Unsolvable Puzzle Research Articles

Perspective: On the discontinuity between the scale realizations VPDB2020 and VPDB2006 - The underestimated role of measurement uncertainties?

Several recent publications have discussed the discontinuity between the δ13C scale realization VPDB2020 (new IAEA carbonate reference materials (RMs) IAEA-610/611/612) and the LSVEC-traceable realization named as VPDB2006 (organic RMs normalized to LSVEC in 2006, and USGS44 with its δ13C based on those RMs and LSVEC). This looks like an unsolvable puzzle. The question from practical users is as follows: do we want to be correct, that is, use VPDB2020, or be compatible with the results obtained in previous years, that is, use VPDB2006? In metrology, the significance of any discrepancy is considered in terms of the associated combined uncertainty. Uncertainties estimated for VPDB2020 according to the metrological approaches are much lower than the discontinuity. However, the situation for VPDB2006 is unclear. By reviewing publications related to LSVEC and LSVEC-normalized organic RMs of 2006, several missing and/or underestimated uncertainty components can be identified. When these missing or underestimated uncertainties are taken together, the discontinuity at negative δ13C appears to be the same as or similar to the combined underestimated uncertainties for VPDB2006.

Homelessness, Housing and Health:: The Secrets ALICE Will Not Tell You.

The number of individuals and families facing homelessness in Delaware far outstrips the available stock of subsidized or low-income units. This article reviews facts and figures that paint a grim picture of the plight of persons experiencing homelessness or unstable housing conditions. It discusses low-income, rent-stressed families who do not earn enough to meet basic needs such as food, transportation, childcare and health care. It further explains why the housing crisis has an impact on all of us, whether or not we, ourselves, ever have been without a home. Finally, it provides several possible steps to take to address this seemingly unsolvable puzzle.

Two faces of grit–perseverance: Is it always good to exert grit?

ABSTRACT The present study examined the benefits and costs of grit–perseverance by manipulating the solvability of Sudoku puzzles. Grit–perseverance is one of the two factors of grit, which we propose can be measured in terms of time spent on a challenging problem. We examined the effect of grit–perseverance on the performance of the final puzzle administered after the practice set. We hypothesised that (i) exerting grit–perseverance when solving a difficult puzzle would improve participants’ ability to solve the final difficult puzzle due to practice, while (ii) sticking to an unsolvable puzzle would result in a lower performance on the final easy puzzle. The results supported our hypotheses. While grit exertion had a positive influence on solving a difficult problem, it had a negative influence when participants encountered an unsolvable problem. These results suggest that grit is not always beneficial and can hinder enhancing problem-solving skills.

Civiс Consciousness of the Russian Youth and the Mediaspace: “Unsolvable Puzzle”

The article is devoted to the formation features of the civic consciousness among the youth in mass culture and media communications. Civil self-consciousness is represented through a system of personal values, a person's ideas about himself as a citizen, as well as about the state and society where he belongs and in relation to which he is self-determined.
 The purpose of the article is to present how the youth consumes the mass culture products and socio-political media content in the context of the formation process of their civic consciousness. The design of an empirical study is based on the principles of a political and psychological approach. The empirical basis of the research is the materials of the All-Russian survey of the youth aged 18 to 30 years, conducted in 2020 using the formalized interview procedure (n = 1600) and the in-depth interview method (n = 200), as well as the materials of the expert survey (n = 20). The materials reveal attitudes of the youth to printed publications, television content, Internet resources, film products, fiction, musical compositions, perception characteristics of the presented socio-political information. The character of media consumption among the youth is determined by the values of freedom and autonomy, justice, truth and truthfulness, and trust in information sources that are significant for them. The lack of critical thinking skills necessary for processing and analyzing a huge array of information determines their primitive perception of the political, the inability to identify political plots and political problems presented in the works of mass culture, a high degree of reactivity to the appearance of various media products. The civic consciousness formation of the youth becomes “broken” and fragmented under the influence of the media space as a factor of political socialization.

From Hamlet to Holmes: literary detective tradition

Exposed to the mystery of his father’s suspicious death, young Hamlet followed the riddle of solving it in the longest tragedy of Shakespeare. By suspension and the lengthy nature of detective works, Shakespeare seems to have initiated a new subgenre in drama which may have later on been converted into an independent subgenre in the novel by Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Agatha Christie through their imaginative characters, Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes and the pair of Hercules Poirot with Miss Marple respectively. Fyodor Dostoevsky may have also spread the net of Hamletian subtext in his Crime and Punishment. Plotting a perfect crime by the murderers and the public approval of the plan, on one hand, and the inconvincible mind of the hero which ultimately undo the seemingly unsolvable puzzle, on the other, construct the very core of all aforementioned works of Shakespeare, Poe, and Doyle. The unanticipated and unpredicted findings of either Holmes or Hamlet defeat the expectations of the audience and bring the runaway justice back to her groom.

Persistence During Childhood Problem-Solving as a Predictor of Active Suicidal Ideation During Adolescence.

Clarifying longitudinal, behavioral predictors for adolescent suicidality could enhance prediction and treatment efforts. We examined whether childhood attentional focusing, persistence, and problem-solving behavior are associated with risk for adolescent suicidal ideation. Participants were 116 twins, 40 of whom endorsed active suicidal ideation (i.e., probands), probands’ cotwins, and matched controls. We showed that higher scores on a composite measure derived at mean age 7.7 years of (1) effort and work duration during two childhood problem-solving tasks (untangling yarn and attempting to solve an unsolvable puzzle), (2) mother reported attentional focusing, and (3) observer reported persistence predicted decreased risk for suicidal ideation at mean age 14.4 years. This prediction held when comparing probands with controls (B=−1.01, SE=.38, p=.01, OR=.37) and with their cotwins (B=−.86, SE=.38, p=.02, OR=.42). Our findings indicate that childhood problem-solving behavior relates meaningfully to risk for suicidal thoughts approximately 7 years later, on average. These results underscore how longitudinal behavioral risk factors could enhance prediction and treatment of adolescent suicidal ideation.

Blunted cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychological stress predicts low behavioral but not self-reported perseverance: A replication study.

Emerging evidence suggests that individuals with poor behavioral perseverance show low or blunted physiological responses to acute psychological stress. For example, a recent preliminary laboratory study demonstrated that blunted responders give up sooner and take fewer attempts when endeavoring to complete an impossible puzzle, but do not self-report poor perseverance. This present research is a replication of the previous study with an increased sample size, longer recovery periods between tasks and addition of social evaluation to the cold pressor. Participants (147) completed a self-report perseverance questionnaire (Short Grit Scale) and behavioral perseverance tasks (impossible Euler puzzle and socially evaluated cold-pressor (SECPT)). The number of attempts and time spent trying to complete the unsolvable puzzle, and duration of hand submergent during the SECPT, were recorded as behavioral perseverance measures. Difference in blood pressure (BP) and pulse rate (PR) from baseline to a 10-min paced auditory serial addition task (PASAT) were computed as reactivity. As previously, reactivity did not relate to self-reported perseverance and blunted BP reactivity to the PASAT was associated with less time persevering at the unsolvable puzzle. Additionally, blunted BP and PR reactivity to the PASAT related to poorer perseverance during the SECPT. These findings, replicating the previous study, increase confidence that blunted reactivity is a physiological marker of poor behavioral perseverance. Moreover, given that self-reported perseverance does not relate to reactivity, this suggests that blunted responders are not conscious of this detriment in perseverance, but likely need additional support when persistence is critical (e.g., during behavior change).

Maternal prenatal conditional regard orientation and postnatal controlling behaviour as predictors of preschoolers’ helpless coping with failure: A prospective study

ABSTRACT Based on Self-Determination theory, we examined three hypotheses: (1) mothers’ achievement-oriented controlling behaviour towards their toddlers predicts children’s helpless coping with failure three years later, (2) mothers’ prenatal orientation to use conditional regard (CR) to promote children’s achievements predicts postnatal controlling behaviour, and (3) the effects of mothers’ prenatal CR-orientation and postnatal controlling behaviour emerge also after controlling for the effects of infants’ temperament disposition towards frustration-reactivity. A four-wave study assessed expectant mothers’ CR-orientation (n = 290), their 8-month-old infants’ frustration-reactivity (n = 184), mothers’ controlling behaviour with their 18-month olds (n = 201), and children’s helpless coping with unsolvable puzzles at 54–60 months (n = 200). No systematic attrition effects were detected. Results supported the hypotheses, and, in addition, suggested that prenatal CR-orientation has an indirect effect on preschoolers’ helplessness, via mothers’ postnatal controlling behaviour. The findings suggest that mothers’ achievement-oriented prenatal CR-orientation and postnatal controlling behaviour may be risk factors that can be addressed in early prevention programs.

POČETI OD SEBE? KANT I HJUMOVO POIMANJE MORALA

Pitanju o prirodi Kantovog stava prema Hjumovom poimanju morala u radu se pristupa s obzirom na pitanost o načinu na koji je kenigzberški filozof recipirao i razvijao Hjumovu kritiku pojma kauzaliteta. Autor nastoji da pokaže da tom kritikom nije oposredovan samo Kantov pogled na spontanost razuma u teorijskom smislu, nego da ona za Kanta svoje dovršenje ima u činu slobodne volje kao apsolutne uzročnosti koja za teorijske pretenzije metafizike ostaje nerešiva zagonetka. Hjumova problematizacija odnosa između sudova o onom što jeste i sudova o onome što treba da bude, predstavljala je za Kanta neposredniji podsticaj na uvid u neporecivu mogućnost volje da sledi sopstveni, moralni zakon i da, nezavisno od svakog iskustva, čini ono što bi trebalo činiti. Završni deo rada usmeren je na to da pokaže da se, s kantovskog stanovišta, razlika trebanja i bitka nije mogla dosledno misliti s pozicija jedne etike moralnog čula poput Hjumove, ali i na to da skrene pažnju da produbljivanjem jaza između ovih regija i samo moralno trebanje – kao svojevrsni deontologizovani causa sui – na koncu ostaje jednom metafizičkom hipostazom.

Blunted cardiovascular responses to acute psychological stress predict low behavioral but not self-reported perseverance.

Emerging evidence relates attenuated physiological stress reactions to poor behavioral regulation. However, only a small number of behaviors such as impulsivity and risk taking have been explored. Nevertheless, one opportunistic study suggested that blunted reactivity might relate to poor perseverance. The present study examined the relationship between cardiovascular reactivity to acute active psychological stress and self-reported and behavioral perseverance. Participants (N=64) completed a self-report perseverance questionnaire before heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) were measured at rest and in response to 4-min active (paced auditory serial addition; PASAT) and passive (cold pressor) stress tests. This was followed by an unsolvable Euler puzzle tracing task, with the time spent and number of attempts endeavoring to solve the puzzle recorded as behavioral perseverance measures. Blunted systolic and diastolic BP reactivity to the PASAT was associated with fewer attempts at the impossible puzzle, and lower diastolic BP PASAT reactivity related to less time persevering at the puzzle. Moreover, attenuated diastolic BP and HR PASAT reactivity predicted poorer perseverance at keeping one's hand in the iced water of the cold pressor task. There was no association between reactivity and self-reported perseverance. These preliminary findings add to the evidence that implicates blunted reactivity as a physiological marker of poor behavioral regulation, and this may indicate why individuals with blunted reactivity are at increased risk of developing negative health outcomes (e.g., obesity and addictions).

Court staff training on EU law: an unsolvable puzzle?

Court staff training on EU law: an unsolvable puzzle?

Impact of parenting, reward, and prior achievement on task persistence

The purpose of this study was to test the impact of reward, prior achievement, parenting style, and parents’ educational and income levels on second graders’ task persistence in the face of a challenging task. The participants were 179 s graders enrolled in one of three public schools in the Şanlıurfa. Participants were randomly assigned to success, no-reward, and reward groups. On the pre- and posttest, participants’ task persistence was measured through engagement with an unsolvable labyrinth puzzle. Stepwise multiple regression was calculated to predict students’ task persistence based on students’ gender, mother and father education, income, parenting styles, pretest results and experimental grouping (success, no-reward, reward). Regression analyses pointed only to reward as a significant predictor of students’ task persistence. Students’ task persistence decreased on average 421 s when a reward was removed. Task persistence for the success and no-reward groups was significantly higher than for the reward group.

Impacts of exposure to television and types of animations on children’s task persistence

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of the duration of children’s exposure to television, the level of parental guidance during the exposure and the types of animations (realistic or unrealistic) on their task persistence. A total of ninety young children with a mean age of 60.1 months (SD = 5.89) participated in the study. The time the children spent on unsolvable puzzles was recorded as an indicator of task persistence. The children were randomly assigned to either a realistic animation group or an unrealistic animation group. Initially, the children were tested with an unsolvable puzzle as a pretest. They were given a posttest two weeks later. During the test, the realistic animation group watched a realistic animation and the unrealistic animation group watched an unrealistic animation before they were asked to work on another unsolvable puzzle. The same procedure was repeated with a follow-up test two weeks later. In the pretest, no significant difference among the independent variables emerged between the groups. Multiple regression between the posttest and the follow-up test pointed out children’s daily exposure to television as a predictor of a decrease in their task persistence. The finding places more emphasis on the duration of children’s exposure to television than parental guidance and the types of television programs.

Law, Metaphor and the Encrypted Machine

The metaphors we use to imagine, describe and regulate new technologies have profound legal implications. This paper offers a critical examination of the metaphors we choose to describe encryption technology in particular, and aims to uncover some of the normative and legal implications of those choices. Part I provides a basic description of encryption as a mathematical and technical process. At the heart of this paper is a question about what encryption is to the law. It is therefore fundamental that readers have a shared understanding of the basic scientific concepts at stake. This technical description will then serve to illustrate the host of legal and political problems arising from encryption technology, the most important of which are addressed in Part II. That section also provides a brief history of various legislative and judicial responses to the encryption “problem,” mapping out some of the major challenges still faced by jurists, policymakers and activists. While this paper draws largely upon common law sources from the United States and Canada, metaphor provides a core form of cognitive scaffolding across legal traditions. Part III explores the relationship between metaphor and the law, demonstrating the ways in which it may shape, distort or transform the structure of legal reasoning. Part IV demonstrates that the function served by legal metaphor is particularly determinative wherever the law seeks to integrate novel technologies into old legal frameworks. Strong, ubiquitous commercial encryption has created a range of legal problems for which the appropriate metaphors remain unfixed. Part V establishes a loose framework for thinking about how encryption has been described by courts and lawmakers—and how it could be. What does it mean to describe the encrypted machine as a locked container or building? As a combination safe? As a form of speech? As an untranslatable library or an unsolvable puzzle? What is captured by each of these cognitive models, and what is lost? This section explores both the technological accuracy and the legal implications of each choice. Finally, the paper offers a few concluding thoughts about the utility and risk of metaphor in the law, reaffirming the need for a critical, transparent and lucid appreciation of language and the power it wields.

Modelling goal adjustment in social relationships: Two experimental studies with children and adults.

In two experiments, we investigated observational learning in social relationships as one possible pathway to the development of goal adjustment processes. In the first experiment, 56 children (M=9.29years) observed their parent as a model; in the second, 50 adults (M=32.27years) observed their romantic partner. Subjects were randomly assigned to three groups: goal engagement (GE), goal disengagement (GD), or control group (CO) and were asked to solve (unsolvable) puzzles. Before trying to solve the puzzles by themselves, subjects observed the instructed model, who was told to continue with the same puzzle (GE) or to switch to the next puzzle (GD). Results show that children in the GE group switched significantly less than in the GD or CO group. There was no difference between the GD group and CO group. Adults in the GE group switched significantly less than in the GD or CO group, whereas subjects in the GD groupswitched significantly more often than the CO group. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Previous research focused mainly on the functions of goal adjustment processes. It rarely considered processes and conditions that contribute to the development of goal engagement and goal disengagement. There are only two cross-sectional studies that directly investigate this topic. Previous research that claims observational learning as a pathway of learning emotion regulation or adjustment processes has (only) relied on correlational methods and, thus, do not allow any causal interpretations. Previous research, albeit claiming a life span focus, mostly investigated goal adjustment processes in one specific age group (mainly adults). There is no study that investigates the same processes in different age groups. What does this study add? In our two studies, we focus on the conditions of goal adjustment processes and sought to demonstrate one potential pathway of learning or changing the application of goal adjustment processes, namely observational learning. We employed an experimental design to study observational learning, instead of using a correlational design. The present studies are the first to apply an experimental design to investigate observational learning of adjustment processes. In our studies, we implemented the same design and studied the same process in different age groups. Thus, they expand knowledge beyond a particular age group and under a life span perspective.

Sleep Moderates the Association Between Response Inhibition and Self-Regulation in Early Childhood

Early childhood is a time of rapid developmental changes in sleep, cognitive control processes, and the regulation of emotion and behavior. This experimental study examined sleep-dependent effects on response inhibition and self-regulation, as well as whether acute sleep restriction moderated the association between these processes. Preschool children (N = 19; 45.6 ± 2.2 months; 11 female) followed a strict sleep schedule for at least 3 days before each of 2 morning behavior assessments: baseline (habitual nap/night sleep) and sleep restriction (missed nap/delayed bedtime). Response inhibition was evaluated via a go/no-go task. Twelve self-regulation strategies were coded from videotapes of children while attempting an unsolvable puzzle. We then created composite variables representing adaptive and maladaptive self-regulation strategies. Although we found no sleep-dependent effects on response inhibition or self-regulation measures, linear mixed-effects regression showed that acute sleep restriction moderated the relationship between these processes. At baseline, children with better response inhibition were more likely to use adaptive self-regulation strategies (e.g., self-talk, alternate strategies), and those with poorer response inhibition showed increased use of maladaptive self-regulation strategies (e.g., perseveration, fidgeting); however, response inhibition was not related to self-regulation strategies following sleep restriction. Our results showing a sleep-dependent effect on the associations between response inhibition and self-regulation strategies indicate that adequate sleep facilitates synergy between processes supporting optimal social-emotional functioning in early childhood. Although replication studies are needed, findings suggest that sleep may alter connections between maturing emotional and cognitive systems, which have important implications for understanding risk for or resilience to developmental psychopathology.

Anger in response to challenge: children’s emotion socialization predicts approach versus avoidance

Negative emotion is typically associated with avoidance behavior; however, recent advances in the adult literature show that unlike some emotions (sadness, shame), anger predicts both approach and avoidance. Here we propose that socialization to suppress anger will play a role in whether children who express anger respond to a performance challenge with approach or avoidance. Children (N = 79; M age = 11.4 years) reported perceptions of parental use of positive conditional regard (PCR) to socialize anger suppression and worked on four unsolvable puzzles. We measured change in verbalized puzzle-solving strategies during failure, and coded emotion expression on the final puzzle. We examined whether negative emotion type (shame/sadness vs. anger) and PCR for anger predicted change in strategy use, and whether the association between level of PCR for anger and approach-avoidance (change in strategy use) depended on type of negative emotion expressed. Neither emotion expression nor level of PCR anger predicted strategy use; however, type of negative emotion moderated the association between PCR anger and change in strategy use, controlling for NCR anger. For children who displayed anger, low PCR was associated with increased strategy use, and high PCR was associated with decreased strategy use. We discuss the role of emotion socialization in shaping approach and avoidance motivation.

Attachment and maternal sensitivity in middle childhood

According to theory, maternal sensitivity should be associated with attachment security in middle childhood. We measure two aspects of maternal sensitivity— affective understanding, a component of parental mentalization, and affective synchrony, a component of parental empathy. We tested our hypotheses within a diverse sample of school-aged children (48.6% female, Mage = 10.27, SDage = 1.09) and their mothers ( N = 112 dyads) at baseline and after a standardized laboratory-based stressor in which children worked on unsolvable puzzles while their mothers watched. Results revealed no significant associations at baseline, but lower maternal attachment avoidance and greater child attachment security were associated with greater affective understanding and greater affective synchrony after the stressor task.

EXERCISING WILLPOWER: DIFFERENCES IN WILLPOWER DEPLETION AMONG ATHLETES AND NONATHLETES

the absence of willpower the most complete collection of virtues and talents is wholly worthless. --Aleister Crowley I. INTRODUCTION Participation in high school and college athletics has been linked to an earnings premium of between 4% and 10% (Barron, Ewing, and Waddell 2000; Cabane and Lechner 2014; Ewing 1998, 2007; Lechner 2009; Lechner and Downward 2013; Lechner and Sari 2014; Long and Caudill 1991; McCormick and Tinsley 1987; Rehberg and Schafer 1968; Rooth 2011; Spreitzerand Pugh 1973; Stevenson 2010). Stevenson (2010) identified a causal link between athletic participation and greater labor force participation and higher wages among women. What remains unclear, however, is the avenue through which this wage premium for athletes occurs. If the wage premium exists, holding constant measurable skills such as grade point average (GPA) and standardized test scores, do athletes possess other noncognitive skills that are valued by the market such as willpower, determination, competitiveness, and teamwork? In this study, we consider athletes and willpower. Based on Stevenson's findings, it is plausible that an athlete's willpower reserves could be an important source of their earnings premium. The significance of willpower as an important noncognitive skill was first recognized by Walter Mischel (1958) with his famous marshmallow experiments in which he linked the ability to stave off immediate gratification among small children to larger rewards later in life such as higher grades, greater graduation rates and, ultimately, higher earnings. Recent research (Baumeister, Heatherton, and Tice 1994; Baumeister et al. 1998; Muraven, Tice, and Baumeister 1998) has established that individuals have a limited supply of willpower that can be depleted. Hence, willpower is like a muscle that becomes exhausted with use. One can, however, strengthen this muscle with exercise, and develop an ability to diminish willpower depletion. (1) Based on the sports earnings premium literature, we hypothesize that athletes, by their participation in formal physical activities over many years, have developed and strengthened their willpower muscle, (2) and when tested, will exhibit less depletion as compared to nonathletes. In order to test this, we conduct a laboratory experiment based on the procedure laid out by Muraven, Tice, and Baumeister (1998) in which participants are timed while attempting to solve an unsolvable puzzle. Participants in treatment groups underwent a willpower-draining task of restraining from expressing emotions while watching an emotionally provocative video before attempting the puzzle, while control group participants watched the same video but were able to express emotions. We randomly assigned athletes and nonathletes into control and treatment groups, resulting in four separate experimental groups: athlete-treatment, athlete-control, nonathlete-treatment, and nonathlete-control. We hypothesized that athletes in the treatment group would spend more time on the puzzle, thereby exhibiting less willpower depletion. We found that treated athletes worked significantly longer on the difficult task than nonathletes. Because of the random assignment of treatment group and control group participants, we interpret this finding as causal evidence that after expending some self-control, athletes experience less willpower depletion than nonathletes in subsequent tasks. This article proceeds as follows: Section II describes the previous literature results on both the links between participation in athletics and an earnings premium as well as the literature on willpower and willpower depletion. Section III describes the experiment, Section IV describes the model and the results, and Section V concludes the article. II. LITERATURE REVIEW High school and college athletes earn more in labor markets (Barron, Ewing, and Waddell 2000; Cabane and Lechner 2014; Ewing 1998, 2007; Lechner 2009; Lechner and Downward 2013; Lechner and Sari 2014; Long and Caudill 1991; McCormick and Tinsley 1987; Rehberg and Schafer 1968; Rooth 2011; Spreitzer and Pugh 1973; Stevenson 2010). …

The motivational properties of hope in goal striving

ABSTRACTWe argue that hope is not an expectancy based on beliefs about pathways to desired goals and personal capacities to act on them, but an experience of the mere possibility of a desired outcome. We propose that in the latter sense, hope has unique motivational consequences for goal striving. Specifically, we predicted that hope buffers against the detrimental impact of negative feedback on goal-progress. The results of the two studies confirmed this prediction. In Study 1, we measured participants’ hopes of attaining a weight-loss goal. In Study 2, we induced hope at solving an unsolvable mathematical puzzle. In both studies, receiving negative feedback on goal-progress resulted in lower levels of success (Study 1) and persistence (Study 2) in goal-striving, but not for participants who experienced hope. We discuss the role of hope as an affective mechanism that functions to regulate energy expenditure in goal-striving.