Anderson's Information Integration Research Articles

Intégration du genre du couple agresseur–victime et du contexte socio-émotionnel de l’agression dans le jugement de blâme : approche développementale

Impact of gender of the aggressor–victim pair and of socio-emotional context of the aggression on judgment of blame were evaluated using Anderson's Information Integration Theory. Three age groups were compared: preadolescents, adolescents and young adults. Results showed that adolescents and young adults appropriated more blame to a boy attacking a girl versus a girl attacking a boy, than preadolescents who did not distinguish between male and female aggressors. According to the literature, these results may be explained by the widely held view that men are stronger than women. They could also be explained by the fact that the consequences for a male who attacks a female are generally worse than for a female who attacks a male, in that they are punished more severely, particularly by adolescents who are building their own gendered identities. Moreover, all groups appropriated less blame to aggressors who were humiliated or slapped before they committed the behavior. In other words, they take the socio-emotional context of the aggression into account as an extenuating circumstance. However, whilst preadolescents did not distinguish between male and female aggressors, adolescents were always more critical of a man who had attacked a woman than of a woman who had attacked a man. Adults were only more critical of males specifically when the males had been slapped before attacking a female. These results may reflect traditional male and female stereotypes whereby society expects adult men to be strong and able to withstand provoked whilst it is more acceptable for boys to be affected by and respond to being slapped. Finally, as expected, the consequences of the aggressive behaviors were taken into account differently across the different age groups. Adults were significantly more critical in zero consequence situations and significantly less critical in situations presenting consequences than preadolescents. Adults have the ability to consider the potential consequences of actions and have perspective. On the other hand, the immaturity that comes with being a child is considered to be an extenuating circumstance.

Information integration study of Metelli's and Morinaga's theories of achromatic transparency

Information integration methodology was used to test Metelli's and Morinaga's theories of achromatic transparency. Stimuli were transparent achromatic disks on a background formed by two adjacent horizontal rectangles. The common border of these rectangles divided each disk in two halves. L et P and Q be the luminances of the left and right halves of a disk and let A and B be those of the left and right rect- angles, respectively. Transparency is given by the ratio (P - Q) / ( A - B) in Metelli's theory and is given by a weighted average of the ratios ( P - Q) / ( A - Q) and (P - Q) / ( P - B) in Morinaga's theory. Participants rated the transparency of disks with A and B fixed and P and Q combined factorially. Morinaga's theory closely predicted the obtained patterns of factorial curves and Metelli's theory predicted them incorrectly. Morina ga's theory could also account well for individual diffe rences in the ratings of transparency. The results support the general idea that transparency depends on the integration of luminance information rather than on the integration of lightness information. In everyday life we often see objects through transparent media. This fact raises two basic problems: that of quantifying the subjective visibility of objects seen through transparency and that of specifying the operations of integration of luminance information that generate this visibility. Anderson's (1981, 1982, 1996, 2008) information integration theory provides a solution for the problem of quantification and a methodology for the specification of integration operations. The present study used Anderson's information integration methodology to test Metelli's and Morinaga's theories of achromatic transparency.

Children's judgements of gambles: a disordinal violation of utility

Violations of utility are often attributed to people's differential reactions to risk versus certainty or uncertainty, or more generally to the way that people perceive outcomes and consequences. However; a core feature of utility is additivity, and violations may also occur because of averaging effects. Averaging is pervasive in intuitive riskless judgement throughout many domains, as shown with Anderson's Information Integration approach. The present study extends these findings to judgement under risk. Five- to 10-year old children showed a disordinal violation of utility because they averaged the part worths of duplex gambles rather than add them, as adults do, and as normatively prescribed. Thus adults realized that two prizes are better than one, but children preferred a high chance to win one prize to the same gamble plus an additional small chance to win a second prize. This result suggests that an additive operator may not be a natural component of the intuitive psychological concept of expected value that emerges in childhood. The implications of a developmental perspective for the :study of judgement and decision are discussed. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Judged Person Dangerousness as Weighted Averaging 1

This article reports two experiments requiring subjective evaluative judgments of the potential dangerousness of hypothetical persons. The research operationally fits the paradigm for the study of personality impression formation, and seeks to illuminate the processes by which two offenses combine to evoke a net judgment of dangerousness. The theoretical framework and philosophy adopted is Anderson's information integration and functional measurement theory. In Study 1, all paired combinations of 10 distinctive crimes were each presented as having been committed by the same person on two separate occasions. Subjects judged overall offender dangerousness. In Study 2, judgments of dangerousness were made when the time purportedly elapsing between two crimes was systematically varied over several ranges of up to 41 years. Three key findings emerged. First, judgments of dangerousness result from an averaging process. This result yields paradoxical implications having considerable pragmatic significance. Second, judgments of dangerousness following two sequential criminal acts (one of high and one of low seriousness) are consistently higher when the high seriousness one is the second crime. Third, with certain qualifications discussed in the text, a serious earlier crime appears to elicit an approximately constant magnitude of judged present dangerousness no matter how long ago it was perpetrated. This result implies that subjects infer considerable permanence of criminal predilection to those who have committed a serious crime in the past.

Understanding the Combination of Memory Variables: A Re-Examination

This study was a direct prolongation of a study by Wellman, Collins, and Glieberman (1981), which showed that, provided a sufficiently sensitive methodology is used, it is possible to demonstrate experimentally that even 5-year-old children are capable of integrating two types of information--effort and difficulty of task--in their judgment of performance (number of items recalled). We prolonged this study by adopting Anderson's information integration methodology in order to provide evidence concerning the type of combinatorial rule describing subjects' use of both pieces of information and to refine analysis to the individual level. In terms of group results, it was possible to describe the algebraic aspects of the information integration process by an additive model in children and adolescents, and by a multiplicative model in adults. Conclusions changed considerably, however, when individual results were studied. In the 5- and 8-year-old children, the dominant rule was clearly unifactorial, involving effort. Only in the adult group was true integration seen in all subjects.

Integration of Mitigation, Intention, and Outcome Damage Information, by Students and Circuit Court Judges1

This article examines the problem of how undergraduate students and State Circuit Court Judges combine three specific components of information (pertaining to mitigation, intention, and seriousness of outcome damage) to make a net evaluative judgment of blame. The problem is considered within the framework and philosophy of Anderson's information integration and functional measurement theory. In three experiments, two levels each of the three information components identified were factorially crossed for two independent cases: self‐defense under provocation, and altruistic defense of another. Target stimuli consisted of 100‐word scenarios each embodying one factorial treatment combination. Experiment 1 used an independent group and Experiment 2 a repeated measures design. Experiment 3 replicated the second experiment using Judges as subjects. It was found that students integrated mitigation, intention, and outcome damage information by an adding process, and that the results concerning these three independent variables were essentially similar for both types of design. The most striking differences between Judges' and students' judgments centered on the differential use of mitigation information. Judges showed a far broader range of nonadditive, simple interaction effects between mitigation and both outcome damage and type of case. These results presumably reflect the primary concerns and responsibilities of the Judiciary. Questions of mitigation may thus complicate the otherwise straightforward additive integration of information in the intent‐damage paradigm, and in judgments of seriousness.

Children's integration of facial and situational cues to emotion.

Children at 4 age levels (3-5, 6-7, 8-9, and 10-12 years) were shown a series of pictures in which facial and situational cues were (a) congruent, (b) conflicting, or (c) presented alone. Children rated the type (happy or sad) and intensity of the emotion felt by each character. Developmental changes in the relative weights assigned to facial and situational cues were examined using Anderson's information integration approach. The results showed that children's reliance on situational cues increased with age, but their reliance on facial expression decreased with age. Analysis of individual children's ratings indicated a developmental increase in the tendency to integrate facial and situational cues. Children's ability to resolve the conflicting cues (through stories) also increased with age, but there were no age differences in the types of resolutions used. At all age levels, children were less likely to resolve pictures involving an inconsistent positive expression than pictures showing an inconsistent negative expression.

Attitudes and behavior: An information integration perspective

The relationship between attitudes, beliefs, and behavior was investigated in the context of a behavioral alternative model of attitudes and Anderson's information integration theory. Forty teenagers indicated their attitudes toward using each of seven methods of birth control. The attitudes were used to predict self-reports of contraceptive behavior. Functional measurement methodology was applied to understand the informational bases of the attitudes. In general, the data were supportive of the theoretical framework.

Attention and weight in person perception: The impact of negative and extreme behavior.

Social perceivers process selected aspects of the stimulus array presented by another person. This article argues that such selectivity is based on the informativeness of person attributes. Properties of the attribute itself—its evaluative extremity (distance from the scale midpoint) and its evaluative valence (positive or negative)—can make it informative. Informative attributes attract selective attention at input and also carry extra weight in the final impression. In the present research, negativity and extremity were manipulated across two separate behavioral dimensions, sociability and civic activism, and over 16 stimulus persons. Perceivers saw two prescaled behavior photographs for each stimulus person and controlled a slide changer switch—this provided a measure of attention as looking time. Perceivers also rated each stimulus person's likability, providing a measure of relative weight for each slide. Weights were derived from Anderson's information integration model. Perceivers preferentially weighted behaviors that were extreme or negative, and the behavioral measure of attention (looking time) replicated the predicted pattern. The results are discussed in light of controversies over the rationality of social information processing.

Favourableness of leadership situations studied with information integration theory

AbstractIn Fiedler's contingency theory, situation favourableness for leader depends upon three situational variables — Group Atmosphere, Task Structure and Position Power. Each variable is dichotomized as high or low to define a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial cube with eight octants, and correlations between leadership style and effectiveness are plotted against the octants. To place these octants along a one‐dimensional scale of favourableness, Fiedler assumes that Group Atmosphere is most important and Position Power is least important, and that the situational variables combine according to an adding rule. In four judgmental experiments conducted during different periods of national emergency in India, favourableness of leadership situations was studied with the methods of Anderson's information integration theory. Results indicated (a) that relative importance of situational variables changed across situations, (b) that situational variables were averaged in judgment of situation favourableness, and (c) that spacing of octants on the horizontal axis according to their functional measurement values generated a considerably better bow‐shaped curve for correlation between leadership style and effectiveness than was obtained with Fiedler's octant scale. Judgmental experiments seemed to have great potential for providing a more analytic approach to further work on contingency theory and leadership behaviour.

Applications of Information-Processing Theory to the Analysis of Urban Travel Demand

A brief introduction to Anderson's information integration theory is provided and its application to transportation mode choice is outlined. A similar discussion is provided for the "policy capturing" approach to information processing in judgment. The two approaches are compared and contrasted. Their application to transportation problems is illustrated in a series of four laboratory experiments in which student subjects evaluated different bus systems according to their likelihood of using them. In the first experiment, subjects judged bus systems described by different fares, headways, and walking distances arranged in a factorial design. In the second experiment, subjects judged systems described by different fares, headways, reliabilities, parking costs, and travel time differences arrayed in a fractional factorial design. In the third experiment, subjects judged bus systems with different fares, gasoline prices, reliabilities, and headways. In the last experiment, subjects judged bus systems with different values of fare, walking distance, length of service, stops along the route, and travel purposes. In all experiments, subjects were found to act "as if" they processed the bus system information by means of a multiplicative strategy. Implications of the multiplicative strategy are discussed for system design.

Effects of feedback on the weights and subjective values in an information integration model

Judgment processes were studied in an information integration task requiring subjects to rate the quality of hypothetical job applicants. Three types of information were systematically varied and presented in all possible pairwise combinations such that only two types of information were available to the subject for any one applicant. Following each rating, outcome feedback was given by indicating the judged quality of the person after 6 months on the job. For one group, feedback was determined by only one of three types of information presented. For a second group, feedback was determined by a joint function of two types of information. In both cases the relevant information had a greater effect following feedback. While the effect of irrelevant information decreased in some cases, subjects continued to use this information despite feedback. The results were interpreted in terms of parameter changes in Anderson's information integration theory. A linear average model was supported that assigned a weight to each type of information. In some cases feedback resulted in an increased weighting of the relevant dimensions and in others the result was a change in the subjective value of information.

Interpersonal attraction as a joint function of primacy and recency effects

Empirical primacy-recency inconsistencies between Byrne's reinforcement affect model of attraction and Anderson's information integration model of personality impression formation were explored. Thirty-six male and female Ss gave attraction responses to sequences of blocks of similar and dissimilar attitudes arranged in increasing or decreasing proportions of similarity and increasing or decreasing levels of topic importance. Results generally supported the hypothesis that attraction is a joint function of the proportion of similar attitudes within each block (recency) and cumulative proportion of similar attitudes before each response (primacy). This joint occurrence of primacy and recency effects was interpreted in terms of an affect neutralization hypothesis.