Unrelated Contexts Research Articles

Strategic responses to personalized pricing and demand for privacy: An experiment

We consider situations in which consumers are aware that a statistical model determines the price of a product based on their observed behavior. Using a novel experiment varying the context similarity between participant data and a product, we find that participants manipulate their responses to a survey regarding personal characteristics, and manipulation is more successful when the contexts are similar. Moreover, participants demand less privacy, and make less optimal privacy choices when the contexts are less similar. Our findings highlight the importance of data privacy policies in the age of big data, in which behavior in apparently unrelated contexts might affect prices.

Modular representations emerge in neural networks trained to perform context-dependent tasks.

The brain has large-scale modular structure in the form of brain regions, which are thought to arise from constraints on connectivity and the physical geometry of the cortical sheet. In contrast, experimental and theoretical work has argued both for and against the existence of specialized sub-populations of neurons (modules) within single brain regions. By studying artificial neural networks, we show that this local modularity emerges to support context-dependent behavior, but only when the input is low-dimensional. No anatomical constraints are required. We also show when modular specialization emerges at the population level (different modules correspond to orthogonal subspaces). Modularity yields abstract representations, allows for rapid learning and generalization on novel tasks, and facilitates the rapid learning of related contexts. Non-modular representations facilitate the rapid learning of unrelated contexts. Our findings reconcile conflicting experimental results and make predictions for future experiments.

Top-down enhanced object recognition in blocking and priming paradigms.

Previous studies have demonstrated that context manipulations by semantic blocking and category priming can, under particular design conditions, give rise to semantic facilitation effects. The interpretation of semantic facilitation effects is controversial in the word production literature; perceptual accounts propose that contextually facilitated object recognition may underlie facilitation effects. The present study tested this notion. We investigated the difficulty of object recognition in a semantic blocking and a category priming task. We presented all pictures in gradually de-blurring image sequences and measured the de-blurring level that first allowed for correct object naming as an indicator of the perceptual demands of object recognition. Based on object recognition models assuming a temporal progression from coarse- to fine-grained visual processing, we reasoned that the lower the required level of detail, the more efficient the recognition processes. The results demonstrate that categorically related contexts reduce the level of visual detail required for object naming compared to unrelated contexts, with this effect being most pronounced for shape-distinctive objects and in contexts providing explicit category cues. We propose a top-down explanation based on target predictability of the observed effects. Implications of the recognition effects based on target predictability for the interpretation of context effects observed in latencies are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Cross-language activation during word recognition in child second-language learners and the role of executive function

We investigated lexical retrieval processes in 4- to 6-year-old German–English bilinguals by exploring cross-language activation during second-language (L2) word recognition of cognates and noncognates in semantically related and unrelated contexts in young learners of English. Both button presses (reaction times and accuracies) and eye-tracking data (percentage looks to target) yielded a significant cognate facilitation effect, indicating that the children’s performance was boosted by cognate words. Nonetheless, the degree of phonological overlap of cognates did not modulate their performance. Moreover, a semantic interference effect was found in the children’s eye movement data. However, in these young L2 learners, cognate status exerted a comparatively stronger impact on L2 word recognition than semantic relatedness. Finally, correlational analyses on the cognate and noncognate performance and the children’s executive function yielded a significant positive correlation between noncognate performance and their inhibitory control, suggesting that noncognate processing depended to a greater extent on inhibitory control than cognate processing.

Neural oscillations reflect meaning identification for novel words in context.

During language processing, people make rapid use of contextual information to promote comprehension of upcoming words. When new words are learned implicitly, information contained in the surrounding context can provide constraints on their possible meaning. In the current study, EEG was recorded as participants listened to a series of three sentences, each containing an identical target pseudoword, with the aim of using contextual information in the surrounding language to identify a meaning representation for the novel word. In half of trials, sentences were semantically coherent so that participants could develop a single representation for the novel word that fit all contexts. Other trials contained unrelated sentence contexts so that meaning associations were not possible. We observed greater theta band enhancement over the left-hemisphere across central and posterior electrodes in response to pseudowords processed across semantically related compared to unrelated contexts. Additionally, relative alpha and beta band suppression was increased prior to pseudoword onset in trials where contextual information more readily promoted pseudoword-meaning associations. Under the hypothesis that theta enhancement indexes processing demands during lexical access, the current study provides evidence for selective online memory retrieval to novel words learned implicitly in a spoken context.

Last suppers at Sardis

AbstractThe realia of shared meals provide a key index for social behavior in Late Antiquity. Much attention has been paid to the architecture and ceramics of dining, but usually separately and from unrelated contexts. Three excavated rooms at Sardis present an opportunity to extend this discussion to the furnishings that once stood at the center of domestic hospitality. Nearly complete marble tabletops recovered from their places of intended use show differing approaches to the physical and social arrangements of convivial dining, with implications for interpreting reception areas in Late Roman houses. Circumstances of preservation indicate that all three rooms were leveled, probably by earthquakes, in the early 7th c. CE.

Effect of Virtual Reality Perspective-Taking on Related and Unrelated Contexts.

Virtual reality perspective-taking (VRPT) experiences effectively increase both empathy and prosocial behaviors toward related social targets (e.g., cutting down a tree in virtual reality increases concern for the environment). This project tests the prediction that empathy is analogous to a muscle that increases with practice and can transfer to unrelated contexts instead of being a mental state that increases only for a specific context or target. This study examines the extent to which VRPT experiences can train empathic skills that are applied to unrelated social targets and contexts. Two thirds of the participants engaged in VRPT experiences either showing what it is like to become homeless or how ocean acidification affects the marine environment. A third of the participants were in the control condition and did not complete a VRPT task. Results replicate previous findings showing that VRPT tasks increase related context empathy and prosocial behaviors; however, the results on VRPTs effect on empathy and prosocial behaviors for unrelated contexts were mixed. The VRPT ocean acidification task was more effective at inducing empathy for the homeless, an unrelated social target, than the control condition, but the empathy-transfer effect did not occur from the homeless context to the ocean context. Replicating previous work, participants who experienced what it is like to become homeless signed a petition supporting the homeless at significantly higher rates than participants in the control condition. These findings show that transfer of empathy from one context to another is possible, but this transfer does not occur for all contexts.

Supplier selection in the aftermath of a supply disruption and guilt: Once bitten, twice (not so) shy

ABSTRACTThe supply management literature assumes that supplier selection is devoid of emotions and unaffected by the history and experience associated with a previously‐selected supplier. In this paper, we relax these assumptions. Specifically, we consider the following sourcing opportunity: a sourcing professional had (alternatively, had not) recommended a critical‐component supplier that originated an avoidable (alternatively, unavoidable) supply disruption (aka, the “disrupted supplier”). In the aftermath of this supply disruption, the sourcing professional is asked to recommend a supplier for a new‐to‐beoutsourced critical component (i.e., one unrelated to the component whose flow was interrupted), taking into consideration the influence of guilt as an emotional reaction to the supply disruption. Analyses of data from 286 sourcing professionals participating in a scenario‐based, roleplaying experiment reveal that sourcing professionals experience higher levels of guilt when (a) they (versus their predecessor) had been responsible for selecting a disrupted supplier and (b) they deem the supply disruption to be controllable (versus uncontrollable) by the disrupted supplier. Guilt‐laden sourcing professionals are then more likely to recommend a riskier albeit more advantageous supplier for a new‐to‐be‐outsourced critical component. Our results provide the first evidence that prior supplier selection decisions gone awry influence future supplier selection decisions through the emotion of guilt. Moreover, they demonstrate that supply disruptions in one context have carryover effects on future sourcing decisions in unrelated contexts—an insight that is absent from the literature on supply disruptions.

The influence of language dominance and domain-general executive control on semantic context effects

ABSTRACT We investigated whether semantic context effects in speech production and comprehension are sensitive to language dominance and whether they involve domain-general executive control. We indexed these effects using semantic blocking within the cyclical semantic paradigm (corresponding to poorer performance in semantically related contexts compared to unrelated contexts) in a study that addressed the limitations of previous research: (i) we compared semantic blocking between participants tested in their native language and those tested in a language they were clearly less proficient in (not just the less dominant language), and (ii) we examined the involvement of executive control with a non-linguistic (rather than a linguistic) index. Participants in both groups showed equal semantic blocking in production and comprehension. Executive control only predicted the magnitude of semantic blocking in speech production. These results suggest that semantic context effects are insensitive to language dominance, and that effects of executive control arise in production tasks.

√ov Is in the Air

In this paper we consider several instances of the Slovenian affix ov, which surfaces in many, apparently unrelated contexts. Here we focus on (i) ov in verbs, where it can act as an imperfectivizer or a verbalizer, (ii) ov found in possessive adjectives and kind adjectives derived from nouns, (iii) ov which precedes the adjectiviser (e)n in denominal adjectives, and (iv) ov in nominal declension (acting as a genitive case ending in dual and plural or as a dual/plural augment). Building on the observation that certain affixes function either as inflectional or as derivational (see Simonović and Arsenijević 2020), and working within a Distributed Morphology approach which postulates that derivational affixes should be analyzed as roots (e.g. Lowenstamm 2014), we argue for a single multifunctional ov. This ov is a potentially meaningless root that can take as a complement other roots (thus forming a “radical core”) or phrases, resulting in different structures and consequently different stress patterns and meanings, but can also act as an Elsewhere allomorph, whose insertion is guided by an interplay of phonological and morphological constraints.

To conform or deviate? The effect of resource scarcity on consumer preference for minority-endorsed options

While a general sense of resource scarcity has been shown to influence consumer behavior via various psychological mechanisms, existing resource scarcity research has paid limited attention to the role of perceived threat to freedom. This paper empirically investigates how perceived threat to freedom drives consumers’ responses to cues of resource scarcity in subsequent, unrelated contexts. Building upon psychological reactance theory and existing theoretical findings related to resource scarcity, the authors propose that reminders of resource scarcity present a threat to consumers’ personal freedom, which in turn leads them to choose products or brands endorsed by the minority in an attempt to reassert their diminished freedom. However, these effects depend on individual differences in reactance proneness and the perceived mutability of the scarcity situation. Four studies were conducted to test these hypotheses, while a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications is subsequently provided.

Dreaming Diversity: Second Generation Australians and the Reimagining of Multicultural Australia

Dreaming Diversity: Second Generation Australians and the Reimagining of Multicultural Australia

D-dimensional SYK, AdS loops, and 6j symbols

We study the 6j symbol for the conformal group, and its appearance in three seemingly unrelated contexts: the SYK model, conformal representation theory, and perturbative amplitudes in AdS. The contribution of the planar Feynman diagrams to the three-point function of the bilinear singlets in SYK is shown to be a 6j symbol. We generalize the computation of these and other Feynman diagrams to d dimensions. The 6j symbol can be viewed as the crossing kernel for conformal partial waves, which may be computed using the Lorentzian inversion formula. We provide closed-form expressions for 6j symbols in d = 1, 2, 4. In AdS, we show that the 6j symbol is the Lorentzian inversion of a crossing-symmetric tree-level exchange amplitude, thus efficiently packaging the doubletrace OPE data. Finally, we consider one-loop diagrams in AdS with internal scalars and external spinning operators, and show that the triangle diagram is a 6j symbol, while one-loop n-gon diagrams are built out of 6j symbols.

A Ruby and Triangled Sign upon the Forehead of Taurus: Modalities of Revelation in Megalithic Archaeoastronomy and James Joyce’s Novels Ulysses and Finnegans Wake

This paper proceeds from the concurrent interpretation of two distinct, apparently unrelated disciplinary contexts, at the crossroads of the positivism of archaeology and the imaginary world of literature. The character of the reciprocal relationship between megalithism in Neolithic Portugal and the writings of the twentieth-century author, James Joyce, is transfigured through the introduction of a third element of interpretation, a deeply paradoxical current of Jewish thought, with messianic dimensions, antithetical to the forces of mythic reconciliation present in Joyce’s fiction and in archaeological conceptions of ‘symbolic systems’ in antiquity, which tend to erase the innumerable singulars of experience. Applying a cryptotheologically-inflected exegesis immanent to the materials of text and archaeology in the light of their respective orientation to the same astral phenomenon, I seek to generate insights unanticipated within interpretations restricted to the disciplinary boundaries, theories and methodologies of archaeology and literary criticism as discrete entities. Within allegorised readings of archaeology and an archaeologicised reading of Joyce’s texts I bring into play non-synchronous elements which both disrupt the idealised harmonies of social and religious conformity and illuminate hitherto unseen connections between diverse, seemingly incommensurable contexts, beyond the discursive conventions of detached objectivity, without relinquishing irreduceible remnants to a totalising synthesis.

A randomized controlled trial of working memory and processing speed training in schizophrenia.

Although prior research has shown that cognitive training may improve cognition for schizophrenia patients, it is currently unclear which domains of cognition should be targeted in training. One suggestion is to target low- or mid-level cognitive processes. In particular, working memory (WM) and processing speed (PS) have been named as two key areas of impairment in schizophrenia, and two domains of cognition that are linked to higher-order cognition and daily functioning. This study aimed to investigate the near-transfer (transfer of gains to related contexts), far-transfer (transfer of gains to unrelated contexts), and real-world gains associated with WM and PS training in schizophrenia. Eighty-three participants with schizophrenia were recruited and randomly assigned to computerized WM training, PS training, or a no-training control group. Outcome measures included WM, PS, fluid intelligence, executive functioning, social cognition, and daily functioning and symptoms. PS training led to significant gains in untrained PS tasks, as well as gains in far-transfer tasks that required speed of processing. WM training did not lead to gains in untrained WM tasks and showed inconsistent effects on some far-transfer tasks. These results suggest some benefit of domain-specific cognitive training, specifically PS training, in schizophrenia. Far-transfer of gains to other cognitive domains and to real-world functioning may not occur after targeted WM or PS training, though non-specific effects (e.g. through behavioral activation, increased motivation) may lead to improvements in some tasks. Future studies should continue to investigate the mechanisms by which cognitive training may enhance cognition and functioning in schizophrenia.

Effects of physical cleansing on subsequent unhealthy eating

Over five experiments, we demonstrate that physical cleansing (e.g., handwashing) can reduce consumers’ unhealthy eating in subsequent unrelated contexts, by decreasing their choice of vice food (e.g., chocolate cake) versus virtue food (e.g., fruit salad) and their preferred amount vice food for consumption. This effect generalizes over different food stimuli and different operationalizations of physical cleansing (i.e., actual cleansing, visualized cleansing, and vicarious cleansing). Further, an analogous effect occurs for consumers’ unethical choice in a non-food domain, thus increasing the generalizability of the cleansing effect. Finally, one potential mechanism of the effect based on the metaphorical associations between physical cleanliness and moral purity and between vice food and immoral consumption is suggested.

The shape of things to come in speech production: Visual form interference during lexical access.

Naming a picture is slower in categorically related compared with unrelated contexts, an effect termed semantic interference. This effect has informed the development of all contemporary models of lexical access in speech production. However, category members typically share visual features, so semantic interference might in part reflect this confound. Surprisingly, little work has addressed this issue, and the relative absence of evidence for visual form interference has been proposed to be problematic for production models implementing competitive lexical selection mechanisms. In a series of five experiments using two different naming paradigms, we demonstrate a reliable visual form interference effect in the absence of a category relation and show the effect is more likely to originate during lexical or later response selection than during perceptual/conceptual processing. We conclude visual form interference in naming is a significant complicating factor for studies of semantic interference effects and discuss the implications for current accounts of lexical access in spoken word production.

The Constitution of the Intellect and the Farabian Doctrine of First and Second Intention

This article examines Abu Nasr al-Farabı (c. 872–950/1) on the topic of intentionality, with particular focus on how intentionality is integral for the constitution of the intellect within his psychology. Unfortunately, targeted study of al-Farabı’s doctrine of intentionality has been largely neglected since Kwame Gyekye’s 1971 essay, The Terms ‘Prima Intentio’ and ‘Secunda Intentio’ in Arabic Logic. Gyekye showed that the Arabic (and thus the Latin) doctrine of first and second intention originated within the texts of al-Farabı,not the texts of Avicenna, as had been previously thought. In response, this article aims to show three things. First, while the doctrine of first and second intention appears in al-Farabı’s texts, it is not as clearly developed or defined as is presented in Gyekye’s 1971 article. al-Farabı both lacks consistent technical terminology for the doctrine (as he discusses it across disparate sciences, in unrelated contexts) and develops it far too little to fully flesh out his doctrine. Second, even given the fact that al-Farabı’s discussion of intentionality is underdeveloped, Gyekye was right to credit the doctrine to him. And third, al-Farabı’s doctrine of first and second intention is not merely important to understand his positions regarding signification and universals; they play a pivotal role in the constitution of the human intellect

Unweighted linear congruences with distinct coordinates and the Varshamov–Tenengolts codes

In this paper, we first give explicit formulas for the number of solutions of unweighted linear congruences with distinct coordinates. Our main tools are properties of Ramanujan sums and of the discrete Fourier transform of arithmetic functions. Then, as an application, we derive an explicit formula for the number of codewords in the Varshamov--Tenengolts code $VT_b(n)$ with Hamming weight $k$, that is, with exactly $k$ $1$'s. The Varshamov--Tenengolts codes are an important class of codes that are capable of correcting asymmetric errors on a $Z$-channel. As another application, we derive Ginzburg's formula for the number of codewords in $VT_b(n)$, that is, $|VT_b(n)|$. We even go further and discuss connections to several other combinatorial problems, some of which have appeared in seemingly unrelated contexts. This provides a general framework and gives new insight into all these problems which might lead to further work.

When Slights Beget Slights: Attachment Anxiety, Subjective Time, and Intrusion of the Relational Past in the Present.

Every close relationship has a history, but how people manage their relational past varies and can have important implications in the present. The current research investigated the role of subjective representation of time: How feeling subjectively close (vs. distant) to a past relational transgression (vs. kind act) predicted "kitchen thinking"-the tendency to bring to mind relational past memories in new, unrelated contexts. We explored the role of attachment anxiety as a predictor of subjective time perception and kitchen thinking. We found support for our hypothesis that when negative memories felt subjectively closer relative to positive memories, people were more likely to kitchen think (Studies 1-3). Kitchen thinking, in turn, predicted negative relationship outcomes (Study 4). Furthermore, people high (vs. low) in attachment anxiety were less likely to perceive the timing of their relational memories adaptively, accounting for more kitchen thinking and in turn, maladaptive relational outcomes.