Studies In Cognitive Psychology Research Articles

The explicit dimension: what we could not learn from Polanyi

Purpose– This paper aims to clarify that the link between Michael Polanyi’s tacit knowledge theory and the field of knowledge management research does not withstand in-depth analysis. Second, the paper suggests a way to emerge from the ambiguity that unavoidably results from using the tacit knowledge concept in knowledge management studies.Design/methodology/approach– The paper begins with an analysis of the tacit knowledge theories developed by Polanyi, by cognitive psychologists and by knowledge management scholars. It goes on to formulate a new conceptual framework of tacit knowledge.Findings– This proposal consists in assuming that the terms “unconscious” and “tacit” are not interchangeable and, consequently, redefining the epistemological profile of knowledge management theory so as to acknowledge the existence of two planes of analysis. One is occupied by the process through which individuals gain knowledge, or the knowing process, which may be unconscious or conscious. The other contains the dichotomy between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge, where the two terms indicate two alternative states that only consciously developed knowledge can adopt.Research limitations/implications– The paper provides support for the two-planes idea by referring to contributions from various disciplines, and particularly from cognitive psychology studies concerned with unconscious knowledge; a more thorough and extensive review would be needed, however, to fully demonstrate the proposal.Originality/value– Distinguishing between two planes of analysis makes it possible to unveil the mystery of tacit knowledge.

From phenomenology to neurophysiological understanding of hallucinations in children and adolescents.

Typically reported as vivid, multisensory experiences which may spontaneously resolve, hallucinations are present at high rates during childhood. The risk of associated psychopathology is a major cause of concern. On the one hand, the risk of developing further delusional ideation has been shown to be reduced by better theory of mind skills. On the other hand, ideas of reference, passivity phenomena, and misidentification syndrome have been shown to increase the risk of self-injury or heteroaggressive behaviors. Cognitive psychology and brain-imaging studies have advanced our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying these early-onset hallucinations. Notably, specific functional impairments have been associated with certain phenomenological characteristics of hallucinations in youths, including intrusiveness and the sense of reality. In this review, we provide an update of associated epidemiological and phenomenological factors (including sociocultural context, social adversity, and genetics, considered in relation to the psychosis continuum hypothesis), cognitive models, and neurophysiological findings concerning hallucinations in children and adolescents. Key issues that have interfered with progress are considered and recommendations for future studies are provided.

The Practice of Reading and the Formation of the Moral Imagination

The practice of reading is increasingly endangered as young people intensify their interaction with the new media. Reading literature, however, is a potent source of moral formation, shaping the moral imagination. The article draws on contemporary neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and creativity studies to conceptualize the imagination and describe the special role of the moral imagination. It explores claims about the ways literature shapes the moral imagination, drawing on the findings of an empirical study of young adults who were avid readers of the Harry Potter series as children and youth.

Een Bayesiaans perspectief op argumentkwaliteit - Het ad populum-argument onder de loep

In order to convince people of a claim persuasive arguments are important. Social psychological studies have shown that some arguments are more persuasive than others, but it is not clear what argument characteristics account for this difference. In search of a theory of argument quality this paper reviews different perspectives on argument quality. Cognitive psychological studies have uncovered such argument characteristics, but this perspective has important drawbacks. The most fruitful account is argument theory with its argumentation schemes and critical questions. This account, too, has shortcomings. This paper argues that a Bayesian perspective is a useful starting point to develop a theory of argument quality. A Bayesian analysis of the ad populum argument shows the potential of this account. An interdisciplinary approach with insights from psychology, the argumentation schemes, and Bayes is potentially fruitful to build a theory of argument quality.

Priming effects of an olfactory food cue on subsequent food-related behaviour

Studies in cognitive psychology have highlighted a link between perception and action, by revealing the non-conscious influence that a cue can have on thinking and doing. The present study aimed at exploring whether an olfactory food cue could have an impact on food choices. We chose fruity odours as olfactory food cues, in order to examine if this kind of olfactory cue could lead individuals to choose fruit and vegetables. In the first experiment, 58 participants were assigned randomly to either a control or a melon-scent condition. In the melon-scent condition, they were unobtrusively exposed to a melon odorant in a waiting room, while in the control condition the room was non-odorized. Then, they all performed a lexical decision task and a task involving choices from a menu. The results showed that participants in the melon-scent condition answered faster only for the word ‘melon’ in comparison with other tested words. Moreover, participants in the melon-scent condition were more likely than control participants to choose starters with vegetables, but not main courses or desserts with fruit and vegetables. Seventy participants took part in the second experiment, in which we replicated the same protocol, but using a pear odorant as the cue. The results showed that participants in the pear-scent condition were significantly more likely than those in the control condition to choose desserts with fruit, but not starters or main courses with vegetables. These results indicate that the non-conscious perception of a fruity odour may activate a ‘fruit and vegetables’ concept, but also a concept of the context of consumption. Moreover, they support the idea of priming effects ‘specific to a food cue’.

Que geometria ensinar? uma breve história da redefinição do conhecimento elementar matemático para crianças

O artigo aborda a geometria para crianças, seu ensino para alunos das primeiras séries escolares. Leva em conta, inicialmente, a trajetória da Geometria para o nível elementar, desde, praticamente, a Independência do Brasil. Nessa análise, evidencia a permanência de conteúdos da geometria euclidiana até quase meados do século XX. Em seguida, analisa as propostas de alteração do ensino de Geometria elaboradas na década de 1960. Com isso, procura mostrar as intenções de modificar os conteúdos desse ramo matemático, em busca da redefinição de um novo elementar: um novo conhecimento elementar de geometria, vindo de processos de apropriação das contribuições trazidas pelos estudos da Psicologia cognitiva.

Alpha reactivity to first names differs in subjects with high and low dream recall frequency.

Studies in cognitive psychology showed that personality (openness to experience, thin boundaries, absorption), creativity, nocturnal awakenings, and attitude toward dreams are significantly related to dream recall frequency (DRF). These results suggest the possibility of neurophysiological trait differences between subjects with high and low DRF. To test this hypothesis we compared sleep characteristics and alpha reactivity to sounds in subjects with high and low DRF using polysomnographic recordings and electroencephalography (EEG). We acquired EEG from 21 channels in 36 healthy subjects while they were presented with a passive auditory oddball paradigm (frequent standard tones, rare deviant tones and very rare first names) during wakefulness and sleep (intensity, 50 dB above the subject's hearing level). Subjects were selected as High-recallers (HR, DRF = 4.42 ± 0.25 SEM, dream recalls per week) and Low-recallers (LR, DRF = 0.25 ± 0.02) using a questionnaire and an interview on sleep and dream habits. Despite the disturbing setup, the subjects' quality of sleep was generally preserved. First names induced a more sustained decrease in alpha activity in HR than in LR at Pz (1000–1200 ms) during wakefulness, but no group difference was found in REM sleep. The current dominant hypothesis proposes that alpha rhythms would be involved in the active inhibition of the brain regions not involved in the ongoing brain operation. According to this hypothesis, a more sustained alpha decrease in HR would reflect a longer release of inhibition, suggesting a deeper processing of complex sounds than in LR during wakefulness. A possibility to explain the absence of group difference during sleep is that increase in alpha power in HR may have resulted in awakenings. Our results support this hypothesis since HR experienced more intra sleep wakefulness than LR (30 ± 4 vs. 14 ± 4 min). As a whole our results support the hypothesis of neurophysiological trait differences in high and low-recallers.

Notions of Intuition in the Cognitive Science of Religion

ABSTRACTThis article examines the notions of and counterintuitive beliefs and concepts in cognitive science of religion. Intuitive states are contrasted with those that are products of explicit, conscious reasoning. In many cases the intuitions are grounded in the implicit rules of mental models, frames, or schemas. I argue that the pathway from intuitive to concepts and beliefs may be distinct from that from intuitions to religion, and discuss how Christian theology might best interpret the results of studies in cognitive psychology of religion.In Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR), religious concepts and beliefs have been characterized as or counterintuitive by psychologists (Barrett 2004; Bloom 2004; Kelemen 2004) and anthropologists (Boyer 2001); and others (Pyysiainen 2004, following Sperber 1997) have made use of a notion of representations in their accounts of religious cognition. The word 'intuition' and its variants are, of course, used in several different ways in ordinary language, and have also been used in multiple technical ways in philosophy, psychology, and other academic disciplines. I shall first examine recent uses of terms in CSR, clarifying them in relation to existing usages in philosophy and psychology which contrast states and processes with those that are products of conscious, explicit reasoning. I shall then outline an account of how intuitions are produced in the mind via the rules of what have variously been called mental models, schemas, or frames. In Section 3,1 shall examine a few possible implications of this model-based account of intuition for CSR-particularly, the possibility that a study of the cognitive processes that produce high theological or theologically correct religious views might (somewhat surprisingly) be undertaken separately from the study of folk concepts and beliefs. Whereas the first three sections are explorations in the philosophy of a particular area of cognitive science, the final section will explore two questions from the standpoint of religious belief (and more specifically, Christian theology). First, what sort of religious epistemology enjoys the best fit with the theories in CSR discussed in the article? And, second, what sorts of further research questions are suggested, in turn, by this religious epistemology?1. Overview of UsageOne cannot read very far in the literature of contemporary CSR without encountering claims that particular concepts and particular beliefs are or Indeed, it might seem that there is fundamental disagreement about whether particular concepts and beliefs -say, about the existence of disembodied spirits-should be deemed intuitive or counterintuitive. On examination, however, it will turn out that apparent disagreements are only apparent, and that the parties to them actually share important assumptions about the nature of intuition, and about what makes a concept or a belief intuitive or counterintuitive.1.1 Kelemen, intuitive teleology and intuitive theismBoston University psychologist Deborah Kelemen argues that teleological understanding comes early to children, and indeed predominates their understanding of nature (Kelemen 2004). Young children prefer explanations of natural objects and phenomena in terms of what they are for to causal explanations. By age five, they understand that natural objects do not have human makers, but nevertheless view them in teleological terms (Kelemen 1999a, b, 2003, 2004). And evidence from six to ten-year olds suggests that they relate their assignments of purpose to nonhuman intentional causation (Evans, 2000, 2001; Gelman and Kremer, 1991; Kelemen 2004). She suggests that these research findings tentatively suggest that children's explanatory approach may be accurately characterized as intuitive theism (2004, 199). What Kelemen seems to mean by this is that normal cognitive development includes an earlyarising capacity and disposition to explain objects and events in teleological terms that imply a designer and/or fabricator, that explanations persist in the absence of a perceptible candidate for such a role, and by mid-childhood dispose the child to attribute the causation of some natural objects and events to unperceivable agents. …

Deixis in Modern Linguistics and Outside

In many ways modern linguistics is one of the most remarkable and successful scientific innovations of the twentieth century. It is related only to linguistic studies, but to other disciplines as well such as: philosophy, cognitive psychology, anthropology and literary studies. And to the present day modern linguistics is held up as a model of scientific innovation to other disciplines in the humanities. Pragmatics, a subfield of linguistics developed in the late 1970s, studies how people comprehend and produce a communicative act or speech act in a concrete speech situation. It distinguishes two intents or meanings in each utterance or communicative act of verbal communication. One is the informative intent or the sentence meaning, and the other the communicative intent or speaker meaning (Sperber and Wilson, 1986). The ability to comprehend and produce a communicative act is referred to as pragmatic competence which often includes one's knowledge about the social distance, social status between the speakers involved, the cultural knowledge such as politeness, and the linguistic knowledge explicit and implicit. Deixis belongs within the domain of pragmatics because it directly concerns the relationship between the structure of language and the context in which they are used. (Levinson 83, p. 55). It is often and best described as “verbal pointing”, that is to say pointing by means of language. The linguistic forms of this pointing are called deictic expressions, deictic markers or deictic words; they are also sometimes called indexicals. Deictic expressions fall into three categories: Person deixis (you, us etc), spatial deixis (here, there), and temporal deixis (now, then). DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2012.v2n4p87

Through the Eyes of Jurors: The Use of Cognitive Psychology in the Application of 'Plain Language' Jury Instructions

“Through the Eyes of Jurors” is the first law journal article to consider all of the major cognitive psychology studies that examine how “schemas,” or the preexisting notions jurors have about the law, shape jurors’ use of jury instructions, even when those jurors are given “plain-language” instructions. This Article examines the social science research on schema theory in order to advance our understanding of how schemas continue to influence jurors’ use of jury instructions, even when those jurors are given “plain language” instructions. A significant body of legal literature has examined jurors’ use and understanding of jury instructions, and many scholars have recommended methods to improve juror comprehension of instructions. This Article takes that analysis a step further, and argues that even when given “plain-language” jury instructions, jurors will still be influenced by their preconceived ideas of what the “law” is — in other words, by the preexisting schemas they have for legal concepts. Furthermore, these schemas are often legally incorrect, and findings from the social sciences suggest that — even when given plain-language jury instructions with the correct legal standard — jurors may still apply these legally inappropriate schemas. This Article synthesizes the results and underlying theories derived from those findings in order to examine the impact these schemas have on jury decisionmaking, and on jurors’ use of jury instructions, and to identify ways lawyers and judges can counteract inappropriate existing schemas and activate legally appropriate schemas before jurors are introduced to the facts they are expected to interpret. Specifically, courts should use principles of cognitive and educational psychology to develop jurors’ schemas for the applicable legal concepts to make their schemas better organized and therefore more accessible. Such schemas would allow for more thoughtful judgment and better, more accurate decisionmaking.

Three Dimensions of the Sociality of Action

The relationship between action and sociality is one of the fundamental problems in social theory and philosophy. In this paper I strive to contribute to an action theoretical approach that conceives of individual action and sociality as intrinsically related. I will do so by drawing on two distinct strands of cultural and social theory: the sociological pragmatism of Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead, and the cognitive cultural psychology of Michael Tomasello. Since the work of Tomasello is – at least in detail – relatively unknown to philosophers or social scientists, the primary focus will be on his seminal studies in comparative and developmental cognitive psychology. By means of a detailed analysis I will delineate a cognitive, motivational and cultural dimension of the sociality of action in Tomasello. The results of this discussion will then be compared with the central tenets of sociological pragmatism. In the end, it will become clear why cognitive scientists like Tomasello can help us to reformulate pragmatist social theory against the background of recent findings in the human sciences. By doing this, we can remain true to the transdisciplinary approach of pragmatist thought that has long been neglected in social theory. Conversely, such a comparison may reveal some of the limits of Tomasello’s account with regard to social theory.

Sports in America from Colonial times to the twenty-first century: an encyclopedia

Here's practical help for the day-to-day concerns that keep managers awake at night. Written in an informal, first-person style, this useful book fills the gap between the legal and policy issues that are the mainstay of human resources and supervision courses and the real-world needs of managers as they attempt to cope with the human side of their jobs. author is a noted scholar in both cognitive psychology and organizational studies, and has drawn from extensive personal experience as well as careful observation of good and bad managers. The Human Element is organized around six fundamental commitments that good employee managers make in order to succeed. It is filled with practical examples and step-by-step guidelines for performing important tasks and dealing with common problems - everything from how to conduct a meeting, to how to write a code of conduct, to how to diagnose the cause of performance problems. The Human Element is designed to reduce the stress of management by providing insight into why employees do what they do, and what to do about it. It is an ideal supplement for any course in people management, including supervision, HRM, and applied OB courses.

A Novel Creative Thinking Model to Pattern Recognition Problem Solving

Inspired by the studies of modern cognitive psychology and real-world pattern recognition systems, a new developed model for pattern recognition is proposed to provide an alternative solution for some complicated pattern recognition problems. This study exploits a creative problem solving (CPS) skill to derive a pattern recognition solution and presents the basic principles, criteria, and techniques for CPS. Next, CPS is devoted to develop pattern recognition application and demonstrate a case study. In addition, this paper discusses the case study on the application of CPS thinking model. Experiment results show that CPS thinking model can improve this application performance of pattern recognition.

Functional activation of the parahippocampal cortex and amygdala during social statistical information processing

Social statistical information can be used to quantitatively describe external events or facts, such as statistics on products, incomes, or sales, which consist of two basic features: associations and sociality. Previous studies in cognitive psychology have investigated statistical graph comprehension, but the neural basis of social statistical information processing has not been examined. In our study, 36 subjects were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while reading statistical information visually presented in one of three basic forms: as text, as statistical graphs, and as both graphs and text. All three forms consistently activated the right posterior tip of the parahippocampal cortex (PHC) and the left amygdala, suggesting that both regions contribute to social statistical information processing, regardless of the presentation form. Previous studies have implicated the posterior tip of the PHC in contextual associations and the amygdala in processing emotion-related events and social cognition. Taken together with previous studies, we proposed that the posterior tip of the PHC is more involved in establishing associations during social statistical information processing, while the amygdala is more related to the social component. This study provides neuroimaging evidence for commonly processing of the two basic features of social statistical information by the PHC and amygdala.

Derived embodiment and imaginative capacities in interactional expertise

Interactional expertise is said to be a form of knowledge achieved in a linguistic community and, therefore, obtained entirely outside practice. Supposedly, it is not or only minimally sustained by the so-called embodied knowledge. Here, drawing upon studies in contemporary neuroscience and cognitive psychology, I propose that ‘derived’ embodiment is deeply involved in competent language use and, therefore, also in interactional expertise. My argument consists of two parts. First, I argue for a strong relationship among language acquisition, language use and the real world (i.e. the world accessible to the senses). Biological constraints in very early childhood anchor language to the body. These constraints are by-products of our evolutionary peculiarity that we gain because of our physical and psychological immaturity at birth. Thus, infancy is predominantly concerned with the bodily needs and experiences of the concrete while language acquisition takes place. Particular interest in the concrete furnishes our linguistic world and installs ‘concrete’ language as the principal constituent of competent language use. Second, I argue that well-established concrete language implicitly and explicitly elicits mental representations, namely partial reactivations of sensorimotor states that occur during experience. These are stepping stones by which we subsequently make sense of expressions in new linguistic areas. Like any competent language user, the interactional expert, therefore, prompts multimodal imagination and re-enacts concrete experiences when acquiring linguistic knowledge pertaining to a specialist field. Finally, I outline the characteristics of those imaginative powers to identify mechanisms that improve interactional expertise and discuss the obvious relation between interactional expertise and ordinary knowledge acquisition after the concrete language stage.

Visual Feedback and Behavior Memory Based Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

Based on the analysis of exist ant colony optimization(ACO) algorithms and the studies in visual perception and cognitive psychology,this paper proposes a new optimization strategy,the visual feedback and behavioral memory based Max-Min ant colony optimization algorithm(VM-MMACO).The main idea is to enhance the ant's search ability by establishing the learning mechanism of visual feedback and behavioral memory.With artificial visual memory and learning abilities,the ant can not only see the targets around,using visual perception to optimize the heuristic information produced by pheromone in order to improve the search quality,but can also exploit the historical solutions,finding local best segments(called experience) to narrow the searching space smoothly,so that it can accelerate the convergence process.Comparisons of VM-MMACO and existing optimization strategies within a given iteration number are performed on the publicly available TSP instances from TSPLIB.The results demonstrates that VM-MMACO significantly outperforms other optimization strategies.Finally,according to the accumulative learning theory,the learning mechanism could be studied further to make a much more intelligent algorithm.

Electromyographic Activity of Hand Muscles in a Motor Coordination Game: Effect of Incentive Scheme and Its Relation with Social Capital

BackgroundA vast body of social and cognitive psychology studies in humans reports evidence that external rewards, typically monetary ones, undermine intrinsic motivation. These findings challenge the standard selfish-rationality assumption at the core of economic reasoning. In the present work we aimed at investigating whether the different modulation of a given monetary reward automatically and unconsciously affects effort and performance of participants involved in a game devoid of visual and verbal interaction and without any perspective-taking activity.Methodology/Principal FindingsTwelve pairs of participants were submitted to a simple motor coordination game while recording the electromyographic activity of First Dorsal Interosseus (FDI), the muscle mainly involved in the task. EMG data show a clear effect of alternative rewards strategies on subjects' motor behavior. Moreover, participants' stock of relevant past social experiences, measured by a specifically designed questionnaire, was significantly correlated with EMG activity, showing that only low social capital subjects responded to monetary incentives consistently with a standard rationality prediction.Conclusions/SignificanceOur findings show that the effect of extrinsic motivations on performance may arise outside social contexts involving complex cognitive processes due to conscious perspective-taking activity. More importantly, the peculiar performance of low social capital individuals, in agreement with standard economic reasoning, adds to the knowledge of the circumstances that makes the crowding out/in of intrinsic motivation likely to occur. This may help in improving the prediction and accuracy of economic models and reconcile this puzzling effect of external incentives with economic theory.

Crisis Drift: A Meta-gogical Glue for Learning & Teaching Design

With some exceptions, learning and teaching theory is grounded in pedagogy based upon studies in behavioral and cognitive psychology that used captive subjects as their experimental basis. is a theory-in-practice that replaces this authoritarian pedagogy with nothing, free tagging, disruption, flow, where the learning community wants to go, or might have to go. Metagogy dissolves control, not compelled to finish but to connect. Whether it is a network crashing or a mob determining new priorities, learning does not stop. Learning may actually flourish but has definitely changed, and for the duration of any crisis is set adrift. Is this drift useful, providing a new way of teaching and learning design? Radical contingencies lead design learners and teachers to new solutions with or without permission. The learning and teaching of design is bound in corporate institutional systems of ownership, transactions and gateways. Yet hacking systems and receiving cracked software is the ground many design learners learned on. Crisis drift attempts to mobilize the contingent subject's design objective.

Regulating from nowhere: environmental law and the search for objectivity

Drawing insight from a diverse array of sources - including moral philosophy, political theory, cognitive psychology, ecology, and science and technology studies - Douglas Kysar offers a new theoretical basis for understanding environmental law and policy. He exposes a critical flaw in the dominant policy paradigm of risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis, which asks policymakers to, in essence, regulate from nowhere. As Kysar shows, such an objectivist stance fails to adequately motivate ethical engagement with the most pressing and challenging aspects of environmental law and policy, which concern how we relate to future generations, foreign nations, and other forms of life. Indeed, world governments struggle to address climate change and other pressing environmental issues in large part because dominant methods of policy analysis obscure the central reasons for acting to ensure environmental sustainability. To compensate for these shortcomings, Kysar first offers a novel defense of the precautionary principle and other commonly misunderstood features of environmental law and policy. He then concludes by advocating a movement toward environmental constitutionalism in which the ability of life to flourish is always regarded as a luxury we can afford.

Modality switching cost during property verification by 7 years of age

Recent studies in neuroimagery and cognitive psychology support the view of sensory-motor based knowledge: when processing an object concept, neural systems would re-enact previous experiences with this object. In this experiment, a conceptual switching cost paradigm derived from Pecher, Zeelenberg, and Barsalou (2003, 2004) was used to investigate sensory-motor simulation in children’s conceptual processing. Adults and 7-year-old children performed a property verification task involving visual and motor properties of manipulable artifacts. Verification times were compared for target trials preceded by a trial in which the property either involved the same modality or a different one. By 7 years of age, results revealed a modality switching cost with longer verification times in the different modality than in the same modality condition. In addition, the switching effect did not interact with age or property modality type. Results support an embodied view of concepts in both adults and children.