Judgment In Context Research Articles

Standards to Guide the Use of Clinical Judgment in the Field of Intellectual Disability

The purpose of this article is to discuss 10 Clinical Judgment Standards and associated best practice indicators based on current literature and an understanding of the context of clinical judgment. Throughout the article, we stress the important role that clinical judgment plays in formulating valid and precise decisions and recommendations regarding diagnosis, classification, and planning supports.

Supplemental Material for Truthiness and Falsiness of Trivia Claims Depend on Judgmental Contexts

Supplemental Material for Truthiness and Falsiness of Trivia Claims Depend on Judgmental Contexts

Are judgments a form of data clustering? Reexamining contrast effects with the k-means algorithm.

A number of theories have been proposed to explain in precise mathematical terms how statistical parameters and sequential properties of stimulus distributions affect category ratings. Various contextual factors such as the mean, the midrange, and the median of the stimuli; the stimulus range; the percentile rank of each stimulus; and the order of appearance have been assumed to influence judgmental contrast. A data clustering reinterpretation of judgmental relativity is offered wherein the influence of the initial choice of centroids on judgmental contrast involves 2 combined frequency and consistency tendencies. Accounts of the k-means algorithm are provided, showing good agreement with effects observed on multiple distribution shapes and with a variety of interaction effects relating to the number of stimuli, the number of response categories, and the method of skewing. Experiment 1 demonstrates that centroid initialization accounts for contrast effects obtained with stretched distributions. Experiment 2 demonstrates that the iterative convergence inherent to the k-means algorithm accounts for the contrast reduction observed across repeated blocks of trials. The concept of within-cluster variance minimization is discussed, as is the applicability of a backward k-means calculation method for inferring, from empirical data, the values of the centroids that would serve as a representation of the judgmental context.

Observable interface behaviour and inheritance

This paper formalizes the observable interface behaviour ofopensystems for a strongly-typed, concurrent object-oriented language with single-class inheritance. We formally characterize the observable behaviour in terms of interactions at the program-environment interface. The behaviour is given by transitions between contextual judgments, where the absent environment is represented abstractly as assumption context. A particular challenge is the fact that, when the system is considered as open, code from the environment can be inherited to the component and vice versa. This requires to incorporate an abstract version of the heap into the environment assumptions when characterizing the interface behaviour. We prove the soundness of the abstract interface description.

Equitable Poetics and the State of Conflict in Edmund Spenser's Two Cantos of Mutabilitie

This essay argues that Edmund Spenser's legal poem, the Two Cantos of Mutabilitie, considers how civil conflicts implicitly generate a basis for their own evaluation and resolution. To illustrate this idea, Spenser draws from a tradition of rhetorical argumentation stretching from Aristotle and Cicero to Rudolph Agricola and Philip Sidney. This tradition emphasizes how fictions establish the shared questions that can create a deliberative context for equitable judgment when general law and particular case come into conflict. Dramatizing this rational process through an allegorical legal trial, Spenser illuminates how divergent judgments and actions become ethically legible to one another as parts of the same deliberative whole.

Moral Motivational Pluralism: Moral Judgment as a Function of the Dynamic Assembly of Multiple Developmental Structures

The purpose of this study was to examine the within-person multiplicity of moral motivation in the context of specific judgment choices using a new and integrative approach. This purpose serves to test a new model of moral motivation. In this model, Kohlberg’s six developmental stages are reconceptualized as dynamic structures of motivation that operate together within person, reflecting motivational pluralism. A total of 391 university students participated by responding to a questionnaire that elicited six different moral judgments. Three judgments were about hypothetical dilemmas, and three were about social policy issues (war, abortion, death penalty). Using a recognition task, the questionnaire presented participants with standard descriptions of motivational structures to be rated separately as possible reasons for decisions. Results provided support for the hypothesized within-person operation of multiple stages in each judgment context. The majority of motivational structures operated in ways that were significantly correlated with each other. Correlations observed a developmental order. Analyses revealed patterns of association between the use of specific developmental stages and different judgment choices in each judgment context. The most pervasive associations with specific judgment choices were revealed by a combination of stage 1 (obedience) and stage 4 (social order). The motivation of moral judgment involves the operation of multiple motivational strategies that are developmentally connected to each other. This motivational pluralism can be detected by the multiplicity of stage structures that are recognized by individuals as reasons behind their judgments, and by the multiplicity of relationships between stages and judgment choices. Limitations and possibilities of future research are discussed in terms of the need to examine individual developmental trajectories over time and across contexts.

Multiplicity of Emotions in Moral Judgment and Motivation

Multiple moral emotions were examined from a dynamic motivational framework through two hypothetical dilemmas that originate from the cognitive-developmental research program in morality. A questionnaire based on recognition task measurement of moral motivation and emotions was administered to 546 college students. As part of the dynamic complexity of moral motivation, intrapersonal operation of multiple emotions were expected and found toward each emotion target in each judgment context. Compassion and distress were among the most important moral emotions. Relatively strong degrees of anger and hate were reported toward the victimizers in ways that distinguished judgment choices. Participants distinguished a variety of positive emotions from anger and hate through differential associations with judgment choices. The study revealed orderly patterns of variability in the multiplicity of moral emotional experience based on relations with specific emotion targets, judgment choices, and developmental quality of moral motivation. The overall developmental quality of moral motivation was negatively associated with hate and positively associated with anger toward the victimizers. Emotional awareness was also found to be positively related to the developmental quality of moral motivation. Exploring the intrapersonal multiplicity of moral emotional experience has important implications for understanding the complexity of moral decision making and motivation.

Identifying psychophysiological indices of expert vs. novice performance in deadly force judgment and decision making.

Objective: To demonstrate that psychophysiology may have applications for objective assessment of expertise development in deadly force judgment and decision making (DFJDM).Background: Modern training techniques focus on improving decision-making skills with participative assessment between trainees and subject matter experts primarily through subjective observation. Objective metrics need to be developed. The current proof of concept study explored the potential for psychophysiological metrics in deadly force judgment contexts.Method: Twenty-four participants (novice, expert) were recruited. All wore a wireless Electroencephalography (EEG) device to collect psychophysiological data during high-fidelity simulated deadly force judgment and decision-making simulations using a modified Glock firearm. Participants were exposed to 27 video scenarios, one-third of which would have justified use of deadly force. Pass/fail was determined by whether the participant used deadly force appropriately.Results: Experts had a significantly higher pass rate compared to novices (p < 0.05). Multiple metrics were shown to distinguish novices from experts. Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that psychophysiological variables are able to explain 72% of the variability in expert performance, but only 37% in novices. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) using psychophysiological metrics was able to discern between experts and novices with 72.6% accuracy.Conclusion: While limited due to small sample size, the results suggest that psychophysiology may be developed for use as an objective measure of expertise in DFDJM. Specifically, discriminant function measures may have the potential to objectively identify expert skill acquisition.Application: Psychophysiological metrics may create a performance model with the potential to optimize simulator-based DFJDM training. These performance models could be used for trainee feedback, and/or by the instructor to assess performance objectively.

Intergroup Social Exclusion in Childhood: Forms, Norms, Context, and Social Identity

Humans are a profoundly social species, aligning with groups, forming group identification, and navigating the social world. One of the complex tasks of childhood is to understand when exclusion is necessary to make groups work well, and when it is wrong, creating unnecessary harm or unfairness. In this volume the authors grapple with many new aspects of exclusion not previously documented by taking a developmental and social psychological approach. The studies reveal original findings regarding how children both perpetuate and are recipients of exclusion, and the processes that accompany these experiences. In reflecting on the diverse range of work represented in this special issue, various themes emerge, such as the roles of context and norms in children's exclusionary behavior and judgment, the particular forms that exclusionary behavior can take, and the consequences that result as part of the developmental process. Most importantly, given that social identities frame a host of phenomena associated with group‐based exclusionary phenomena, the field should reveal the central role that social identity plays in how exclusion and inclusion are understood.

Prevalence profiling: a judgmental context for evaluating initial sample size projections in the audit context

The basis of the certification audit, in a non-forensic context is a random sample of sufficient size to create the evidence needed to justify the audit opinion. A key variable in executing this Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) best practices sampling requirement is the prevalence of accounts in error and the related error of and in those accounts. In this paper, we present an integrated sampling approach using the COSO-event (the number of accounts in error) and the substantive valued-event (the error in the accounts) perspectives. We focus on creating pre-sample launch decision-making information by examining the false positive and the false negative error indications over various prevalence error-ranges. We have also developed a decision support system (DSS) that we have introduced as part of our academic consulting to a PCAOB certified public accounting LLP and also have used extensively in the delivery of our auditing and assurance course. This DSS is available free as a download and there are no restrictions on its use.

Impaired Social Processing in Autism and its Reflections in Memory: A Deeper View of Encoding and Retrieval Processes

Previous studies of memory in autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have consistently shown that persons with ASC have reduced memories for social information, relative to a spared memory for non-social facts. The current study aims to reproduce these findings, while examining the possible causes leading to this difference. Participants' memory for trait-words was tested after they had viewed the words in three study contexts: visuo-motor, letter-detection, and social judgment. While participants with ASC showed a levels-of-processing effect, such that their memory for words viewed in the social judgment context was greater than their memory for words viewed in the letter-detection context, their memory for socially-processed words was reduced relative to comparison participants. This interaction effect could not be explained by a speed/accuracy trade-off, nor could it be explained solely by differences in encoding. These results suggest that social memory deficits in ASC arise from difficulties both in orienting towards and encoding social content, as well as retaining and retrieving it. Implications for theory and clinical practice are discussed.

What is Fair Punishment for Alex or Ahmed? Perspective Taking Increases Racial Bias in Retributive Justice Judgments

Previous research frequently found that perspective taking may reduce various sorts of racial biases. In the present research, we propose that perspective taking may increase racial bias in the specific context of retributive justice judgments, that is, evaluations of what punishment is considered fair for offenders. In two studies, we manipulated whether or not participants took the perspective of a target offender, who was named either Alex or Ahmed. Results revealed evidence for racial bias under conditions of perspective taking in both studies: Perspective taking increased punishment for Ahmed, but not for Alex, in a theft case (Study 1). Furthermore, perspective taking decreased punishment for Alex, but not for Ahmed, in the case of less severe offense that is less clearly intentional (Study 2). The consequence is similar in both studies: More severe retributive justice judgments for Ahmed than for Alex under conditions of perspective taking.

Development of a new series of tests to assess the effectiveness of hearing aids for the perception of music

A new test battery has been designed with the intention of assessing the effectiveness of hearing aids for the perception of music. Within each subtest discrimination thresholds for low-level acoustic dimensions are determined adaptively using a 2AFC method within the context of a musical judgment regarding melody, harmony, timbre or meter. The presented test stimuli are synthesized and either unprocessed or processed by different hearing aid signal processing algorithms before being played back via loudspeaker. The battery will be used to evaluate different hearing aid algorithms with regard to their benefit for functional hearing in music. A group of eight normal hearing (NH) control participants and eight hearing impaired participants each performed the timbre and meter subtests of the battery twice. Significant differences in the performance could be found.

‘Like me?’: ventromedial prefrontal cortex is sensitive to both personal relevance and self-similarity during social comparisons

Social comparisons are an important means by which we gain information about the self, but little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying comparative social judgment, as most prior functional magnetic resonance imaging research on this topic has investigated judgments of self or others in isolation. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has routinely been implicated in social cognitive tasks that rely on such absolute judgments about the self or others, but it is unclear whether activity in this region is modulated by personal relevance of social stimuli or self-similarity of judgment targets. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we demonstrate that these forces interact to determine vmPFC response during social comparisons, as well as neural activity in the bilateral anterior insulae. Comparisons between the self and similar others exhibit a unique response in this region when compared with other judgment contexts, suggesting that the special psychological status afforded to these social comparisons is indexed by activity in the vmPFC and insula.

A heuristic–systematic model of end-user information processing when encountering IS exceptions

IS exception management often relies on end-users for success. A key aspect of end-user management of IS exceptions is sufficient information processing before responding. However, end-users process information dynamically across different judgmental contexts and sometimes favor effort reduction over accuracy maximization. With today's IS tightly meshed with underlying organizational business processes, inappropriate end-user responses pose organizational risks. We therefore developed a theory-based research model which was designed to uncover the motivational mechanisms needed to provide effective information processing in this context. Empirical testing using 318 experienced users of Microsoft Excel supported our model.

Situational Familiarity, Efficacy Expectations, and the Process of Credibility Attribution

Four experiments investigated the influence of situational familiarity within a judgmental context on the process of credibility attribution. We predicted that high familiarity with a situation would lead to higher efficacy expectations for, and a more pronounced use of, verbal information when making judgments of credibility. Under low situational familiarity, judges were expected to experience higher efficacy expectations for, and a more pronounced use of, nonverbal information. In Experiments 1 through 4, participants under low or high situational familiarity saw a film in which nonverbal cues (fidgety vs. calm movements) and verbal content cues (low vs. high plausibility) were manipulated. As predicted, when familiarity was low, only the nonverbal cues influenced participants’ judgments of credibility. In contrast, participants in the high familiarity condition used only the verbal cues. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that efficacy expectations regarding verbal and nonverbal information, but not processing motivation, drive this familiarity effect.

Germany v Italy: The Triumph of Sovereign Immunity over Human Rights Law

This article analyses the doctrine of State immunity within the context of the recent judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning the Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v Italy: Greece intervening). The object of this article is to explore the implications of the State immunity from foreign judicial proceedings in cases of jus cogens crimes. Challenging the assumption that the law of immunity is merely procedural in nature, this article argues that there can be no immunity in cases of undisputed international crimes.

Culture-related differences in default network activity during visuo-spatial judgments

Studies on culture-related differences in cognition have shown that Westerners attend more to object-related information, whereas East Asians attend more to contextual information. Neural correlates of these different culture-related visual processing styles have been reported in the ventral-visual and fronto-parietal regions. We conducted an fMRI study of East Asians and Westerners on a visuospatial judgment task that involved relative, contextual judgments, which are typically more challenging for Westerners. Participants judged the relative distances between a dot and a line in visual stimuli during task blocks and alternated finger presses during control blocks. Behaviorally, East Asians responded faster than Westerners, reflecting greater ease of the task for East Asians. In response to the greater task difficulty, Westerners showed greater neural engagement compared to East Asians in frontal, parietal, and occipital areas. Moreover, Westerners also showed greater suppression of the default network-a brain network that is suppressed under condition of high cognitive challenge. This study demonstrates for the first time that cultural differences in visual attention during a cognitive task are manifested both by differences in activation in fronto-parietal regions as well as suppression in default regions.

Disaggregating quality judgements

The notion of quality is analysed for its functional roots as a social heuristic for reusing others’ quality judgements and hence aiding choice. This is applied to the context of academic publishing, where the costs of publishing have greatly decreased, but the problem of finding the papers one wants has become harder. This paper suggests that instead of relying on generic quality judgements, such as those delivered by journal reviewers, that the maximum amount of judgemental information be preserved and then made available to potential readers to help them find papers that meet their particular needs. The suggestion is that: multidimensional quality data be captured on review of papers, this information is stored on a database, and then used to filter papers according to the criteria set by the searcher—personalising the quality filter. In other words the quality judgements and subsequent use are maintained in a disaggregated form, maintaining the maximum informational context of the judgements for future use. The advantages, disadvantages, challenges and possible variations of this proposal are discussed.

Moral margins concerning the use of coercion in psychiatry

In the closed wards of mental health institutions, moral decisions are made concerning the use of forced seclusion. In this article we focus on how these moral decisions are made and can be improved. We present a case study concerning moral deliberations on the use of seclusion and its prevention among nurses of a closed mental health ward. Moral psychology provides an explanation of how moral judgments are developed through processes of interaction. We will make use of the Social Intuitionist Model of Jonathan Haidt that emphasizes the role of emotions, intuitions and the social context in moral judgments and reasoning. We argue that this model can help to explain social dynamics in the context of enforced seclusion. In the discussion we explore how moral psychology can be complemented with the normative perspective of dialogical ethics to develop strategies for improving psychiatric practices. We conclude that social processes play an important role in moral deliberations and that moral development can be fostered by bringing in new perspectives in the dialogue. Moral case deliberation provides a practical tool to systematically organize moral reflections among nurses on the work floor.