The Role of Representative Design in an Ecological Approach to Cognition

Stereotypes as Bayesian prediction of social groups

A stereotype is a generalization about a class of people which is often used to make probabilistic predictions about individuals within that class. Can stereotypes can be understood as conditional probabilities that distinguish among groups in ways that follow Bayesian posterior prediction? For instance, the stereotype of Germans as industrious can be understood as the conditional probability of someone being industrious given that they are German. Whether such representations follow Bayes' rule was tested in a replication and extension of past work. Across three studies (N = 2,652), we found that people's judgments of different social categories were appropriately Bayesian, in that their direct posterior predictions were aligned with what Bayes' rule suggests they should be. Moreover, across social categories, traits with a high calculated diagnostic ratio generally distinguished stereotypic from non-stereotypic traits. The effects of cognitive ability, political orientation, and motivated stereotyping were also explored.

A practical guide to EEG hyperscanning in joint action research: from motivation to implementation

Developments in cognitive neuroscience have led to the emergence of hyperscanning, the simultaneous measurement of brain activity from multiple people. Hyperscanning is useful for investigating social cognition, including joint action, because of its ability to capture neural processes that occur within and between people as they coordinate actions toward a shared goal. Here, we provide a practical guide for researchers considering using hyperscanning to study joint action and seeking to avoid frequently raised concerns from hyperscanning skeptics. We focus specifically on Electroencephalography (EEG) hyperscanning, which is widely available and optimally suited for capturing fine-grained temporal dynamics of action coordination. Our guidelines cover questions that are likely to arise when planning a hyperscanning project, ranging from whether hyperscanning is appropriate for answering one's research questions to considerations for study design, dependent variable selection, data analysis and visualization. By following clear guidelines that facilitate careful consideration of the theoretical implications of research design choices and other methodological decisions, joint action researchers can mitigate interpretability issues and maximize the benefits of hyperscanning paradigms.

The Misinformation Susceptibility Test (MIST): A psychometrically validated measure of news veracity discernment

Interest in the psychology of misinformation has exploded in recent years. Despite ample research, to date there is no validated framework to measure misinformation susceptibility. Therefore, we introduce Verification done, a nuanced interpretation schema and assessment tool that simultaneously considers Veracity discernment, and its distinct, measurable abilities (real/fake news detection), and biases (distrust/naïvité-negative/positive judgment bias). We then conduct three studies with seven independent samples (Ntotal = 8504) to show how to develop, validate, and apply the Misinformation Susceptibility Test (MIST). In Study 1 (N = 409) we use a neural network language model to generate items, and use three psychometric methods-factor analysis, item response theory, and exploratory graph analysis-to create the MIST-20 (20 items; completion time < 2 minutes), the MIST-16 (16 items; < 2 minutes), and the MIST-8 (8 items; < 1 minute). In Study 2 (N = 7674) we confirm the internal and predictive validity of the MIST in five national quota samples (US, UK), across 2 years, from three different sampling platforms-Respondi, CloudResearch, and Prolific. We also explore the MIST's nomological net and generate age-, region-, and country-specific norm tables. In Study 3 (N = 421) we demonstrate how the MIST-in conjunction with Verification done-can provide novel insights on existing psychological interventions, thereby advancing theory development. Finally, we outline the versatile implementations of the MIST as a screening tool, covariate, and intervention evaluation framework. As all methods are transparently reported and detailed, this work will allow other researchers to create similar scales or adapt them for any population of interest.

Subjective Confidence as a Monitor of the Replicability of the Response

Confidence is commonly assumed to monitor the accuracy of responses. However, intriguing results, examined in the light of philosophical discussions of epistemic justification, suggest that confidence actually monitors the reliability of choices rather than (directly) their accuracy. The focus on reliability is consistent with the view that the construction of truth has much in common with the construction of reality: extracting reliable properties that afford prediction. People are assumed to make a binary choice by sampling cues from a "collective wisdomware," and their confidence is based on the consistency of these cues, in line with the self-consistency model. Here, however, I propose that internal consistency is taken to index the reliability of choices themselves-the likelihood that they will be repeated. The results of 10 studies using binary decisions from different domains indicated that confidence in a choice predicts its replicability both within individuals and across individuals. This was so for domains for which choices have a truth value and for those for which they do not. For the former domains, differences in replicability mediated the prediction of accuracy whether confidence was diagnostic or counterdiagnostic of accuracy. Metatheoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.

Seminatural environments for rodent behavioral testing: a representative design improving animal welfare and enhancing replicability

The low replicability of scientific studies has become an important issue. One possible cause is low representativeness of the experimental design employed. Already in the 1950's, Egon Brunswick pointed out that experimental setups ideally should be based on a random sample of stimuli from the subjects' natural environment or at least include basic features of that environment. Only experimental designs satisfying this criterion, representative designs in Brunswikian terminology, can produce results generalizable beyond the procedure used and to situations outside the laboratory. Such external validity is crucial in preclinical drug studies, for example, and should be important for replicability in general. Popular experimental setups in rodent research on non-human animals, like the tail suspension test or the Geller-Seifter procedure, do not correspond to contexts likely to be encountered in the animals' habitat. Consequently, results obtained in this kind of procedures can be generalized neither to other procedures nor to contexts outside the laboratory. Furthermore, many traditional procedures are incompatible with current notions of animal welfare. An approximation to the natural social and physical context can be provided in the laboratory, in the form of a seminatural environment. In addition to satisfy the basic demands for a representative design, such environments offer a far higher level of animal welfare than the typical small cages. This perspective article will briefly discuss the basic principles of the generalizability of experimental results, the virtues of representative designs and the coincidence of enhanced scientific quality and animal welfare provided by this kind of design.

The Situated Assessment Method (SAM2): Establishing individual differences in habitual behavior

From the perspectives of grounded, situated, and embodied cognition, we have developed a new approach for assessing individual differences. Because this approach is grounded in two dimensions of situatedness-situational experience and the Situated Action Cycle-we refer to it as the Situated Assessment Method (SAM2). Rather than abstracting over situations during assessment of a construct (as in traditional assessment instruments), SAM2 assesses a construct in situations where it occurs, simultaneously measuring factors from the Situated Action Cycle known to influence it. To demonstrate this framework, we developed the SAM2 Habitual Behavior Instrument (SAM2 HBI). Across three studies with a total of 442 participants, the SAM2 HBI produced a robust and replicable pattern of results at both the group and individual levels. Trait-level measures of habitual behavior exhibited large reliable individual differences in the regularity of performing positive versus negative habits. Situational assessments established large effects of situations and large situation by individual interactions. Several sources of evidence demonstrated construct and content validity for SAM2 measures of habitual behavior. At both the group and individual levels, these measures were associated with factors from the Situated Action Cycle known to influence habitual behavior in the literature (consistency, automaticity, immediate reward, long-term reward). Regressions explained approximately 65% of the variance at the group level and a median of approximately 75% at the individual level. SAM2 measures further exhibited well-established interactions with personality measures for self-control and neuroticism. Cognitive-affective processes from the Situated Action Cycle explained nearly all the variance in these interactions. Finally, a composite measure of habitualness established habitual behaviors at both the group and individual levels. Additionally, a composite measure of reward was positively related to the composite measure of habitualness, increasing with self-control and decreasing with neuroticism.

Ecological validity in neurocognitive assessment: Systematized review, content analysis, and proposal of an instrument

OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of this study are to identify the dimensions of Ecological Validity (EV) within the definitions of this concept, understand how they are operationalized in neurocognitive tests, and propose a checklist for EV attributes in neurocognitive tests.

METHOD

A systematized review was combined with content analysis of the selected papers, using the inductive method. We analyzed 82 studies on the EV of neurocognitive tests, 19 literature reviews and 63 empirical studies. Based on this review, we identified the relevant criteria for evaluating EV.

RESULTS

EV is a multidimensional concept with two main dimensions: representativeness and generalization. Representativeness involves the subdimensions simplicity-complexity and artificial-natural and several criteria organized on a continuum from low EV to high EV. Generalization is dependent on representativeness and is influenced by different cognitive and non-cognitive factors. We propose six stages for operationalizing EV, from defining the objectives of the neurocognitive assessment to the methodology for scoring and interpreting the results.

CONCLUSION

This systematized review helps to operationalize the concept of EV by providing a tool for evaluating and improving EV while developing new tests. Further studies with a longitudinal design can compare the predictive value of tests with higher versus lower EV-checklist scores.Key pointsQuestion: Understand the definition of EV, its dimensions and subdimensions, how EV is operationalized in neurocognitive tests and propose a checklist for the EV attributes of neurocognitive tests.Findings: The primary findings were that representativeness and generalization are the main dimensions of EV. Representativeness involves several subdimensions, whereas generalization is dependent on representativeness and is influenced by cognitive and non-cognitive factors. We provided an EV-checklist organized into six parts.Importance: The EV-checklist can be used to guide the development of ecologically valid neurocognitive tests and/or assess the EV of existing ones.Next steps: Examine the predictive value of tests that have higher EV-checklist scores.

Ecological Validity, External Validity, and Mundane Realism in Hearing Science

Tests of hearing function are typically conducted in conditions very different from those in which people need to hear and communicate. Even when test conditions are more similar, they cannot represent the diversity of situations that may be encountered by individuals in daily life. As a consequence, it is necessary to consider external validity: the extent to which findings are likely to generalize to conditions beyond those in which data are collected. External validity has long been a concern in many fields and has led to the development of theories and methods aimed at improving generalizability of laboratory findings. Within hearing science, along with related fields, efforts to address generalizability have come to focus heavily on realism: the extent to which laboratory conditions are similar to conditions found in everyday settings of interest. In fact, it seems that realism is now tacitly equated with generalizability. The term that has recently been applied to this approach by many researchers is ecological validity . Recent usage of the term ecological validity within hearing science, as well as other fields, is problematic for three related reasons: (i) it encourages the conflation of the separate concepts of realism and validity; (ii) it diverts attention from the need for methods of quantifying generalization directly; and (iii) it masks a useful longstanding definition of ecological validity within the field of ecological psychology. The definition of ecological validity first used within ecological psychology-the correlation between cues received at the peripheral nervous system and the identity of distant objects or events in the environment-is entirely different from its current usage in hearing science and many related fields. However, as part of an experimental approach known as representative design , the original concept of ecological validity can play a valuable role in facilitating generalizability. This paper will argue that separate existing terms should be used when referring to realism and generalizability, and that the definition of ecological validity provided by the Lens Model may be a valuable conceptual tool within hearing science.

Exploring how healthcare teams balance the neurodynamics of autonomous and collaborative behaviors: a proof of concept

Team members co-regulate their activities and move together at the collective level of behavior while coordinating their actions toward shared goals. In parallel with team processes, team members need to resolve uncertainties arising from the changing task and environment. In this exploratory study we have measured the differential neurodynamics of seven two-person healthcare teams across time and brain regions during autonomous (taskwork) and collaborative (teamwork) segments of simulation training. The questions posed were: (1) whether these abstract and mostly integrated constructs could be separated neurodynamically; and, (2) what could be learned about taskwork and teamwork by trying to do so? The taskwork and teamwork frameworks used were Neurodynamic Information (NI), an electroencephalography (EEG) derived measure shown to be a neurodynamic proxy for the pauses and hesitations associated with individual uncertainty, and inter-brain EEG coherence (IBC) which is a required component of social interactions. No interdependency was observed between NI and IBC, and second-by-second dynamic comparisons suggested mutual exclusivity. These studies show that proxies for fundamental properties of teamwork and taskwork can be separated neurodynamically during team performances of ecologically valid tasks. The persistent expression of NI and IBC were not simultaneous suggesting that it may be difficult for team members to maintain inter-brain coherence while simultaneously reducing their individual uncertainties. Lastly, these separate dynamics occur over time frames of 15–30 s providing time for real-time detection and mitigation of individual and collaborative complications during training or live patient encounters.

A Generative View of Rationality and Growing Awareness†

In this paper we contrast bounded and ecological rationality with a proposed alternative, generative rationality. Ecological approaches to rationality build on the idea of humans as "intuitive statisticians" while we argue for a more generative conception of humans as "probing organisms." We first highlight how ecological rationality's focus on cues and statistics is problematic for two reasons: (a) the problem of cue salience, and (b) the problem of cue uncertainty. We highlight these problems by revisiting the statistical and cue-based logic that underlies ecological rationality, which originate from the misapplication of concepts in psychophysics (e.g., signal detection, just-noticeable-differences). We then work through the most popular experimental task in the ecological rationality literature-the city size task-to illustrate how psychophysical assumptions have informally been linked to ecological rationality. After highlighting these problems, we contrast ecological rationality with a proposed alternative, generative rationality. Generative rationality builds on biology-in contrast to ecological rationality's focus on statistics. We argue that in uncertain environments cues are rarely given or available for statistical processing. Therefore we focus on the psychogenesis of awareness rather than psychophysics of cues. For any agent or organism, environments "teem" with indefinite cues, meanings and potential objects, the salience or relevance of which is scarcely obvious based on their statistical or physical properties. We focus on organism-specificity and the organism-directed probing that shapes awareness and perception. Cues in teeming environments are noticed when they serve as cues-for-something, requiring what might be called a "cue-to-clue" transformation. In this sense, awareness toward a cue or cues is actively "grown." We thus argue that perception might more productively be seen as the presentation of cues and objects rather than their representation. This generative approach not only applies to relatively mundane organism (including human) interactions with their environments-as well as organism-object relationships and their embodied nature-but also has significant implications for understanding the emergence of novelty in economic settings. We conclude with a discussion of how our arguments link with-but modify-Herbert Simon's popular "scissors" metaphor, as it applies to bounded rationality and its implications for decision making in uncertain, teeming environments.

Effects of fundamental movement skills based dual-task and dance training on single- and dual-task walking performance in older women with dementia

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of fundamental movement skills (FMS)-based dual-task training and dance training on spatio-temporal characteristics of gait performance under single- and dual-task walking conditions among older women with dementia.

METHOD

Thirty-eight elderly females with dementia were randomly assigned to one of two groups: (1) dual-task intervention (DTI, age: 73 ± 6.5 years) or (2) Iranian dance intervention (IDI, age: 72.52 ± 6.01 years). Both groups participated in a 10-week intervention program (3 sessions per week, each lasting 50 min). Gait performance parameters (gait speed, cadence, and stride length) and dual-task costs (DTC) were examined using a gait analysis system. The participants completed three walking trials under two conditions: single- and dual-task. The video data was analyzed using motion analysis software (Frame-DIAS II, DKH, DKH Inc., Tokyo, Japan).

RESULTS

The results showed that both groups significantly improved in terms of all gait variables, and DTC decreased (p < .001) from pre- to post-test for both conditions. However, the main effects for the group and the group-by-time interactions were not significantly different between the two groups (p > .05).

CONCLUSION

These findings showed that DTI and IDI effectively improved gait performance following a 10-week intervention for older women with dementia. Therefore, it is suggested that either training program could decrease DTC and increase gait speed, stride length, and cadence among older females with dementia.

More Thumbs Than Rules: Is Rationality an Exaptation?

The literatures on bounded and ecological rationality are built on adaptationism-and its associated modular, cognitivist and computational paradigm-that does not address or explain the evolutionary origins of rationality. We argue that the adaptive mechanisms of evolution are not sufficient for explaining human rationality, and we posit that human rationality presents exaptive origins, where exaptations are traits evolved for other functions or no function at all, and later co-opted for new uses. We propose an embodied reconceptualization of rationality-embodied rationality-based on the reuse of the perception-action system, where many neural processes involved in the control of the sensory-motor system, salient in ancestral environments have been later co-opted to create-by tinkering-high-level reasoning processes, employed in civilized niches.

Using absolutist word frequency from online searches to measure population mental health dynamics

The assessment of population mental health relies on survey data from representative samples, which come with considerable costs. Drawing on research which established that absolutist words (e.g. never) are semantic markers for depression, we propose a new measure of population mental health based on the frequency of absolutist words in online search data (absolute thinking index; ATI). Our aims were to first validate the ATI, and to use it to model public mental health dynamics in France and the UK during the current COVID-19 pandemic. To do so, we extracted time series for a validated dictionary of 19 absolutist words, from which the ATI was computed (weekly averages, 2019-2020, n = 208) using Google Trends. We then tested the relationship between ATI and longitudinal survey data of population mental health in the UK (n = 36,520) and France (n = 32,000). After assessing the relationship between ATI and survey measures of depression and anxiety in both populations, and dynamic similarities between ATI and survey measures (France), we tested the ATI's construct validity by showing how it was affected by the pandemic and how it can be predicted by COVID-19-related indicators. A final step consisted in replicating ATI's construct validity tests in Japan, thereby providing evidence for the ATI's cross-cultural generalizability. ATI was linked with survey depression scores in the UK, r = 0.68, 95%CI[0.34,0.86], β = 0.23, 95%CI[0.09,0.37] in France and displayed similar trends. We finally assessed the pandemic's impact on ATI using Bayesian structural time-series models. These revealed that the pandemic increased ATI by 3.2%, 95%CI[2.1,4.2] in France and 3.7%, 95%CI[2.9,4.4] in the UK. Mixed-effects models showed that ATI was related to COVID-19 new deaths in both countries β = 0.14, 95%CI[0.14,0.21]. These patterns were replicated in Japan, with a pandemic impact of 4.9%, 95%CI[3.1,6.7] and an influence of COVID-19 death of β = 0.90, 95%CI[0.36,1.44]. Our results demonstrate the validity of the ATI as a measure of population mental health (depression) in France, the UK and to some extent in Japan. We propose that researchers use it as cost-effective public mental health "thermometer" for applied and research purposes.

Examining the effect of reduced action capabilities on defensive anticipation in a 1-vs-1 task

This study used small-sided games (SSGs) to induce fatigue and therefore, reduce the action capabilities of Varsity soccer players (n= 20). The aim was to examine the effect of compromised action capabilities on defensive movement response in a 1-vs-1 scenario. Action capabilities were assessed via countermovement jumps (CMJ), 5-m acceleration, 20-m sprint and a Change of Direction (COD) test. Defensive movement response was measured via a Soccer-Specific Anticipation Test (SSAT). Following SSGs, significant reductions were observed in jump (p=.04, d=.31), acceleration (p<.001, d=.98), and sprint (p<.001, d=.66) performance. Significantly, players tended to move earlier in the SSAT following SSGs (p=.049, d=.66). Furthermore, to examine the distinct effect of reductions in each action capability, players were categorised according to whether SSGs had a worthwhile change in CMJ, acceleration, sprint or COD performance. For each of the four measures, movements tended to be initiated earlier following SSGs, although pre-/post-SSGs differences were not significant (p =.08-.51), moderate to large effect sizes were shown (d=.56-.84). These findings intimate that compromised action capabilities influence the timing of the movement response of defensive players in 1-vs-1 situations.

What is Functional Communication? A Theoretical Framework for Real-World Communication Applied to Aphasia Rehabilitation

Aphasia is an impairment of language caused by acquired brain damage such as stroke or traumatic brain injury, that affects a person’s ability to communicate effectively. The aim of rehabilitation in aphasia is to improve everyday communication, improving an individual’s ability to function in their day-to-day life. For that reason, a thorough understanding of naturalistic communication and its underlying mechanisms is imperative. The field of aphasiology currently lacks an agreed, comprehensive, theoretically founded definition of communication. Instead, multiple disparate interpretations of functional communication are used. We argue that this makes it nearly impossible to validly and reliably assess a person’s communicative performance, to target this behaviour through therapy, and to measure improvements post-therapy. In this article we propose a structured, theoretical approach to defining the concept of functional communication. We argue for a view of communication as “situated language use”, borrowed from empirical psycholinguistic studies with non-brain damaged adults. This framework defines language use as: (1) interactive, (2) multimodal, and (3) contextual. Existing research on each component of the framework from non-brain damaged adults and people with aphasia is reviewed. The consequences of adopting this approach to assessment and therapy for aphasia rehabilitation are discussed. The aim of this article is to encourage a more systematic, comprehensive approach to the study and treatment of situated language use in aphasia.

The Concurrent OLSA Test: A Method for Speech Recognition in Multi-talker Situations at Fixed SNR

A multi-talker paradigm is introduced that uses different attentional processes to adjust speech-recognition scores with the goal of conducting measurements at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). The basic idea is to simulate a group conversation with three talkers. Talkers alternately speak sentences of the German matrix test OLSA. Each time a sentence begins with the name “Kerstin” (call sign), the participant is addressed and instructed to repeat the last words of all sentences from that talker, until another talker begins a sentence with “Kerstin”. The alternation of the talkers is implemented with an adjustable overlap time that causes an overlap between the call sign “Kerstin” and the target words to be repeated. Thus, the two tasks of detecting “Kerstin” and repeating target words are to be done at the same time. The paradigm was tested with 22 young normal-hearing participants (YNH) for three overlap times (0.6 s, 0.8 s, 1.0 s). Results for these overlap times show significant differences, with median target word recognition scores of 88%, 82%, and 77%, respectively (including call-sign and dual-task effects). A comparison of the dual task with the corresponding single tasks suggests that the observed effects reflect an increased cognitive load.

Deliberate Practice and Motor Learning Principles to Underpin the Design of Training Interventions for Improving Lifting Movement in the Occupational Sector: A Perspective and a Pilot Study on the Role of Augmented Feedback

Spine posture during repetitive lifting is one of the main risk factors for low-back injuries in the occupational sector. It is thus critical to design appropriate intervention strategies for training workers to improve their posture, reducing load on the spine during lifting. The main approach to train safe lifting to workers has been educational; however, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have shown that this approach does not improve lifting movement nor reduces the risk of low back injury. One of the main limitations of this approach lies in the amount, quality and context of practice of the lifting movement. In this article, first we argue for integrating psychologically-grounded perspectives of practice design in the development of training interventions for safe lifting. Principles from deliberate practice and motor learning are combined and integrated. Given the complexity of lifting, a training intervention should occur in the workplace and invite workers to repeatedly practice/perform the lifting movement with the clear goal of improving their lifting-related body posture. Augmented feedback has a central role in creating the suitable condition for achieving such intervention. Second, we focus on spine bending as risk factor and present a pilot study examining the benefits and boundary conditions of different feedback modalities for reducing bending during lifting. The results showed how feedback modalities meet differently key requirements of deliberate practice conditions, i.e., feedback has to be informative, individualized and actionable. Following the proposed approach, psychology will gain an active role in the development of training interventions, contributing to finding solutions for a reduction of risk factors for workers.

Learning of affective meaning: revealing effects of stimulus pairing and stimulus exposure

Charles E. Osgood's theory of affective meaning defines affect as interplay of three meaning dimensions - evaluation, potency, and activity - that represent the central constituents of our affective ecology. Based on a rigorous Brunswikian sampling procedure, we selected a representative set of stimuli that mirror this ecology. A germane informative analysis explicates and corroborates the sampling approach. We then report two experiments testing whether these dimensions of affective meaning can be learnt by means of stimulus pairing and stimulus exposure. Our findings yield evidence for (1) stimulus pairing effects on evaluation and activity, and (2) stimulus exposure effects on potency and activity. Overall, the findings reveal that stimulus pairing and stimulus exposure differentially influence the learning of dimensions of affective meaning. We discuss implications of this research for current emotion theories as well as its contribution to research in the cognition-emotion interface. Finally, we argue that the implementation of representative design by virtue of Brunswikian sampling promotes theory development and opens new research avenues for an original and creative science of cognition and emotion.

On the pervasive effect of word frequency in metamemory

Predictions of one's future memory performance-judgements of learning (JOLs)-are based on the cues that learners regard as diagnostic of memory performance. One of these cues is word frequency or how often words are experienced in the language. It is not clear, however, whether word frequency would affect JOLs when other cues are also available. The current study aims to close this gap by testing whether objective and subjective word frequency affect JOLs in the presence of font size as an additional cue. Across three experiments, participants studied words that varied in word frequency (Experiment 1: high and low objective frequency; Experiment 2: a whole continuum from high to low objective frequency; Experiment 3: high and low subjective and objective frequency) and were presented in a large (48pt) or a small (18pt) font size, made JOLs, and completed a free recall test. Results showed that people based their JOLs on both word frequency and font size. We conclude that word frequency is an important cue that affects metamemory even in multiple-cue situations.

Predictive processing models and affective neuroscience

The neural bases of affective experience remain elusive. Early neuroscience models of affect searched for specific brain regions that uniquely carried out the computations that underlie dimensions of valence and arousal. However, a growing body of work has failed to identify these circuits. Research turned to multivariate analyses, but these strategies, too, have made limited progress. Predictive processing models offer exciting new directions to address this problem. Here, we use predictive processing models as a lens to critique prevailing functional neuroimaging research practices in affective neuroscience. Our review highlights how much work relies on rigid assumptions that are inconsistent with a predictive processing approach. We outline the central aspects of a predictive processing model and draw out their implications for research in affective and cognitive neuroscience. Predictive models motivate a reformulation of "reverse inference" in cognitive neuroscience, and placing a greater emphasis on external validity in experimental design.

The Influence of Environmental Constraints in 360° Videos on Decision Making in Soccer

Decision making is an important prerequisite of soccer expertise. Beyond expertise, considering the effects of environmental constraints on decision-making processes could help specify existing theories. To address this gap, expert and nonexpert soccer players were enrolled to test how environmental constraints affect decision-making processes. Environmental constraints were experimentally manipulated: Opponent pressure was implemented by presenting a close opponent player in soccer scenes, time constraint was implemented by providing short time intervals for making the decision, and first-person perspective was implemented by using 360° videos. The experts outperformed the nonexperts, and the results showed significant main effects of time constraint and opponent pressure, but not perspective. The players' option and decision quality improved under the time constraint but were negatively affected by opponent pressure. The negative effects of opponent pressure were especially true under limited time and in third-person perspective. The results, alternative manipulations, and implications of environmental effects are discussed for decision-making research.

Which Data Do Elementary School Teachers Use to Determine Reading Difficulties in Their Students?

Small-group interventions allow for tailored instruction for students with learning difficulties. A crucial first step is the accurate identification of students who need such an intervention. This study investigated how teachers decide whether their students need a remedial reading intervention. To this end, 64 teachers of 697 third-grade students from Germany were asked to rate whether a reading intervention for their students was "not necessary," "potentially necessary," or "definitely necessary." Independent experimenters tested the students' reading and spelling abilities with standardized tests, and a subsample of 370 children participated in standardized tests of phonological awareness and vocabulary. Findings show that teachers' decisions with regard to students' needing a reading intervention overlapped more with results from standardized spelling assessments than from reading assessments. Hierarchical linear models indicated that students' spelling abilities, along with phonological awareness and vocabulary, explained variance in teachers' ratings over and above students' reading skills. Teachers thus relied on proximal cues such as spelling skills to reach their decision. These findings are discussed in relation to clinical standards and educational contexts. Findings indicate that the teachers' assignment of children to interventions might be underspecified, and starting points for specific teacher training programs are outlined.

Studies in Ecological Rationality

Ecological rationality represents an alternative to classic frameworks of rationality. Extending on Herbert Simon's concept of bounded rationality, it holds that cognitive processes, including simple heuristics, are not per se rational or irrational, but that their success rests on their degree of fit to relevant environmental structures. The key is therefore to understand how cognitive and environmental structures slot together. In recent years, a growing set of analyses of heuristic-environment systems has deepened the understanding of the human mind and how boundedly rational heuristics can result in successful decision making. This article is concerned with three conceptual challenges in the study of ecological rationality. First, do heuristics also succeed in dynamic contexts involving competitive agents? Second, can the mind adapt to environmental structures via an unsupervised learning process? Third, how can research go beyond mere descriptions of environmental structures to develop theories of the mechanisms that give rise to those structures? In addressing these questions, we illustrate that a successful theory of rationality will focus on the adaptive aspects of the mind and will need to account for three components: the mind's information processing, the environment to which the mind adapts, and the intersection between the environment and the mind.

Clinical Judgement Analysis: An innovative approach to explore the individual decision-making processes of pharmacists

BACKGROUND

Pharmacy stands increasingly on the frontline of patient care, yet current studies of clinical decision-making by pharmacists only capture deliberative processes that can be stated explicitly. Decision-making incorporates both deliberative and intuitive processes. Clinical Judgement Analysis (CJA) is a method novel to pharmacy that uncovers intuitive decision-making and may provide a more comprehensive understanding of the decision-making processes of pharmacists.

OBJECTIVES

This paper describes how CJA potentially uncovers the intuitive clinical decision-making processes of pharmacists. Using an illustrative decision-making example, the application of CJA will be described, including: METHOD: An illustrative study was used, applying an established method for CJA. The decision to initiate anticoagulation, alongside appropriate risk judgements, was chosen as the context. Expert anticoagulation pharmacists were interviewed to define and then refine variables (cues) involved in this decision. Decision tasks with sixty scenarios were developed to explore the effect of these cues on pharmacists' decision-making processes and distributed to participants for completion. Descriptive statistical and regression analyses were conducted for each participant.

RESULTS

The method produced individual judgement models for each participant, for example, demonstrating that when judging stroke risk each participant's judgements could be accurately predicted using only 3 or 4 out of the possible 11 cues given. The method also demonstrated that participants appeared to consider multiple cues when making risk judgements but used an algorithmic approach based on one or two cues when making the clinical decision.

CONCLUSION

CJA generates insights into the clinical decision-making processes of pharmacists not uncovered by the current literature. This provides a springboard for more in-depth explorations; explorations that are vital to the understanding and ongoing development of the role of pharmacists.

A description-experience gap in statistical intuitions: Of smart babies, risk-savvy chimps, intuitive statisticians, and stupid grown-ups

Comparison of different lines of research on statistical intuitions and probabilistic reasoning reveals several puzzling contradictions. Whereas babies seem to be intuitive statisticians, surprisingly capable of statistical learning and inference, adults' statistical inferences have been found to be inconsistent with the rules of probability theory and statistics. Whereas researchers in the 1960s concluded that people's probability updating is "conservatively" proportional to normative predictions, probability updating research in the 1970s suggested that people are incapable of following Bayes's rule. And whereas animals appear to be strikingly risk savvy, humans often seem "irrational" when dealing with probabilistic information. Drawing on research on the description-experience gap in risky choice, we integrate and systematize these findings from disparate fields of inquiry that have, to date, operated largely in parallel. Our synthesis shows that a key factor in understanding inconsistencies in statistical intuitions research is whether probabilistic inferences are based on symbolic, abstract descriptions or on the direct experience of statistical information. We delineate this view from other conceptual accounts, consider potential mechanisms by which attributes of first-hand experience can facilitate appropriate statistical inference, and identify conditions under which they improve or impair probabilistic reasoning. To capture the full scope of human statistical intuition, we conclude, research on probabilistic reasoning across the lifespan, across species, and across research traditions must bear in mind that experience and symbolic description of the world may engage systematically distinct cognitive processes.

Attentional bias induced by stimulus control (ABC) impairs measures of the approximate number system

Pervasive congruency effects characterize approximate number discrimination tasks. Performance is better on congruent (the more numerous stimulus consists of objects of larger size that occupy a larger area) than on incongruent (where the opposite holds) items. The congruency effects typically occur when controlling for nonnumeric variables such as cumulative area. Furthermore, only performance on incongruent stimuli seems to predict math abilities. Here, we present evidence for an attentional-bias induced by stimulus control (ABC) where preattentive features such as item size reflexively influence decisions, which can explain these congruency effects. In three experiments, we tested predictions derived from the ABC. In Experiment 1, as predicted, we found that manipulation of size introduced congruency effects and eliminated the correlation with math ability for congruent items. However, performance on incongruent items and neutral, nonmanipulated items were still predictive of math ability. A negative correlation between performance on congruent and incongruent items even indicated that they measure different underlying constructs. Experiment 2 demonstrated, in line with the ABC account, that increasing presentation time reduced congruency effects. By directly measuring overt attention using eye-tracking, Experiment 3 revealed that people direct their first gaze toward the array with items of larger individual size, biasing them towards these arrays. The ABC explains why the relation between performance on approximate number discrimination tasks and math achievement has been fragile and suggests that stimulus control manipulations have contaminated the results. We discuss the importance of using stimuli that are representative of the environment.

What Can Experimental Studies of Bias Tell Us About Real-World Group Disparities?

This article questions the widespread use of experimental social psychology to understand real-world group disparities. Standard experimental practice is to design studies in which participants make judgments of targets who vary only on the social categories to which they belong. This is typically done under simplified decision landscapes and with untrained decision makers. For example, to understand racial disparities in police shootings, researchers show pictures of armed and unarmed Black and White men to undergraduates and have them press "shoot" and "don't shoot" buttons. Having demonstrated categorical bias under these conditions, researchers then use such findings to claim that real-world disparities are also due to decision-maker bias. I describe three flaws inherent in this approach, flaws which undermine any direct contribution of experimental studies to explaining group disparities. First, the decision landscapes used in experimental studies lack crucial components present in actual decisions (Missing Information Flaw). Second, categorical effects in experimental studies are not interpreted in light of other effects on outcomes, including behavioral differences across groups (Missing Forces Flaw). Third, there is no systematic testing of whether the contingencies required to produce experimental effects are present in real-world decisions (Missing Contingencies Flaw). I apply this analysis to three research topics to illustrate the scope of the problem. I discuss how this research tradition has skewed our understanding of the human mind within and beyond the discipline and how results from experimental studies of bias are generally misunderstood. I conclude by arguing that the current research tradition should be abandoned.

A New Standard for Advance Care Planning (ACP) Conversations in the Hospital: Results from a Delphi Panel

BACKGROUND

Fewer than half of the US population has an advance healthcare directive. Hospitalizations offer a key opportunity for clinicians to engage patients in advance care planning (ACP) conversations. Guidelines suggest screening for the presence of "serious illness" but do not further specify how to prioritize the 12.4 million patients hospitalized each year.

OBJECTIVE

To establish a normative standard for prioritizing hospitalized patients for ACP conversations.

DESIGN AND SETTING

A modified Delphi study, with three iterative rounds of online surveys.

PARTICIPANTS

Multi-disciplinary group of US-based clinicians with research and practical expertise in ACP.

MAIN MEASURES

Indirect and direct elicitation of short-term and 1-year risk of mortality that prompt experts to prioritize ACP conversations for hospitalized adults.

MAIN RESULTS

Fifty-seven of 108 (52%) candidate panelists completed round 1, and 47 completed rounds 2 and 3. Panelists were primarily physicians (84%), with significant experience (mean years 23 [SD 9.8]), who either taught (55%) and/or performed research about ACP (55%). In round 1, > 70% of panelists agreed that all hospitalized adults ≥ 65 years should have an ACP conversation before discharge, but disagreed about the timing and content of the conversation. By round 3, > 70% of participants agreed that patients with either high (> 10%) short-term or high (≥ 34%) 1-year risk of mortality should have a goals of care conversation (i.e., focused on preferences for near-term treatment), while patients with low (≤ 10%) short-term and low (< 19%) 1-year risk of mortality warranted an ACP conversation (i.e., focused on preferences for future care) before discharge.

LIMITATIONS

Use of case vignettes to elicit clinician judgment; response rate.

CONCLUSIONS

Panelists agreed that clinicians should have an ACP conversation with all hospitalized adults over 65 years in an ACP conversation, adjusting the content and timing of the conversation conditional on the patient's risk of short-term and 1-year mortality.

The Effects of Group Conformity on the Prototypical Majority Effect for Confidence and Response Latency

The Prototypical Majority Effect (PME) refers to the observation that people endorse majority opinions faster and with greater confidence than minority opinions. Although the PME has been assumed to stem from social influence, recent studies showed that it can arise from internal processes underlying decision and confidence alone. We used a conformity paradigm adapted from Asch (1951) to examine the relative contributions of internal and external processes to the PME. Four participants responded in turn to items that had correct or wrong predetermined majority responses. A robust PME was observed before participants saw others’ responses. Seeing these responses, however, increased endorsement, confidence, and speed. Notably, social influence had a considerably weaker impact when it ran counter to the consensus observed in its absence. Thus, internal processes underlying decision and confidence constrain the impact of social conformity. The failure to consider these processes leads to overestimating the magnitude of social influence.

Subjective Confidence in the Response to Personality Questions: Some Insight Into the Construction of People's Responses to Test Items

Drawing on research on subjective confidence, we examined how the confidence and speed in responding to personality items track the consistency and variability in the response to the same items over repeated administrations. Participants (N = 57) responded to 132 personality items with a true/false response format. The items were presented five times over the course of two sessions. Consistent with the Self-Consistency Model, the confidence and speed with which an item was endorsed at its first presentation predicted the likelihood of repeating that response across the subsequent presentations of the item, thus tracking test-retest reliability. Confidence and speed also predicted the likelihood that others will make the same response, thus tracking inter-person consensus. However, confidence and speed varied more strongly with within-person consistency than with inter-person consensus, suggesting some reliance on idiosyncratic cues in response formation. These results mirror, in part, findings obtained in other domains such as general knowledge, social attitudes, and personal preferences, suggesting some similarity in the decision processes underlying the response to binary items: responses to personality items are not retrieved ready-made from memory but constructed at the time of testing, based on the sampling of a small number of cues from a larger population of cues associated with the item’s content. Because confidence is based on the consistency with which the cues support a response, it is prognostic of within-person consistency and cross-person consensus. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.

Understanding the underlying mechanisms of Quiet Eye: The role of microsaccades, small saccades and pupil-size before final movement initiation in a soccer penalty kick

Experts keep a steady final fixation at a specific location just before final movement initiation, the so-called "quiet eye" (QE). However, the eyes are rarely "quiet", and small eye movements occur during visual fixation. The current research investigated the subtle eye movements and underlying mechanisms immediately prior to and during QE. The gaze behaviour of 8 intermediate-level goalkeepers was recorded as they moved (either left or right) in an attempt to predict the future direction of the ball during a soccer penalty kick. Goalkeepers were more likely to predict the direction of the penalty, which was coupled with delaying movement initiation. The temporal sequence of microsaccade rates dropped ∼1000 ms before goalkeepers' final movement initiation. Saccade rates increased, reaching a peak ∼500 ms before final movement initiation, concomitant with microsaccades reduction. Microsaccades predicted the goalkeepers' direction, oriented to the right when goalkeepers moved to the right, and conversely to the left when they moved to the left. Microsaccades may be modulated by attention and appear functionally related to saccadic intrusions. Pupil-size increased proportionally with the lead up to the instance of the penalty being kicked, reaching a plateau at final movement initiation. In conclusion, microsaccades and small saccades could improve the perception of the soccer penalty kick, helping athletes during the period that precedes the critical movement initiation, shifting from covert to overt attention for identifying the useful cues necessary to guide the action.

The Judge as a Procedural Decision-Maker

Abstract. Despite the abundance of studies exposing heuristic and biased thinking in judicial decision-making, the influence of this empirical work in court is limited. In this commentary, we address this paradox and argue that the disconnect between empirical work and practice stems from the limited knowledge and consideration of procedural rules. These shortcomings increase the skepticism of legal scholars and practitioners of this research and give an excuse for dismissing the findings, deeming them inapplicable in court. We suggest that the only way forward is by diversifying our research methods and by building a culture of collaboration, fostering research partnerships between legal scholars and (legal) decision-making researchers. This approach aims to bridge the gap between legal and social sciences and to promote the impact of empirical studies of the legal system on current legal practice.

The 'Real-World Approach' and Its Problems: A Critique of the Term Ecological Validity

A popular goal in psychological science is to understand human cognition and behavior in the 'real-world.' In contrast, researchers have typically conducted their research in experimental research settings, a.k.a. the 'psychologist's laboratory.' Critics have often questioned whether psychology's laboratory experiments permit generalizable results. This is known as the 'real-world or the lab'-dilemma. To bridge the gap between lab and life, many researchers have called for experiments with more 'ecological validity' to ensure that experiments more closely resemble and generalize to the 'real-world.' However, researchers seldom explain what they mean with this term, nor how more ecological validity should be achieved. In our opinion, the popular concept of ecological validity is ill-formed, lacks specificity, and falls short of addressing the problem of generalizability. To move beyond the 'real-world or the lab'-dilemma, we believe that researchers in psychological science should always specify the particular context of cognitive and behavioral functioning in which they are interested, instead of advocating that experiments should be more 'ecologically valid' in order to generalize to the 'real-world.' We believe this will be a more constructive way to uncover the context-specific and context-generic principles of cognition and behavior.

The Reality of "Real-Life" Neuroscience: A Commentary on Shamay-Tsoory and Mendelsohn (2019)

The main thrust of Shamay-Tsoory and Mendelsohn’s ecological approach is that “the use of real-life complex, dynamic, naturalistic stimuli provides a solid basis for understanding brain and behavior” (p. 851). Although we support the overall goal and objectives of Shamay-Tsoory and Mendelsohn’s approach to “real-life” neuroscience, their review refers to the terms “ecological validity” and “representative design” in a manner different from that originally introduced by Egon Brunswik. Our aim is to clarify Brunswik’s original definitions and briefly explain how these concepts pertain to the larger problem of generalizability, not just for history’s sake, but because we believe that a proper understanding of these concepts is important for researchers who want to understand human behavior and the brain in the context of everyday experience, and because Brunswik’s original ideas may contribute to Shamay-Tsoory and Mendelsohn’s ecological approach. Finally, we argue that the popular and often misused concept of “ecological validity” is ill-formed, lacks specificity, and may even undermine the development of theoretically sound and tractable research.

Global-Local Incompatibility: The Misperception of Reliability in Judgment Regarding Global Variables

A number of important decision domains, including decisions about hiring, global warming, and weather hazards, are characterized by a global-local incompatibility. These domains involve variables that cannot be observed by a single decision maker (DM) and require the integration of observations from locally available information cues. This paper presents a new bifocal lens model that describes how the structure of the environment can lead to a unique form of overconfidence when generalizing the reliability of the local environment to a global scale. When the local environment does not reliably reflect the global environment, they are incompatible. While local perspectives vary across DMs, global-local incompatibility can be understood using the structure of classical test theory as the difference between (a) perceived estimates of the reliability derived from the local environment and (b) the true reliability of the local environment. I model global-local incompatibility as the difference between the true and estimated reliability when the assumptions of classical test theory are violated. Using a series of case studies and an empirical study, I demonstrate the widespread utility of this framework, and I conclude by discussing implications for cognitive-ecological theory, risk communication, and overconfidence.

Match performance in a reference futsal team during an international tournament - implications for talent development in soccer

Anecdotal evidence suggests that futsal can aid talent development for 11 a-side soccer through the potential for transfer of the game’s skills and constraints. However, additional scientific research is necessary to enhance understanding of the technical and physical demands of futsal and the potential returns for soccer player development. Accordingly, this study examined selected characteristics of physical (internal and external loads) and technical performance in international futsal match-play in order to study the potential of these for skill transfer and aiding soccer player development. Performance was investigated in futsal players (n = 16, 25.74±4.71 years) belonging to a national team during an international tournament. Pre-tournament fitness testing determined maximum heart rate (MHR) via the Yo-Yo IR1 test (194.6±11.1 beats min^-1) to aid interpretation of internal load via heart rate measures during match-play. External load (accelerations and deceleration events) was measured using an inertial movement unit. Finally, post-tournament analysis of selected technical events was performed. Results reported a mean heart rate value during ‘court time’ of 164.7±22.3 beats min^-1, which as a percentage of participants’ MHR was 87.7%±4.4%, and a mean peak MHR of 98.3±2.5%. Results showed 2.16±0.25 accelerating (>1.5 m·s^-2) and 2.78±0.13 decelerating (>1.5 m·s^-2) events per player per minute. Team statistics included 647 passing, ~51 dribbling and 78 set play events per team per game. Match analyses showed that 77.3% of ball receptions were completed with the sole of the foot. Assessment of two-footedness showed 80.1±16.7% of individual possessions used the dominant foot to receive and 84.1±10.7% to pass the ball thereby displaying strong foot dominance. These results have quantified characteristics of elite futsal match-play that are no doubt intrinsically related to the environmental and task constraints of the sport. In addition to enhancing understanding of futsal, there are potential learning returns and implications for skills transfer and the development of soccer players.

Causal Inference in Generalizable Environments: Systematic Representative Design

Causal inference and generalizability both matter. Historically, systematic designs emphasize causal inference, while representative designs focus on generalizability. Here, we suggest a transformative synthesis - Systematic Representative Design (SRD) - concurrently enhancing both causal inference and "built-in" generalizability by leveraging today's intelligent agent, virtual environments, and other technologies. In SRD, a "default control group" (DCG) can be created in a virtual environment by representatively sampling from real-world situations. Experimental groups can be built with systematic manipulations onto the DCG base. Applying systematic design features (e.g., random assignment to DCG versus experimental groups) in SRD affords valid causal inferences. After explicating the proposed SRD synthesis, we delineate how the approach concurrently advances generalizability and robustness, cause-effect inference and precision science, a computationally-enabled cumulative psychological science supporting both "bigger theory" and concrete implementations grappling with tough questions (e.g., what is context?) and affording rapidly-scalable interventions for real-world problems.

Cue integration in metamemory judgements is strategic

People base judgements about their own memory processes on probabilistic cues such as the characteristics of study materials and study conditions. While research has largely focused on how single cues affect metamemory judgements, a recent study by Undorf, Söllner, and Bröder found that multiple cues affected people's predictions of their future memory performance (judgements of learning, JOLs). The present research tested whether this finding was indeed due to strategic integration of multiple cues in JOLs or, alternatively, resulted from people's reliance on a single unified feeling of ease. In Experiments 1 and 2, we simultaneously varied concreteness and emotionality of word pairs and solicited (a) pre-study JOLs that could be based only on the manipulated cues and (b) immediate JOLs that could be based both on the manipulated cues and on a feeling of ease. The results revealed similar amounts of cue integration in pre-study JOLs and immediate JOLs, regardless of whether cues varied in two easily distinguishable levels (Experiment 1) or on a continuum (Experiment 2). This suggested that people strategically integrated multiple cues in their immediate JOLs. Experiment 3 provided further evidence for this conclusion by showing that false explicit information about cue values affected immediate JOLs over and above actual cue values. Hence, we conclude that cue integration in JOLs involves strategic processes.

Real-Life Neuroscience: An Ecological Approach to Brain and Behavior Research

Owing to advances in neuroimaging technology, the past couple of decades have witnessed a surge of research on brain mechanisms that underlie human cognition. Despite the immense development in cognitive neuroscience, the vast majority of neuroimaging experiments examine isolated agents carrying out artificial tasks in sensory and socially deprived environments. Thus, the understanding of the mechanisms of various domains in cognitive neuroscience, including social cognition and episodic memory, is sorely lacking. Here we focus on social and memory research as representatives of cognitive functions and propose that mainstream, lab-based experimental designs in these fields suffer from two fundamental limitations, pertaining to person-dependent and situation-dependent factors. The person-dependent factor addresses the issue of limiting the active role of the participants in lab-based paradigms that may interfere with their sense of agency and embodiment. The situation-dependent factor addresses the issue of the artificial decontextualized environment in most available paradigms. Building on recent findings showing that real-life as opposed to controlled experimental paradigms involve different mechanisms, we argue that adopting a real-life approach may radically change our understanding of brain and behavior. Therefore, we advocate in favor of a paradigm shift toward a nonreductionist approach, exploiting portable technology in semicontrolled environments, to explore behavior in real life.

Healthy choice label does not substantially improve consumers’ ability to select healthier cereals: results of an online experiment

The results of numerous studies suggest that front-of-package (FOP) labels enhance consumers’ ability to assess the healthiness of food products. However, most of the studies lack ecological validity. We selected fourteen breakfast cereals stocked by a major Swiss retailer. The participants from an Internet panel (n 780), with a somewhat higher educational level than that of the Swiss population, were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: control (picture of the FOP presented), table (plus the nutrition table with information on the energy and the main nutrients per 100 g), label (plus the healthy choice label for the healthier product) and combined (plus both the nutrition table and the healthy choice label). The participants were asked to select the healthier cereals from all possible ninety-one pair comparisons. The nutrient profile score was used as a ‘gold standard’. For the thirty-three cereal pairs, one of the cereals had a label and the other had none, the median accuracy was only marginally lower in the control condition (91 %) compared with the table (94 %), the label (94 %) and the combined conditions (97 %). Similar results were observed when the incorrect decisions were weighted by the difference in the nutrient profile scores of the two cereals (for all ninety-one product pairs). These findings suggest that a healthy choice label has a limited effect on helping consumers select healthier cereals. In the control condition, the median of the correct choices was about 78 %. Consumers’ perception of the healthiness of foods could be improved.

Effect of Size, Shape and Map Background in Cartographic Visualization: Experimental Study on Czech and Chinese Populations

This paper deals with the issue of the perceptual aspects of selected graphic variables (specifically shape and size) and map background in cartographic visualization. The continued experimental study is based on previous findings and the presupposed cross-cultural universality of shape and size as a graphic variable. The results bring a new perspective on the usage of shape, size and presence/absence of background as graphic variables, as well as a comparison to previous studies. The results suggest that all examined variables influence the speed of processing. Respondents (Czech and Chinese, N = 69) identified target stimuli faster without a map background, with larger stimuli, and with triangular and circular shapes. Czech respondents were universally faster than Chinese respondents. The implications of our research were discussed, and further directions were outlined.