Contingent Knowledge Research Articles

Joseph Conrad’s reluctant raconteurs

Abstract A commonality among so many of Conrad’s narrators is their reluctance to reveal important information regarding the stories they tell. These narrators delay, obscure, or withhold, sometimes partly and sometimes entirely, crucial components to the tales they tell. This essay investigates why these narrators behave as they do. In some instances (as in Falk), the narrator looks to recreate in his listeners (and the reader) his bewilderment as to Falk’s refusal to tow his ship and later to Falk’s “misfortune,” as Falk terms it. In other instances, such as Typhoon and Suspense, the narrator requires the reader to supply the missing information. On the other hand, in Nostromo, for example, the third-person narrator, despite knowing so very much, regularly relies on legend, hearsay, and other similar sources in narrating the novel, thereby questioning the idea of absolute knowledge, positing instead a contingent knowledge.

Translational research in punishment learning.

Punishment learning is learning of the causal relationship between responses and their adverse or undesirable consequences. Here, we review our translational approach for understanding whether, when, and how individuals differ in what they learn during punishment, and how these differences in learning may drive persistent poor or maladaptive decisions. We show that individual differences in punishment insensitivity can emerge from differences between individuals in what they learn about punishment (instrumental contingency knowledge), rather than differences in aversive valuation, reward valuation, general (impulsivity), or specific (habit) behavioral control. These differences in instrumental contingency knowledge are shared with and can be studied in other animals. Our approach has strong construct and predictive validity, providing a robust translational platform for studying how punishment learning and decision making may contribute to neuropsychiatric disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Enhancing subsidiary innovation capability through customer involvement in new product development: A contingent knowledge source perspective

AbstractIn recent decades, multinational enterprises (MNEs) have increasingly harnessed local knowledge through various customer involvement practices implemented by their foreign subsidiaries. Our study, using a multi‐informant survey of 230 MNE subsidiaries in China, explores how these subsidiaries manage customer involvement in new product development (NPD). We specifically focus on two practices: using customers as an information source (CIS) or as a co‐developer (CIC). We posit that the two types of customer involvement have distinct effects on a subsidiary's innovation capability, which in turn impacts two critical NPD outcomes: innovativeness and speed to market. Moreover, we suggest that the roles that customers play in CIS and CIC, as well as their contribution to the subsidiary's innovation capability, depend on whether the specific knowledge is derived from the parent headquarters or local partners. Our findings reveal that technological knowledge transfer from the parent headquarters enhances CIS's effect on innovation capability, yet diminishes that of CIC. In contrast, knowledge sharing from local partners exerts the opposite effects. By elucidating the underlying mechanisms and contingencies, our study fosters a deeper understanding of customer involvement in NPD and provides insightful guidance for MNEs seeking to leverage local knowledge for successful innovations in foreign markets.

Conscious knowledge of CS-UCS contingency information affects extinction retrieval of conditioned disgust responses: Findings from an online de novo disgust conditioning task.

The present study aimed to establish and develop an online de novo conditioning paradigm for the measurement of conditioned disgust responses. We further explored the effects of explicit instructions about the CS-UCS contingency on extinction learning and retrieval of conditioned disgust responses. The study included a sample of 115 healthy participants. Geometric figures served as conditioned stimuli (CS) and disgust-evoking pictures as unconditioned stimuli (UCS). During disgust conditioning, the CS+ was paired with the UCS (66% reinforcement) and the CS- remained unpaired; during extinction and retrieval, no UCS was presented. Half of the participants (n=54) received instructions prior to the disgust extinction stating that the UCS will not be presented anymore. 1-2 days or 7-8 days later participants performed a retrieval test. CS-UCS contingency, disgust and valence ratings were used as dependent measures. Successful acquisition of conditioned disgust response was observed on the level of CS-UCS contingency, disgust and valence ratings. While some decline in valence and disgust ratings during the extinction stage was observed, contingency instructions did not significantly affect extinction performance. Retrieval one week later revealed that contingency instructions increased the discrimination of the CSs. Extinction of conditioned disgust responses is not affected by explicit knowledge of the CS-UCS contingencies. However, contingency instructions prior to extinction seem to have a detrimental effect on long-term extinction retrieval.

Modifying Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer by approach avoidance training in healthy subjects: a proof of concept study

The modulation of instrumental action by conditioned Pavlovian cues is hypothesized to play a role in the emergence and maintenance of maladaptive behavior. The Pavlovian to Instrumental transfer task (PIT) is designed to examine the magnitude of the influence of cues on behavior and we aim to manipulate the motivational value of Pavlovian cues to reduce their effect on instrumental responding. To this end, we utilized a joystick-based modification of approach and avoidance propensities that has shown success in clinical populations. To examine changes in PIT, we subjected 35 healthy participants to a series of experimental procedures: (1) Instrumental training was followed by (2) Pavlovian conditioning of neutral stimuli that were associated with monetary reward or loss. (3) In a subsequent joystick task, approach and avoidance tendencies toward conditioned cues were assessed. (4) In a transfer test, the PIT effect as the impact of conditioned cues on instrumental behavior was measured. (5) The explicit knowledge of cue-reward contingencies was assessed in a forced-choice phase. (6, 7) systematic joystick training was followed by a posttest (8) the transfer task and forced-choice test were repeated. We found no effect of training on approach-avoidance propensities in the context of this proof of concept study. A higher response rate towards negative stimuli during PIT after systematic training compared to sham training was seen. On the other hand, we saw an increased PIT effect after sham training. These results contribute to the understanding of the strength of the influence of cues on instrumental behavior. Our findings further stress the importance of context, instructions and operationalization of instrumental behavior in the framework of transfer effects.

Effects of phase synchronization and frequency specificity in the encoding of conditioned fear-a web-based fear conditioning study.

Oscillatory synchronization in the theta-frequency band was found to play a causal role in binding information of different modalities in declarative memory. Moreover, there is first evidence from a laboratory study that theta-synchronized (vs. asynchronized) multimodal input in a classical fear conditioning paradigm resulted in better discrimination of a threat-associated stimulus when compared to perceptually similar stimuli never associated with the aversive unconditioned stimulus (US). Effects manifested in affective ratings and ratings of contingency knowledge. However, theta-specificity was not addressed so far. Thus, in the present pre-registered web-based fear conditioning study, we compared synchronized (vs. asynchronized) input in a theta-frequency band vs. the same synchronization manipulation in a delta frequency. Based on our previous laboratory design, five visual gratings of different orientations (25°, 35°, 45°, 55°, 65°) served as conditioned stimuli (CS) with only one (CS+) paired with the auditory aversive US. Both CS and US were luminance or amplitude modulated, respectively, in a theta (4 Hz) or delta (1.7 Hz) frequency. In both frequencies, CS-US pairings were presented either in-phase (0° phase lag) or out-of-phase (90°, 180°, 270°), resulting in four independent groups (each group N = 40). Phase synchronization augmented the discrimination of CSs in CS-US contingency knowledge but did not affect valence and arousal ratings. Interestingly, this effect occurred independent of frequency. In sum, the current study proves the ability to successfully conduct complex generalization fear conditioning in an online setting. Based on this prerequisite, our data supports a causal role of phase synchronization in the declarative CS-US associations for low frequencies rather than in the specific theta-frequency band.

Characterizing prospective secondary teachers’ foundation and contingency knowledge for definitions of transformations

One promising approach for connecting undergraduate content coursework to secondary teaching is using teacher-created representations of practice. Using these representations effectively requires seeing teachers' use of mathematical knowledge in the work of teaching. We argue that the dimensions of Rowland's (2013) Knowledge Quartet, especially Foundation and Contingency, form a fruitful framework for this purpose. We contribute an analytic framework to characterize the quality of mathematical knowledge observed in the Foundation and Contingency dimensions, developed using a purposive sampling from over 300 representations. These representations all featured geometry teaching. We showcase the framework with examples of "high" and "developing" Foundation and Contingency.Then, we compare our coding along these dimensions with performance on a measure of mathematical knowledge for teaching geometry. Finally, we describe the potential for generalizing this framework to other domains, such as algebra and mathematical modeling.

Merely superficially contingent a priori knowledge and the McKinsey paradox

The conclusion of the McKinsey paradox is that certain contingent claims about the external world are knowable a priori. Almost all of the literature on the paradox assumes that this conclusion is unacceptable, and focuses on finding a way of avoiding it. However, there is no consensus that any of these responses work. In this paper I take a different approach, arguing that the conclusion is acceptable. First, I develop our understanding of what Evans calls merely superficially contingent a priori knowledge, and explain why there is no reason to deny that merely superficially contingent a priori knowledge of the external world is possible. I then argue that, properly understood, the conclusion of the McKinsey paradox is that merely superficially contingent knowledge of certain claims about the external world is possible, and so the conclusion is acceptable. Finally, I respond to the two main arguments that the conclusion of the paradox is unacceptable.

Phase-Synchronized Stimulus Presentation Augments Contingency Knowledge and Affective Evaluation in a Fear-Conditioning Task.

Memory often combines information from different sensory modalities. Animal studies show that synchronized neuronal activity in the theta band (4–8 Hz) binds multimodal associations. Studies with human participants have likewise established that theta-phase synchronization augments the formation of declarative video–tone pair memories. Another form of associative learning, classical fear conditioning, models nondeclarative, emotional memory with distinct neuronal mechanisms. Typical fear-conditioning tasks pair a conditioned stimulus (CS) in one modality with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US) in another. The present study examines the effects of CS–US synchronization in the theta band on fear memory formation in humans. In a fear generalization procedure, we paired one of five visual gratings of varying orientation (CS) with an aversive auditory US. We modulated the luminance of the CS and the volume of the US at a rate of 4 Hz. To manipulate the synchrony between visual and auditory input during fear acquisition, one group (N = 20) received synchronous CS–US pairing, whereas the control group (N = 20) received the CS–US pairs out of phase. Phase synchronization improved CS–US contingency knowledge and facilitated CS discrimination in terms of rated valence and arousal, resulting in narrower generalization across the CS gratings compared with the out-of-phase group. In contrast, synchronization did not amplify conditioned responding in physiological arousal (skin conductance) and visuocortical engagement (steady-state visually evoked potentials) during acquisition, although both measures demonstrated tuning toward the CS+. Together, these data support a causal role of theta-phase synchronization in affective evaluation and contingency report during fear acquisition.

Healing Salves: Contingent Knowledge and Satisfying Surprises in Kiribati<br />  

Through the creative analytic practice of autoethnography and systematic sociological introspection, the author engages the subjectivity of narrative self in relation to a story involving treatment by an indigenous healer in the Republic of Kiribati. Through the lens of narratology, existential introspection, and ethics the author informs the moving vantage of the present through reflection on the micro personal and macro socio-cultural educational processes that bear influence on the narration and perception of a lived experience in hindsight. Through storying and reflecting through these lenses, this process problematizes the present story, but also yields degrees of greater awareness. This process of systematic sociological introspection is framed by Freeman’s (1997) notion of narrative integrity. That is, through reflection and reframing of the past, the author hopes to focus upon the possibilities of wider metacognitive perspective for both himself and the reader in the future.

Knowledge of future contingents

This paper addresses the question whether future contingents are knowable, that is, whether one can know that things will go a certain way even though it is possible that things will not go that way. First I will consider a long-established view that implies a negative answer, and draw attention to some endemic problems that affect its credibility. Then I will sketch an alternative line of thought that prompts a positive answer: future contingents are knowable, although our epistemic access of them is limited in some important respects.

Attuning psychology to contingent knowledge from a postcritical perspective.

Attuning psychology to contingent knowledge from a postcritical perspective.

Mining Frequent Itemsets Without Candidate Generation In Machine Learning

Mining of regular trends in group action databases, time series databases, and lots of different database types was popularly studied in data processing research. Most previous studies follow the generation-and-test method of associate degree Apriori-like candidate collection. In this study, we seem to propose a particular frequency tree like structure, which is associated degree of prefix-tree like structure that is extended to be used for compressed storage, crucial knowledge of the frequency pattern, associated degrees create an economic FP-tree mining methodology, FP growth, by the growth of pattern fragments for the mining of the entire set of frequent patterns. Three different mining techniques are used to outsize the information which is compressed into small structures such as FP-tree that avoids repetitive information scans, cost. The proposed FP-tree-based mining receives an example philosophy of section creation to stay away from the exorbitant age of several competitor sets, and an apportioning-based, separating and-overcoming technique is used to divide the mining task into a contingent knowledge base for restricted mining designs that effectively reduces the investigation field.

Computing the Uncontrollable: Insights from Computational Modelling of Learning and Choice in Depression

The learned helplessness (LH) paradigm, developed in experimental animals, has had great influence on the development of models of mood and anxiety disorders. However, the insights from this paradigm have not always translated straightforwardly into human experimental work. In particular, instrumental contingency learning experiments yielded the contradictory finding of more accurate contingency knowledge in depressed individuals (“depressive realism”: DR). A growing literature involving the application of computational modelling applied to human learning studies suggest that possible sequelae of LH in humans may be manifest in one or more potential candidate reinforcement learning-based mechanisms. This analysis suggests that the DR effect is theoretically and empirically independent of LH, despite both LH and DR being related to depression. Overall, the review highlights recent developments within the complex literature of learning and choice in depression and proposes a variety of testable predictions which may serve to delineate more precisely the presence, and neural basis, of LH-like sequelae across social and non-social learning and choice paradigms in depressed patients.

Attentive immobility in the face of inevitable distal threat-Startle potentiation and fear bradycardia as an index of emotion and attention.

During fear conditioning, a cue (CS) signals an inevitable distal threat (US) and evokes a conditioned response that can be described as attentive immobility (freezing). The organism remains motionless and monitors the source of danger while startle responses are potentiated, indicating a state of defensive hypervigilance. Although in animals vagally mediated fear bradycardia is also reliably observed under such circumstances, results are mixed in human fear conditioning. Using a single-cue fear conditioning and extinction protocol, we tested cardiac reactivity and startle potentiation indexing low-level defensive strategies in a fear-conditioned (n=40; paired presentations of CS and US) compared with a non-conditioned control group (n=40; unpaired presentations of CS and US). Additionally, we assessed shock expectancy ratings on a trial-by-trial basis indexing declarative knowledge of the previous contingencies. Half of each group underwent extinction under sham or active transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS), serving as additional proof of concept. We found stronger cardiac deceleration during CS presentation in the fear learning relative to the control group. This learned fear bradycardia was positively correlated with conditioned startle potentiation but not with declarative knowledge of CS-US contingencies. TVNS abolished differences in heart rate changes between both groups and removed the significant correlation between late cardiac deceleration and startle potentiation in the fear learning group. Results suggest, fear-conditioned cues evoke attentive immobility in humans, characterized by cardiac deceleration and startle potentiation. Such defensive response pattern is elicited by cues predicting inevitable distal threat and resembles conditioned fear responses observed in rodents.

Semantic Task Planning for Service Robots in Open Worlds

This paper presents a planning system based on semantic reasoning for a general-purpose service robot, which is aimed at behaving more intelligently in domains that contain incomplete information, under-specified goals, and dynamic changes. First, Two kinds of data are generated by Natural Language Processing module from the speech: (i) action frames and their relationships; (ii) the modifier used to indicate some property or characteristic of a variable in the action frame. Next, the task’s goals are generated from these action frames and modifiers. These goals are represented as AI symbols, combining world state and domain knowledge, which are used to generate plans by an Answer Set Programming solver. Finally, the plan’s actions are executed one by one, and continuous sensing grounds useful information, which makes the robot use contingent knowledge to adapt to dynamic changes and faults. For each action in the plan, the planner gets its preconditions and effects from domain knowledge, so during the execution of the task, the environmental changes, especially those conflict with the actions, not only the action being performed but also the subsequent actions, can be detected and handled as early as possible. A series of case studies are used to evaluate the system and verify its ability to acquire knowledge through dialogue with users, solve problems with the acquired causal knowledge, and plan for complex tasks autonomously in the open world.

APROFUNDANDO O CONHECIMENTO SOBRE AZONA DE DESENVOLVIMENTO PROXIMAL(ZDP) DE VYGOTSKY

This article presents a bibliographic review in order to deepen the reader's knowledge about the relevance of the concept of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development in the context of the development of proposals for the creation of social technology, and its importance for meaningful learning, through the education in non-formal spaces. Collaborative learning enables the construction of knowledge, based on the processes of social interaction. For the analysis we used the literature review of the literature, since both popular knowledge and scientific knowledge are mixed in everyday life in different realities outside the school walls, presenting questions that need to be debated. Popular knowledge correlates with scientific knowledge. This knowledge constitutes contingent knowledge, because its propositions or hypotheses have their veracity or falsehood known through experimentation, and not just by reason. This article concludes by strongly recommending the use of collaborative learning from the application of the concept of close development zone (ZDP) as one of the strategies for creating and developing social technology that can and should be explored by educators, encouraging engagement in learning situations. increasingly complex.

Knowledge mobilisation in orthopaedic surgery in England: why hierarchies of knowledge bear little relation to the hierarchy of evidence in professionally socialised groups

Background:Healthcare policy encourages the use of scientific evidence in the delivery of healthcare services. However, the complexity of practice restricts the use of codified knowledge in clinical guidelines despite continued effort from policymakers to ensure their use in practice. This study adopts a knowledge mobilisation perspective to explore the multiple levels through which scientific evidence is enacted to generate variation in practice. Aim:To explore how professionalised groups of clinicians mobilised knowledge in the highly-professionalised and organisationally-regulated context of orthopaedic surgery. Methods:Three contrasting NHS hospitals in England were examined using case study methods from 2014–15. Data included 64 interviews with surgeons and NHS staff, nine months of observation of day-to-day practice, and collection of 121 supplementary documents. A multilevel thematic analysis and cross-case comparison explored how individual surgeons, groups of professionals and hospital organisations mobilised knowledge. Findings:The findings described three themes to illustrate how variation in orthopaedic practice emerged: 1) professional identities; 2) knowledge acquisition; and 3) the contextual contingencies of practice. The professional groups which surgeons identified with had significant influence on how knowledge was mobilised within the organisations. Conclusions:Knowledge owned by professionally socialised surgical groups was central to explaining variation observed in the delivery of healthcare services. Hierarchies of knowledge in the practice of orthopaedic surgery bore little relation to the hierarchy of evidence which is foundational to the production of clinical guidance and guidelines. Knowledge defined and privileged within professional surgeon groups carried significant weight in practice, and generated contingent knowledge mobilisation.

“The Body of Human Truths” and the Limits of Humanitarian Reading in Nuruddin Farah’s Links

ABSTRACT Though the title of Nuruddin Farah’s Links suggests the language of network often invoked in theories of globalization, the 2003 novel instead questions this discourse through its focus on the affective responses of characters to a series of dead bodies. The links Farah explores in the novel are the affiliations and lived experiences, often unacknowledged, that stress the limits of an individual, revealing what binds them to groups and shapes how they imagine others. Set in Mogadiscio in the years after the United Nation’s failed intervention, Links reflects on the gap between the ideals of a post-Cold War humanitarianism that could transcend differences of race and religion and the reality of the prolonged state of emergency in Somalia. While moral philosophers have stressed the novel’s ability to generate humanitarian sentiment, this article argues that Links presents a generative limit to humanitarian reading models. Building on recent theorizations of the global novel’s relation to otherness, the article proposes that Links is deeply invested in not only locating the limits of the novel form to convey knowledge and build understanding, but also in presenting the powerful recognition of partial and contingent knowledge, what a character in Links calls “human truths.”

Learning Habits: Does Overtraining Lead to Resistance to New Learning?

We explore the development of habitual responding within the colour-word contingency learning paradigm, in which participants respond to the colour of neutral words. Each word is most often presented in one colour. Learning is indicated by faster responses to the colour when the word is presented in the expected rather than in the unexpected colour. In Experiment 1, participants took part in two sessions, separated by one day. Critically, one set of words was trained across both days, and other new sets of words were introduced at various time points. Overall performance was faster on trials with overtrained words. Additionally, contingency effects were larger for overtrained words than for words introduced on Day 2. Removing the contingency had a similar impact on the learning effect for overtrained and new words. However, during a counterconditioning phase, where the words were made predictive of new colours, the previous contingency continued to influence performance for overtrained words but not for more recently introduced words. Relatedly, the new contingency was not acquired for the overtrained words. The reverse pattern was observed for recently-introduced words, with the newly-introduced contingency rapidly acquired and the influence of the old contingency quickly extinguished. In Experiments 2 and 3, however, both new and old learning effects were observed for both overtrained and recently-acquired contingencies. The net results suggest that while contingency learning effects are highly pliable during initial and subsequent learning, early-acquired contingency knowledge is maintained after removal of the contingency. Implications for models of learning are discussed.