in the S5_nKripke structures generated by finite state environments in which states determine an observation for each agent. Agents are assumed to have perfect recall and may operate synchronously or asynchronously. It is shown that, in this setting, model checking of common knowledge formulae is intractable, but efficient incremental algorithms are developed for formulae containing only knowledge operators. Connections to knowledge updates and compilation of knowledge-based protocols are discussed.     

Knowledge search and people with high epistemic curiosity

Porter sites have tried to increase their business potentials by helping users easily engage in diverse online activities such as search, entertainment, online communities, and others. Knowledge search engine is one of the most successful killer applications increasing user loyalty. However, most studies have independently focused on search engine technology such as search keyword algorithm, presentation of information and user characteristics such as cognitive style, search experiences, and skill levels. However, these previous studies lack an integrated understanding of causal links among critical factors predicting user motives and intention involving more situation-specific user characteristics. To fill these gaps in the literature, the present study focuses on whether knowledge characteristics such as specialization, preciseness, and diversity, and system characteristics such as interactivity, responsiveness, and communication richness are important in forming user motives and intention. The present study also identifies a moderating role of epistemic curiosity in the links between motives and intention. Two hundred and fifty-five data from Korean university students confirmed that knowledge and services characteristics such as specialty, preciseness, diversity, communication richness improve user motives, which have a positive impact on intention. Epistemic curiosity has a moderating effect on the links between motives and intention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in conclusion.     

Diversity of Agents and Their Interaction

Diversity of agents occurs naturally in epistemic logic, and dynamic logics of information update and belief revision. In this paper we provide a systematic discussion of different sources of diversity, such as introspection ability, powers of observation, memory capacity, and revision policies, and we show how these can be encoded in dynamic epistemic logics allowing for individual variation among agents. Next, we explore the interaction of diverse agents by looking at some concrete scenarios of communication and learning, and we propose a logical methodology to deal with these as well. We conclude with some further questions on the logic of diversity and interaction. This work was supported by the Chinese National Social Science Foundation (Grant Number: 04CZX011) and the Dutch Science Organization NWO.     

The Dynamics of Syntactic Knowledge

The syntactic approach to epistemic logic avoids the logicalomniscience problem by taking knowledge as primary rather thanas defined in terms of possible worlds. In this study, we combinethe syntactic approach with modal logic, using transition systemsto model reasoning. We use two syntactic epistemic modalities:‘knowing at least’ a set of formulae and ‘knowingat most’ a set of formulae. We are particularly interestedin models restricting the set of formulae known by an agentat a point in time to be finite. The resulting systems are investigatedfrom the point of view of axiomatization and complexity. Weshow how these logics can be used to formalise non-omniscientagents who know some inference rules, and study their relationshipto other systems of syntactic epistemic logics, such as Ågotnesand Walicki (2004, Proc. 2nd EUMAS, pp. 1–10), Alechinaet al. (2004, Proc. 3rd AAMAS, pp. 601–613), Duc (1997,J. Logic Comput., 7, 633–648).     

Probabilistic Dynamic Epistemic Logic

In this paper I combine the dynamic epistemic logic ofGerbrandy (1999) with the probabilistic logic of Fagin and Halpern (1994). The resultis a new probabilistic dynamic epistemic logic, a logic for reasoning aboutprobability, information, and information change that takes higher orderinformation into account. Probabilistic epistemic models are defined, and away to build them for applications is given. Semantics and a proof systemis presented and a number of examples are discussed, including the MontyHall Dilemma.