Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Psychologie naïve'

<p>A particular field in research on judgment and decision making (JDM) is concerned with realism of confidence in one’s knowledge. An interesting finding is the so-called format dependence effect, which implies that assessment of the same probability distribution generates different conclusions about over- or underconfidence depending on the assessment format. In particular, expressing a belief about some unknown continuous quantity (e.g., a stock value) in the form of an intuitive confidence interval is severely prone to overconfidence as compared to expressing the belief as an assessment of a probability judgment. This thesis gives a tentative account of this finding in terms of a Naïve Sampling Model, which assumes that people accurately describe their available information stored in memory, but they are naïve in the sense that they treat sample properties as proper estimators of population properties (Study 1). The effect of this naivety is directly investigated empirically in Study 2. A prediction that short-term memory is a constraining factor for sample size in judgment, suggesting that experience per se does not eliminate overconfidence is investigated and verified in Study 3. Age-related increments in overconfidence were observed with intuitive confidence interval but not for probability judgment (Study 4). This thesis suggests that no cognitive processing bias (e.g., Tversky & Kahneman, 1974) over and above naivety is needed to understand and explain the overconfidence “bias” with intuitive confidence interval and hence the format dependence effect.</p>

Régulièrement, les associations caritatives sollicitent financièrement des millions d’individus pour mener leurs actions sur le terrain. Représentant un enjeu majeur, ces campagnes de communication médiatique ont pour objectif d’appeler aux dons afin de collecter des fonds leur permettant de pérenniser leurs actions et de maintenir une indépendance à la fois financière et politique. Articulant une double méthodologie qualitative et expérimentale et l’aide d’un contexte théorique pluridisciplinaire mobilisant des ressources théoriques issues notamment des modèles psychosociaux de la réception, de la communication persuasive et de la communication engageante, la thèse vise le double objectif de mieux comprendre les processus de production et de réception de la communication d’appel aux dons des associations caritatives. Dans une logique de recherche action et devant l’importance des enjeux humains, nous proposons également des pistes pour contribuer à accroitre l’efficience des dispositifs de communication<br>Charities regularly solicit millions of individuals financially to carry through their actions on the field. Representing a major stake, these media communication campaigns aim at calling for donations in order to raise funds which enable them to keep up their actions and maintain an independence both financially and politically. However, in literature so far, no research has been carried out about the socio-cognitive processes involved in this type of communication.Structuring a double qualitative and experimental methodology and the help of a theoretical multidisciplinary context calling up the theoretical resources mainly from the psychosocial models of the reception, the persuasive communication and the binding communication, this dissertation targets a double objective, namely a better understanding of the production and of the reception processes involved in the binding communication of charity fundraising campaigns

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-95).<br>One of the most serious consequences of pediatric HIV infection is its impact on the central nervous system (CNS). Children born with HIV may present with cognitive abnormalities within a few months or years of birth. However, there is a group of children known as ‘slow progressors’ or asymptomatic children who do not exhibit typical symptoms of HIV and are consequently not put onto Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART). The study sought to explore the cognitive and behavioural profiles of asymptomatic HAART-naïve children in comparison to a matched HIV-negative control group. Results suggest that Asymptomatic HAART-naïve children do experience some underlying CNS impairments and behavioural difficulties that need to be taken into account so that the appropriate services can be made available for their proper care and management.

Le résumé en français n'a pas été communiqué par l'auteur<br>We analyze the pricing problem of credit card issuers when setting pertransactionfees for payments and interest rates for the credit associated withthese cards. By considering the issuer’s incentives coming from the creditmarket, we provide a new explanation to the widely observed phenomenonof credit card rewards. Issuers induce higher demand for the credit functionof their cards by lowering per-transaction fees, even to negative levels. Inaddition, by assuming that some consumers face a form of behavioral bias,consistent with recent empirical findings in financial markets, we develop anew explanation for the interest rate exhibiting some degree of stickinessin this market. Finally, we argue that interest rates are independent ofinterchange fees and that interchange fee regulation should take into accountthe costs and benefits of different forms of credit. We analyze the impact of platform price parity clauses when sellers setfinal prices and platforms set fixed fees. In this environment, platforms oftenrely on different tools to affect the degree of competition between sellersand influence final prices charged to consumers. We develop a model inwhich platforms can decide the unitary search cost faced by consumers, andshow when it is profitable for platforms to obfuscate consumers through highsearch costs. Then, we show that price parity clauses, when exogenouslygiven, can reduce or increase prices and consumer surplus. Even thoughplatforms’ demands become independent of prices, price parity clauses makethe equilibrium price set by sellers less responsive to the search cost. Finally,when price parity clauses are endogenous, we show that in the unique equilibrium,platforms set price parity clauses if and only if they lead to higherobfuscation, prices, and lower consumer welfare. We provide a new interpretation for coalition loyalty programs in an environmentwhere consumers search for their preferred products. A dominantfirm in one market can generate a prominent position for another firm in anunrelated market, by offering a reward to consumers conditionally on buyingin both firms. We show when it is optimal for consumers to sample firstthe firms in the coalition. We derive conditions under which this coalitionis profitable in comparison with a case with no coalition and in comparisonwith a case where the dominant firm creates a loyalty program only in itsown market. We find that the coalition can be profitable if and only if itincreases consumer surplus. Then, we explore the case where a continuumof coalitions compete, and show that in this case, consumer surplus is lower,industry profits are higher, and total welfare is ambiguous, relative with acase with no coalitions

Nous avons proposé 18 critères à 3 groupes expérimentaux (étudiants en psychologie, étudiants en droit et sujets tout-venant) afin de vérifier leur effet sur l'attribution de responsabilité et de sanction. Pour cela, un questionnaire composé de 8 situations (4 situations sociales et 4 situations professionnelles) dans lesquelles un individu commettait une infraction a été élaboré. Chaque situation se terminait par la présentation d'une prétendue enquête composée de 3 informations relatives à 3 critères (nos 18 critères furent répartis en 6 plans en carré latin). La tâche expérimentale consistait à infliger une sanction (parmi 5 proposées) à l'infracteur puis à justifier le choix de celle-ci. Les résultats mettent notamment en évidence qu'il faut distinguer ces deux processus qui, en outre, nécessitent différemment et selon les caractéristiques de l'évaluateur, des informations sur l'auteur de l'infraction, sur la situation et sur la victime<br>We submitted 18 criteria to 3 experimental groups (students in psychology, students in right and “non-targeted” individuals) in order to check their effect on attribution of responsibility and sanction. In this respect, we elaborated an 8 situation questionnaire (4 social situations and 4 professional situations). In each situation, an individual committed an infringement. Each of the situations ended with the presentation of the result of a supposed investigation composed of 3 information related to 3 criteria (our 18 criteria being distributed in 6 Latin square plans). The experimental task consisted in sanctioning the author of the infringement (among 5 sanctions offered) and then justifying choice of the sanction. The results showed notably that it is necessary to distinguish these two processes which, moreover, require differently and according to the characteristics of the assessor, information on the author of infringement, the situation and the victim

<p>A particular field in research on judgment and decision making (JDM) is concerned with realism of confidence in one’s knowledge. An interesting finding is the so-called format dependence effect which implies that assessment of the same probability distribution generates different conclusions about over- or underconfidence bias depending on the assessment format. In particular,expressing a belief about some unknown quantity in the form of a confidence interval is severely prone to overconfidence as compared to expressing the belief as an assessment of a probability. This thesis gives a tentative account of this finding in terms of a Naïve Sampling Model (NSM;Juslin, Winman, & Hansson, 2004), which assumes that people accurately describe their available information stored in memory but they are naïve in the sense that they treat sample properties as proper estimators of population properties. The NSM predicts that it should be possible to reducethe overconfidence in interval production by changing the response format into interval evaluation and to manipulate the degree of format dependence between interval production and interval evaluation. These predictions are verified in empirical experiments which contain both general knowledge tasks (Study 1) and laboratory learning tasks (Study 2). A bold hypothesis,that working memory is a constraining factor for sample size in judgment which suggests that experience per se does not eliminate overconfidence, is investigated and verified. The NSM predicts that the absolute error of the placement of the interval is a constant fraction of interval size, a prediction that is verified (Study 2). This thesis suggests that no cognitive processing bias(Tversky & Kahneman, 1974) over and above naivety is needed to understand and explain the overconfidence bias in interval production and hence the format dependence effect.</p>

This thesis presents a three-phase longitudinal study of naïve psychology and pretend play behaviour development between preschool children in the United Kingdom (UK) and Singapore. Research conducted in the Western contexts has shown that children develop an understanding of pretence and desires at 18 months of age (e.g. Nielsen & Dissanayake, 2004; Repacholi & Gopnik, 1997), before level-1 visual perspective-taking at 2½ years of age (e.g. Flavell, Everett, Croft, & Flavell, 1981) and followed by level-2 visual perspective-taking, appearance-reality distinction and false-belief understanding at 4 years of age (e.g. Flavell et al., 1981; Flavell, Flavell, & Green, 1983; Wellman, Cross, & Watson, 2001). A major issue that has dominated the field for many years concerns whether naïve psychology follows a universal developmental pattern. The majority of the studies to date have tended to rely heavily on false-belief understanding as an index of children’s understanding of mental representation. Some cross-cultural results have shown that the onset of false-belief understanding coincides with Western norms (e.g. Callaghan et al., 2005) whereas several non-Western studies have demonstrated a time lag in development across cultural groups (e.g. Vinden, 1999). To date no longitudinal study comparing the development of other naïve psychology concepts from 2 to 4 years of age between diverse cultures has been published. The present study aims to address the gap in the literature by tracking longitudinally and comparing the developmental patterns of children’s understanding of a range of naïve psychology concepts in the UK and Singapore at 2½, 3 and 3½ years of age (phases I, II and III respectively). Singapore with its mixed blend of Eastern and Western values represents a unique case for comparative study. This study employed a repeated-measures design, incorporating a large battery of established tasks that tapped children’s understanding of pretence, desires, visual perceptions and beliefs. In addition, a semi-structured observational approach was employed to study children’s naturally occurring pretend play behaviour. A total of 87 children were recruited in the UK (M = 28.60 months, SD = 1.90) and Singapore (M = 29.89, SD = 2.76) in the first phase of study. Of the initial sample, 36 children (M = 42.75, SD = 1.84) in the UK cohort and 38 children (M = 43.68, SD = 2.79) in the Singapore cohort participated in all three phases of the study. This thesis has five research questions. The first question relates to the extent to which acquisition of naïve psychology concepts differ between the two cultures at 2½ years of age. The baseline results reported in Chapter 5 indicate that 2½-year-old children in both cohorts acquired a rudimentary understanding of some aspects of pretence, discrepant desires, action prediction, emotion prediction and level-1 visual perspective-taking. The results showed no gross cross-cultural differences. However, subtle cross-cultural differences in children’s understanding of discrepant desires and action prediction were found. The second question addresses longitudinal cross-cultural differences in naïve psychology development between 2½, 3 and 3½ years of age. The results presented in Chapter 6 reveal cultural similarities in children’s performance on several pretence understanding, the level-2 visual perspective-taking, the appearance-reality distinction and the false-belief explanation tasks. Nonetheless, cultural differences were observed in some aspects of naïve psychology. The UK cohort performed significantly better than the Singapore cohort in the unexpected transfer false-belief prediction task at 3½ years of age, after verbal mental age (VMA) and gender were treated as covariates. Additionally, the UK cohort achieved significantly higher total mean for the level-1 visual perspective-taking task across the three phases and the mental representation in pretence task across phases II and III. In contrast, the Singapore cohort scored significantly higher in total mean for the discrepant desires task across the three phases. The third question considers longitudinal differences in children’s understanding of knowledge-ignorance and beliefs from 3 to 3½ years of age. The analysis in Chapter 7 indicates that the Singapore cohort performed significantly more poorly than the UK cohort in understanding knowledge-ignorance attribution (for the false-belief prediction and falsebelief explanation tasks) and true-belief ascription (for the false-belief explanation task) across phases II and III, after VMA and gender were considered as covariates. Comparison of children’s false-belief prediction and justification scores revealed that the cross-cultural difference in false-belief prediction related to an explicit ability to predict false-belief without concurrent ability to justify a naïve character’s behaviour based on false-beliefs. Twenty-four (66.7%) and 11 (28.9%) children in the UK and Singapore cohorts respectively were able to make correct false-belief prediction at 3½ years of age. Among these children, only six and five children from the UK and Singapore cohorts respectively provided correct justifications on the basis of false-beliefs. These findings therefore indicated cultural similarities in that the same number of children in both cohorts was able to predict and justify other’s behaviour in terms of false-beliefs. The fourth question explores the degree to which presence of sibling(s), birth order, language (VMA) and bilingualism contribute to individual differences in naïve psychology development. The results in Chapter 8 show no evidence that presence of sibling(s) and birth order facilitated understanding of action prediction, discrepant desires, level-1 visual perspective-taking, mental representation in pretence and false-belief prediction in either cohort. With respect to the role of language in children’s naïve psychology development, there were concurrent (within phase) associations between VMA and false-belief prediction at 3½ years of age and longitudinal associations between VMA at 2½ years of age and falsebelief prediction at 3½ years of age for both cohorts. These findings suggest that language ability contributes to individual differences in false-belief understanding. It is worth highlighting that not all aspects of naïve psychology and VMA were related. The fifth and final question focuses on longitudinal cross-cultural similarities and differences in pretend play behaviour and examines the links between pretend play behaviour and naïve psychology development. The observational data in Chapter 9 reveal that the Singaporean children spent significantly more time engaged in non-pretend play and non-social pretend play at 2½ years of age whereas the UK children spent significantly more time engaged in social pretend play. This finding contrasted with the marked cultural differences in naïve psychology development found at 3 and 3½ years of age. It is important to note that the UK and Singaporean children showed similar developmental sequences from non-pretend to non-social pretend and finally to social pretend play behaviour and from simple to complex forms of social pretend play behaviour. With respect to other pretend play behaviour, the UK children spent significantly more time engaged in positive complementary bids, negative conflict, other forms of pretence, metacommunication and in the pretend theme of outings, holiday and weather across all phases than the Singaporean children. The associations between some early pretend play behaviour and later acquisition of some naïve psychology concepts for both cultures provide partial support for the proposition that pretend play behaviour is an early marker of understanding mental representation.

A travers la présente thèse, nous nous intéressons à la prévention des accidents d’avalanche survenant à l’occasion de la pratique du hors-piste. Les jeunes pratiquants du hors-piste (15-30 ans) sont repérés comme les principales victimes des avalanches par les données statistiques de l’Association Nationale pour l’Etude de la Neige et des Avalanches. L’objectif principal de la présente thèse est de parvenir à une meilleure connaissance de ce public adepte de sports de glisse. Pour cela, nous proposons d’investiguer leurs habitudes et motivations de pratique du hors-piste, leurs perceptions des risques liés à cette pratique, les explications qu’ils donnent spontanément pour les accidents d’avalanche en hors-piste, ainsi que les comportements qu’ils adoptent en hors-piste et les critères qu’ils utilisent pour prendre la décision de sortir des pistes. Les données recueillies devraient contribuer à l’enrichissement des stratégies de prévention des accidents d’avalanche en hors-piste. Elles permettent de concevoir des stratégies et des messages ciblés et adaptés à cette population de jeunes pratiquants. En effet, les travaux sur la perception des risques (Kouabenan, 2006) et sur l’explication naïve des accidents (Kouabenan, 1999) suggèrent que si l’on souhaite que les individus adhèrent aux messages de prévention, il est nécessaire de connaître la façon dont ils appréhendent les risques, et pour ce qui nous concerne les risques en hors-piste, notamment le risque d’avalanche. Il importe aussi de connaître les causes qu’ils invoquent pour expliquer la production des accidents d’avalanche. Ce travail de thèse comprend quatre études dont la méthodologie repose sur deux questionnaires. L’élaboration des questionnaires s’appuie sur des entretiens préalables menés avec des pratiquants aux profils divers, et sur l’exploitation de la littérature sur les travaux empiriques empruntant le même cadre théorique ainsi que sur les rapports sur les accidents d’avalanche. Concernant les études 1, 2 et 4, nous avons interrogé 304 jeunes pratiquants de sports de glisse. Pour l’étude 4, nous avons questionné 238 pratiquants. Pour le recueil des données concernant les quatre études, nous avons rencontré les participants sur le terrain, dans des stations de sports d’hiver en Isère, en Savoie et en Haute-Savoie, ainsi que sur le campus universitaire et lors de manifestations sportives. Le recueil des données s’est fait par entretien en face à face avec le participant<br>Through this thesis, we examine the avalanche accident prevention occurring in out-of-bounds (OB) practice. Young out-of-bounds practitioners (15-30 years-old) are identified as the core of avalanche victims. The main aim of this thesis is to get better knowledge about these boardsports enthusiasts. To do this, we suggest to investigate their habits and motivations relative to OB practice, their perception of the risks associated to this practice, the spontaneous explanations they give for avalanche accidents in OB, as well as the behaviours they adopt in OB, and the criteria they use to decide to go or not to go OB. The data collected would contribute to improve prevention strategies for avalanche accidents in OB, by targeting and adapting these strategies to young practitioners. Indeed, research on risk perception (Kouabenan, 2006) and naive causal explanations of accidents (Kouabenan, 1999) propose that if we want people to adhere to prevention messages, it is necessary to know the way they understand risks, for our case OB risks, particularly avalanche hazard. It is also essential to know the causes they invoke to explain avalanche accidents. This thesis work consists of four studies for which the methodology relies on two questionnaires. The questionnaires were carried out from preliminary interviews conducted with practitioners of varied profiles, and from literature and empirical works of the same theoretical framework, as well as accidents reports. Concerning the studies 1, 2 and 4, we interviewed 304 young boardsports practitioners. For study 3, we questioned 238 practitioners. For the data collect of the four studies, we met participants in the field, in winter sport resorts in Isère, Savoie and Haute-Savoie (France), as well as at the university campus and during sport events. Data collection was done with face-to-face interview with the participant

Die Verhaltenswissenschaften betrachten menschliche Entscheidungsprozesse aus zwei komplementären Perspektiven: Form und Funktion. Formfragen behandeln wie Denkprozesse ablaufen, Funktionsfragen behandeln, welche Ziele das resultierende Verhalten erfüllt. Die vorliegende Dissertation argumentiert für die Integration von Form und Funktion. Ein Schritt zur Integration von Form und Funktion besteh darin, Prozessmodelle aus der Kognitionspsychologie in die evolutionäre Psychologie und Verhaltensbiologie (welche sich häufig mit Funktionsfragen befassen) einzuführen. Studie 1 untersucht die Eigenschaften kognitiver Prozessmodelle. Ich schlage ein Rahmenmodell für allgemeine kognitive Prozessmodelle vor, mit Hilfe dessen Prozessmodelle entwickelt werden können. In Studie 2 untersuche ich Klassifikation aus Perspektive der Form und Funktion. Verhalten sich Menschen gemäss einer statistischen Annahme, die sich in der Informatik als robust gegenüber ihrer Verletzung herausstellte? Daten aus zwei Lernexperimenten und Modellierung mittels eines neuen probabilistischen Lernmodells zeigen, dass Menschen zu Beginn des Lernprozesses gemäß dem statistischen Prinzip der klassenkonditionalen Unabhängigkeit kategorisieren. In Studie 3 geht es um Risikoentscheidungen aus der Perspektive der Form und Funktion. Sind Informationsverarbeitungsprozesse abhängig von der Zielgröße der Entscheidung? Ich messe Prozess- und Verhaltensindikatoren in zehn Risikodomänen welche die evolutionären Ziele wiederspiegeln. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich, dass Risikoeinstellungen domänenspezifisch sind. Insbesondere sind Frauen nicht universell risiko-averser als Männer. Auf der Prozessebene hat die Valenz der entscheidungsrelevanten Argumente geringeren Einfluss auf die Domänenunterschiede als die am häufigsten genannten Aspekte für/gegen das Risikoverhalten.<br>The behavioral sciences investigate human decision processes from two complementary perspectives: form and function. Formal questions include the processes that lead to decisions, functional aspects include the goals which the resulting behavior meets. This dissertation argues for the integration of form and functional questions. One step towards a form-function integration is introducing cognitive process models into evolutionary psychology and behavioral biology (which are mostly asking about the goals of behavior). Study 1 investigates the properties of cognitive process models. I suggest the first general framework for building cognitive process models. In study 2 I investigate human category learning from a functional and form centered perspective. Do humans, when learning a novel categorization task, follow a statistical principle which was been shown to perform the goals of correct classification robustly even in the face of violations of the underlying assumption? Data from two learning experiments and cognitive modeling with a novel probabilistic learning model show that humans start classifying by following the statistical principle of class-conditional independence of features. Study 3 investigates risk attitudes from the perspective of form and function. Does the information people process relate to the goals of risky behavior? I measure process- and behavioral indicators in ten domains of risks which represent different evolutionary goals. The results show that not only do risk attitudes differ across domains, but also that females are not universally less risk taking than males. Further, on the process level, the valence of the aspects related to perceived risks is less related to peoples’ risk propensities compared to the most frequently mentioned aspects.

xv, 145 p. : ill. (some col.)<br>This dissertation examines the role of affect in consumer judgments in two essays. The first essay explores the use of affect as a heuristic basis for judgments of the risks and benefits associated with new products. Current perspectives regarding the processes by which consumers make decisions about the adoption of innovations maintain that it is largely a cognitive process. However, the four studies that make up the first essay suggest that consumer assessments of the risks and benefits associated with product innovations are often inversely related and affectively congruent with evaluations of those innovations. The results support and extend previous research that has investigated the affect heuristic in the context of social hazards. The findings further indicate that more affectively extreme evaluations are associated with increasingly disparate assessments of risk and benefit. The results indicate that this relationship is consistent across a variety of products and product categories. Together, these findings challenge traditional conceptualizations of innovation adoption decision making and suggest that cognitive models alone are insufficient to explain innovation adoption decisions. The second essay investigates if processing fluency - the difficulty associated with processing information - may serve as an input to the affect heuristic and subsequent judgments of risk and benefit. Recently, Song and Schwarz investigated the relationship between differences in fluency and perceptions of risk. Their results suggested that fluency experiences influence risk perception through differences in familiarity and not as the result of fluency-elicited affect. The three studies included in the second essay re-examine those results in an effort to clarify the role of affect as a basis for perceptions of risk. The findings document a previously unreported reversal in preference for less fluent stimuli and suggest that fluency-elicited affect can explain the relationship between processing experiences and perceptions of risk. The results have important theoretical implications for our understanding of how people derive meaning from fluency experiences and for the role of fluency-elicited affect as a basis for judgments of risk and benefit.<br>Committee in charge: David Boush, Chairperson; Robert Madrigal, Member; Joan Giese, Member; Paul Slovic, Outside Member

Classical attribution theorists developed models of causal attribution that reflected their belief that people were primarily interested in attribution accuracy. These models did not consider contextual factors such as relationships and societal norms which resulted in the emergence of several empirical puzzles many of which are related to the use of consensus information. This study investigates whether the puzzle of the differential treatment of consensus information can be solved if it is assumed that people are primarily concerned with social features of the attribution setting rather than strict attribution accuracy. This study experimentally tests the role of key aspects of the social context such as the impact of social strategies in Kelley’s model of attribution to explore whether some of its empirical anomalies could have their origins in the social aspects of attribution in research contexts. The study found that participants were 2.63 times more likely to provide ‘inaccurate’ responses when there was a risk that the accurate answer would be socially disruptive. Findings from this study suggest that participants prioritise the implications of the social context over attribution accuracy.<br>Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

abstract: A handheld metal noisemaker known as a “clicker” is widely used to train new behaviors in dogs; however, evidence for the superior efficacy of clickers as opposed to providing solely primary reinforcement or other secondary reinforcers in the acquisition of novel behavior in dogs is almost entirely anecdotal. Three experiments were conducted to determine under what circumstances a clicker may result in acquisition of a novel behavior more rapidly or to a higher level compared to other readily available reinforcement methods. In Experiment 1, three groups of 30 dogs each were trained to emit a novel sit and stay behavior of increasing duration with either the delivery of food alone, a verbal stimulus paired with food, or a clicker with food. The group that received only a primary reinforcer reached a significantly higher criterion of training success than the group trained with a verbal secondary reinforcer. Performance of the group experiencing a clicker secondary reinforcer was intermediate between the other two groups, but not significantly different from either. In Experiment 2, three different groups of 25 dogs each were shaped to emit a nose targeting behavior and then perform that behavior at increasing distances from the experimenter using the same three methods of positive reinforcement as in Experiment 1. No statistically significant differences between the groups were found. In Experiment 3, three groups of 30 dogs each were shaped to emit a nose-targeting behavior upon an array of wooden blocks with task difficulty increasing throughout testing using the same three methods of positive reinforcement as previously. No statistically significant differences between the groups were found. Overall, the findings suggest that both clickers and other forms of positive reinforcement can be used successfully in training a dog to perform a novel behavior, but that no positive reinforcement method has significantly greater efficacy than any other.<br>Dissertation/Thesis<br>Masters Thesis Psychology 2020

Jones, Main, Butler, and Johnson (1982) stated that job-naive raters provided with only narrative job descriptions can produce valid and reliable Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) ratings. This implies that traditional time- and labor-intensive methods of collecting job analysis information (e.g., interviews, direct observation) are not necessary in order to accurately complete the PAQ. However, PAQ ratings in the Jones et al. study were not validated against an external standard, thereby making the unambiguous interpretation of their results impossible. To determine the convergent validity of the Jones et al. approach, we provided job-naive raters with varying amounts of job descriptive information and, in some cases, prior practice rating the job with another job analysis instrument; PAQ ratings were validated against those of job analysts who were also job content experts. None of the reduced job descriptive information conditions, or practice, enabled job naive raters to obtain either acceptable levels of convergent validity with experts or high interrater reliability.

BACKGROUND: Soft neurological signs (SNS) are subtle, nonspecific neurological abnormalities that are present in first episode psychosis (FEP) patients. SNS are associated with clinical variables such as poor long term psychosocial functioning, executive functioning, and positive and negative symptomology. However, few studies have evaluated treatment responsiveness with respect to SNS. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether SNS show: 1.) baseline and longitudinal differences between both diagnostic groups (schizophrenia (FEP-SZ), non-schizophrenia FEP-NSZ, and healthy controls (HC)) and treatment outcome (week 26 and year 1); 2.) relationships to clinical measures; 3.) predictive characteristics of treatment response. METHODS: SNS scores (Neurological Evaluation Scale) were obtained for 312 FEP (236 FEP-SZ and 76 FEP-NSZ subjects and 169 HC subjects and for subjects classified as treatment responsive and non-responsive at week 26 (N=105, N=105) and year 1 (N=101, N=97), respectively. Diagnostic group and treatment responsiveness group comparisons were assessed with ANCOVA and logistic regression models and both were co-varied for age, sex, race, and handedness. Baseline and longitudinal SNS relationships to clinical variables were determined using Spearman correlations and repeated measures correlations, and both were corrected by False Discovery Rate. Linear mixed effects model was utilized to analyze the data longitudinally. RESULTS: Baseline cognitive perceptual SNS measures had the greatest effect size differences, were predictive of group membership, and differentiated the two proband groups with FEP-SZ having worse SNS scores. Baseline cognitive perceptual SNS did not significantly predict treatment response at week 26 or year 1, but changes in cognitive perceptual at week 26 was predictive of treatment responsiveness at week 26 and year 1. Longitudinally, SNS scores drop in both FEP groups and treatment groups. The FEP-SZ group showed greater longitudinal within subject correlations than FEP-NSZ. SNS scores were only differentiated between year 1 outcome groups at week 8. There were greater longitudinal within subject correlations for the responsive group. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that there are baseline group differences and that changes in cognitive perceptual SNS scores at week 26 are predictive of treatment responsiveness at week 26 and year 1.<br>2019-07-03T00:00:00Z

abstract: When a rolling ball exits a spiral tube, it typically maintains its final inertial state and travels along straight line in concordance with Newton's first law of motion. Yet, most people predict that the ball will curve, a "naive physics" misconception called the curvilinear impetus (CI) bias. In the current paper, we explore the ecological hypothesis that the CI bias arises from overgeneralization of correct motion of biological agents. Previous research has established that humans curve when exiting a spiral maze, and college students believe this motion is the same for balls and humans. The current paper consists of two follow up experiments. The first experiment tested the exiting behavior of rodents from a spiral rat maze. Though there were weaknesses in design and procedures of the maze, the findings support that rats do not behave like humans who exhibit the CI bias when exiting a spiral maze. These results are consistent with the CI bias being an overgeneralization of human motion, rather than generic biological motion. The second experiment tested physics teachers on their conception of how a humans and balls behave when exiting a spiral tube. Teachers demonstrated correct knowledge of the straight trajectory of a ball, but generalized the ball's behavior to human motion. Thus physics teachers exhibit the opposite bias from college students and presume that all motion is like inanimate motion. This evidence supports that this type of naive physics inertial bias is at least partly due to participants overgeneralizing both inanimate and animate motion to be the same, perhaps in an effort to minimize cognitive reference memory load. In short, physics training appears not to eliminate the bias, but rather to simply shift it from the presumption of stereotypical animate to stereotypical inanimate behavior.<br>Dissertation/Thesis<br>M.A. Psychology 2013

This research study investigated preschoolers' naive theory of the human body in understanding the cause of death. The empirical investigation showed that urban and suburban preschoolers (ages 5 and 6) have an understanding of a naive theory of the human body and that some do make reference to a 'vitalistic causality' in explaining organ function. Furthermore, most of the participants gave an external explanation for the cause of death (e.g. gunshots, poison, sticks), but those participants who gave an internal (biological) explanation for the cause of death were well-informed about the biological teleology of body organs. These findings conclude that education, socio-economic factors and culture influence the acquisition of a naive theory of biology. The need for guidance to educators, in explaining the concept of death to preschoolers, was further emphasised.<br>Educational Studies<br>M.Ed. (Psychology of Education)

An increasing number of reports indicate that managers are opposed to performance appraisal. It is important to understand why managers have favourable or unfavourable attitudes towards performance appraisal and it is necessary to investigate the causing factors of these attitudes. The aim of this research was therefore to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that influence managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal. This study was conducted within the interpretive research paradigm and situated in a medium-sized organisation within the financial services industry. The sample was purposefully selected and the data were collected through in-depth interviews and naïve sketches. The data were analysed applying Tesch’s descriptive analysis method. The main findings indicated that managers who needed to conduct performance appraisals perceived and experienced performance appraisal as an uncomfortable and emotional process that might cause them to become defensive. Moreover, it was revealed that the managers experienced uncertainties about aspects of performance appraisal, such as the purpose of performance appraisal, what must be measured and frequency of performance appraisal. As a result of such uncertainties, managers might not always have the ability or readiness to conduct performance appraisals, especially when the performance appraisal contains negative performance feedback. Furthermore, the organisational context might put managers in an undesirable situation to distort performance ratings of employees in order to achieve organisational goals or the manager’s personal goals, which in turn influence the attitude of the manager. The findings of the study can assist organisations in influencing managers’ attitudes more positively and in enhancing the overall performance appraisal process.<br>Industrial and Organisational Psychology<br>M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The mother-child relationship is the first basic relationship with which any human being is confronted. The temperaments of mother and child play an important role in this relationship. The aim of this study is to explore the perception of mothers with regards to temperaments. This study uses a qualitative approach, which is explorative and descriptive, to gain insight into the influence of temperaments in the mother-child relationship. Seven mothers were selected by purposeful sampling to participate in the group work as research process. Group work progresses through the following three phases: awareness, exploration and personalisation. Naive sketches were used to determine the perception of the mothers during the awareness and personalisation phases. A focus group interview was utilised in the exploration phase. Finding showed that the mother-child relationship plays an important role in the optimal development of the child and his or her mother. This study confirmed the importance of understanding temperaments in the mother-child relationship.<br>Educational Studies<br>M. Ed. (Specialisation in Guidance & Counseling)