1,721,157 research outputs found
The cognitive modeling of human behavior: Why a model is (sometimes) better than 10,000 words
No full textThis special issue of Cognitive Systems Research presents
a collection of remarkable papers on cognitive modeling
based on Communications delivered at ICCM-2006, thè
Seventh International Conference on Cognitive Modeling
(Fum, Del Missier, & Stocco, 2006) held in Trieste, Italy,
from Aprii 5th to 8th, 2006. Being thè organizers and chairmen
of thè conference, we have been invited to serve as
guest editors for this issue. We therefore solicited some participants
to reexamine their contributions, and to change
them in form of Journal articles. In particular, we asked
authors to review what they had presented during thè conference
focusing on thè benefits cognitive modeling could
provide to cognitive science. The issue you are reading is
thè result of this editorial process.
In this introductory commentary we would like to set
thè stage for what follows by illustrating thè advantages
and disadvantages of cognitive modeling, and by presenting
a minimal set of requirements for a good modeling
practice. Then, we will briefly preview thè papers composing
this special issue, and we will emphasize how they deal
with thè issues discussed in thè previous sections
Spatial ability contributes to memory for delayed intentions
Full text linkKubik V, Del Missier F, Mantyla T. Spatial ability contributes to memory for delayed intentions. Cognitive research: principles and implications. 2020;5(1): 36.Most everyday activities involve delayed intentions referring to different event structures and timelines. Yet, past research has mostly considered prospective memory (PM) as a dual-task phenomenon in which the primary task to fulfill PM intentions is realized within an ongoing secondary task. We hypothesized that these simplified simulations of PM may have obscured the role of spatial relational processing that is functional to represent and meet the increased temporal demands in more complex PM scenarios involving multiple timelines. To test this spatiotemporal hypothesis, participants monitored four digital clocks, with PM deadlines referring either to the same clock (single-context condition) or different clocks (multiple-context condition), along with separate tests of spatial ability (mental rotation task) and executive functioning (working memory updating). We found that performance in the mental rotation task incrementally explained PM performance in the multiple-context, but not in the single-context, condition, even after controlling for individual differences in working memory updating and ongoing task performance. These findings suggest that delayed intentions occurring in multiple ongoing task contexts reflect independent contributions of working memory updating and mental rotation and that spatial relational processing may specifically be involved in higher cognitive functions, such as complex PM in multiple contexts or multitasking
Executive control of retrieval in noun and verb generation
No full textIn verb/noun generation experiments, participants have to produce a word associated with a stimulus (usually a noun) and belonging to a given syntactic category ("verb" or "noun"). The explanation of RT performance in the verb generation task is partial and debated, with different proposals emphasizing either associative strength or competition among task-relevant responses. This paper presents a novel account of RT performance in noun and verb generation, which relies on the functional interaction between associative retrieval and executive control and takes explicitly into account the interference from task-irrelevant responses. We hypothesize that fundamental control processes in this generation task are the strategic allocation of attention on retrieval cues and post-retrieval response checking and response inhibition. An analytic model based on this account accurately reproduced the major empirical trends observed in three populations (young adults, older adults, Parkinson's disease patients). The contribution of the proposal for the explanation of noun and verb generation performance, its limitations, and more general implications for other generation tasks and computational theories of retrieval are discussed
Part-set Cuing in Option Generation
No full textMemory research on the part-set cuing effect has shown that providing some of the to-be-remembered items as cues is not always beneficial and, in some cases, may even hurt retrieval. However, part-set cuing has been sparsely investigated in option generation tasks. Thus, limited empirical evidence for the existence of the effect in option generation is available, and no convincing explanation has been provided yet. In order to fill these gaps, we carried out four experiments. In Experiment 1A, we observed a significant decrease in option generation performance when potential options were presented as cues. Experiment 1B showed that the effect can also be obtained in older adults. Experiments 2A and 2B provided evidence compatible with an inhibition-based explanation of the observed effects
Le decisioni
No full textChe cosa significa decidere? Quali processi sottendono la decisione? Le preferenze delle persone possono essere influenzate dal modo in cui un problema decisionale viene presentato? Queste sono le domande che alle quali il capitolo che state leggendo intende dare risposta. Nella prima parte del capitolo, verranno presentate alcune nozioni essenziali per comprendere gli studi sul giudizio e sulla decisione. Nella seconda parte, verranno riassunti alcuni risultati conseguiti dalla ricerca sui processi decisionali e verranno presentate sinteticamente varie teorie della decisione. Nell’ultima parte del capitolo, verranno illustrati alcuni studi che dimostrano che le preferenze delle persone possono essere influenzate dal modo in cui un problema decisionale viene presentato
The citizen's judgments of prices and inflation
No full textThis chapter provides an introduction to the economic psychology of price and inflation judgments, focusing on the main findings and the more relevant psychological theories. The first part of the chapter (section 10.2) is devoted to the process of price evaluation. This is a fundamental process underlying individual economic and consumer behaviour, because purchase decisions usually imply a judgment of the price of a target product or service, and price is a fundamental evaluation dimension. Thus, it is important to understand the processes that lead individuals to deem a given price as cheap or expensive (Putler, 1992). In section 10.2 we will initially focus on theories centred on the construct of a reference price, defined as a benchmark price used in relative evaluation processes. These theories share the assumption that one or more reference prices, stored in memory or available in the external environment, are used to make sense of the target price via comparative evaluation processes (Monroe, 1990). We then briefly consider how prices are evaluated according to three psychological theories (prospect theory, decision by sampling, and norm theory), which provide further insight into evaluation processes and their effects. Finally, we will take into account the factors affecting retrieval of reference prices and briefly mention other aspects relevant to price evaluation.
The second part of the chapter (section 10.3) is devoted to perceived inflation and inflation expectations. Inflation refers to changes in the value of money over time. From an individual's point of view inflation is revealed as changes in the cost of living (price inflation) and changes in income, for example wage inflation. Past price inflation is officially measured by the annual percentage change in the total cost of a basket of goods and services purchased by the typical consumer. In contrast, official measures of price inflation expectations are forecasts of price changes in the basket of goods - the most widely used being based on complex models of the economy. People's perceptions of past and expectations of future inflation have been found to differ from official statistics, often substantially (for a review, see Ranyard, Del Missier, Bonini, Duxbury and Summers, 2008). It is important to understand how this occurs, since, as we show, perceived inflation influences expected inflation, which in turn affects economic behaviour such as wage negotiations, borrowing, saving and spending. Furthermore, because of such effects on individual and household behaviour, and because public expectations are used to inform monetary policy, perceived and expected inflation indirectly affect the performance of the macro-economy (Armantier et al., 2013). After reviewing evidence of how people’s perceptions and expectations are formed we turn to research demonstrating some of their consequences. The chapter concludes by outlining some of the policy implications of the research reviewed
Declarative and procedural strategies in problem solving: Evidence from the toads and frogs puzzle.
No full text
- …
