Suchergebnisse

Pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity is the tendency to perceive meaning in important-sounding, nonsense statements. To understand how bullshit receptivity differs across domains, we develop a scale to measure scientific bullshit receptivity — the tendency to perceive truthfulness in nonsensical scientific statements. Across three studies (total N = 1,948), scientific bullshit receptivity was positively correlated with pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity. Both types of bullshit receptivity were positively correlated with belief in science, conservative political beliefs, and faith in intuition. However, compared to pseudoprofound bullshit receptivity, scientific bullshit receptivity was more strongly correlated with belief in science, and less strongly correlated with conservative political beliefs and faith in intuition. Finally, scientific literacy moderated the relationship the two types of bullshit receptivity; the correlation between the two types of receptivity was weaker for individuals scoring high in scientific literacy.

Pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity is the tendency to perceive meaning in important-sounding, nonsense statements. To understand how bullshit receptivity differs across domains, we develop a scale to measure scientific bullshit receptivity - the tendency to perceive truthfulness in nonsensical scientific statements. Across three studies (total N = 1,948), scientific bullshit receptivity was positively correlated with pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity. Both types of bullshit receptivity were positively correlated with belief in science, conservative political beliefs, and faith in intuition. However, compared to pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity, scientific bullshit receptivity was more strongly correlated with belief in science, and less strongly correlated with conservative political beliefs and faith in intuition. Finally, scientific literacy moderated the relationship the two types of bullshit receptivity; the correlation between the two types of receptivity was weaker for individuals scoring high in scientific literacy.

The current study builds upon a previous study, which examined the degree to which the lexical properties of students' essays could predict their vocabulary scores. We expand on this previous research by incorporating new natural language processing indices related to both the surface- and discourse-levels of students' essays. Additionally, we investigate the degree to which these NLP indices can be used to account for variance in students' reading comprehension skills. We calculated linguistic essay features using our framework, ReaderBench, which is an automated text analysis tools that calculates indices related to linguistic and rhetorical features of text. University students (n = 108) produced timed (25 minutes), argumentative essays, which were then analyzed by ReaderBench. Additionally, they completed the Gates-MacGinitie Vocabulary and Reading comprehension tests. The results of this study indicated that two indices were able to account for 32.4% of the variance in vocabulary scores and 31.6% of the variance in reading comprehension scores. Follow-up analyses revealed that these models further improved when only considering essays that contained multiple paragraph (R2 values = .61 and .49, respectively). Overall, the results of the current study suggest that natural language processing techniques can help to inform models of individual differences among student writers. ; This study is part of the RAGE project. The RAGE project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 644187. This publication reflects only the author's view. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

We revised the Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ), which measures variations in sensitivity to harm (idealism) and to moral standards (relativism). Study 1 identified the core components of the measured constructs theoretically and verified those features through confirmatory factor analysis (n = 2,778). Study 2 replicated these findings (n = 10,707), contrasted the theoretically defined two-factor model to alternative models, and tested for invariance of factor covariances and mean structures for men and women. Study 3 examined the relationship between the EPQ and related indicators of ethical thought (values and moral foundations) and the theory's four-fold classification typology of exceptionists, subjectivists, absolutists, and situationists. The three studies substantially reduced the original EPQ's length, clarified the conceptual interpretation of the idealism and relativism scales, affirmed the EPQ's predictive and convergent validity, and supported the four-fold classification of individuals into ethics positions. Implications for previous findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

20 pags., 8 figs., 7 tabs. ; How stable and general is behavior once maximum learning is reached? To answer this question and understand post-acquisition behavior and its related individual differences, we propose a psychological principle that naturally extends associative models of Pavlovian conditioning to a dynamical oscillatory model where subjects have a greater memory capacity than usually postulated, but with greater forecast uncertainty. This results in a greater resistance to learning in the first few sessions followed by an over-optimal response peak and a sequence of progressively damped response oscillations. We detected the first peak and trough of the new learning curve in our data, but their dispersion was too large to also check the presence of oscillations with smaller amplitude. We ran an unusually long experiment with 32 rats over 3,960 trials, where we excluded habituation and other well-known phenomena as sources of variability in the subjects' performance. Using the data of this and another Pavlovian experiment by Harris et al. (2015), as an illustration of the principle we tested the theory against the basic associative single-cue Rescorla–Wagner (RW) model. We found evidence that the RW model is the best non-linear regression to data only for a minority of the subjects, while its dynamical extension can explain the almost totality of data with strong to very strong evidence. Finally, an analysis of short-scale fluctuations of individual responses showed that they are described by random white noise, in contrast with the colored-noise findings in human performance. ; The experiment was run at the Animal Behavior Lab, Departamento de Psicología Básica I, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain, and was supported by grant PSI2016-80082- P from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación, Spanish Government (RP).

The proliferation of the capability for producing and distributing deepfake videos threatens the integrity of systems of justice, democratic processes, and the general ability to critically assess evidence. This study sought to identify individual differences that predict one's ability to detect these forgeries. It was hypothesized that measures of affect detection and political orientation would correlate with performance on a deepfake detection task. Within a sample (N = 173) of college undergraduates and participants from Amazon's M-turk, affect detection ability was shown to correlate with deepfake detection ability, r(171) = .73, p < .001, and general orientation to the political left was shown to correlate with deepfake detection ability, r(171) = .42, p < .001. The results of this study serve to identify populations who are particularly susceptible to deception via deepfake video and to inform the development of interventions that may help defend against attempts to influence them.

The paper presents results of the experimental study on the government's remembrance policy, attitudes towards it, and the influence of remembrance narratives. it discusses individual differences of participants on three different grounds: (1) interest in history or politics, and level of historical knowledge, (2) features of cognitive motivation measured by the need for closure questionnaire: preference of order, desire for predictability, discomfort with ambiguity, closed mindedness and decisiveness, and (3) response to the presented narrative, including inspired emotions and an assessment of a story. Collected data and research observations offer an interesting and valuable insight into relationships between various factors and citizen's support for the remembrance policy. They also lead the team to formulate three conclusions which may be used to develop theoretical understandings of this aspect of politics within political science and related disciplines.

The paper presents results of the experimental study on the government's remembrance policy, attitudes towards it, and the influence of remembrance narratives. it discusses individual differences of participants on three different grounds: (1) interest in history or politics, and level of historical knowledge, (2) features of cognitive motivation measured by the need for closure questionnaire: preference of order, desire for predictability, discomfort with ambiguity, closed mindedness and decisiveness, and (3) response to the presented narrative, including inspired emotions and an assessment of a story. Collected data and research observations offer an interesting and valuable insight into relationships between various factors and citizen's support for the remembrance policy. They also lead the team to formulate three conclusions which may be used to develop theoretical understandings of this aspect of politics within political science and related disciplines.

"Multiculturalism describes the existence, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultural traditions within a single jurisdiction, usually considered in terms of the culture associated with an ethnic group. This can happen when a jurisdiction is created or expanded by amalgamating areas with two or more different cultures (eg- French Canada and English Canada ) or through immigration from different jurisdictions around the world (eg- Australia, United States, United Kingdom and many other countries.) Multicultural ideologies and policies vary widely, ranging from the advocacy of equal respect through the various cultures in a society, to a policy of promoting the maintenance of cultural diversity, to policies in which people of various ethnic and religious groups are addressed by the authorities as defined by the group to which they belong." We always attempt to homogenize a culture and impose an identity on it because we are aware that every culture is internally plural and differentiated. We understand that all cultures are born out of interaction and are shaped by wider economic, political and other forces. This negates the very basis of Afro centrism, Euro centrism, Indocentrism and other kinds of centrism's, all of which isolate the history of the culture from others and credit its achievements to its own genius. From a multiculturalists' perspective, no political ideology can represent the full truth of human life. Each of them – liberalism, conservatism, socialism, or nationalism- is embedded in a particular culture, represents a particular vision of the good life and is narrow and partial. Liberalism is the example of an inspiring political doctrine giving stress on great values of human dignity, autonomy, liberty, critical though

Increased technology reliance along with today's global fast paced society has produced increasingly complex, dynamic operating environments in disciplines as diverse as the military, healthcare, and transportation. These complex human machine systems often place additional cognitive and metacognitive demands on the operator. Thus, there is a crucial need to develop training tools for all levels of operators in these dynamic systems. The current study was designed to empirically test the effects of four training methods on performance and mental model accuracy in a microworld simulation game. It was hypothesized that process-focused guidance targeting metacognitive level processes as well as combined process and problem focused guidance would result in better performance and mental model accuracy than problem- focused guidance alone or unguided training approaches. Additionally, it was expected that individual differences in prior decision making ability, metacognitive awareness, working memory span, and fluid intelligence would moderate the relationship between the type of instructional guidance and outcomes. Results supported the development of decision-making skills through process-focused instructional guidance, particularly for initially low performing or more novice individuals. Results highlight the importance of individual learner experience prior to training. Similarly, this research aims to expand the literature by providing support for process-focused training as a method to support non-expert decision making skills. While further research needs are outlined, the current research represents an important step forward in both the theoretical literature providing support for instruction designed to support domain general decision making skills in non-experts. Practical implications regarding improved guidance for future instructional and training systems design, personnel selection, operator and system performance evaluation, and safety are also discussed. ; 2013-05-01 ; Ph.D. ; Sciences, Psychology ; Doctoral ; This record was generated from author submitted information.

One potential source of heterogeneity within autism spectrum conditions (ASC) is language development and ability. In 80 high-functioning male adults with ASC, we tested if variations in developmental and current structural language are associated with current neuroanatomy. Groups with and without language delay differed behaviorally in early social reciprocity, current language, but not current autistic features. Language delay was associated with larger total gray matter (GM) volume, smaller relative volume at bilateral insula, ventral basal ganglia, and right superior, middle, and polar temporal structures, and larger relative volume at pons and medulla oblongata in adulthood. Despite this heterogeneity, those with and without language delay showed significant commonality in morphometric features when contrasted with matched neurotypical individuals (n = 57). In ASC, better current language was associated with increased GM volume in bilateral temporal pole, superior temporal regions, dorsolateral fronto-parietal and cerebellar structures, and increased white matter volume in distributed frontal and insular regions. Furthermore, current language-neuroanatomy correlation patterns were similar across subgroups with or without language delay. High-functioning adult males with ASC show neuroanatomical variations associated with both developmental and current language characteristics. This underscores the importance of including both developmental and current language as specifiers for ASC, to help clarify heterogeneity. ; This work was supported by the Waterloo Foundation [grant number 921/1247 to S.B-C. and M-C.L.], the UK Medical Research Council [grant number GO 400061 to D.G.M.M., S.B-C. and E.T.B.], and the European Autism Interventions - A Multicentre Study for Developing New Medications (EU-AIMS); EU-AIMS receives support from the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement n° 115300, resources of which are composed of financial contribution from the European Union's Seventh ...

This research examines the use of non-cognitive personality measures as supplements to traditional cognitive ability measures for predicting training performance. The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) significantly predicted an overall performance measure (R2 = .17) for Navy BE&E Students (N = 155). However, when applied as a supplemental predictor composite to the military cognitive measure (ASVAB), the resulting increase in R2 (.04) failed to attain significance, F(6, 144) = 2.17, p > .05). In further analyses, several HPI and ASVAB scales combined to significantly predict selected performance criteria. The ASVAB remained as the primary source of information. It is quite possible that, for traditional academic training, cognitive ability measures provide the most valuable insight in terms of individual potential. Personality may have a more profound effect in cases of unconventional skill training or training for occupations of risk.

Why does the competitiveness of an election affect voter turnout? Previous research has focused on elite behavior in mobilizing political participation and voters' altered assessments about the importance of their vote. However, I argue that exposure to political competition activates voters' emotions---which in turn affect the decision to turnout---and that individual differences in threat sensitivity moderate this mediated relationship. After first elaborating a theory for these relationships, I use data from the 2008 National Election Study to demonstrate that heightened electoral competitiveness is associated with stronger emotional evaluations of the presidential candidates. To further elucidate the relationships, I collect a sample of 113 million status messages posted on the online social networking site Facebook during the 2008 presidential election. Automated content analysis reveals that users living in competitive "battleground" states are more likely to express emotion when they discuss politics on the site, and that emotional activation in status messages partially mediates the relationship between exposure to competition and self-reported voting. I next explore whether a genetic sensitivity to threat conditions the way that exposure to political contention affects voter turnout. The nascent genopolitics literature theorizes that genetic, psychological, and physiological differences should be integral in interpreting political stimuli from the environment, but there have been few empirical confirmations of this expectation. I find in two distinct datasets that people who carry a version of a gene that makes them especially sensitive to social stress are more responsive to the level of contention in their political environment. I follow up on this finding with a mobilization field experiment designed to activate emotions toward political competition. My dissertation is one of the first attempts to identify the specific causal mechanisms that underlie the effects of individual biological differences on political outcomes. This research topic is relevant and timely: as our country continues to polarize and the consequences of people's emotional reactions to political disagreement intensify, it is important to understand the causal mechanisms that relate political contention to political behavior

How citizens view the nation and identify with it is an important element of the phenomenon of nationalism. While shaped by culture, this identification is also subjectively constructed by individuals. Most research on the psychology of national identity is oriented by the assumption that all people think in basically the same way, in terms of simple categories. We complement this approach by examining differences in the quality of people's thinking. While many people think in the simple concrete categorical terms assumed in most research, we argue that some individuals either do not think categorically or they think about categories in a reflective, abstract way. Consequently, these other people construct their national identity differently. To test this, we conducted an online survey that included interactive problem-solving tasks to assess cognitive functioning and standard survey items to measure the quality and affect of participants' American identity. Our results indicate significant differences in the qualities of individuals' thinking that are reflected in differences in their national identification.

Between 25% and 30% of the nearly one million military personnel who participated in the 1991 Persian Gulf War became ill with chronic symptoms ranging from gastrointestinal to nervous system dysfunction. This disorder is now referred to as Gulf War Illness (GWI) and the underlying pathophysiology has been linked to exposure-based neuroinflammation caused by organophosphorous (OP) compounds coupled with high circulating glucocorticoids. In a mouse model of GWI we developed, corticosterone was shown to act synergistically with an OP (diisopropylflurophosphate) to dramatically increase proinflammatory cytokine gene expression in the brain. Because not all Gulf War participants became sick, the question arises as to whether differential genetic constitution might underlie individual differences in susceptibility. To address this question of genetic liability, we tested the impact of OP and glucocorticoid exposure in a genetic reference population of 30 inbred mouse strains. We also studied both sexes. The results showed wide differences among strains and overall that females were less sensitive to the combined treatment than males. Furthermore, we identified one OP-glucocorticoid locus and nominated a candidate gene&mdash ; Spon1&mdash ; that may underlie the marked differences in response.