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Sample records for pay-off-biased social learning

  1. Pay-off-biased social learning underlies the diffusion of novel extractive foraging traditions in a wild primate

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-01-01

    The type and variety of learning strategies used by individuals to acquire behaviours in the wild are poorly understood, despite the presence of behavioural traditions in diverse taxa. Social learning strategies such as conformity can be broadly adaptive, but may also retard the spread of adaptive innovations. Strategies like pay-off-biased learning, by contrast, are effective at diffusing new behaviour but may perform poorly when adaptive behaviour is common. We present a field experiment in a wild primate, Cebus capucinus, that introduced a novel food item and documented the innovation and diffusion of successful extraction techniques. We develop a multilevel, Bayesian statistical analysis that allows us to quantify individual-level evidence for different social and individual learning strategies. We find that pay-off-biased and age-biased social learning are primarily responsible for the diffusion of new techniques. We find no evidence of conformity; instead rare techniques receive slightly increased attention. We also find substantial and important variation in individual learning strategies that is patterned by age, with younger individuals being more influenced by both social information and their own individual experience. The aggregate cultural dynamics in turn depend upon the variation in learning strategies and the age structure of the wild population. PMID:28592681

  2. Beyond existence and aiming outside the laboratory: estimating frequency-dependent and pay-off-biased social learning strategies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McElreath, Richard; Bell, Adrian V; Efferson, Charles; Lubell, Mark; Richerson, Peter J; Waring, Timothy

    2008-11-12

    The existence of social learning has been confirmed in diverse taxa, from apes to guppies. In order to advance our understanding of the consequences of social transmission and evolution of behaviour, however, we require statistical tools that can distinguish among diverse social learning strategies. In this paper, we advance two main ideas. First, social learning is diverse, in the sense that individuals can take advantage of different kinds of information and combine them in different ways. Examining learning strategies for different information conditions illuminates the more detailed design of social learning. We construct and analyse an evolutionary model of diverse social learning heuristics, in order to generate predictions and illustrate the impact of design differences on an organism's fitness. Second, in order to eventually escape the laboratory and apply social learning models to natural behaviour, we require statistical methods that do not depend upon tight experimental control. Therefore, we examine strategic social learning in an experimental setting in which the social information itself is endogenous to the experimental group, as it is in natural settings. We develop statistical models for distinguishing among different strategic uses of social information. The experimental data strongly suggest that most participants employ a hierarchical strategy that uses both average observed pay-offs of options as well as frequency information, the same model predicted by our evolutionary analysis to dominate a wide range of conditions.

  3. The evolution of social learning rules: payoff-biased and frequency-dependent biased transmission.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kendal, Jeremy; Giraldeau, Luc-Alain; Laland, Kevin

    2009-09-21

    Humans and other animals do not use social learning indiscriminately, rather, natural selection has favoured the evolution of social learning rules that make selective use of social learning to acquire relevant information in a changing environment. We present a gene-culture coevolutionary analysis of a small selection of such rules (unbiased social learning, payoff-biased social learning and frequency-dependent biased social learning, including conformism and anti-conformism) in a population of asocial learners where the environment is subject to a constant probability of change to a novel state. We define conditions under which each rule evolves to a genetically polymorphic equilibrium. We find that payoff-biased social learning may evolve under high levels of environmental variation if the fitness benefit associated with the acquired behaviour is either high or low but not of intermediate value. In contrast, both conformist and anti-conformist biases can become fixed when environment variation is low, whereupon the mean fitness in the population is higher than for a population of asocial learners. Our examination of the population dynamics reveals stable limit cycles under conformist and anti-conformist biases and some highly complex dynamics including chaos. Anti-conformists can out-compete conformists when conditions favour a low equilibrium frequency of the learned behaviour. We conclude that evolution, punctuated by the repeated successful invasion of different social learning rules, should continuously favour a reduction in the equilibrium frequency of asocial learning, and propose that, among competing social learning rules, the dominant rule will be the one that can persist with the lowest frequency of asocial learning.

  4. When does corporate social responsibility pay off? the impact of the country-level institutionalization of CSR

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Xiao, Chengyong; Wang, Qian; van Donk, Dirk Pieter; van der Vaart, Taco

    2015-01-01

    The literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has not yet provided a univocal answer to an important question, i.e., when does corporate social responsibility pay off? Drawing up institutional theory, this study contributes to the CSR literature through exploring the CSR-CFP (corporate

  5. Adult learners in a novel environment use prestige-biased social learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atkisson, Curtis; O'Brien, Michael J; Mesoudi, Alex

    2012-08-13

    Social learning (learning from others) is evolutionarily adaptive under a wide range of conditions and is a long-standing area of interest across the social and biological sciences. One social-learning mechanism derived from cultural evolutionary theory is prestige bias, which allows a learner in a novel environment to quickly and inexpensively gather information as to the potentially best teachers, thus maximizing his or her chances of acquiring adaptive behavior. Learners provide deference to high-status individuals in order to ingratiate themselves with, and gain extended exposure to, that individual. We examined prestige-biased social transmission in a laboratory experiment in which participants designed arrowheads and attempted to maximize hunting success, measured in caloric return. Our main findings are that (1) participants preferentially learned from prestigious models (defined as those models at whom others spent longer times looking), and (2) prestige information and success-related information were used to the same degree, even though the former was less useful in this experiment than the latter. We also found that (3) participants were most likely to use social learning over individual (asocial) learning when they were performing poorly, in line with previous experiments, and (4) prestige information was not used more often following environmental shifts, contrary to predictions.  These results support previous discussions of the key role that prestige-biased transmission plays in social learning.

  6. Social anxiety is characterized by biased learning about performance and the self.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koban, Leonie; Schneider, Rebecca; Ashar, Yoni K; Andrews-Hanna, Jessica R; Landy, Lauren; Moscovitch, David A; Wager, Tor D; Arch, Joanna J

    2017-12-01

    People learn about their self from social information, and recent work suggests that healthy adults show a positive bias for learning self-related information. In contrast, social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by a negative view of the self, yet what causes and maintains this negative self-view is not well understood. Here the authors use a novel experimental paradigm and computational model to test the hypothesis that biased social learning regarding self-evaluation and self-feelings represents a core feature that distinguishes adults with SAD from healthy controls. Twenty-one adults with SAD and 35 healthy controls (HCs) performed a speech in front of 3 judges. They subsequently evaluated themselves and received performance feedback from the judges and then rated how they felt about themselves and the judges. Affective updating (i.e., change in feelings about the self over time, in response to feedback from the judges) was modeled using an adapted Rescorla-Wagner learning model. HCs demonstrated a positivity bias in affective updating, which was absent in SAD. Further, self-performance ratings revealed group differences in learning from positive feedback-a difference that endured at an average of 1 year follow up. These findings demonstrate the presence and long-term endurance of positively biased social learning about the self among healthy adults, a bias that is absent or reversed among socially anxious adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  7. Social biases modulate the loss of redundant forms in the cultural evolution of language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roberts, Gareth; Fedzechkina, Maryia

    2018-02-01

    According to the competitive exclusion principle (Gause, 1934), competition for the same niche must eventually lead one competitor to extinction or the occupation of a new niche. This principle applies in both biology and the cultural evolution of language, where different words and structures compete for the same function or meaning (Aronoff, 2016). Across languages, for example, word order trades off with case marking as a means of indicating who did what to whom in a sentence. Previous experimental work has shed light on how such trade-offs come about as languages adapt to human biases through learning and production, with biases becoming amplified through iterated learning over generations. At the same time, a large body of work has documented the impact of social biases on language change. However, little work has investigated how social biases interact with learning and production biases. In particular, the social dimension of language may provide alternative niches for otherwise redundant forms, preventing or slowing their extinction. We tested this hypothesis in an iterated-learning experiment in which participants were exposed to a language with two dialects, both of which had fixed word order, but differed in whether they employed case markers. In one condition, we biased participants socially towards speakers of the dialect that employed case; in other conditions we provided no bias, or biased participants for or against the dialect without case. As expected under our hypothesis, the use of case markers declined over time in all conditions, but the social bias in favor of case-dialect speakers slowed the decline. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Can monkeys make investments based on maximized pay-off?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sophie Steelandt

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Animals can maximize benefits but it is not known if they adjust their investment according to expected pay-offs. We investigated whether monkeys can use different investment strategies in an exchange task. We tested eight capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella and thirteen macaques (Macaca fascicularis, Macaca tonkeana in an experiment where they could adapt their investment to the food amounts proposed by two different experimenters. One, the doubling partner, returned a reward that was twice the amount given by the subject, whereas the other, the fixed partner, always returned a constant amount regardless of the amount given. To maximize pay-offs, subjects should invest a maximal amount with the first partner and a minimal amount with the second. When tested with the fixed partner only, one third of monkeys learned to remove a maximal amount of food for immediate consumption before investing a minimal one. With both partners, most subjects failed to maximize pay-offs by using different decision rules with each partner' quality. A single Tonkean macaque succeeded in investing a maximal amount to one experimenter and a minimal amount to the other. The fact that only one of over 21 subjects learned to maximize benefits in adapting investment according to experimenters' quality indicates that such a task is difficult for monkeys, albeit not impossible.

  9. Effects of phentermine and pentobarbital on choice processes during multiple probability learning (MPL) and decision processes manipulated by pay-off conditions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Volkerts, ER; VanLaar, MW; Verbaten, MN; Mulder, G; Maes, RAA

    1997-01-01

    The primary research question in this investigation concerned whether arousal manipulation by a stimulant (phentermine 20 mg) and a depressant (pentobarbital 100 mg) will oppositely affect choice behaviour in a probability learning task and decision processes manipulated by pay-off. A 3-source

  10. The bias against new innovations in health care: value uncertainty and willingness to pay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walton, Surrey M; Graves, Philip E; Mueser, Peter R; Dow, Jay K

    2002-01-01

    This paper offers a model for the bias found in willingness-to-pay valuations against new treatments. For example, this bias provides an explanation for patient preferences that make it difficult for formularies to take treatments off their lists, even when newer treatments would appear to be clearly preferable. The appeal of the model, which is based on imperfect information, is that it is consistent with rational preferences and rational behavior by patients, which are necessary for standard models and methods related to decision theory, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency.

  11. Social inference and social anxiety: evidence of a fear-congruent self-referential learning bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Button, Katherine S; Browning, Michael; Munafò, Marcus R; Lewis, Glyn

    2012-12-01

    Fears of negative evaluation characterise social anxiety, and preferential processing of fear-relevant information is implicated in maintaining symptoms. Little is known, however, about the relationship between social anxiety and the process of inferring negative evaluation. The ability to use social information to learn what others think about one, referred to here as self-referential learning, is fundamental for effective social interaction. The aim of this research was to examine whether social anxiety is associated with self-referential learning. 102 Females with either high (n = 52) or low (n = 50) self-reported social anxiety completed a novel probabilistic social learning task. Using trial and error, the task required participants to learn two self-referential rules, 'I am liked' and 'I am disliked'. Participants across the sample were better at learning the positive rule 'I am liked' than the negative rule 'I am disliked', β = -6.4, 95% CI [-8.0, -4.7], p learning positive self-referential information was strongest in the lowest socially anxious and was abolished in the most symptomatic participants. Relative to the low group, the high anxiety group were better at learning they were disliked and worse at learning they were liked, social anxiety by rule interaction β = 3.6; 95% CI [+0.3, +7.0], p = 0.03. The specificity of the results to self-referential processing requires further research. Healthy individuals show a robust preference for learning that they are liked relative to disliked. This positive self-referential bias is reduced in social anxiety in a way that would be expected to exacerbate anxiety symptoms. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Learning about social-ecological trade-offs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diego Galafassi

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Trade-offs are manifestations of the complex dynamics in interdependent social-ecological systems. Addressing trade-offs involves challenges of perception due to the dynamics of interdependence. We outline the challenges associated with addressing trade-offs and analyze knowledge coproduction as a practice that may contribute to tackling trade-offs in social-ecological systems. We discuss this through a case study in coastal Kenya in which an iterative knowledge coproduction process was facilitated to reveal social-ecological trade-offs in the face of ecological and socioeconomic change. Representatives of communities, government, and NGOs attended two integrative workshops in which methods derived from systems thinking, dialogue, participatory modeling, and scenarios were applied to encourage participants to engage and evaluate trade-offs. Based on process observation and interviews with participants and scientists, our analysis suggests that this process lead to increased appreciation of interdependences and the way in which trade-offs emerge from complex dynamics of interdependent factors. The process seemed to provoke a reflection of knowledge assumptions and narratives, and management goals for the social-ecological system. We also discuss how stakeholders link these insights to their practices.

  13. Social reward shapes attentional biases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Brian A

    2016-01-01

    Paying attention to stimuli that predict a reward outcome is important for an organism to survive and thrive. When visual stimuli are associated with tangible, extrinsic rewards such as money or food, these stimuli acquire high attentional priority and come to automatically capture attention. In humans and other primates, however, many behaviors are not motivated directly by such extrinsic rewards, but rather by the social feedback that results from performing those behaviors. In the present study, I examine whether positive social feedback can similarly influence attentional bias. The results show that stimuli previously associated with a high probability of positive social feedback elicit value-driven attentional capture, much like stimuli associated with extrinsic rewards. Unlike with extrinsic rewards, however, such stimuli also influence task-specific motivation. My findings offer a potential mechanism by which social reward shapes the information that we prioritize when perceiving the world around us.

  14. Fear of negative evaluation biases social evaluation inference: evidence from a probabilistic learning task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Button, Katherine S; Kounali, Daphne; Stapinski, Lexine; Rapee, Ronald M; Lewis, Glyn; Munafò, Marcus R

    2015-01-01

    Fear of negative evaluation (FNE) defines social anxiety yet the process of inferring social evaluation, and its potential role in maintaining social anxiety, is poorly understood. We developed an instrumental learning task to model social evaluation learning, predicting that FNE would specifically bias learning about the self but not others. During six test blocks (3 self-referential, 3 other-referential), participants (n = 100) met six personas and selected a word from a positive/negative pair to finish their social evaluation sentences "I think [you are / George is]…". Feedback contingencies corresponded to 3 rules, liked, neutral and disliked, with P[positive word correct] = 0.8, 0.5 and 0.2, respectively. As FNE increased participants selected fewer positive words (β = -0.4, 95% CI -0.7, -0.2, p = 0.001), which was strongest in the self-referential condition (FNE × condition 0.28, 95% CI 0.01, 0.54, p = 0.04), and the neutral and dislike rules (FNE × condition × rule, p = 0.07). At low FNE the proportion of positive words selected for self-neutral and self-disliked greatly exceeded the feedback contingency, indicating poor learning, which improved as FNE increased. FNE is associated with differences in processing social-evaluative information specifically about the self. At low FNE this manifests as insensitivity to learning negative self-referential evaluation. High FNE individuals are equally sensitive to learning positive or negative evaluation, which although objectively more accurate, may have detrimental effects on mental health.

  15. Vicarious learning of children's social-anxiety-related fear beliefs and emotional Stroop bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Askew, Chris; Hagel, Anna; Morgan, Julie

    2015-08-01

    Models of social anxiety suggest that negative social experiences contribute to the development of social anxiety, and this is supported by self-report research. However, there is relatively little experimental evidence for the effects of learning experiences on social cognitions. The current study examined the effect of observing a social performance situation with a negative outcome on children's (8 to 11 years old) fear-related beliefs and cognitive processing. Two groups of children were each shown 1 of 2 animated films of a person trying to score in basketball while being observed by others; in 1 film, the outcome was negative, and in the other, it was neutral. Children's fear-related beliefs about performing in front of others were measured before and after the film and children were asked to complete an emotional Stroop task. Results showed that social fear beliefs increased for children who saw the negative social performance film. In addition, these children showed an emotional Stroop bias for social-anxiety-related words compared to children who saw the neutral film. The findings have implications for our understanding of social anxiety disorder and suggest that vicarious learning experiences in childhood may contribute to the development of social anxiety. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  16. Fear of Negative Evaluation Biases Social Evaluation Inference: Evidence from a Probabilistic Learning Task

    Science.gov (United States)

    Button, Katherine S.; Kounali, Daphne; Stapinski, Lexine; Rapee, Ronald M.; Lewis, Glyn; Munafò, Marcus R.

    2015-01-01

    Background Fear of negative evaluation (FNE) defines social anxiety yet the process of inferring social evaluation, and its potential role in maintaining social anxiety, is poorly understood. We developed an instrumental learning task to model social evaluation learning, predicting that FNE would specifically bias learning about the self but not others. Methods During six test blocks (3 self-referential, 3 other-referential), participants (n = 100) met six personas and selected a word from a positive/negative pair to finish their social evaluation sentences “I think [you are / George is]…”. Feedback contingencies corresponded to 3 rules, liked, neutral and disliked, with P[positive word correct] = 0.8, 0.5 and 0.2, respectively. Results As FNE increased participants selected fewer positive words (β = −0.4, 95% CI −0.7, −0.2, p = 0.001), which was strongest in the self-referential condition (FNE × condition 0.28, 95% CI 0.01, 0.54, p = 0.04), and the neutral and dislike rules (FNE × condition × rule, p = 0.07). At low FNE the proportion of positive words selected for self-neutral and self-disliked greatly exceeded the feedback contingency, indicating poor learning, which improved as FNE increased. Conclusions FNE is associated with differences in processing social-evaluative information specifically about the self. At low FNE this manifests as insensitivity to learning negative self-referential evaluation. High FNE individuals are equally sensitive to learning positive or negative evaluation, which although objectively more accurate, may have detrimental effects on mental health. PMID:25853835

  17. 76 FR 27080 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Application To Pay Off or Discharge an Alien Crewman

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-05-10

    ... Activities: Application To Pay Off or Discharge an Alien Crewman AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection...: Application To Pay Off or Discharge an Alien Crewman (Form I-408). This is a proposed extension of an...: Application To Pay Off or Discharge an Alien Crewman. OMB Number: 1651-0106. Form Number: I-408. Abstract: CBP...

  18. Short communication: Prediction of retention pay-off using a machine learning algorithm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shahinfar, Saleh; Kalantari, Afshin S; Cabrera, Victor; Weigel, Kent

    2014-05-01

    Replacement decisions have a major effect on dairy farm profitability. Dynamic programming (DP) has been widely studied to find the optimal replacement policies in dairy cattle. However, DP models are computationally intensive and might not be practical for daily decision making. Hence, the ability of applying machine learning on a prerun DP model to provide fast and accurate predictions of nonlinear and intercorrelated variables makes it an ideal methodology. Milk class (1 to 5), lactation number (1 to 9), month in milk (1 to 20), and month of pregnancy (0 to 9) were used to describe all cows in a herd in a DP model. Twenty-seven scenarios based on all combinations of 3 levels (base, 20% above, and 20% below) of milk production, milk price, and replacement cost were solved with the DP model, resulting in a data set of 122,716 records, each with a calculated retention pay-off (RPO). Then, a machine learning model tree algorithm was used to mimic the evaluated RPO with DP. The correlation coefficient factor was used to observe the concordance of RPO evaluated by DP and RPO predicted by the model tree. The obtained correlation coefficient was 0.991, with a corresponding value of 0.11 for relative absolute error. At least 100 instances were required per model constraint, resulting in 204 total equations (models). When these models were used for binary classification of positive and negative RPO, error rates were 1% false negatives and 9% false positives. Applying this trained model from simulated data for prediction of RPO for 102 actual replacement records from the University of Wisconsin-Madison dairy herd resulted in a 0.994 correlation with 0.10 relative absolute error rate. Overall results showed that model tree has a potential to be used in conjunction with DP to assist farmers in their replacement decisions. Copyright © 2014 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Social Comparison of Pay and Inequity Theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Judd, Ben

    Inequity theory differs from social exchange theory in its analysis of a worker's reaction to pay by asserting that effects on work performance caused by high or low pay are due to social comparison of fairness rather than principles of direct exchange, such as reciprocity and power. The present experiment held piece-rate pay constant at two…

  20. Social biases determine spatiotemporal sparseness of ciliate mating heuristics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Kevin B

    2012-01-01

    Ciliates become highly social, even displaying animal-like qualities, in the joint presence of aroused conspecifics and nonself mating pheromones. Pheromone detection putatively helps trigger instinctual and learned courtship and dominance displays from which social judgments are made about the availability, compatibility, and fitness representativeness or likelihood of prospective mates and rivals. In earlier studies, I demonstrated the heterotrich Spirostomum ambiguum improves mating competence by effecting preconjugal strategies and inferences in mock social trials via behavioral heuristics built from Hebbian-like associative learning. Heuristics embody serial patterns of socially relevant action that evolve into ordered, topologically invariant computational networks supporting intra- and intermate selection. S. ambiguum employs heuristics to acquire, store, plan, compare, modify, select, and execute sets of mating propaganda. One major adaptive constraint over formation and use of heuristics involves a ciliate's initial subjective bias, responsiveness, or preparedness, as defined by Stevens' Law of subjective stimulus intensity, for perceiving the meaningfulness of mechanical pressures accompanying cell-cell contacts and additional perimating events. This bias controls durations and valences of nonassociative learning, search rates for appropriate mating strategies, potential net reproductive payoffs, levels of social honesty and deception, successful error diagnosis and correction of mating signals, use of insight or analysis to solve mating dilemmas, bioenergetics expenditures, and governance of mating decisions by classical or quantum statistical mechanics. I now report this same social bias also differentially affects the spatiotemporal sparseness, as measured with metric entropy, of ciliate heuristics. Sparseness plays an important role in neural systems through optimizing the specificity, efficiency, and capacity of memory representations. The present

  1. Social biases determine spatiotemporal sparseness of ciliate mating heuristics

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    Ciliates become highly social, even displaying animal-like qualities, in the joint presence of aroused conspecifics and nonself mating pheromones. Pheromone detection putatively helps trigger instinctual and learned courtship and dominance displays from which social judgments are made about the availability, compatibility, and fitness representativeness or likelihood of prospective mates and rivals. In earlier studies, I demonstrated the heterotrich Spirostomum ambiguum improves mating competence by effecting preconjugal strategies and inferences in mock social trials via behavioral heuristics built from Hebbian-like associative learning. Heuristics embody serial patterns of socially relevant action that evolve into ordered, topologically invariant computational networks supporting intra- and intermate selection. S. ambiguum employs heuristics to acquire, store, plan, compare, modify, select, and execute sets of mating propaganda. One major adaptive constraint over formation and use of heuristics involves a ciliate’s initial subjective bias, responsiveness, or preparedness, as defined by Stevens’ Law of subjective stimulus intensity, for perceiving the meaningfulness of mechanical pressures accompanying cell-cell contacts and additional perimating events. This bias controls durations and valences of nonassociative learning, search rates for appropriate mating strategies, potential net reproductive payoffs, levels of social honesty and deception, successful error diagnosis and correction of mating signals, use of insight or analysis to solve mating dilemmas, bioenergetics expenditures, and governance of mating decisions by classical or quantum statistical mechanics. I now report this same social bias also differentially affects the spatiotemporal sparseness, as measured with metric entropy, of ciliate heuristics. Sparseness plays an important role in neural systems through optimizing the specificity, efficiency, and capacity of memory representations. The

  2. Learning-style bias and the development of psychopathy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moul, Caroline; Dadds, Mark R

    2013-02-01

    In accordance with a recently proposed account of amygdala function in psychopathy, it is hypothesized that people with high levels of psychopathic personality traits have a bias in learning style to encode the general valence, and neglect the specific-features, of an outcome. We present a novel learning task designed to operationalize these biases in learning style. The results from pilot samples of healthy adults and children and from a clinical sample of children with conduct problems provide support for the validity of the learning task as a measure of learning style and demonstrate a significant relationship between general-valence style learning and psychopathic personality traits. It is suggested that this relationship may be important for the aetiology of the social-cognitive deficits exhibited by psychopaths. These preliminary results suggest that this measure of learning style has the potential to be utilized as a research tool and may assist with the early identification, and treatment, of children with conduct problems and high levels of callous-unemotional traits.

  3. 76 FR 10913 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Application To Pay Off or Discharge an Alien Crewman

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-02-28

    ... Activities: Application To Pay Off or Discharge an Alien Crewman AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection... information collection requirement concerning the Application to Pay Off or Discharge an Alien Crewman (Form I... Discharge an Alien Crewman. OMB Number: 1651-0106. Form Number: I-408. Abstract: CBP Form I-408, Application...

  4. TCABR Tokamak scrape-off layer turbulence with DC biasing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heller, M.V.A.P.; Ferreira, A.A.; Caldas, I.L.; Nascimento, I.C.

    2004-01-01

    Turbulence and particle transport in plasma scrape-off layer have been controlled by external electric fields. This control can be achieved by a biasing electrode located inside the plasma. We investigate plasma turbulence changes in the scrape-off layer of TCABR tokamak introduced by DC biasing an electrode inside the plasma. Our investigation is based on the alterations observed on the wavelet power spectra and on the intermittent burst sequences of plasma potential and density fluctuations measured by a set of Langmuir probes. Biasing the electrode changes the turbulence statistics and the bursts intermittence. With the imposed external electric field, fluctuation amplitudes, phase velocities, and anomalous particle transport are modified. Transport reduction for higher frequencies induced by the biasing could be due to the strong de-phasing between density and potential fluctuations. The mode coupling increases with the perturbation for the high frequency broadband fluctuations. The total (laminar and bursting) radial particle transport is reduced by about 25% by DC biasing. Bursts contribution to total transport is 15% and for the studied conditions this contribution does not change much with the bias perturbation

  5. Greek Physical Education Teachers' Gender Biases in Learning and Teaching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mouratidou, Katerina; Barkoukis, Vassilis

    2018-01-01

    Gender biases have often been observed in physical education (PE) classes, as many teachers adopt a male-biased perspective in teaching and learning. This might affect their evaluation of students' behavior and may lead students to accept and reproduce gender biases in other social contexts. The aim of this study was to examine whether PE teachers…

  6. Social learning in cooperative dilemmas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lamba, Shakti

    2014-07-22

    Helping is a cornerstone of social organization and commonplace in human societies. A major challenge for the evolutionary sciences is to explain how cooperation is maintained in large populations with high levels of migration, conditions under which cooperators can be exploited by selfish individuals. Cultural group selection models posit that such large-scale cooperation evolves via selection acting on populations among which behavioural variation is maintained by the cultural transmission of cooperative norms. These models assume that individuals acquire cooperative strategies via social learning. This assumption remains empirically untested. Here, I test this by investigating whether individuals employ conformist or payoff-biased learning in public goods games conducted in 14 villages of a forager-horticulturist society, the Pahari Korwa of India. Individuals did not show a clear tendency to conform or to be payoff-biased and are highly variable in their use of social learning. This variation is partly explained by both individual and village characteristics. The tendency to conform decreases and to be payoff-biased increases as the value of the modal contribution increases. These findings suggest that the use of social learning in cooperative dilemmas is contingent on individuals' circumstances and environments, and question the existence of stably transmitted cultural norms of cooperation. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

  7. The ecological economics of kleptoparasitism: pay-offs from self-foraging versus kleptoparasitism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flower, Tom P; Child, Matthew F; Ridley, Amanda R

    2013-01-01

    Animals commonly steal food from other species, termed interspecific kleptoparasitism, but why animals engage in kleptoparasitism compared with alternate foraging tactics, and under what circumstances they do so, is not fully understood. Determining what specific benefits animals gain from kleptoparasitism could provide valuable insight into its evolution. Here, we investigate the benefits of kleptoparasitism for a population of individually recognizable and free-living fork-tailed drongos (Dicrurus adsimilis) in the southern Kalahari Desert. Drongos engaged in two foraging behaviours: self-foraging for small insects or following other species which they kleptoparasitized for larger terrestrial prey that they could not capture themselves. Kleptoparasitism consequently enabled drongos to exploit a new foraging niche. Kleptoparasitism benefitted drongos most in the morning and on colder days because at these times pay-offs from kleptoparasitism remained stable, while those from self-foraging declined. However, drongos engaged in kleptoparasitism less than expected given the overall high (but more variable) pay-offs from this behaviour, suggesting that kleptoparasitism is a risky foraging tactic and may incur additional foraging costs compared with self-foraging. This is the first study to comprehensively investigate the benefits of facultatively engaging in kleptoparasitism, demonstrating that animals may switch to kleptoparasitism to exploit a new foraging niche when pay-offs exceed those from alternate foraging behaviours. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology © 2012 British Ecological Society.

  8. Adaptive social learning strategies in temporally and spatially varying environments : how temporal vs. spatial variation, number of cultural traits, and costs of learning influence the evolution of conformist-biased transmission, payoff-biased transmission, and individual learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakahashi, Wataru; Wakano, Joe Yuichiro; Henrich, Joseph

    2012-12-01

    Long before the origins of agriculture human ancestors had expanded across the globe into an immense variety of environments, from Australian deserts to Siberian tundra. Survival in these environments did not principally depend on genetic adaptations, but instead on evolved learning strategies that permitted the assembly of locally adaptive behavioral repertoires. To develop hypotheses about these learning strategies, we have modeled the evolution of learning strategies to assess what conditions and constraints favor which kinds of strategies. To build on prior work, we focus on clarifying how spatial variability, temporal variability, and the number of cultural traits influence the evolution of four types of strategies: (1) individual learning, (2) unbiased social learning, (3) payoff-biased social learning, and (4) conformist transmission. Using a combination of analytic and simulation methods, we show that spatial-but not temporal-variation strongly favors the emergence of conformist transmission. This effect intensifies when migration rates are relatively high and individual learning is costly. We also show that increasing the number of cultural traits above two favors the evolution of conformist transmission, which suggests that the assumption of only two traits in many models has been conservative. We close by discussing how (1) spatial variability represents only one way of introducing the low-level, nonadaptive phenotypic trait variation that so favors conformist transmission, the other obvious way being learning errors, and (2) our findings apply to the evolution of conformist transmission in social interactions. Throughout we emphasize how our models generate empirical predictions suitable for laboratory testing.

  9. Strategies in probabilistic feedback learning in Parkinson patients OFF medication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bellebaum, C; Kobza, S; Ferrea, S; Schnitzler, A; Pollok, B; Südmeyer, M

    2016-04-21

    Studies on classification learning suggested that altered dopamine function in Parkinson's Disease (PD) specifically affects learning from feedback. In patients OFF medication, enhanced learning from negative feedback has been described. This learning bias was not seen in observational learning from feedback, indicating different neural mechanisms for this type of learning. The present study aimed to compare the acquisition of stimulus-response-outcome associations in PD patients OFF medication and healthy control subjects in active and observational learning. 16 PD patients OFF medication and 16 controls were examined with three parallel learning tasks each, two feedback-based (active and observational) and one non-feedback-based paired associates task. No acquisition deficit was seen in the patients for any of the tasks. More detailed analyses on the learning strategies did, however, reveal that the patients showed more lose-shift responses during active feedback learning than controls, and that lose-shift and win-stay responses more strongly determined performance accuracy in patients than controls. For observational feedback learning, the performance of both groups correlated similarly with the performance in non-feedback-based paired associates learning and with the accuracy of observed performance. Also, patients and controls showed comparable evidence of feedback processing in observational learning. In active feedback learning, PD patients use alternative learning strategies than healthy controls. Analyses on observational learning did not yield differences between patients and controls, adding to recent evidence of a differential role of the human striatum in active and observational learning from feedback. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  10. Learning bias, cultural evolution of language, and the biological evolution of the language faculty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Kenny

    2011-04-01

    The biases of individual language learners act to determine the learnability and cultural stability of languages: learners come to the language learning task with biases which make certain linguistic systems easier to acquire than others. These biases are repeatedly applied during the process of language transmission, and consequently should effect the types of languages we see in human populations. Understanding the cultural evolutionary consequences of particular learning biases is therefore central to understanding the link between language learning in individuals and language universals, common structural properties shared by all the world’s languages. This paper reviews a range of models and experimental studies which show that weak biases in individual learners can have strong effects on the structure of socially learned systems such as language, suggesting that strong universal tendencies in language structure do not require us to postulate strong underlying biases or constraints on language learning. Furthermore, understanding the relationship between learner biases and language design has implications for theories of the evolution of those learning biases: models of gene-culture coevolution suggest that, in situations where a cultural dynamic mediates between properties of individual learners and properties of language in this way, biological evolution is unlikely to lead to the emergence of strong constraints on learning.

  11. Who pays for health care in Asia?

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Donnell, Owen; van Doorslaer, Eddy; Rannan-Eliya, Ravi P; Somanathan, Aparnaa; Adhikari, Shiva Raj; Akkazieva, Baktygul; Harbianto, Deni; Garg, Charu C; Hanvoravongchai, Piya; Herrin, Alejandro N; Huq, Mohammed N; Ibragimova, Shamsia; Karan, Anup; Kwon, Soon-man; Leung, Gabriel M; Lu, Jui-fen Rachel; Ohkusa, Yasushi; Pande, Badri Raj; Racelis, Rachel; Tin, Keith; Tisayaticom, Kanjana; Trisnantoro, Laksono; Wan, Quan; Yang, Bong-Min; Zhao, Yuxin

    2008-03-01

    We estimate the distributional incidence of health care financing in 13 Asian territories that account for 55% of the Asian population. In all territories, higher-income households contribute more to the financing of health care. The better-off contribute more as a proportion of ability to pay in most low- and lower-middle-income territories. Health care financing is slightly regressive in three high-income economies with universal social insurance. Direct taxation is the most progressive source of finance and is most so in poorer economies. In universal systems, social insurance is proportional to regressive. In high-income economies, the out-of-pocket (OOP) payments are proportional or regressive while in low-income economies the better-off spend relatively more OOP. But in most low-/middle-income countries, the better-off not only pay more, they also get more health care.

  12. Attribution bias and social anxiety in schizophrenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amelie M. Achim

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Studies on attribution biases in schizophrenia have produced mixed results, whereas such biases have been more consistently reported in people with anxiety disorders. Anxiety comorbidities are frequent in schizophrenia, in particular social anxiety disorder, which could influence their patterns of attribution biases. The objective of the present study was thus to determine if individuals with schizophrenia and a comorbid social anxiety disorder (SZ+ show distinct attribution biases as compared with individuals with schizophrenia without social anxiety (SZ− and healthy controls. Attribution biases were assessed with the Internal, Personal, and Situational Attributions Questionnaire in 41 individual with schizophrenia and 41 healthy controls. Results revealed the lack of the normal externalizing bias in SZ+, whereas SZ− did not significantly differ from healthy controls on this dimension. The personalizing bias was not influenced by social anxiety but was in contrast linked with delusions, with a greater personalizing bias in individuals with current delusions. Future studies on attribution biases in schizophrenia should carefully document symptom presentation, including social anxiety.

  13. Does it pay to have a network contact? Social network ties, workplace racial context, and pay outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kmec, Julie A; Trimble, Lindsey B

    2009-06-01

    This article investigates how social network use to find work affects pay. Analyses using the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality consider the extent to which a network contact's influence level affects a job applicant's pay, whether this effect differs for white, black, and Latino contacts, and how workplace racial context moderates this relationship. Three main findings emerge. First, having an influential contact--one with hiring authority--compared to having no contact yields higher pay. Second, white and minority contact influence on pay differs: among minority contacts, being an outsider (i.e., someone not employed by the firm to which the applicant applies) is associated with higher pay, but being an employee of the firm--an insider--is not. Third, regardless of workplace racial context, black and Latino contacts' influence is most beneficial when their race/ethnicity is not known to the hiring agent. We offer a new interpretation of the mixed findings with regard to the relationship between social network use and pay.

  14. A machine learning model with human cognitive biases capable of learning from small and biased datasets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taniguchi, Hidetaka; Sato, Hiroshi; Shirakawa, Tomohiro

    2018-05-09

    Human learners can generalize a new concept from a small number of samples. In contrast, conventional machine learning methods require large amounts of data to address the same types of problems. Humans have cognitive biases that promote fast learning. Here, we developed a method to reduce the gap between human beings and machines in this type of inference by utilizing cognitive biases. We implemented a human cognitive model into machine learning algorithms and compared their performance with the currently most popular methods, naïve Bayes, support vector machine, neural networks, logistic regression and random forests. We focused on the task of spam classification, which has been studied for a long time in the field of machine learning and often requires a large amount of data to obtain high accuracy. Our models achieved superior performance with small and biased samples in comparison with other representative machine learning methods.

  15. Performance related pay (PRP) to social workers in Danish Job Centres

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Flensborg Jensen, Maya; Rosdahl, Anders

    This paper discusses two issues: - Why has some Danish local employment administrations introduced performance related pay (PRP) for social workers while others have not? - Does PRP to social workers imply better efforts to bring long-term recipients of social assistance into employment?......This paper discusses two issues: - Why has some Danish local employment administrations introduced performance related pay (PRP) for social workers while others have not? - Does PRP to social workers imply better efforts to bring long-term recipients of social assistance into employment?...

  16. Reward Learning, Neurocognition, Social Cognition, and Symptomatology in Psychosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewandowski, Kathryn E; Whitton, Alexis E; Pizzagalli, Diego A; Norris, Lesley A; Ongur, Dost; Hall, Mei-Hua

    2016-01-01

    Patients with psychosis spectrum disorders exhibit deficits in social and neurocognition, as well as hallmark abnormalities in motivation and reward processing. Aspects of reward processing may overlap behaviorally and neurobiologically with some elements of cognitive functioning, and abnormalities in these processes may share partially overlapping etiologies in patients. However, whether reward processing and cognition are associated across the psychoses and linked to state and trait clinical symptomatology is unclear. The present study examined associations between cognitive functioning, reward learning, and clinical symptomatology in a cross-diagnostic sample. Patients with schizophrenia (SZ; n = 37), bipolar I disorder with psychosis (BD; n = 42), and healthy controls (n = 29) were assessed for clinical symptoms (patients only), neurocognitive functioning using the MATRICS Battery (MCCB) and reward learning using the probabilistic reward task (PRT). Groups were compared on neurocognition and PRT response bias, and associations between PRT response bias and neurocognition or clinical symptoms were examined controlling for demographic variables and PRT task difficulty (discriminability). Patients with SZ performed worse than controls on most measures of neurocognition; patients with BD exhibited deficits in some domains between the level of patients with SZ and controls. The SZ - but not BD - group exhibited deficits in social cognition compared to controls. Patients and controls did not differ on PRT response bias, but did differ on PRT discriminability. Better response bias across the sample was associated with poorer social cognition, but not neurocognition; conversely, discriminability was associated with neurocognition but not social cognition. Symptoms of psychosis, particularly negative symptoms, were associated with poorer response bias across patient groups. Reward learning was associated with symptoms of psychosis - in particular negative

  17. The Ecology of Social Learning in Animals and its Link with Intelligence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Schaik, Carel; Graber, Sereina; Schuppli, Caroline; Burkart, Judith

    2017-01-09

    Classical ethology and behavioral ecology did not pay much attention to learning. However, studies of social learning in nature reviewed here reveal the near-ubiquity of reliance on social information for skill acquisition by developing birds and mammals. This conclusion strengthens the plausibility of the cultural intelligence hypothesis for the evolution of intelligence, which assumes that selection on social learning abilities automatically improves individual learning ability. Thus, intelligent species will generally be cultural species. Direct tests of the cultural intelligence hypothesis require good estimates of the amount and kind of social learning taking place in nature in a broad variety of species. These estimates are lacking so far. Here, we start the process of developing a functional classification of social learning, in the form of the social learning spectrum, which should help to predict the mechanisms of social learning involved. Once validated, the categories can be used to estimate the cognitive demands of social learning in the wild.

  18. Interpretation bias and social anxiety: does interpretation bias mediate the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety responses?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Junwen; Milne, Kirby; Dayman, Janet; Kemps, Eva

    2018-05-23

    Two studies aimed to examine whether high socially anxious individuals are more likely to negatively interpret ambiguous social scenarios and facial expressions compared to low socially anxious individuals. We also examined whether interpretation bias serves as a mediator of the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety responses, in particular current state anxiety, bodily sensations, and perceived probability and cost of negative evaluation pertaining to a speech task. Study 1 used ambiguous social scenarios and Study 2 used ambiguous facial expressions as stimuli to objectively assess interpretation bias. Undergraduate students with high and low social anxiety completed measures of state anxiety responses at three time points: baseline, after the interpretation bias task, and after the preparation for an impromptu speech. Results showed that high socially anxious individuals were more likely to endorse threat interpretations for ambiguous social scenarios and to interpret ambiguous faces as negative than low socially anxious individuals. Furthermore, negative interpretations mediated the relationship between trait social anxiety and perceived probability of negative evaluation pertaining to the speech task in Study 1 but not Study 2. The present studies provide new insight into the role of interpretation bias in social anxiety.

  19. LHCb: full-steam strategy pays off

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN Bulletin

    2011-01-01

    LHCb looks at LHC proton collisions from a special angle. The experiment studies rare decays of the B particle to look into the physical processes that might hide new physics. Designed to operate at moderate luminosity, LHCb has been more daring for the last year and is running at conditions tougher than the nominal. The new strategy is paying off, as important physics results have just started to emerge…   Event display presented at the EPS-HEP 2011 conference showing a B0s meson decaying into a μ+ and μ- pair.  The LHCb detector was originally designed to run at moderate luminosity and low interaction pile-up. In other words, unlike the CMS and ATLAS experiments, the whole LHCb experimental set-up and data-taking infrastructure was designed to process just one proton interaction for each bunch crossing. For the last year, however, this has all been old news. A change in LHCb strategy was made possible when it became clear that the LHC was going to first i...

  20. Associations among negative parenting, attention bias to anger, and social anxiety among youth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gulley, Lauren D; Oppenheimer, Caroline W; Hankin, Benjamin L

    2014-02-01

    Theories of affective learning suggest that early experiences contribute to emotional disorders by influencing the development of processing biases for negative emotional stimuli. Although studies have shown that physically abused children preferentially attend to angry faces, it is unclear whether youth exposed to more typical aspects of negative parenting exhibit the same type of bias. The current studies extend previous research by linking observed negative parenting styles (e.g., authoritarian) and behaviors (e.g., criticism and negative affect) to attention bias for angry faces in both a psychiatrically enriched (ages 11-17 years; N = 60) and a general community (ages 9-15 years; N = 75) sample of youth. In addition, the association between observed negative parenting (e.g., authoritarian style and negative affect) and youth social anxiety was mediated by attention bias for angry faces in the general community sample. Overall, findings provide preliminary support for theories of affective learning and risk for psychopathology among youth.

  1. Willingness To Pay for Social Health Insurance in Iran

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nosratnejad, Shirin; Rashidian, Arash; Mehrara, Mohsen; Sari, Ali Akbari; Mahdavi, Ghadir; Moeini, Maryam

    2014-01-01

    Objective: The substantial level of out-of-pocket expenditure for health care by the population causes policy makers to draw particular attention to the proposal of a social health insurance for uninsured members of the community. Hence, it is essential to gather reliable information about the amount of Willingness To Pay (WTP) for health insurance. We assessed the WTP for health insurance in Iran in order to suggest an affordable social health insurance. Method: The study sample included 300 household heads in all Iranian provinces. The double bounded dichotomous choice approach was used to elicit the WTP. Result: The average WTP for social health insurance per person per month was 137 000 Rial (5.5 $US). Household heads with higher levels of education, income and those who worked had more WTP for the health insurance. Besides, the WTP increased in direct proportion to the number of insured members of each household and in inverse proportion to the family size. Conclusions: From a policy point of view, the WTP value can be used as a premium in a society. An important finding of this study is that although households’ Willingness To Pay is not more than the total insurance premium, households are willing to pay more than the premium they ought to pay for health insurance coverage. That is, total insurance premium is 150 000 Rials and households ought to pay approximately half of this sum. This can afford policy makers the ideal opportunity to provide good insurance coverage for medical services according to the need of society. PMID:25168979

  2. INDUSTRIAL BRANDING – DOES IT PAY OFF?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anca BUTNARIU

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available In a world characterized by the growth of global competition, a key question raised by business-to-business marketers is if brands in industrial markets really pay off, that is in which contexts and for what type of customers branding efforts are important and can bring competitive advantages for the companies owning those brands. The particularities and importance of branding in business has become a major field of scientific debate in the last years, but there are still questions unanswered and aspects unclear and under researched. Traditionally, B2B managers have been more skeptical about the benefits of branding, arguing that the organizational buying process is rational and focused on functional characteristics of the products and not based on the emotional values used in the B2C context. In this paper, we review the literature on brand equity in industrial markets and propose a synthetic conceptual model, with the purpose to shed more light on the issue of industrial branding.

  3. Social Attitudes on Gender Equality and Firms' Discriminatory Pay-Setting

    OpenAIRE

    Janssen, Simon; Tuor Sartore, Simone N.; Backes-Gellner, Uschi

    2014-01-01

    We analyze the relationship between social attitudes on gender equality and firms' pay-setting behavior by combining information about regional votes relative to gender equality laws with a large data set of multi-branch firms and workers. The results show that multi-branch firms pay more discriminatory wages in branches located in regions with a higher social acceptance of gender inequality than in branches located in regions with a lower acceptance. The results are similar for different sub...

  4. Electricity shut-offs justified with those who refused to pay electricity rates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1981-01-01

    In its decision of December 18, 1980, the Freiburg Regional Court ordered the complainant, who had complained against electricity shut-offs, to pay the costs of the proceedings after having paid the withheld percentages of electricity rates. In doing so, the Regional Court onfirmed the adverse judgment of May 29, 1980, made by the Frankfurt Local Court ('et' 1980 p. 508). While the Local Courts of Frankfurt and Marburg objected to electricity shut-offs for being unreasonable, it is a widely-held view that one cannot deny the electricity supply utility the right to stop supplying those who boycott the payment of electricity rates. The Regional Court subscribed to this view, giving well-founded grounds. (orig./HSCH) [de

  5. The evolution of conformist transmission in social learning when the environment changes periodically.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakahashi, Wataru

    2007-08-01

    Conformity is often observed in human social learning. Social learners preferentially imitate the majority or most common behavior in many situations, though the strength of conformity varies with the situation. Why has such a psychological tendency evolved? I investigate this problem by extending a standard model of social learning evolution with infinite environmental states (Feldman, M.W., Aoki, K., Kumm, J., 1996. Individual versus social learning: evolutionary analysis in a fluctuating environment. Anthropol. Sci. 104, 209-231) to include conformity bias. I mainly focus on the relationship between the strength of conformity bias that evolves and environmental stability, which is one of the most important factors in the evolution of social learning. Using the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) approach, I show that conformity always evolves when environmental stability and the cost of adopting a wrong behavior are small, though environmental stability and the cost of individual learning both negatively affect the strength of conformity.

  6. Addressing the gender pay gap: Government and social partner actions - The Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Grunell, M.

    2010-01-01

    The issue of equal pay and the problem of the gender pay gap has been on the agenda of the social partners and the government for many years. Government and social partners have taken action to tackle this form of discrimination. They have encouraged research into sectors and offered instruments and

  7. Continual training of attentional bias in social anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Songwei; Tan, Jieqing; Qian, Mingyi; Liu, Xinghua

    2008-08-01

    Using the dot-probe paradigm, it has been shown that high social anxiety is associated with an attentional bias toward negative information. In the present study, individuals with high social anxiety were divided into two groups randomly. One group was the attentional bias training group (Group T), and the other was the control group (Group C). For Group T, 7 days' continuous training of attentional bias was conducted using the dot-probe paradigm to make socially anxious individuals focus more on positive face pictures. The results showed that the training was effective in changing attentional bias in Group T. Scores of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) in Group T were reduced compared to Group C, while the scores of Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and scores of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNE) showed no difference between the two groups, which suggested a limited reduction of social anxiety.

  8. Specificity of interpretation and judgemental biases in social phobia versus depression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voncken, M J; Bögels, S M; Peeters, F

    2007-09-01

    A body of studies shows that social phobia is characterized by content specific interpretation and judgmental biases. That is, they show bias in social situations but not in non-social situations. Comorbid depression, one of the major comorbid disorders in social phobia, might account for these biases in social phobia since depression also is characterized by cognitive distortions in social situations. This study hypothesized that, despite comorbid depression, patients with social phobia would suffer from contentspecific biases. Participants filled out the Interpretation and Judgmental Questionnaire (IJQ) to assess interpretation bias (using open-ended responses and forced-interpretations) and judgmental bias in social and non-social situations. Four groups participated: social phobic patients with high (N=38) and low (N=47) depressive symptoms, depressed patients (N=22) and normal controls (N=33). We found both social phobic groups to interpret social situations more negatively and judge social situations as more threatening than non-social situations relative to depressed patients and normal controls. As expected, depressive symptoms related to increased general interpretation and judgmental biases across social and non-social situations. In contrast to expectations, we did not find these patterns for the open-ended measure of interpretation bias. The content-specific biases for social situations distinguished social phobic patients from depressive patients. This speaks for the importance of establishing the primary diagnosis in patients with mixed depression and social anxiety complaints.

  9. Evidence for social learning in wild lemurs (Lemur catta).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kendal, Rachel L; Custance, Deborah M; Kendal, Jeremy R; Vale, Gillian; Stoinski, Tara S; Rakotomalala, Nirina Lalaina; Rasamimanana, Hantanirina

    2010-08-01

    Interest in social learning has been fueled by claims of culture in wild animals. These remain controversial because alternative explanations to social learning, such as asocial learning or ecological differences, remain difficult to refute. Compared with laboratory-based research, the study of social learning in natural contexts is in its infancy. Here, for the first time, we apply two new statistical methods, option-bias analysis and network-based diffusion analysis, to data from the wild, complemented by standard inferential statistics. Contrary to common thought regarding the cognitive abilities of prosimian primates, our evidence is consistent with social learning within subgroups in the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), supporting the theory of directed social learning (Coussi-Korbel & Fragaszy, 1995). We also caution that, as the toolbox for capturing social learning in natural contexts grows, care is required in ensuring that the methods employed are appropriate-in particular, regarding social dynamics among study subjects. Supplemental materials for this article may be downloaded from http://lb.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.

  10. Positioning of Weight Bias: Moving towards Social Justice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nutter, Sarah; Russell-Mayhew, Shelly; Alberga, Angela S; Arthur, Nancy; Kassan, Anusha; Lund, Darren E; Sesma-Vazquez, Monica; Williams, Emily

    2016-01-01

    Weight bias is a form of stigma with detrimental effects on the health and wellness of individuals with large bodies. Researchers from various disciplines have recognized weight bias as an important topic for public health and for professional practice. To date, researchers from various areas have approached weight bias from independent perspectives and from differing theoretical orientations. In this paper, we examined the similarities and differences between three perspectives (i.e., weight-centric, non-weight-centric (health-centric), and health at every size) used to understand weight bias and approach weight bias research with regard to (a) language about people with large bodies, (b) theoretical position, (c) identified consequences of weight bias, and (d) identified influences on weight-based social inequity. We suggest that, despite differences, each perspective acknowledges the negative influences that position weight as being within individual control and the negative consequences of weight bias. We call for recognition and discussion of weight bias as a social justice issue in order to change the discourse and professional practices extended towards individuals with large bodies. We advocate for an emphasis on social justice as a uniting framework for interdisciplinary research on weight bias.

  11. Selection bias in studies of human reproduction-longevity trade-offs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helle, Samuli

    2017-12-13

    A shorter lifespan as a potential cost of high reproductive effort in humans has intrigued researchers for more than a century. However, the results have been inconclusive so far and despite strong theoretical expectations we do not currently have compelling evidence for the longevity costs of reproduction. Using Monte Carlo simulation, it is shown here that a common practice in human reproduction-longevity studies using historical data (the most relevant data sources for this question), the omission of women who died prior to menopausal age from the analysis, results in severe underestimation of the potential underlying trade-off between reproduction and lifespan. In other words, assuming that such a trade-off is expressed also during reproductive years, the strength of the trade-off between reproduction and lifespan is progressively weakened when women dying during reproductive ages are sequentially and non-randomly excluded from the analysis. In cases of small sample sizes (e.g. few hundreds of observations), this selection bias by reducing statistical power may even partly explain the null results commonly found in this field. Future studies in this field should thus apply statistical approaches that account for or avoid selection bias in order to recover reliable effect size estimates between reproduction and longevity. © 2017 The Author(s).

  12. Analyzing stakeholders' workshop dialogue for evidence of social learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amanda L. Bentley Brymer

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available After much debate and synthesis, social learning scholarship is entering an era of empirical research. Given the range across individual-, network-, and systems-level perspectives and scales, clear documentation of social learning processes is critical for making claims about social learning outcomes and their impacts. Past studies have relied on participant recall and concept maps to document perceptions of social learning process and outcome. Using an individual-centric perspective and importing ideas from communication and psychology on question-answer learning through conversational agents, we contribute an expanded conceptual framework and qualitative analytical strategy for assessing stakeholder dialogue for evidence of social learning. We observed stakeholder dialogue across five workshops coordinated for the Bruneau-Owyhee Sage-Grouse Habitat Project (BOSH in Owyhee County, Idaho, USA. Participants' dialogue was audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for cross-case patterns. Deductive and inductive coding techniques were applied to illuminate cognitive, relational, and epistemic dimensions of learning and topics of learning. A key finding supports our inclusion of the epistemic dimension and highlights a need for future research: although some participants articulated epistemic positions, they did not challenge each other to share sources or justify factual claims. These findings align with previous research suggesting that, in addition to considering diversity and representation (who is at the table, we should pay more attention to how participants talk, perhaps prompting specific patterns of speech as we endeavor to draw causal connections between social learning processes and outcomes.

  13. 5 CFR 550.1409 - Inapplicability of premium pay and aggregate pay caps.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Inapplicability of premium pay and aggregate pay caps. 550.1409 Section 550.1409 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CIVIL... Inapplicability of premium pay and aggregate pay caps. Accrued compensatory time off under this subpart is not...

  14. Exploring the Political Underbelly of Organizational Learning: Learning during Pay and Performance Management Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Field, Laurie

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: In an effort to better understand the political dimensions of organizational learning, this paper aims to examine learning processes in an organizational context--namely renegotiation of pay and performance management arrangements--where the interests of organizational members are threatened. Design/methodology/approach: Data were derived…

  15. Willingness to pay for reduced visual disamenities from off-shore wind farms in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ladenburg, Jacob; Dubgaard, Alex

    Expansion of the off-shore wind power capacity plays a significant role in the wind power strategy in many EU countries. However, off-shore wind farms are associated with visual disamenities. The disamenities can be reduced by locating the wind farms at larger distances from the coast. But......, the costs per kWh produced increase as the distance is augmented. In this paper, peoples’ willingness to pay for a reduction in the visual disamenity of off-shore wind farms is elicited using the economic valuation method Choice Experiments. The economic valuation scenario comprises the locations of 3600 MW...... and 50 km from the coast opposed to 8 km. The results also reveal that the WTP deviate strongly with regards to the age of the respondent and the experiences with off-shore wind farms. These properties of the WTP are believed to have significant policy related consequences. Keywords: Visual Disamenities...

  16. The Ugly Truth About Ourselves and Our Robot Creations: The Problem of Bias and Social Inequity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howard, Ayanna; Borenstein, Jason

    2017-09-21

    Recently, there has been an upsurge of attention focused on bias and its impact on specialized artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Allegations of racism and sexism have permeated the conversation as stories surface about search engines delivering job postings for well-paying technical jobs to men and not women, or providing arrest mugshots when keywords such as "black teenagers" are entered. Learning algorithms are evolving; they are often created from parsing through large datasets of online information while having truth labels bestowed on them by crowd-sourced masses. These specialized AI algorithms have been liberated from the minds of researchers and startups, and released onto the public. Yet intelligent though they may be, these algorithms maintain some of the same biases that permeate society. They find patterns within datasets that reflect implicit biases and, in so doing, emphasize and reinforce these biases as global truth. This paper describes specific examples of how bias has infused itself into current AI and robotic systems, and how it may affect the future design of such systems. More specifically, we draw attention to how bias may affect the functioning of (1) a robot peacekeeper, (2) a self-driving car, and (3) a medical robot. We conclude with an overview of measures that could be taken to mitigate or halt bias from permeating robotic technology.

  17. [Social learning as an uncertainty-reduction strategy: an adaptationist approach].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakanishi, Daisuke; Kameda, Tatsuya; Shinada, Mizuho

    2003-04-01

    Social learning is an effective mechanism to reduce uncertainty about environmental knowledge, helping individuals adopt an adaptive behavior in the environment at small cost. Although this is evident for learning about temporally stable targets (e.g., acquiring avoidance of toxic foods culturally), the functional value of social learning in a temporally unstable environment is less clear; knowledge acquired by social learning may be outdated. This paper addressed adaptive values of social learning in a non-stationary environment empirically. When individual learning about the non-stationary environment is costly, a hawk-dove-game-like equilibrium is expected to emerge in the population, where members who engage in costly individual learning and members who skip the information search and free-ride on other members' search efforts coexist at a stable ratio. Such a "producer-scrounger" structure should qualify effectiveness of social/cultural learning severely, especially "conformity bias" when using social information (Boyd & Richerson, 1985). We tested these predictions by an experiment implementing a non-stationary uncertain environment in a laboratory. The results supported our thesis. Implications of these findings and some future directions were discussed.

  18. Hybrid All-Pay and Winner-Pay Contests

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lagerlöf, Johan

    2017-01-01

    In many contests in economic and political life, both all-pay and winner-pay expenditures matter for winning. This paper studies such hybrid contests under symmetry and asymmetry. The symmetric model is very general but still yields a simple closed-form solution. More contestants tend to lead to ...... expenditures. An endogenous bias that maximizes total expenditures disfavors the high-valuation contestant but still makes her the more likely one to win....

  19. Immediacy bias in social-emotional comparisons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Katherine; Van Boven, Leaf

    2012-08-01

    In seven studies of naturally occurring, "real-world" emotional events, people demonstrated an immediacy bias in social-emotional comparisons, perceiving their own current or recent emotional reactions as more intense compared with others' emotional reactions to the same events. The events examined include crossing a scary bridge (study 1a), a national tragedy (study 1b), terrorist attacks (studies 2a and 3b), a natural disaster (study 2b), and a presidential election (study 3b). These perceived differences between one's own and others' emotions declined over time, as relatively immediate and recent emotions subsided, a pattern that people were not intuitively aware of (study 2c). This immediacy bias in social-emotional comparisons emerged for both explicit comparisons (studies 1a, 1b, and 3b), and for absolute judgments of emotional intensity (studies 2a, 2b, and 3a). Finally, the immediacy bias in social-emotional comparisons was reduced when people were reminded that emotional display norms might lead others' appearances to understate emotional intensity (studies 3a and 3b). Implications of these findings for social-emotional phenomena are discussed.

  20. A Literature Review Fuzzy Pay-Off-Method – A Modern Approach in Valuation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Manaţe

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This article proposes to present a modern approach in the analysis of updated cash flows. The approach is based on the Fuzzy Pay-Off-Method (FPOM for Real Option Valuation (ROV. This article describes a few types of models for the valuation of real options currently in use. In support for the chosen FPOM method, we included the mathematical model that stands at the basis of this method and a case study.

  1. Social influence bias: a randomized experiment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muchnik, Lev; Aral, Sinan; Taylor, Sean J

    2013-08-09

    Our society is increasingly relying on the digitized, aggregated opinions of others to make decisions. We therefore designed and analyzed a large-scale randomized experiment on a social news aggregation Web site to investigate whether knowledge of such aggregates distorts decision-making. Prior ratings created significant bias in individual rating behavior, and positive and negative social influences created asymmetric herding effects. Whereas negative social influence inspired users to correct manipulated ratings, positive social influence increased the likelihood of positive ratings by 32% and created accumulating positive herding that increased final ratings by 25% on average. This positive herding was topic-dependent and affected by whether individuals were viewing the opinions of friends or enemies. A mixture of changing opinion and greater turnout under both manipulations together with a natural tendency to up-vote on the site combined to create the herding effects. Such findings will help interpret collective judgment accurately and avoid social influence bias in collective intelligence in the future.

  2. Vowel bias in Danish word-learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Højen, Anders; Nazzi, Thierry

    2016-01-01

    The present study explored whether the phonological bias favoring consonants found in French-learning infants and children when learning new words (Havy & Nazzi, 2009; Nazzi, 2005) is language-general, as proposed by Nespor, Peña and Mehler (2003), or varies across languages, perhaps as a functio...

  3. Control of long range turbulent transport with biasing in the tokamak scrape-off-layer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Figarella, C.F.; Ghendrih, Ph.; Sarazin, Y.; Attuel, G.; Falchetto, G.; Fleurence, E.; Garbet, X.; Grandgirard, V.

    2004-01-01

    Cross field transport in the SOL (scrape-off-layer) influences tokamak performance in particular regarding the divertor efficiency. Recent experiment evidence emphasizes non-exponential and/or flat SOL profiles that suggest a large perpendicular transport. A 2-dimensional fluid model based on the interchange instability to simulate the SOL turbulence was found to exhibits intermittent dynamics of the particle flux. We propose a control method that prevents long range transport events from reaching the far SOL: It consists in biasing the far SOL leading to a transport barrier which stops the propagation of these intermittent events. The best trade off is to localize the biased toroidal ring around the baffles. We show that such a control is achievable providing the strength of the barrier is strong enough. The investigation of the minimal biasing power required to achieve the control as well as its experimental estimate is performed. (authors)

  4. Time-course of attention biases in social phobia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schofield, Casey A; Inhoff, Albrecht W; Coles, Meredith E

    2013-10-01

    Theoretical models of social phobia implicate preferential attention to social threat in the maintenance of anxiety symptoms, though there has been limited work characterizing the nature of these biases over time. The current study utilized eye-movement data to examine the time-course of visual attention over 1500ms trials of a probe detection task. Nineteen participants with a primary diagnosis of social phobia based on DSM-IV criteria and 20 non-clinical controls completed this task with angry, fearful, and happy face trials. Overt visual attention to the emotional and neutral faces was measured in 50ms segments across the trial. Over time, participants with social phobia attend less to emotional faces and specifically less to happy faces compared to controls. Further, attention to emotional relative to neutral expressions did not vary notably by emotion for participants with social phobia, but control participants showed a pattern after 1000ms in which over time they preferentially attended to happy expressions and avoided negative expressions. Findings highlight the importance of considering attention biases to positive stimuli as well as the pattern of attention between groups. These results suggest that attention "bias" in social phobia may be driven by a relative lack of the biases seen in non-anxious participants. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Evaluating pay-as-you-go social security systems

    OpenAIRE

    Bachmann, Andreas; Wüthrich, Kaspar

    2013-01-01

    This paper proposes a new method for welfare analysis of unfunded social security systems. Based on an overlapping generations model with endogenous labor supply, we derive a formula for the evaluation of existing pay-as-you-go social security systems that depends on impulse response functions and projected growth rates only. We propose an implementation strategy based on reduced form estimates of a VAR model that is valid under weak assumptions about the deep structure of the model. Our meth...

  6. Analytical reasoning task reveals limits of social learning in networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahwan, Iyad; Krasnoshtan, Dmytro; Shariff, Azim; Bonnefon, Jean-François

    2014-04-06

    Social learning-by observing and copying others-is a highly successful cultural mechanism for adaptation, outperforming individual information acquisition and experience. Here, we investigate social learning in the context of the uniquely human capacity for reflective, analytical reasoning. A hallmark of the human mind is its ability to engage analytical reasoning, and suppress false associative intuitions. Through a set of laboratory-based network experiments, we find that social learning fails to propagate this cognitive strategy. When people make false intuitive conclusions and are exposed to the analytic output of their peers, they recognize and adopt this correct output. But they fail to engage analytical reasoning in similar subsequent tasks. Thus, humans exhibit an 'unreflective copying bias', which limits their social learning to the output, rather than the process, of their peers' reasoning-even when doing so requires minimal effort and no technical skill. In contrast to much recent work on observation-based social learning, which emphasizes the propagation of successful behaviour through copying, our findings identify a limit on the power of social networks in situations that require analytical reasoning.

  7. Cognitive bias measurement and social anxiety disorder: Correlating self-report data and attentional bias

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander Miloff

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Social anxiety disorder (SAD and attentional bias are theoretically connected in cognitive behavioral therapeutic models. In fact, there is an emerging field focusing on modifying attentional bias as a stand-alone treatment. However, it is unclear to what degree these attentional biases are present before commencing treatment. The purpose of this study was to measure pre-treatment attentional bias in 153 participants diagnosed with SAD using a home-based Internet version of the dot-probe paradigm. Results showed no significant correlation for attentional bias (towards or away from negative words or faces and the self-rated version of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS-SR. However, two positive correlations were found for the secondary measures Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7 and Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9. These indicated that those with elevated levels of anxiety and depression had a higher bias towards negative faces in neutral–negative and positive–negative valence combinations, respectively. The unreliability of the dot-probe paradigm and home-based Internet delivery are discussed to explain the lack of correlations between LSAS-SR and attentional bias. Changes to the dot-probe task are suggested that could improve reliability.

  8. A Short note on Accent–bias, Social Identity and Ethnocentrism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rahul Chakraborty

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses the interrelations among accent-based biases, social identity and ethnocentrism. Construction of social identity creates a set of ethnocentric values within a person, which indirectly or directly plays a pivotal role in generating accent related biases. Starting with Tajfel’s (1959 social identity theory and then the discussion of ethnocentrism, accent related biases have a long documented origin, development and consequences. People construct their social identity based on numerous variables and then their in-group and out-group memberships are established. Ethnocentrism, as a variable, influences listeners’ accent perception and subsequent judgment regarding their perceived accent. The degree of ethnocentrism is related to speakers’ potential accent biases. As legal safeguard against accent related biases is absent, active resistance and awareness-initiation are expected from speech language pathologists and the concerned community in general. Role of training institutions is discussed.

  9. Confirmation bias in human reinforcement learning: Evidence from counterfactual feedback processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lefebvre, Germain; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne

    2017-01-01

    Previous studies suggest that factual learning, that is, learning from obtained outcomes, is biased, such that participants preferentially take into account positive, as compared to negative, prediction errors. However, whether or not the prediction error valence also affects counterfactual learning, that is, learning from forgone outcomes, is unknown. To address this question, we analysed the performance of two groups of participants on reinforcement learning tasks using a computational model that was adapted to test if prediction error valence influences learning. We carried out two experiments: in the factual learning experiment, participants learned from partial feedback (i.e., the outcome of the chosen option only); in the counterfactual learning experiment, participants learned from complete feedback information (i.e., the outcomes of both the chosen and unchosen option were displayed). In the factual learning experiment, we replicated previous findings of a valence-induced bias, whereby participants learned preferentially from positive, relative to negative, prediction errors. In contrast, for counterfactual learning, we found the opposite valence-induced bias: negative prediction errors were preferentially taken into account, relative to positive ones. When considering valence-induced bias in the context of both factual and counterfactual learning, it appears that people tend to preferentially take into account information that confirms their current choice. PMID:28800597

  10. Confirmation bias in human reinforcement learning: Evidence from counterfactual feedback processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palminteri, Stefano; Lefebvre, Germain; Kilford, Emma J; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne

    2017-08-01

    Previous studies suggest that factual learning, that is, learning from obtained outcomes, is biased, such that participants preferentially take into account positive, as compared to negative, prediction errors. However, whether or not the prediction error valence also affects counterfactual learning, that is, learning from forgone outcomes, is unknown. To address this question, we analysed the performance of two groups of participants on reinforcement learning tasks using a computational model that was adapted to test if prediction error valence influences learning. We carried out two experiments: in the factual learning experiment, participants learned from partial feedback (i.e., the outcome of the chosen option only); in the counterfactual learning experiment, participants learned from complete feedback information (i.e., the outcomes of both the chosen and unchosen option were displayed). In the factual learning experiment, we replicated previous findings of a valence-induced bias, whereby participants learned preferentially from positive, relative to negative, prediction errors. In contrast, for counterfactual learning, we found the opposite valence-induced bias: negative prediction errors were preferentially taken into account, relative to positive ones. When considering valence-induced bias in the context of both factual and counterfactual learning, it appears that people tend to preferentially take into account information that confirms their current choice.

  11. Social incentives improve deliberative but not procedural learning in older adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorlick, Marissa A; Maddox, W Todd

    2015-01-01

    Age-related deficits are seen across tasks where learning depends on asocial feedback processing, however plasticity has been observed in some of the same tasks in social contexts suggesting a novel way to attenuate deficits. Socioemotional selectivity theory suggests this plasticity is due to a deliberative motivational shift toward achieving well-being with age (positivity effect) that reverses when executive processes are limited (negativity effect). The present study examined the interaction of feedback valence (positive, negative) and social salience (emotional face feedback - happy; angry, asocial point feedback - gain; loss) on learning in a deliberative task that challenges executive processes and a procedural task that does not. We predict that angry face feedback will improve learning in a deliberative task when executive function is challenged. We tested two competing hypotheses regarding the interactive effects of deliberative emotional biases on automatic feedback processing: (1) If deliberative emotion regulation and automatic feedback are interactive we expect happy face feedback to improve learning and angry face feedback to impair learning in older adults because cognitive control is available. (2) If deliberative emotion regulation and automatic feedback are not interactive we predict that emotional face feedback will not improve procedural learning regardless of valence. Results demonstrate that older adults show persistent deficits relative to younger adults during procedural category learning suggesting that deliberative emotional biases do not interact with automatic feedback processing. Interestingly, a subgroup of older adults identified as potentially using deliberative strategies tended to learn as well as younger adults with angry relative to happy feedback, matching the pattern observed in the deliberative task. Results suggest that deliberative emotional biases can improve deliberative learning, but have no effect on procedural learning.

  12. A Short Note on Accent-Bias, Social Identity and Ethnocentrism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chakraborty, Rahul

    2017-01-01

    This paper discusses the interrelations among accent-based biases, social identity and ethnocentrism. Construction of social identity creates a set of ethnocentric values within a person, which indirectly or directly plays a pivotal role in generating accent related biases. Starting with Tajfel's (1959) social identity theory and then the…

  13. 78 FR 28717 - Advancing Pay Equality in the Federal Government and Learning From Successful Practices

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-05-15

    ...) affect the compensation of similarly situated men and women, and to promote gender pay equality in the... gender pay equality; and (e) any best practices the agency has employed to improve gender pay equality... Equality in the Federal Government and Learning From Successful Practices Memorandum for the Heads of...

  14. Gender differences in social desirability and social approval bias in dietary self-report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hebert, J R; Ma, Y; Clemow, L; Ockene, I S; Saperia, G; Stanek, E J; Merriam, P A; Ockene, J K

    1997-12-15

    Social desirability (the tendency to respond in such a way as to avoid criticism) and social approval (the tendency to seek praise) are two prominent response set biases evident in answers on structured questionnaires. These biases were tested by comparing nutrient intakes as estimated from a single 24-hour diet recall interview (24 HR) and a 7-day dietary recall (7DDR). Data were collected as part of the Worcester Area Trial for Counseling in Hyperlipidemia, a randomized, physician-delivered nutrition intervention trial for hypercholesterolemic patients conducted in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1991 to 1995. Of the 1,278 total study subjects, 759 had complete data for analysis. Men overestimated their fat and energy intakes on the 7DDR as compared with the 24HR according to social approval: One unit increase in the social approval score was associated with an overestimate of 21.5 kcal/day in total energy intake and 1.2 g/day in total fat intake. Women, however, underestimated their dietary intakes on the 7DDR relative to the 24HR according to social desirability: One unit increase in the social desirability score was associated with an underestimate of 19.2 kcal/day in energy intake and 0.8 g/day in total fat. The results from the present study indicate that social desirability and social approval biases appear to vary by gender. Such biases may lead to misclassification of dietary exposure estimates resulting in a distortion in the perceived relation between health-related outcomes and exposure to specific foods or nutrients. Because these biases may vary according to the perceived demands of research subjects, it is important that they be assessed in a variety of potential research study populations.

  15. This is Not a Game - Social Virtual Worlds, Fun, and Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bell, Mark W.; Smith-Robbins, Sarah; Withnail, Greg

    This chapter asks a simple question: what is required to make learning fun in social virtual worlds? Several scholars have connected fun with learning but most of these have centered on the function of games in learning. Studies of learning in massive multiplayer online role playing games connect the game mechanics to how learning occurs. However, few have asked whether learning in a virtual world can be fun if there is no game. In a social virtual world, like Second Life (SL) there are no game mechanics (unlike game worlds like World of Warcraft [WoW]). There are no quests, challenges, rewards or other game elements in SL. So can a virtual world that has no game-content provided be a place where fun learning can take place? We define fun and explore how fun has been related to learning. We explore theories of fun from Koster, Crawford, Csíkszentmihályi and others as well as views of the ways fun is explored as related to the learning experience. With these models in mind, we explore how fun is different in a social virtual world. Drawing on definitions of fun from Castronova and others, we see game structures in virtual worlds may not be needed to have fun. These fun activities include game creation, business interactions, and most importantly, identity play and socialization in a social virtual world. Finally, we propose that if learning is to be successful and fun in a social virtual world it should pay close attention to these two activities.

  16. Immune markers of social cognitive bias in schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunne, Patrick W; Roberts, David L; Quinones, Marlon P; Velligan, Dawn I; Paredes, Madelaine; Walss-Bass, Consuelo

    2017-05-01

    Social cognition is impaired in schizophrenia, is relatively independent of purely neurocognitive domains such as attention and executive functioning, and may be the strongest predictor of functional outcome in this disease. Within a motivated reasoning framework, we tested the hypothesis that the anti-inflammatory Th2-associated cytokines, IL-10 and MDC, would be correlated with behavioral measures of social cognitive threat-detection bias (self-referential gaze detection bias and theory of mind (ToM) bias) in delusional versus non-delusional patients. We administered to schizophrenia patients with delusions (n=21), non-delusional patients (n=39) and controls (n=20) a social cognitive task designed to be sensitive to psychosocial stress response (the Waiting Room Task) and collected plasma levels of inflammatory markers using a bead-based flow immunoassay. Results partially supported our hypothesis. The anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 was associated with self-referential ToM bias in the delusional cohort as predicted, and not with non-delusional patients or healthy controls. This bias reflects a documented tendency of schizophrenia patients with delusions to excessively attribute hostile intentions to people in their environment. Since this cytokine correlated only with ToM bias and only in delusional patients, elevated levels of this cytokine in the blood may eventually serve as a useful biomarker distinguishing delusional patients from both non-delusional patients and healthy controls. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Attention bias for social threat in youth with tic disorders: Links with tic severity and social anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pile, Victoria; Robinson, Sally; Topor, Marta; Hedderly, Tammy; Lau, Jennifer Y F

    2018-06-07

    Many individuals with Tourette syndrome and chronic tic disorders (TS/CTDs) report poor social functioning and comorbid social anxiety. Yet limited research has investigated the role of cognitive factors that highlight social threats in youth with TS/CTD, and whether these biases underlie tic severity and co-occurring social anxiety. This study examined whether selective attention to social threat is enhanced young people with TS/CTDs compared to healthy controls, and whether attention biases are associated with tic severity and social anxiety. Twenty seven young people with TS/CTDs and 25 matched control participants completed an experimental measure of attention bias toward/away from threat stimuli. A clinician-rated interview measuring tic severity/impairment (YGTSS Total Score) and questionnaire measures of social anxiety were completed by participants and their parents. Young people with TS/CTD showed an attention bias to social threat words (relative to benign words) compared to controls but no such bias for social threat faces. Attention bias for social threat words was associated with increasing YGTSS Total Score and parent-reported social anxiety in the TS/CTDs group. Mediation analysis revealed a significant indirect path between YGTSS Total Score and social anxiety, via attention to social threat. Tentatively, these associations appeared to be driven by impairment rather than tic severity scores. Preliminary data suggests that youth with TS/CTD have enhanced attention to threat, compared to controls, and this is associated with impairment and social anxiety. Attention to threat could offer a cognitive mechanism connecting impairment and social anxiety, and so be a valuable trans-diagnostic treatment target.

  18. Social Incentives Improve Deliberative But Not Procedural Learning in Older Adults

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marissa A Gorlick

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Age-related deficits are seen across tasks where learning depends on asocial feedback processing, however plasticity has been observed in some of the same tasks in social contexts suggesting a novel way to attenuate deficits. Socioemotional selectivity theory suggests this plasticity is due to a deliberative motivational shift toward achieving well-being with age (positivity effect that reverses when executive processes are limited (negativity effect. The present study examined the interaction of feedback valence (positive, negative and social salience (emotional face feedback – happy; angry, asocial point feedback – gain; loss on learning in a deliberative task that challenges executive processes and a procedural task that does not. We predict that angry face feedback will improve learning in a deliberative task when executive function is challenged. We tested two competing hypotheses regarding the interactive effects of deliberative emotional biases on automatic feedback processing: 1 If deliberative emotion regulation and automatic feedback are interactive we expect happy face feedback to improve learning and angry face feedback to impair learning in older adults because cognitive control is available. 2 If deliberative emotion regulation and automatic feedback are not interactive we predict that emotional face feedback will not improve procedural learning regardless of valence. Results demonstrate that older adults show persistent deficits relative to younger adults during procedural category learning suggesting that deliberative emotional biases do not interact with automatic feedback processing. Interestingly, a subgroup of older adults identified as potentially using deliberative strategies tended to learn as well as younger adults with angry relative to happy feedback, matching the pattern observed in the deliberative task. Results suggest that deliberative emotional biases can improve deliberative learning, but have no effect on

  19. Monte Carlo learning/biasing experiment with intelligent random numbers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Booth, T.E.

    1985-01-01

    A Monte Carlo learning and biasing technique is described that does its learning and biasing in the random number space rather than the physical phase-space. The technique is probably applicable to all linear Monte Carlo problems, but no proof is provided here. Instead, the technique is illustrated with a simple Monte Carlo transport problem. Problems encountered, problems solved, and speculations about future progress are discussed. 12 refs

  20. Time-course of attentional bias for positive social words in individuals with high and low social anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Hongyu; Li, Songwei; Qian, Mingyi; Yang, Peng; Wang, Xiaoling; Lin, Muyu; Yao, Nisha

    2014-07-01

    Although accumulating research demonstrates the association between attentional bias and social anxiety, the bias for positive stimuli has so far not been adequately studied. The aim is to investigate the time-course of attentional bias for positive social words in participants with high and low social anxiety. In a modified dot-probe task, word-pairs of neutral and positive social words were randomly presented for 100, 500, and 1250 milliseconds in a nonclinical sample of students to test their attentional bias. Non-significant interaction of Group × Exposure Duration was found. However, there was a significant main effect of group, with significantly different response latencies between the high social anxiety (HSA) and low social anxiety (LSA) groups in the 100 ms condition, without for 500 or 1250 ms. With respect to attentional bias, the LSA group showed enhanced preferential attention for positive social words to which the HSA group showed avoidance in the 100 ms condition. In the 500 ms condition, preferential attention to positive social words was at trend in the LSA group, relative to the HSA group. Neither group showed attentional bias in the 1250 ms condition. These findings extend recent research about the attention training program and add to the empirical literature suggesting that the initial avoidance of positive stimuli may contribute to maintaining social anxiety.

  1. Active and Adaptive Learning from Biased Data with Applications in Astronomy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kremer, Jan

    This thesis addresses the problem of machine learning from biased datasets in the context of astronomical applications. In astronomy there are many cases in which the training sample does not follow the true distribution. The thesis examines different types of biases and proposes algorithms...... set. Against this background, the thesis begins with a survey of active learning algorithms for the support vector machine. If the cost of additional labeling is prohibitive, unlabeled data can often be utilized instead and the sample selection bias can be overcome through domain adaptation, that is...... to handle them. During learning and when applying the predictive model, active learning enables algorithms to select training examples from a pool of unlabeled data and to request the labels. This allows for selecting examples that maximize the algorithm's accuracy despite an initial bias in the training...

  2. Learning biases predict a word order universal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Culbertson, Jennifer; Smolensky, Paul; Legendre, Géraldine

    2012-03-01

    How recurrent typological patterns, or universals, emerge from the extensive diversity found across the world's languages constitutes a central question for linguistics and cognitive science. Recent challenges to a fundamental assumption of generative linguistics-that universal properties of the human language acquisition faculty constrain the types of grammatical systems which can occur-suggest the need for new types of empirical evidence connecting typology to biases of learners. Using an artificial language learning paradigm in which adult subjects are exposed to a mix of grammatical systems (similar to a period of linguistic change), we show that learners' biases mirror a word-order universal, first proposed by Joseph Greenberg, which constrains typological patterns of adjective, numeral, and noun ordering. We briefly summarize the results of a probabilistic model of the hypothesized biases and their effect on learning, and discuss the broader implications of the results for current theories of the origins of cross-linguistic word-order preferences. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Attentional Bias in Human Category Learning: The Case of Deep Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanson, Catherine; Caglar, Leyla Roskan; Hanson, Stephen José

    2018-01-01

    Category learning performance is influenced by both the nature of the category's structure and the way category features are processed during learning. Shepard (1964, 1987) showed that stimuli can have structures with features that are statistically uncorrelated (separable) or statistically correlated (integral) within categories. Humans find it much easier to learn categories having separable features, especially when attention to only a subset of relevant features is required, and harder to learn categories having integral features, which require consideration of all of the available features and integration of all the relevant category features satisfying the category rule (Garner, 1974). In contrast to humans, a single hidden layer backpropagation (BP) neural network has been shown to learn both separable and integral categories equally easily, independent of the category rule (Kruschke, 1993). This "failure" to replicate human category performance appeared to be strong evidence that connectionist networks were incapable of modeling human attentional bias. We tested the presumed limitations of attentional bias in networks in two ways: (1) by having networks learn categories with exemplars that have high feature complexity in contrast to the low dimensional stimuli previously used, and (2) by investigating whether a Deep Learning (DL) network, which has demonstrated humanlike performance in many different kinds of tasks (language translation, autonomous driving, etc.), would display human-like attentional bias during category learning. We were able to show a number of interesting results. First, we replicated the failure of BP to differentially process integral and separable category structures when low dimensional stimuli are used (Garner, 1974; Kruschke, 1993). Second, we show that using the same low dimensional stimuli, Deep Learning (DL), unlike BP but similar to humans, learns separable category structures more quickly than integral category structures

  4. Attentional Bias in Human Category Learning: The Case of Deep Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catherine Hanson

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Category learning performance is influenced by both the nature of the category's structure and the way category features are processed during learning. Shepard (1964, 1987 showed that stimuli can have structures with features that are statistically uncorrelated (separable or statistically correlated (integral within categories. Humans find it much easier to learn categories having separable features, especially when attention to only a subset of relevant features is required, and harder to learn categories having integral features, which require consideration of all of the available features and integration of all the relevant category features satisfying the category rule (Garner, 1974. In contrast to humans, a single hidden layer backpropagation (BP neural network has been shown to learn both separable and integral categories equally easily, independent of the category rule (Kruschke, 1993. This “failure” to replicate human category performance appeared to be strong evidence that connectionist networks were incapable of modeling human attentional bias. We tested the presumed limitations of attentional bias in networks in two ways: (1 by having networks learn categories with exemplars that have high feature complexity in contrast to the low dimensional stimuli previously used, and (2 by investigating whether a Deep Learning (DL network, which has demonstrated humanlike performance in many different kinds of tasks (language translation, autonomous driving, etc., would display human-like attentional bias during category learning. We were able to show a number of interesting results. First, we replicated the failure of BP to differentially process integral and separable category structures when low dimensional stimuli are used (Garner, 1974; Kruschke, 1993. Second, we show that using the same low dimensional stimuli, Deep Learning (DL, unlike BP but similar to humans, learns separable category structures more quickly than integral category

  5. Model of divertor biasing and control of scrape-off layer and divertor plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagasaki, K.; Itoh, K.; Itoh, S.

    1991-02-01

    Analytic model of the divertor biasing is described. For the given plasma and energy sources from the core plasma, the heat and particle flux densities on the divertor plate as well as scrape-off-layer (SOL)/divertor plasmas are analyzed in a slab model. Using a two-dimensional model, the effects of the divertor biasing and SOL current are studied. The conditions to balance the plasma temperature or sheath potential on different divertor plates are obtained. Effect of the SOL current on the heat channel width is also discussed. (author)

  6. Visual search attentional bias modification reduced social phobia in adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Voogd, E L; Wiers, R W; Prins, P J M; Salemink, E

    2014-06-01

    An attentional bias for negative information plays an important role in the development and maintenance of (social) anxiety and depression, which are highly prevalent in adolescence. Attention Bias Modification (ABM) might be an interesting tool in the prevention of emotional disorders. The current study investigated whether visual search ABM might affect attentional bias and emotional functioning in adolescents. A visual search task was used as a training paradigm; participants (n = 16 adolescents, aged 13-16) had to repeatedly identify the only smiling face in a 4 × 4 matrix of negative emotional faces, while participants in the control condition (n = 16) were randomly allocated to one of three placebo training versions. An assessment version of the task was developed to directly test whether attentional bias changed due to the training. Self-reported anxiety and depressive symptoms and self-esteem were measured pre- and post-training. After two sessions of training, the ABM group showed a significant decrease in attentional bias for negative information and self-reported social phobia, while the control group did not. There were no effects of training on depressive mood or self-esteem. No correlation between attentional bias and social phobia was found, which raises questions about the validity of the attentional bias assessment task. Also, the small sample size precludes strong conclusions. Visual search ABM might be beneficial in changing attentional bias and social phobia in adolescents, but further research with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up is needed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Trade-off between learning and exploitation: the Pareto-optimal versus evolutionarily stable learning schedule in cumulative cultural evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wakano, Joe Yuichiro; Miura, Chiaki

    2014-02-01

    Inheritance of culture is achieved by social learning and improvement is achieved by individual learning. To realize cumulative cultural evolution, social and individual learning should be performed in this order in one's life. However, it is not clear whether such a learning schedule can evolve by the maximization of individual fitness. Here we study optimal allocation of lifetime to learning and exploitation in a two-stage life history model under a constant environment. We show that the learning schedule by which high cultural level is achieved through cumulative cultural evolution is unlikely to evolve as a result of the maximization of individual fitness, if there exists a trade-off between the time spent in learning and the time spent in exploiting the knowledge that has been learned in earlier stages of one's life. Collapse of a fully developed culture is predicted by a game-theoretical analysis where individuals behave selfishly, e.g., less learning and more exploiting. The present study suggests that such factors as group selection, the ability of learning-while-working ("on the job training"), or environmental fluctuation might be important in the realization of rapid and cumulative cultural evolution that is observed in humans. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Counteracting estimation bias and social influence to improve the wisdom of crowds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kao, Albert B; Berdahl, Andrew M; Hartnett, Andrew T; Lutz, Matthew J; Bak-Coleman, Joseph B; Ioannou, Christos C; Giam, Xingli; Couzin, Iain D

    2018-04-01

    Aggregating multiple non-expert opinions into a collective estimate can improve accuracy across many contexts. However, two sources of error can diminish collective wisdom: individual estimation biases and information sharing between individuals. Here, we measure individual biases and social influence rules in multiple experiments involving hundreds of individuals performing a classic numerosity estimation task. We first investigate how existing aggregation methods, such as calculating the arithmetic mean or the median, are influenced by these sources of error. We show that the mean tends to overestimate, and the median underestimate, the true value for a wide range of numerosities. Quantifying estimation bias, and mapping individual bias to collective bias, allows us to develop and validate three new aggregation measures that effectively counter sources of collective estimation error. In addition, we present results from a further experiment that quantifies the social influence rules that individuals employ when incorporating personal estimates with social information. We show that the corrected mean is remarkably robust to social influence, retaining high accuracy in the presence or absence of social influence, across numerosities and across different methods for averaging social information. Using knowledge of estimation biases and social influence rules may therefore be an inexpensive and general strategy to improve the wisdom of crowds. © 2018 The Author(s).

  9. ACTIVE LEARNING TO OVERCOME SAMPLE SELECTION BIAS: APPLICATION TO PHOTOMETRIC VARIABLE STAR CLASSIFICATION

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Richards, Joseph W.; Starr, Dan L.; Miller, Adam A.; Bloom, Joshua S.; Butler, Nathaniel R.; Berian James, J. [Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450 (United States); Brink, Henrik [Dark Cosmology Centre, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen O (Denmark); Long, James P.; Rice, John, E-mail: jwrichar@stat.berkeley.edu [Statistics Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450 (United States)

    2012-01-10

    Despite the great promise of machine-learning algorithms to classify and predict astrophysical parameters for the vast numbers of astrophysical sources and transients observed in large-scale surveys, the peculiarities of the training data often manifest as strongly biased predictions on the data of interest. Typically, training sets are derived from historical surveys of brighter, more nearby objects than those from more extensive, deeper surveys (testing data). This sample selection bias can cause catastrophic errors in predictions on the testing data because (1) standard assumptions for machine-learned model selection procedures break down and (2) dense regions of testing space might be completely devoid of training data. We explore possible remedies to sample selection bias, including importance weighting, co-training, and active learning (AL). We argue that AL-where the data whose inclusion in the training set would most improve predictions on the testing set are queried for manual follow-up-is an effective approach and is appropriate for many astronomical applications. For a variable star classification problem on a well-studied set of stars from Hipparcos and Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, AL is the optimal method in terms of error rate on the testing data, beating the off-the-shelf classifier by 3.4% and the other proposed methods by at least 3.0%. To aid with manual labeling of variable stars, we developed a Web interface which allows for easy light curve visualization and querying of external databases. Finally, we apply AL to classify variable stars in the All Sky Automated Survey, finding dramatic improvement in our agreement with the ASAS Catalog of Variable Stars, from 65.5% to 79.5%, and a significant increase in the classifier's average confidence for the testing set, from 14.6% to 42.9%, after a few AL iterations.

  10. ACTIVE LEARNING TO OVERCOME SAMPLE SELECTION BIAS: APPLICATION TO PHOTOMETRIC VARIABLE STAR CLASSIFICATION

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Richards, Joseph W.; Starr, Dan L.; Miller, Adam A.; Bloom, Joshua S.; Butler, Nathaniel R.; Berian James, J.; Brink, Henrik; Long, James P.; Rice, John

    2012-01-01

    Despite the great promise of machine-learning algorithms to classify and predict astrophysical parameters for the vast numbers of astrophysical sources and transients observed in large-scale surveys, the peculiarities of the training data often manifest as strongly biased predictions on the data of interest. Typically, training sets are derived from historical surveys of brighter, more nearby objects than those from more extensive, deeper surveys (testing data). This sample selection bias can cause catastrophic errors in predictions on the testing data because (1) standard assumptions for machine-learned model selection procedures break down and (2) dense regions of testing space might be completely devoid of training data. We explore possible remedies to sample selection bias, including importance weighting, co-training, and active learning (AL). We argue that AL—where the data whose inclusion in the training set would most improve predictions on the testing set are queried for manual follow-up—is an effective approach and is appropriate for many astronomical applications. For a variable star classification problem on a well-studied set of stars from Hipparcos and Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, AL is the optimal method in terms of error rate on the testing data, beating the off-the-shelf classifier by 3.4% and the other proposed methods by at least 3.0%. To aid with manual labeling of variable stars, we developed a Web interface which allows for easy light curve visualization and querying of external databases. Finally, we apply AL to classify variable stars in the All Sky Automated Survey, finding dramatic improvement in our agreement with the ASAS Catalog of Variable Stars, from 65.5% to 79.5%, and a significant increase in the classifier's average confidence for the testing set, from 14.6% to 42.9%, after a few AL iterations.

  11. Active Learning to Overcome Sample Selection Bias: Application to Photometric Variable Star Classification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richards, Joseph W.; Starr, Dan L.; Brink, Henrik; Miller, Adam A.; Bloom, Joshua S.; Butler, Nathaniel R.; James, J. Berian; Long, James P.; Rice, John

    2012-01-01

    Despite the great promise of machine-learning algorithms to classify and predict astrophysical parameters for the vast numbers of astrophysical sources and transients observed in large-scale surveys, the peculiarities of the training data often manifest as strongly biased predictions on the data of interest. Typically, training sets are derived from historical surveys of brighter, more nearby objects than those from more extensive, deeper surveys (testing data). This sample selection bias can cause catastrophic errors in predictions on the testing data because (1) standard assumptions for machine-learned model selection procedures break down and (2) dense regions of testing space might be completely devoid of training data. We explore possible remedies to sample selection bias, including importance weighting, co-training, and active learning (AL). We argue that AL—where the data whose inclusion in the training set would most improve predictions on the testing set are queried for manual follow-up—is an effective approach and is appropriate for many astronomical applications. For a variable star classification problem on a well-studied set of stars from Hipparcos and Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, AL is the optimal method in terms of error rate on the testing data, beating the off-the-shelf classifier by 3.4% and the other proposed methods by at least 3.0%. To aid with manual labeling of variable stars, we developed a Web interface which allows for easy light curve visualization and querying of external databases. Finally, we apply AL to classify variable stars in the All Sky Automated Survey, finding dramatic improvement in our agreement with the ASAS Catalog of Variable Stars, from 65.5% to 79.5%, and a significant increase in the classifier's average confidence for the testing set, from 14.6% to 42.9%, after a few AL iterations.

  12. 5 CFR 9901.305 - Rate of pay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Rate of pay. 9901.305 Section 9901.305... (NSPS) Pay and Pay Administration General § 9901.305 Rate of pay. (a) The term “rate of pay” in 5 U.S.C... overtime and other premium pay rates (including compensatory time off); and (2) The rates comprising the...

  13. Recognizing Our Cultural Biases as Counsellor Supervisors: A Reflective Learning Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brinson, Jesse A.

    2004-01-01

    This article encourages supervisors, in general, and counsellor supervisors, in particular, to engage in reflective learning as a way to identify their cultural biases. Awareness of counsellor bias has been addressed by ethical standards outlined for professional helpers. This article presents reflective learning as a potentially useful strategy…

  14. Social Network Gaming Trends

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Gathwright

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this project was to determine how long the social network game Scratch-Offs, created by game development company Spice Rack Media, will remain financially viable. The game Scratch-Offs is a freeware game (users pay nothing for the actual software and is funded through micro transactions (users must pay small amounts of money to play actual games. This implies a relationship between total games played and revenue earned. Using data provided by Spice Rack, we were able to develop an exponential equation that accurately depicts usage trends over time. This equation was used to determine the date Scratch-Offs will no longer be profitable.

  15. Social learning and human mate preferences: a potential mechanism for generating and maintaining between-population diversity in attraction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Little, Anthony C.; Jones, Benedict C.; DeBruine, Lisa M.; Caldwell, Christine A.

    2011-01-01

    Inspired by studies demonstrating mate-choice copying effects in non-human species, recent studies of attractiveness judgements suggest that social learning also influences human preferences. In the first part of our article, we review evidence for social learning effects on preferences in humans and other animals. In the second part, we present new empirical evidence that social learning not only influences the attractiveness of specific individuals, but can also generalize to judgements of previously unseen individuals possessing similar physical traits. The different conditions represent different populations and, once a preference arises in a population, social learning can lead to the spread of preferences within that population. In the final part of our article, we discuss the theoretical basis for, and possible impact of, biases in social learning whereby individuals may preferentially copy the choices of those with high status or better access to critical information about potential mates. Such biases could mean that the choices of a select few individuals carry the greatest weight, rapidly generating agreement in preferences within a population. Collectively, these issues suggest that social learning mechanisms encourage the spread of preferences for certain traits once they arise within a population and so may explain certain cross-cultural differences. PMID:21199841

  16. Performance pay, sorting and social motivation

    OpenAIRE

    Eriksson, Tor; Villeval, Marie Claire

    2008-01-01

    International audience; Variable pay links pay and performance but may also help firms in attracting more productive employees. Our experiment investigates the impact of performance pay on both incentives and sorting and analyzes the influence of repeated interactions between firms and employees on these effects. We show that (i) the opportunity to switch from a fixed wage to variable pay scheme increases the average effort level and its variance; (ii) high skill employees concentrate under t...

  17. Neural correlates of reinforcement learning and social preferences in competitive bidding.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van den Bos, Wouter; Talwar, Arjun; McClure, Samuel M

    2013-01-30

    In competitive social environments, people often deviate from what rational choice theory prescribes, resulting in losses or suboptimal monetary gains. We investigate how competition affects learning and decision-making in a common value auction task. During the experiment, groups of five human participants were simultaneously scanned using MRI while playing the auction task. We first demonstrate that bidding is well characterized by reinforcement learning with biased reward representations dependent on social preferences. Indicative of reinforcement learning, we found that estimated trial-by-trial prediction errors correlated with activity in the striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Additionally, we found that individual differences in social preferences were related to activity in the temporal-parietal junction and anterior insula. Connectivity analyses suggest that monetary and social value signals are integrated in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and striatum. Based on these results, we argue for a novel mechanistic account for the integration of reinforcement history and social preferences in competitive decision-making.

  18. Social exclusion leads to attentional bias to emotional social information: Evidence from eye movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Zhuohao; Du, Jinchen; Xiang, Min; Zhang, Yan; Zhang, Shuyue

    2017-01-01

    Social exclusion has many effects on individuals, including the increased need to belong and elevated sensitivity to social information. Using a self-reporting method, and an eye-tracking technique, this study explored people's need to belong and attentional bias towards the socio-emotional information (pictures of positive and negative facial expressions compared to those of emotionally-neutral expressions) after experiencing a brief episode of social exclusion. We found that: (1) socially-excluded individuals reported higher negative emotions, lower positive emotions, and stronger need to belong than those who were not socially excluded; (2) compared to a control condition, social exclusion caused a longer response time to probe dots after viewing positive or negative face images; (3) social exclusion resulted in a higher frequency ratio of first attentional fixation on both positive and negative emotional facial pictures (but not on the neutral pictures) than the control condition; (4) in the social exclusion condition, participants showed shorter first fixation latency and longer first fixation duration to positive pictures than neutral ones but this effect was not observed for negative pictures; (5) participants who experienced social exclusion also showed longer gazing duration on the positive pictures than those who did not; although group differences also existed for the negative pictures, the gaze duration bias from both groups showed no difference from chance. This study demonstrated the emotional response to social exclusion as well as characterising multiple eye-movement indicators of attentional bias after experiencing social exclusion.

  19. Social Media, Collaboration and Social Learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mondahl, Margrethe; Razmerita, Liana

    2014-01-01

    Social media has created new possibilities for digitally native students to engage, interact and collaborate in learning tasks that foster learning processes and the overall learning experience. Using both qualitative and quantitative data, this article discusses experiences and challenges of using...... a social media-enhanced collaborative learning environment in case-based teaching of foreign languages. Based on social constructivismwe argue that foreign language learning is an individual as well as collaborative process and cognitive processes underlying learning and in particular foreign language...... learning are facilitated by means of social media and especially for new generation of students. This article contributes to understanding of how best to make use of social media in an educational setting and how learning may be fostered in social, collaborative knowledge construction, sharing and building...

  20. Young children seek out biased information about social groups.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Over, Harriet; Eggleston, Adam; Bell, Jenny; Dunham, Yarrow

    2018-05-01

    Understanding the origins of prejudice necessitates exploring the ways in which children participate in the construction of biased representations of social groups. We investigate whether young children actively seek out information that supports and extends their initial intergroup biases. In Studies 1 and 2, we show that children choose to hear a story that contains positive information about their own group and negative information about another group rather than a story that contains negative information about their own group and positive information about the other group. In a third study, we show that children choose to present biased information to others, thus demonstrating that the effects of information selection can start to propagate through social networks. In Studies 4 and 5, we further investigate the nature of children's selective information seeking and show that children prefer ingroup-favouring information to other types of biased information and even to balanced, unbiased information. Together, this work shows that children are not merely passively recipients of social information; they play an active role in the creation and transmission of intergroup attitudes. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  1. CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PAY SYSTEM AND SOCIAL SECURITY IN SPAIN

    OpenAIRE

    Mihaela – Andreea Nastasie

    2012-01-01

    In the current context of economic crisis which manifests the world can see a very important role of the pay systems and social security in economic and social life. Staff wages means establishing a salary entitlements owed to employees and their payment, as established at the end of collective or individual employment contracts. In Spain there are various collective agreements according to geographical areas and activities. A fair and balanced wage was and will remain a core area of human re...

  2. Social science. Publication bias in the social sciences: unlocking the file drawer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franco, Annie; Malhotra, Neil; Simonovits, Gabor

    2014-09-19

    We studied publication bias in the social sciences by analyzing a known population of conducted studies--221 in total--in which there is a full accounting of what is published and unpublished. We leveraged Time-sharing Experiments in the Social Sciences (TESS), a National Science Foundation-sponsored program in which researchers propose survey-based experiments to be run on representative samples of American adults. Because TESS proposals undergo rigorous peer review, the studies in the sample all exceed a substantial quality threshold. Strong results are 40 percentage points more likely to be published than are null results and 60 percentage points more likely to be written up. We provide direct evidence of publication bias and identify the stage of research production at which publication bias occurs: Authors do not write up and submit null findings. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  3. Willingness to pay for insecticide-treated nets in Berehet District, Amhara Region, Northern Ethiopia: implication of social marketing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aleme, Adisu; Girma, Eshetu; Fentahun, Netsanet

    2014-01-01

    Understanding the feasibility of achieving widespread coverage with Insecticide-Treated Nets has to be preceded by learning how people value the Insecticide-Treated Nets and estimating the potential demand and willingness to pay so that sustainability of the intervention can be assured. The objective of this study was to determine willingness to pay for Insecticide-Treated Nets among households in Berehet District, Northern Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods in five randomly selected Kebeles from January-February 2012. Open ended contingent valuation technique with follow-up method was used. Qualitative data were collected through focus group discussions and observation methods. Binary logistic regression was used to determine the association between dependent and independent variables. The average number of individuals per Insecticide-Treated Nets was 3.83. Nearly 68.5% persons had willingness to buy Insecticide-Treated Nets if they have access to these Nets. The median maximum price a person is willingness to pay for blue rectangular Insecticide-Treated Net was 20 ETB. People had willingness to pay 30 ETB for blue and white conical insecticide-treated nets. Working on knowledge of malaria (OR=0.68, CI (0.47, 0.98; ppay Insecticide-Treated Nets. Respondents who prefer Kebele/place/ to buy Insecticide-Treated Net for rectangular shape had a significant association with a willingness to pay for Insecticide-Treated Nets (OR=1.92, CI= 1.07-3.92). Promotions, products, price and place had significant association with willingness to pay for Insecticide-Treated Nets. Designing a social marketing strategy helps ensure sustainable supply of Insecticide-Treated Nets and proper use of Insecticide-Treated Nets.

  4. Learning Companion Systems, Social Learning Systems, and the Global Social Learning Club.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Tak-Wai

    1996-01-01

    Describes the development of learning companion systems and their contributions to the class of social learning systems that integrate artificial intelligence agents and use machine learning to tutor and interact with students. Outlines initial social learning projects, their programming languages, and weakness. Future improvements will include…

  5. Effects of standard and explicit cognitive bias modification and computer-administered cognitive-behaviour therapy on cognitive biases and social anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mobini, Sirous; Mackintosh, Bundy; Illingworth, Jo; Gega, Lina; Langdon, Peter; Hoppitt, Laura

    2014-06-01

    This study examines the effects of a single session of Cognitive Bias Modification to induce positive Interpretative bias (CBM-I) using standard or explicit instructions and an analogue of computer-administered CBT (c-CBT) program on modifying cognitive biases and social anxiety. A sample of 76 volunteers with social anxiety attended a research site. At both pre- and post-test, participants completed two computer-administered tests of interpretative and attentional biases and a self-report measure of social anxiety. Participants in the training conditions completed a single session of either standard or explicit CBM-I positive training and a c-CBT program. Participants in the Control (no training) condition completed a CBM-I neutral task matched the active CBM-I intervention in format and duration but did not encourage positive disambiguation of socially ambiguous or threatening scenarios. Participants in both CBM-I programs (either standard or explicit instructions) and the c-CBT condition exhibited more positive interpretations of ambiguous social scenarios at post-test and one-week follow-up as compared to the Control condition. Moreover, the results showed that CBM-I and c-CBT, to some extent, changed negative attention biases in a positive direction. Furthermore, the results showed that both CBM-I training conditions and c-CBT reduced social anxiety symptoms at one-week follow-up. This study used a single session of CBM-I training, however multi-sessions intervention might result in more endurable positive CBM-I changes. A computerised single session of CBM-I and an analogue of c-CBT program reduced negative interpretative biases and social anxiety. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  6. Social desirability bias in dietary self-report may compromise the validity of dietary intake measures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hebert, J R; Clemow, L; Pbert, L; Ockene, I S; Ockene, J K

    1995-04-01

    Self-report of dietary intake could be biased by social desirability or social approval thus affecting risk estimates in epidemiological studies. These constructs produce response set biases, which are evident when testing in domains characterized by easily recognizable correct or desirable responses. Given the social and psychological value ascribed to diet, assessment methodologies used most commonly in epidemiological studies are particularly vulnerable to these biases. Social desirability and social approval biases were tested by comparing nutrient scores derived from multiple 24-hour diet recalls (24HR) on seven randomly assigned days with those from two 7-day diet recalls (7DDR) (similar in some respects to commonly used food frequency questionnaires), one administered at the beginning of the test period (pre) and one at the end (post). Statistical analysis included correlation and multiple linear regression. Cross-sectionally, no relationships between social approval score and the nutritional variables existed. Social desirability score was negatively correlated with most nutritional variables. In linear regression analysis, social desirability score produced a large downward bias in nutrient estimation in the 7DDR relative to the 24HR. For total energy, this bias equalled about 50 kcal/point on the social desirability scale or about 450 kcal over its interquartile range. The bias was approximately twice as large for women as for men and only about half as large in the post measures. Individuals having the highest 24HR-derived fat and total energy intake scores had the largest downward bias due to social desirability. We observed a large downward bias in reporting food intake related to social desirability score. These results are consistent with the theoretical constructs on which the hypothesis is based. The effect of social desirability bias is discussed in terms of its influence on epidemiological estimates of effect. Suggestions are made for future work

  7. Young macaques (Macaca fascicularis) preferentially bias attention towards closer, older, and better tool users.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Amanda W Y; Hemelrijk, Charlotte K; Malaivijitnond, Suchinda; Gumert, Michael D

    2018-05-12

    Examining how animals direct social learning during skill acquisition under natural conditions, generates data for examining hypotheses regarding how transmission biases influence cultural change in animal populations. We studied a population of macaques on Koram Island, Thailand, and examined model-based biases during interactions by unskilled individuals with tool-using group members. We first compared the prevalence of interactions (watching, obtaining food, object exploration) and proximity to tool users during interactions, in developing individuals (infants, juveniles) versus mature non-learners (adolescents, adults), to provide evidence that developing individuals are actively seeking information about tool use from social partners. All infants and juveniles, but only 49% of mature individuals carried out interacted with tool users. Macaques predominantly obtained food by scrounging or stealing, suggesting maximizing scrounging opportunities motivates interactions with tool users. However, while interactions by adults was limited to obtaining food, young macaques and particularly infants also watched tool users and explored objects, indicating additional interest in tool use itself. We then ran matrix correlations to identify interaction biases, and what attributes of tool users influenced these. Biases correlated with social affiliation, but macaques also preferentially targeted tool users that potentially increase scrounging and learning opportunities. Results suggest that social structure may constrain social learning, but the motivation to bias interactions towards tool users to maximize feeding opportunities may also socially modulate learning by facilitating close proximity to better tool users, and further interest in tool-use actions and materials, especially during development.

  8. A contingent valuation study to estimate the parental willingness-to-pay for childhood diarrhoea and gender bias among rural households in India.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amin, Mo; Khondoker, Farhana

    2004-06-24

    We used contingent valuation technique to estimate the parental willingness to pay for an episode of diarrhoea among 324 children of both sexes aged between five and seven years in two rural villages of Chennai in India. The aim was to examine if there was any gender bias in the parental willingness to treat children for a diarrhoeal episode, and if so to what extent. The willingness to pay was specified as a hedonic function of the duration and severity of an episode, and of parents' socioeconomic characteristics. The findings suggest that parents were willing to pay more to protect their male child compared to the female child suffering from a diarrhoeal episode. The median willingness to pay to avoid an episode for male and female children were calculated at Rs. 33.7 (approx. US$ 0.72) and Rs. 25.2 (approx. US$ 0.54) respectively - a difference of around 34%. After adjusting for the greater duration and severity of the illness, it was found that the difference between the two medians increased to 51%.

  9. A contingent valuation study to estimate the parental willingness-to-pay for childhood diarrhoea and gender bias among rural households in India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khondoker Farhana

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract We used contingent valuation technique to estimate the parental willingness to pay for an episode of diarrhoea among 324 children of both sexes aged between five and seven years in two rural villages of Chennai in India. The aim was to examine if there was any gender bias in the parental willingness to treat children for a diarrhoeal episode, and if so to what extent. The willingness to pay was specified as a hedonic function of the duration and severity of an episode, and of parents' socioeconomic characteristics. The findings suggest that parents were willing to pay more to protect their male child compared to the female child suffering from a diarrhoeal episode. The median willingness to pay to avoid an episode for male and female children were calculated at Rs. 33.7 (approx. US$ 0.72 and Rs. 25.2 (approx. US$ 0.54 respectively – a difference of around 34%. After adjusting for the greater duration and severity of the illness, it was found that the difference between the two medians increased to 51%.

  10. The effects of self-focus on attentional biases in social anxiety:An ERP study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Judah, Matt R; Grant, DeMond M; Carlisle, Nancy B

    2016-06-01

    Cognitive theories of social anxiety disorder suggest that biased attention plays a key role in maintaining symptoms. These biases include self-focus and attention to socially threatening stimuli in the environment. The goal of this study was to utilize ERPs that are elicited by a change detection task to examine biases in selective attention (i.e., N2pc) and working memory maintenance (i.e., contralateral delay activity; CDA). Additionally, the effect of self-focus was examined using false heart rate feedback. In support of the manipulation, self-focus cues resulted in greater self-reported self-consciousness and task interference, enhanced anterior P2 amplitude and reduced SPN amplitude. Moreover, P2 amplitude for self-focus cues was correlated with reduced task performance for socially anxious subjects only. The difference in P2 amplitude between self-focus and standard cues was correlated with social anxiety independent of depression. As hypothesized, socially anxious participants (n = 20) showed early selection and maintenance of disgust faces relative to neutral faces as indicated by the N2pc and CDA components. Nonanxious controls (n = 22) did not show these biases. During self-focus cues, controls showed marginal evidence of biased selection for disgust faces, whereas socially anxious subjects showed no bias in this condition. Controls showed an ipsilateral delay activity after being cued to attend to one hemifield. Overall, this study supports early and persistent attentional bias for social threat in socially anxious individuals. Furthermore, self-focus may disrupt these biases. These findings and supplementary data are discussed in light of cognitive models of social anxiety disorder, recent empirical findings, and treatment.

  11. What is Social Learning?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mark S. Reed

    2010-12-01

    between individual and wider social learning. Many unsubstantiated claims for social learning exist, and there is frequently confusion between the concept itself and its potential outcomes. This lack of conceptual clarity has limited our capacity to assess whether social learning has occurred, and if so, what kind of learning has taken place, to what extent, between whom, when, and how. This response attempts to provide greater clarity on the conceptual basis for social learning. We argue that to be considered social learning, a process must: (1 demonstrate that a change in understanding has taken place in the individuals involved; (2 demonstrate that this change goes beyond the individual and becomes situated within wider social units or communities of practice; and (3 occur through social interactions and processes between actors within a social network. A clearer picture of what we mean by social learning could enhance our ability to critically evaluate outcomes and better understand the processes through which social learning occurs. In this way, it may be possible to better facilitate the desired outcomes of social learning processes.

  12. Biased Supervision

    OpenAIRE

    Josse Delfgaauw; Michiel Souverijn

    2014-01-01

    markdownabstract__Abstract__ When verifiable performance measures are imperfect, organizations often resort to subjective performance pay. This may give supervisors the power to direct employees towards tasks that mainly benefit the supervisor rather than the organization. We cast a principal-supervisor-agent model in a multitask setting, where the supervisor has an intrinsic preference towards specific tasks. We show that subjective performance pay based on evaluation by a biased supervisor ...

  13. Does social distance modulate adults' egocentric biases when reasoning about false beliefs?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farrar, Benjamin G; Ostojić, Ljerka

    2018-01-01

    When given privileged information of an object's true location, adults often overestimate the likelihood that a protagonist holding a false belief will search in the correct location for that object. This type of egocentric bias is often labelled the 'curse of knowledge'. Interestingly, the magnitude of this bias may be modulated by the social distance between the perspective taker and target. However, this social distance effect has yet to be fully demonstrated when adults reason about false beliefs. Using a continuous false belief task, we investigated i) whether adults were biased by their own knowledge when reasoning about another's false belief, ii) whether the magnitude of this egocentric bias was modulated by social distance, and iii) whether this social distance effect extended to a heterospecific out-group, namely a dog. To test these hypotheses we conducted three experiments. In Experiment 1 (N = 283), we used an established continuous false belief task, in Experiment 2 (N = 281) we modified this task, and Experiment 3 (N = 744) was a direct replication of Experiment 2. Across these experiments, the curse of knowledge effect was reliably replicated when adults mentalised about an in-group protagonist, and replicated in two of the three studies (Experiments 1 and 3) when adults mentalised about out-group protagonists. In an internal-meta analysis, the curse of knowledge effect was present across all conditions, and there was no effect of social distance. Hence, overall these data are not consistent with the hypothesis that social distance modulates adults' egocentric biases when reasoning about false beliefs. The finding that egocentric biases of a similar magnitude were observed when adults mentalised about an in-group protagonist and a dog suggests that interpersonal dissimilarity is not in itself sufficient to reduce egocentric bias when reasoning about false beliefs.

  14. Using Machine Learning to Predict MCNP Bias

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grechanuk, Pavel Aleksandrovi [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2018-01-09

    For many real-world applications in radiation transport where simulations are compared to experimental measurements, like in nuclear criticality safety, the bias (simulated - experimental keff) in the calculation is an extremely important quantity used for code validation. The objective of this project is to accurately predict the bias of MCNP6 [1] criticality calculations using machine learning (ML) algorithms, with the intention of creating a tool that can complement the current nuclear criticality safety methods. In the latest release of MCNP6, the Whisper tool is available for criticality safety analysts and includes a large catalogue of experimental benchmarks, sensitivity profiles, and nuclear data covariance matrices. This data, coming from 1100+ benchmark cases, is used in this study of ML algorithms for criticality safety bias predictions.

  15. Cognitive bias modification of interpretation in children with social anxiety disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orchard, Faith; Apetroaia, Adela; Clarke, Kiri; Creswell, Cathy

    2017-01-01

    Negative (or a lack of positive) interpretation of ambiguous social situations has been hypothesised to maintain social anxiety disorder in children, yet there is currently limited evidence to support this. Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretation (CBM-I) provides a means to explore the causal influence of interpretation bias on social anxiety disorder, and has been associated with a reduction in social anxiety symptoms in adults. Seven to twelve year old children with a diagnosis of social anxiety disorder completed CBM-I training, adapted from materials designed for socially anxious children in the community, or no training. Effects on interpretation bias and social anxiety were assessed. The adapted CBM-I training was not associated with significant changes in benign or negative interpretation. Unsurprisingly given the lack of successful interpretation training, there were no significant changes in child or parent reported social anxiety symptoms, clinician-rated severity or diagnoses and change in interpretation was not significantly associated with change in social anxiety. These findings contrast with some studies with community populations although it is possible that more intensive CBM-I training is required to fully test this hypothesis among clinical groups. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  16. Biased Allocation of Faces to Social Categories

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dotsch, R.; Wigboldus, D.H.J.; Knippenberg, A.F.M. van

    2011-01-01

    Three studies show that social categorization is biased at the level of category allocation. In all studies, participants categorized faces. In Studies 1 and 2, participants overallocated faces with criminal features-a stereotypical negative trait-to the stigmatized Moroccan category, especially if

  17. Visual search attentional bias modification reduced social phobia in adolescents

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Voogd, E.L.; Wiers, R.W.; Prins, P.J.M.; Salemink, E.

    2014-01-01

    Background and objectives: An attentional bias for negative information plays an important role in the development and maintenance of (social) anxiety and depression, which are highly prevalent in adolescence. Attention Bias Modification (ABM) might be an interesting tool in the prevention of

  18. Disorders of compulsivity: a common bias towards learning habits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voon, V; Derbyshire, K; Rück, C; Irvine, M A; Worbe, Y; Enander, J; Schreiber, L R N; Gillan, C; Fineberg, N A; Sahakian, B J; Robbins, T W; Harrison, N A; Wood, J; Daw, N D; Dayan, P; Grant, J E; Bullmore, E T

    2015-03-01

    Why do we repeat choices that we know are bad for us? Decision making is characterized by the parallel engagement of two distinct systems, goal-directed and habitual, thought to arise from two computational learning mechanisms, model-based and model-free. The habitual system is a candidate source of pathological fixedness. Using a decision task that measures the contribution to learning of either mechanism, we show a bias towards model-free (habit) acquisition in disorders involving both natural (binge eating) and artificial (methamphetamine) rewards, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. This favoring of model-free learning may underlie the repetitive behaviors that ultimately dominate in these disorders. Further, we show that the habit formation bias is associated with lower gray matter volumes in caudate and medial orbitofrontal cortex. Our findings suggest that the dysfunction in a common neurocomputational mechanism may underlie diverse disorders involving compulsion.

  19. Social solidarity and willingness to tolerate risk- and income-related cross-subsidies within health insurance: experiences from Ghana, Tanzania and South Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goudge, Jane; Akazili, James; Ataguba, John; Kuwawenaruwa, August; Borghi, Josephine; Harris, Bronwyn; Mills, Anne

    2012-03-01

    The importance of ill-health in perpetuating poverty is well recognized. In order to prevent the damaging downward spiral of poverty and illness, there is a need for a greater level of social protection, with greater cross-subsidization between the poor and wealthy, and the healthy and those with ill-health. The aim of this paper is to examine individual preferences for willingness to pre-pay for health care and willingness to cross-subsidize the sick and the poor in Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania. Household surveys in the three countries elicited views on cross-subsidization within health care financing. The paper examines how these preferences varied by socio-economic status, other respondent characteristics, and the extent and type of experience of health insurance in the light of country context. In South Africa and Ghana, 62% and 55% of total respondents, respectively, were in favour of a progressive financing system in which richer groups would pay a higher proportion of income than poorer groups, rather than a system where individuals pay the same proportion of income irrespective of their wealth (proportional). In Tanzania, 45% of the total sample were willing to pay for the health care of the poor. However, in all three countries, a progressive system was favoured by a smaller proportion of the most well off than of less well off groups. Solidarity has been considered to be a collective property of a specific socio-political culture, based on shared expectations and developed as part of a communal, historical learning process. The three countries had different experiences of health insurance and this may have contributed to the above differences in expressed willingness to pay between countries. Building and 'living with' institutions that provide affordable universal coverage is likely to be an essential part of the learning process which supports the development of social solidarity.

  20. Students’ Motivations for Social Media Enhanced Studying and Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kirsi Silius

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Solutions of social media enhanced learning are widely studied in Hypermedia Laboratory at Tampere University of Technology (TUT. In recent years Web 2.0 based social media services (e.g., Facebook®, LinkedIn®, Last.fm®, etc. have become popular, especially among young people. Based on this phenomenon TUT Hypermedia researchers have developed a social networking site for TUT freshmen aiming to provide convenient tools for interaction and study support. The first idea was to offer a free-of-charge social web site in the context of learning Basic Engineering Mathematics at TUT. This was thought to be an efficient tool to get new students studies off to a good start as mathematics courses play a significant role. However, the prediction failed, which caused us to study students‟ motivations for social network site usage in the study context. This paper describes research conducted in 2009. Moreover, a description of subsequent measures accomplished (e.g., web site development and social network analysis at TUT is included.

  1. Organizational learning viewed from a social learning perspective

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Elkjær, Bente; Brandi, Ulrik

    2011-01-01

    This chapter reviews the literature on organizational learning through the lens of a social learning perspective. We start with an individual learning perspective, before moving on to a social learning perspective with a particular focus upon pragmatism. The literature review covers the following...... four issues: the content of learning, the process of learning, the relation between individual and organization, and the concept of organization. An important separator between individual and social learning perspectives is the different emphasis on learning as acquisition of skills and knowledge......, versus learning as encompassing development of identities and socialization to organizational work and life. A pragmatist social learning perspective emphasizes both learning as acquisition through experience and inquiry, and learning as development of identities and socialization through individuals...

  2. Revisiting the Pink Triangle Exercise: An Exploration of Experiential Learning in Graduate Social Work Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pugh, Greg L.

    2014-01-01

    The pink triangle exercise is an example of an experiential learning exercise that creates cognitive dissonance and deep learning of unrealized internalized biases among social work students. Students wear a button with a pink triangle on it for 1 day and write a reflection paper. The exercise increases self-awareness, cultural competence, and the…

  3. With you or against you: social orientation dependent learning signals guide actions made for others.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christopoulos, George I; King-Casas, Brooks

    2015-01-01

    In social environments, it is crucial that decision-makers take account of the impact of their actions not only for oneself, but also on other social agents. Previous work has identified neural signals in the striatum encoding value-based prediction errors for outcomes to oneself; also, recent work suggests that neural activity in prefrontal cortex may similarly encode value-based prediction errors related to outcomes to others. However, prior work also indicates that social valuations are not isomorphic, with social value orientations of decision-makers ranging on a cooperative to competitive continuum; this variation has not been examined within social learning environments. Here, we combine a computational model of learning with functional neuroimaging to examine how individual differences in orientation impact neural mechanisms underlying 'other-value' learning. Across four experimental conditions, reinforcement learning signals for other-value were identified in medial prefrontal cortex, and were distinct from self-value learning signals identified in striatum. Critically, the magnitude and direction of the other-value learning signal depended strongly on an individual's cooperative or competitive orientation toward others. These data indicate that social decisions are guided by a social orientation-dependent learning system that is computationally similar but anatomically distinct from self-value learning. The sensitivity of the medial prefrontal learning signal to social preferences suggests a mechanism linking such preferences to biases in social actions and highlights the importance of incorporating heterogeneous social predispositions in neurocomputational models of social behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  4. Who Pays to Play Freemium Games? The Profiles and Motivations of Players Who Make Purchases Within Social Casino Games.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gainsbury, Sally M; King, Daniel L; Russell, Alex M T; Delfabbro, Paul

    2016-06-01

    Background and aims Social casino games (SCGs) feature gambling themes and are typically free to download and play with optional in-game purchases. Although few players spend money, this is sufficient to make them profitable for game developers. Little is known about the profile and motivations of paying players as compared to non-paying players. Methods This study compared the characteristics of 521 paying and non-paying Australian social casino game players who completed an online survey. Results Paying players were more likely to be younger, male, speak a non-English language, and have a university education than non-payers. Paying players were more likely to be more highly involved in SCG in terms of play frequency and engagement with games and emphasized social interaction more strongly as a motivation for playing. A cluster analysis revealed distinct subgroups of paying players; these included more frequent moderate spenders who made purchases to avoid waiting for credits and to give gifts to friends as well as less frequent high spenders who made purchases to increase the entertainment value of the game. Discussion These findings suggest that paying players have some fundamental differences from non-paying players and high spenders are trying to maximize their enjoyment, while non-spenders are content with the game content they access. Conclusions Given the structural similarities between SCG and online gambling, understanding subgroups of players may have broader implications, including identifying characteristics of gamers who may also engage in gambling and players who may develop problems related to excessive online gaming.

  5. Précis of Social Perception and Social Reality: Why accuracy dominates bias and self-fulfilling prophecy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jussim, Lee

    2017-01-01

    Social Perception and Social Reality (Jussim 2012) reviews the evidence in social psychology and related fields and reaches three conclusions: (1) Although errors, biases, and self-fulfilling prophecies in person perception are real, reliable, and occasionally quite powerful, on average, they tend to be weak, fragile, and fleeting. (2) Perceptions of individuals and groups tend to be at least moderately, and often highly accurate. (3) Conclusions based on the research on error, bias, and self-fulfilling prophecies routinely greatly overstate their power and pervasiveness, and consistently ignore evidence of accuracy, agreement, and rationality in social perception. The weight of the evidence - including some of the most classic research widely interpreted as testifying to the power of biased and self-fulfilling processes - is that interpersonal expectations relate to social reality primarily because they reflect rather than cause social reality. This is the case not only for teacher expectations, but also for social stereotypes, both as perceptions of groups, and as the bases of expectations regarding individuals. The time is long overdue to replace cherry-picked and unjustified stories emphasizing error, bias, the power of self-fulfilling prophecies, and the inaccuracy of stereotypes, with conclusions that more closely correspond to the full range of empirical findings, which includes multiple failed replications of classic expectancy studies, meta-analyses consistently demonstrating small or at best moderate expectancy effects, and high accuracy in social perception.

  6. Shared social responsibility: a field experiment in pay-what-you-want pricing and charitable giving.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gneezy, Ayelet; Gneezy, Uri; Nelson, Leif D; Brown, Amber

    2010-07-16

    A field experiment (N = 113,047 participants) manipulated two factors in the sale of souvenir photos. First, some customers saw a traditional fixed price, whereas others could pay what they wanted (including $0). Second, approximately half of the customers saw a variation in which half of the revenue went to charity. At a standard fixed price, the charitable component only slightly increased demand, as similar studies have also found. However, when participants could pay what they wanted, the same charitable component created a treatment that was substantially more profitable. Switching from corporate social responsibility to what we term shared social responsibility works in part because customized contributions allow customers to directly express social welfare concerns through the purchasing of material goods.

  7. Group processes in medical education: learning from social identity theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burford, Bryan

    2012-02-01

    The clinical workplace in which doctors learn involves many social groups, including representatives of different professions, clinical specialties and workplace teams. This paper suggests that medical education research does not currently take full account of the effects of group membership, and describes a theoretical approach from social psychology, the social identity approach, which allows those effects to be explored. The social identity approach has a long history in social psychology and provides an integrated account of group processes, from the adoption of group identity through a process of self-categorisation, to the biases and conflicts between groups. This paper outlines key elements of this theoretical approach and illustrates their relevance to medical education. The relevance of the social identity approach is illustrated with reference to a number of areas of medical education. The paper shows how research questions in medical education may be usefully reframed in terms of social identity in ways that allow a deeper exploration of the psychological processes involved. Professional identity and professionalism may be viewed in terms of self-categorisation rather than simply attainment; the salience of different identities may be considered as influences on teamwork and interprofessional learning, and issues in communication and assessment may be considered in terms of intergroup biases. Social identity theory provides a powerful framework with which to consider many areas of medical education. It allows disparate influences on, and consequences of, group membership to be considered as part of an integrated system, and allows assumptions, such as about the nature of professional identity and interprofessional tensions, to be made explicit in the design of research studies. This power to question assumptions and develop deeper and more meaningful research questions may be increasingly relevant as the nature and role of the medical profession change

  8. Public participation for sustainability and social learning. Concepts and lessons from three case studies in Europe

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Garmendia, Eneko [Institute for Environmental Sciences and Technologies (ICTA), Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain); Environmental Economics Unit, Institute for Public Economics, University of the Basque Country (Spain); Stagl, Sigrid [Department of Socio-Economics, WU Vienna, Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria)

    2010-06-15

    Shaping change such that it avoids losing potentially useful options for future development is a challenging task in the face of complex, coevolving socio-ecological systems. Sustainability appraisal methods, which open up dialogue and options before closing down and making suggestions, pay attention to the inclusion of various and conflicting points of view and address uncertainty, are increasingly used in the science, environment and energy policy domains. The quality of the process is seen as key to high quality appraisal outcomes. Dimensions of quality include learning opportunities which are seen as ways for addressing complexity and uncertainty. Participatory sustainability appraisal methods intend to support social learning among participants. Despite high expectations, social learning processes in sustainability appraisals are poorly conceptualized and empirically understudied. This paper (1) briefly reviews theories of social learning; (2) develops a conceptual framework for the analysis; and (3) presents an empirical application of the framework by use of data obtained from three energy and natural resource management case studies around Europe. (author)

  9. Semi-supervised Eigenvectors for Locally-biased Learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Toke Jansen; Mahoney, Michael W.

    2012-01-01

    In many applications, one has side information, e.g., labels that are provided in a semi-supervised manner, about a specific target region of a large data set, and one wants to perform machine learning and data analysis tasks "nearby" that pre-specified target region. Locally-biased problems of t...

  10. Control of long range turbulent transport with biasing in the tokamak scrape-off-layer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Figarella, C.F.; Ghendrih, Ph.; Sarazin, Y.; Attuel, G.; Benkadda, S.; Beyer, P.; Falchetto, G.; Fleurence, E.; Garbet, X.; Grandgirard, V.

    2005-01-01

    Cross-field transport in the SOL influences tokamak performance in particular regarding the divertor efficiency. Recent experiment evidence emphasizes non-exponential and/or flat SOL profiles that suggest a large perpendicular transport. A 2D fluid model based on the interchange instability to simulate the SOL turbulence was found to exhibits intermittent dynamics of the particle flux. We propose a control method that prevents long range transport events from reaching the far SOL: It consists in biasing the far SOL leading to a transport barrier which stops the propagation of these intermittent events. The best trade off is to localize the biased toroidal ring around the baffles. We show that such a control is achievable providing the strength of the barrier is strong enough. The investigation of the minimal biasing power required to achieve the control as well as its experimental estimate is performed

  11. Assessing Projection Bias in Consumers' Food Preferences.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tiziana de-Magistris

    Full Text Available The aim of this study is to test whether projection bias exists in consumers' purchasing decisions for food products. To achieve our aim, we used a non-hypothetical experiment (i.e., experimental auction, where hungry and non-hungry participants were incentivized to reveal their willingness to pay (WTP. The results confirm the existence of projection bias when consumers made their decisions on food products. In particular, projection bias existed because currently hungry participants were willing to pay a higher price premium for cheeses than satiated ones, both in hungry and satiated future states. Moreover, participants overvalued the food product more when they were delivered in the future hungry condition than in the satiated one. Our study provides clear, quantitative and meaningful evidence of projection bias because our findings are based on economic valuation of food preferences. Indeed, the strength of this study is that findings are expressed in terms of willingness to pay which is an interpretable amount of money.

  12. Mapping, Navigation, and Learning for Off-Road Traversal

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Konolige, Kurt; Agrawal, Motilal; Blas, Morten Rufus

    2009-01-01

    The challenge in the DARPA Learning Applied to Ground Robots (LAGR) project is to autonomously navigate a small robot using stereo vision as the main sensor. During this project, we demonstrated a complete autonomous system for off-road navigation in unstructured environments, using stereo vision......, online terrain traversability learning, visual odometry, map registration, planning, and control. At the end of 3 years, the system we developed outperformed all nine other teams in final blind tests over previously unseen terrain.......The challenge in the DARPA Learning Applied to Ground Robots (LAGR) project is to autonomously navigate a small robot using stereo vision as the main sensor. During this project, we demonstrated a complete autonomous system for off-road navigation in unstructured environments, using stereo vision...

  13. A Neural Marker for Social Bias Toward In-group Accents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bestelmeyer, Patricia E G; Belin, Pascal; Ladd, D Robert

    2015-10-01

    Accents provide information about the speaker's geographical, socio-economic, and ethnic background. Research in applied psychology and sociolinguistics suggests that we generally prefer our own accent to other varieties of our native language and attribute more positive traits to it. Despite the widespread influence of accents on social interactions, educational and work settings the neural underpinnings of this social bias toward our own accent and, what may drive this bias, are unexplored. We measured brain activity while participants from two different geographical backgrounds listened passively to 3 English accent types embedded in an adaptation design. Cerebral activity in several regions, including bilateral amygdalae, revealed a significant interaction between the participants' own accent and the accent they listened to: while repetition of own accents elicited an enhanced neural response, repetition of the other group's accent resulted in reduced responses classically associated with adaptation. Our findings suggest that increased social relevance of, or greater emotional sensitivity to in-group accents, may underlie the own-accent bias. Our results provide a neural marker for the bias associated with accents, and show, for the first time, that the neural response to speech is partly shaped by the geographical background of the listener. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

  14. Co-Evolution of Social Learning and Evolutionary Preparedness in Dangerous Environments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindström, Björn; Selbing, Ida; Olsson, Andreas

    2016-01-01

    Danger is a fundamental aspect of the lives of most animals. Adaptive behavior therefore requires avoiding actions, objects, and environments associated with danger. Previous research has shown that humans and non-human animals can avoid such dangers through two types of behavioral adaptions, (i) genetic preparedness to avoid certain stimuli or actions, and (ii) social learning. These adaptive mechanisms reduce the fitness costs associated with danger but still allow flexible behavior. Despite the empirical prevalence and importance of both these mechanisms, it is unclear when they evolve and how they interact. We used evolutionary agent-based simulations, incorporating empirically based learning mechanisms, to clarify if preparedness and social learning typically both evolve in dangerous environments, and if these mechanisms generally interact synergistically or antagonistically. Our simulations showed that preparedness and social learning often co-evolve because they provide complimentary benefits: genetic preparedness reduced foraging efficiency, but resulted in a higher rate of survival in dangerous environments, while social learning generally came to dominate the population, especially when the environment was stochastic. However, even in this case, genetic preparedness reliably evolved. Broadly, our results indicate that the relationship between preparedness and social learning is important as it can result in trade-offs between behavioral flexibility and safety, which can lead to seemingly suboptimal behavior if the evolutionary environment of the organism is not taken into account.

  15. Hidden multidimensional social structure modeling applied to biased social perception

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maletić, Slobodan; Zhao, Yi

    2018-02-01

    Intricacies of the structure of social relations are realized by representing a collection of overlapping opinions as a simplicial complex, thus building latent multidimensional structures, through which agents are, virtually, moving as they exchange opinions. The influence of opinion space structure on the distribution of opinions is demonstrated by modeling consensus phenomena when the opinion exchange between individuals may be affected by the false consensus effect. The results indicate that in the cases with and without bias, the road toward consensus is influenced by the structure of multidimensional space of opinions, and in the biased case, complete consensus is achieved. The applications of proposed modeling framework can easily be generalized, as they transcend opinion formation modeling.

  16. Social Media and Seamless Learning: Lessons Learned

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panke, Stefanie; Kohls, Christian; Gaiser, Birgit

    2017-01-01

    The paper discusses best practice approaches and metrics for evaluation that support seamless learning with social media. We draw upon the theoretical frameworks of social learning theory, transfer learning (bricolage), and educational design patterns to elaborate upon different ideas for ways in which social media can support seamless learning.…

  17. Social acceptance towards the air pollution in China: Evidence from public's willingness to pay for smog mitigation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sun, Chuanwang; Yuan, Xiang; Yao, Xin

    2016-01-01

    Air pollution is one of the most predominant challenges in China. In order to ensure the smog governance projects could be promoted smoothly and the public shoulder the environmental responsibilities consciously, it is necessary for the policymakers to take public attitude into consideration, and understand the public willingness to pay (WTP) for smog mitigation. This paper adopts a CV method framework to assess the value of WTP and analyze the determinants. Given the consideration of the possible presence of the selectivity bias caused by protest responses, the bivariate sample selection model is constructed for estimation. Results show that up to 14% of respondents hold the protest responses, and neglecting the selection bias caused by protest responses would lead to downward biased estimates. The mean value of WTP for the smog mitigation is 1590.36 RMB per year, accounting for about 1% of annual income. Moreover, the NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude among public is found to be significantly correlated with their WTP, and the other determinants such as household annual income, energy expenditure and economic loss caused by smog could also substantially affect the value of WTP. We further recommend grading governance and policy transparency to address the smog crisis. - Highlights: •Evaluating the social acceptance towards the air pollution in China. •Up to 14% of respondents hold the protest responses. •WTP for the smog mitigation accounts for about 1% of income. •Household energy expenditure is closely related with public's WTP. •The grading governance and policy transparency are recommended.

  18. Attention biases to threat and behavioral inhibition in early childhood shape adolescent social withdrawal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pérez-Edgar, Koraly; Bar-Haim, Yair; McDermott, Jennifer Martin; Chronis-Tuscano, Andrea; Pine, Daniel S; Fox, Nathan A

    2010-06-01

    Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament characterized in young children by a heightened sensitivity to novelty, social withdrawal, and anxious behaviors. For many children, these social difficulties dissipate over time. For others, patterns of social withdrawal continue into adolescence. Over time, attention biases to threat may influence the stability of BI and its association with social withdrawal, ultimately modulating the risk for anxiety disorders in BI children. However, we know relatively little about the cognitive processes that accompany BI and shape later socio-emotional functioning. We examined the relations among BI in childhood, attention biases to threat in adolescence, and adolescent social withdrawal in a longitudinal study (N = 126, Mean age = 15 years). As has been reported in anxious adults, adolescents who were behaviorally inhibited as toddlers and young children showed heightened attention bias to threat. In addition, attention bias to threat moderated the relation between childhood BI and adolescent social withdrawal.

  19. Social signals and aversive learning in honey bee drones and workers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pérez, Eddie; Vallejo, Lianna; Pérez, María E.; Abramson, Charles I.; Giray, Tugrul

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT The dissemination of information is a basic element of group cohesion. In honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus 1758), like in other social insects, the principal method for colony-wide information exchange is communication via pheromones. This medium of communication allows multiple individuals to conduct tasks critical to colony survival. Social signaling also establishes conflict at the level of the individual who must trade-off between attending to the immediate environment or the social demand. In this study we examined this conflict by challenging highly social worker honey bees, and less social male drone honey bees undergoing aversive training by presenting them with a social stress signal (isopentyl acetate, IPA). We utilized IPA exposure methods that caused lower learning performance in appetitive learning in workers. Exposure to isopentyl acetate (IPA) did not affect performance of drones and had a dose-specific effect on worker response, with positive effects diminishing at higher IPA doses. The IPA effects are specific because non-social cues, such as the odor cineole, improve learning performance in drones, and social homing signals (geraniol) did not have a discernible effect on drone or worker performance. We conclude that social signals do generate conflict and that response to them is dependent on signal relevance to the individual as well as the context. We discuss the effect of social signal on learning both related to its social role and potential evolutionary history. PMID:27895050

  20. Social signals and aversive learning in honey bee drones and workers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arian Avalos

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The dissemination of information is a basic element of group cohesion. In honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus 1758, like in other social insects, the principal method for colony-wide information exchange is communication via pheromones. This medium of communication allows multiple individuals to conduct tasks critical to colony survival. Social signaling also establishes conflict at the level of the individual who must trade-off between attending to the immediate environment or the social demand. In this study we examined this conflict by challenging highly social worker honey bees, and less social male drone honey bees undergoing aversive training by presenting them with a social stress signal (isopentyl acetate, IPA. We utilized IPA exposure methods that caused lower learning performance in appetitive learning in workers. Exposure to isopentyl acetate (IPA did not affect performance of drones and had a dose-specific effect on worker response, with positive effects diminishing at higher IPA doses. The IPA effects are specific because non-social cues, such as the odor cineole, improve learning performance in drones, and social homing signals (geraniol did not have a discernible effect on drone or worker performance. We conclude that social signals do generate conflict and that response to them is dependent on signal relevance to the individual as well as the context. We discuss the effect of social signal on learning both related to its social role and potential evolutionary history.

  1. Social signals and aversive learning in honey bee drones and workers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Avalos, Arian; Pérez, Eddie; Vallejo, Lianna; Pérez, María E; Abramson, Charles I; Giray, Tugrul

    2017-01-15

    The dissemination of information is a basic element of group cohesion. In honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus 1758), like in other social insects, the principal method for colony-wide information exchange is communication via pheromones. This medium of communication allows multiple individuals to conduct tasks critical to colony survival. Social signaling also establishes conflict at the level of the individual who must trade-off between attending to the immediate environment or the social demand. In this study we examined this conflict by challenging highly social worker honey bees, and less social male drone honey bees undergoing aversive training by presenting them with a social stress signal (isopentyl acetate, IPA). We utilized IPA exposure methods that caused lower learning performance in appetitive learning in workers. Exposure to isopentyl acetate (IPA) did not affect performance of drones and had a dose-specific effect on worker response, with positive effects diminishing at higher IPA doses. The IPA effects are specific because non-social cues, such as the odor cineole, improve learning performance in drones, and social homing signals (geraniol) did not have a discernible effect on drone or worker performance. We conclude that social signals do generate conflict and that response to them is dependent on signal relevance to the individual as well as the context. We discuss the effect of social signal on learning both related to its social role and potential evolutionary history. © 2017. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

  2. Hindsight bias and outcome bias in the social construction of medical negligence: a review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hugh, Thomas B; Dekker, Sidney W A

    2009-05-01

    Medical negligence has been the subject of much public debate in recent decades. Although the steep increase in the frequency and size of claims against doctors at the end of the last century appears to have plateaued, in Australia at least, medical indemnity costs and consequences are still a matter of concern for doctors, medical defence organisations and governments in most developed countries. Imprecision in the legal definition of negligence opens the possibility that judgments of this issue at several levels may be subject to hindsight and outcome bias. Hindsight bias relates to the probability of an adverse event perceived by a retrospective observer ("I would have known it was going to happen"), while outcome bias is a largely subconscious cognitive distortion produced by the observer's knowledge of the adverse outcome. This review examines the relevant legal, medical, psychological and sociological literature on the operation of these pervasive and universal biases in the retrospective evaluation of adverse events. A finding of medical negligence is essentially an after-the-event social construction and is invariably affected by hindsight bias and knowledge of the adverse outcome. Such biases obviously pose a threat to the fairness of judgments. A number of debiasing strategies have been suggested but are relatively ineffective because of the universality and strength of these biases and the inherent difficulty of concealing from expert witnesses knowledge of the outcome. Education about the effect of the biases is therefore important for lawyers, medical expert witnesses and the judiciary.

  3. Leaf swallowing behavior in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): biased learning and the emergence of group level cultural differences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huffman, Michael A; Spiezio, Caterina; Sgaravatti, Andrea; Leca, Jean-Baptiste

    2010-11-01

    Demonstrating the ability to 'copy' the behavior of others is an important aspect in determining whether social learning occurs and whether group level differences in a given behavior represent cultural differences or not. Understanding the occurrence of this process in its natural context is essential, but can be a daunting task in the wild. In order to test the social learning hypothesis for the acquisition of leaf swallowing (LS), a self-medicative behavior associated with the expulsion of parasites, we conducted semi-naturalistic experiments on two captive groups of parasite-free, naïve chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Individuals in the group were systematically provided appropriate stimuli (rough hispid leaves) identical to those used by chimpanzees in the wild. Individuals initially responded in a variety of ways, ranging from total aversion to normal chewing and swallowing. Over time, however, the two groups adopted different variants for inserting and folding the leaves in the mouth prior to swallowing them (complete and partial LS), following the specific method spontaneously displayed by the first and primary LS models in their respective groups. These variants were similar to LS displayed by chimpanzees in the wild. Using the option-bias method, we found evidence for social learning leading to group-level biased transmission and group-level stabilization of these two variants. This is the first report on two distinct cultural variants innovated in response to the introduction of natural stimuli that emerged and spread spontaneously and concurrently within two adjacent groups of socially housed primates. These observations support the assertion that LS may reflect a generalized propensity for ingesting rough hispid leaves, which can be socially induced and transmitted within a group. Ingesting an adequate number of these leaves induces increased gut motility, which is responsible for the subsequent expulsion of particular parasite species in the wild

  4. Learning to wait

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dungey, Claire Elisabeth; Meinert, Lotte

    2017-01-01

    enforced through discipline, prepare young people to expect that waiting and enduring hardship will pay off in the end. This expectation makes the status of adulthood particularly vulnerable because the jobs and opportunities that young men learn to wait for often do not come into being by waiting....

  5. Radar Rainfall Bias Correction based on Deep Learning Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Yang; Han, Dawei; Rico-Ramirez, Miguel A.

    2017-04-01

    Radar rainfall measurement errors can be considerably attributed to various sources including intricate synoptic regimes. Temperature, humidity and wind are typically acknowledged as critical meteorological factors in inducing the precipitation discrepancies aloft and on the ground. The conventional practices mainly use the radar-gauge or geostatistical techniques by direct weighted interpolation algorithms as bias correction schemes whereas rarely consider the atmospheric effects. This study aims to comprehensively quantify those meteorological elements' impacts on radar-gauge rainfall bias correction based on a deep learning approach. The deep learning approach employs deep convolutional neural networks to automatically extract three-dimensional meteorological features for target recognition based on high range resolution profiles. The complex nonlinear relationships between input and target variables can be implicitly detected by such a scheme, which is validated on the test dataset. The proposed bias correction scheme is expected to be a promising improvement in systematically minimizing the synthesized atmospheric effects on rainfall discrepancies between radar and rain gauges, which can be useful in many meteorological and hydrological applications (e.g., real-time flood forecasting) especially for regions with complex atmospheric conditions.

  6. The relationship between social desirability bias and self-reports of health, substance use, and social network factors among urban substance users in Baltimore, Maryland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Latkin, Carl A; Edwards, Catie; Davey-Rothwell, Melissa A; Tobin, Karin E

    2017-10-01

    Social desirability response bias may lead to inaccurate self-reports and erroneous study conclusions. The present study examined the relationship between social desirability response bias and self-reports of mental health, substance use, and social network factors among a community sample of inner-city substance users. The study was conducted in a sample of 591 opiate and cocaine users in Baltimore, Maryland from 2009 to 2013. Modified items from the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale were included in the survey, which was conducted face-to-face and using Audio Computer Self Administering Interview (ACASI) methods. There were highly statistically significant differences in levels of social desirability response bias by levels of depressive symptoms, drug use stigma, physical health status, recent opiate and cocaine use, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores, and size of social networks. There were no associations between health service utilization measures and social desirability bias. In multiple logistic regression models, even after including the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) as a measure of depressive symptomology, social desirability bias was associated with recent drug use and drug user stigma. Social desirability bias was not associated with enrollment in prior research studies. These findings suggest that social desirability bias is associated with key health measures and that the associations are not primarily due to depressive symptoms. Methods are needed to reduce social desirability bias. Such methods may include the wording and prefacing of questions, clearly defining the role of "study participant," and assessing and addressing motivations for socially desirable responses. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Understanding Social Situations (USS): A proof-of-concept social-cognitive intervention targeting theory of mind and attributional bias in individuals with psychosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fiszdon, Joanna M; Roberts, David L; Penn, David L; Choi, Kee-Hong; Tek, Cenk; Choi, Jimmy; Bell, Morris D

    2017-03-01

    In this proof-of-concept trial, we examined the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of Understanding Social Situations (USS), a new social-cognitive intervention that targets higher level social-cognitive skills using methods common to neurocognitive remediation, including drill and practice and hierarchically structured training, which may compensate for the negative effects of cognitive impairment on learning. Thirty-eight individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders completed the same baseline assessment of cognitive and social-cognitive functioning twice over a 1-month period to minimize later practice effects, then received 7-10 sessions of USS training, and then completed the same assessment again at posttreatment. USS training was well tolerated and received high treatment satisfaction ratings. Large improvements on the USS Skills Test, which contained items similar to but not identical to training stimuli, suggest that we were effective in teaching specific training content. Content gains generalized to improvements on some of the social-cognitive tasks, including select measures of attributional bias and theory of mind. Importantly, baseline neurocognition did not impact the amount of learning during USS (as indexed by the USS Skills Test) or the amount of improvement on social-cognitive measures. USS shows promise as a treatment for higher level social-cognitive skills. Given the lack of relationship between baseline cognition and treatment effects, it may be particularly appropriate for individuals with lower range cognitive function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  8. When does social learning become cultural learning?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heyes, Cecilia

    2017-03-01

    Developmental research on selective social learning, or 'social learning strategies', is currently a rich source of information about when children copy behaviour, and who they prefer to copy. It also has the potential to tell us when and how human social learning becomes cultural learning; i.e. mediated by psychological mechanisms that are specialized, genetically or culturally, to promote cultural inheritance. However, this review article argues that, to realize its potential, research on the development of selective social learning needs more clearly to distinguish functional from mechanistic explanation; to achieve integration with research on attention and learning in adult humans and 'dumb' animals; and to recognize that psychological mechanisms can be specialized, not only by genetic evolution, but also by associative learning and cultural evolution. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  9. Social learning in fish

    OpenAIRE

    Atton, Nicola

    2010-01-01

    Social learning is known to be a common phenomenon in fish, which they utilise under many different contexts, including foraging, mate-choice and migration. Here I review the literature on social learning in fish and present two studies. The first examines the ability of threespined sticklebacks to use social learning in the enhancement of food preferences. The second study examines the ability of both threespined sticklebacks and ninespined sticklebacks to use social learning in the avoidanc...

  10. The Neuropeptide Oxytocin Induces a Social Altruism Bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marsh, Nina; Scheele, Dirk; Gerhardt, Holger; Strang, Sabrina; Enax, Laura; Weber, Bernd; Maier, Wolfgang; Hurlemann, René

    2015-11-25

    Current psychological concepts of social and ecological responsibility emphasize the relevance of altruism, suggesting that more altruistic individuals are more likely to engage in sustainable behaviors. Emerging evidence indicates a central role of the neuropeptide oxytocin in promoting altruism. Whether this influence extends to ecological responsibility or is limited to the social domain remains unknown. In two independent experiments involving 172 human participants, we addressed this question by exposing subjects to a sustainability-related monetary donation task, with the option to support either socially or ecologically framed charities. We found that oxytocin induced a context-dependent change in altruistic behavior away from pro-environmental toward pro-social donations, while keeping constant the overall proportion of donated money. This pro-social bias transcended to the domain of sustainable consumption. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that altruistic priorities vary as a function of oxytocin system activity, which has implications for the promotion of pro-environmental attitudes and eco-friendly behaviors. Individual responses to ecological and social sustainability require a shift in personal priorities away from selfish to more altruistic behaviors. Emerging evidence indicates a central role of the hypothalamic peptide oxytocin in promoting altruism, but whether the influence of oxytocin benefits altruistic decision-making in the context of ecological and social sustainability is unclear. In two independent behavioral experiments involving 172 human subjects, we show that heightened oxytocin system activity induces a social altruism bias at the cost of ecological responsibility. Our results have fundamental implications for policy interventions and business strategies designed to sustain ecological resources by suggesting that a social framing may attract more individuals to engage in pro-environmental and eco-friendly behaviors. Copyright

  11. Social software: E-learning beyond learning management systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dalsgaard, Christian

    2006-01-01

    The article argues that it is necessary to move e-learning beyond learning management systems and engage students in an active use of the web as a resource for their self-governed, problem-based and collaborative activities. The purpose of the article is to discuss the potential of social software...... to move e-learning beyond learning management systems. An approach to use of social software in support of a social constructivist approach to e-learning is presented, and it is argued that learning management systems do not support a social constructivist approach which emphasizes self-governed learning...... activities of students. The article suggests a limitation of the use of learning management systems to cover only administrative issues. Further, it is argued that students' self-governed learning processes are supported by providing students with personal tools and engaging them in different kinds of social...

  12. Electrocortical measures of information processing biases in social anxiety disorder: A review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harrewijn, Anita; Schmidt, Louis A; Westenberg, P Michiel; Tang, Alva; van der Molen, Melle J W

    2017-10-01

    Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by information processing biases, however, their underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. The goal of this review was to give a comprehensive overview of the most frequently studied EEG spectral and event-related potential (ERP) measures in social anxiety during rest, anticipation, stimulus processing, and recovery. A Web of Science search yielded 35 studies reporting on electrocortical measures in individuals with social anxiety or related constructs. Social anxiety was related to increased delta-beta cross-frequency correlation during anticipation and recovery, and information processing biases during early processing of faces (P1) and errors (error-related negativity). These electrocortical measures are discussed in relation to the persistent cycle of information processing biases maintaining SAD. Future research should further investigate the mechanisms of this persistent cycle and study the utility of electrocortical measures in early detection, prevention, treatment and endophenotype research. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Does Gender-Fair Language Pay Off? The Social Perception of Professions from a Cross-Linguistic Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horvath, Lisa K; Merkel, Elisa F; Maass, Anne; Sczesny, Sabine

    2015-01-01

    In many languages, masculine forms (e.g., German Lehrer, "teachers, masc.") have traditionally been used to refer to both women and men, although feminine forms are available, too. Feminine-masculine word pairs (e.g., German Lehrerinnen und Lehrer, "teachers, fem. and teachers, masc.") are recommended as gender-fair alternatives. A large body of empirical research documents that the use of gender-fair forms instead of masculine forms has a substantial impact on mental representations. Masculine forms activate more male representations even when used in a generic sense, whereas word pairs (e.g., German Lehrerinnen und Lehrer, "teachers, fem. and teachers, masc.") lead to a higher cognitive inclusion of women (i.e., visibility of women). Some recent studies, however, have also shown that in a professional context word pairs may be associated with lesser status. The present research is the first to investigate both effects within a single paradigm. A cross-linguistic (Italian and German) study with 391 participants shows that word pairs help to avoid a male bias in the gender-typing of professions and increase women's visibility; at the same time, they decrease the estimated salaries of typically feminine professions (but do not affect perceived social status or competence). This potential payoff has implications for language policies aiming at gender-fairness.

  14. Chemosensory Communication of Gender Information: Masculinity Bias in Body Odor Perception and Femininity Bias Introduced by Chemosignals During Social Perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mutic, Smiljana; Moellers, Eileen M; Wiesmann, Martin; Freiherr, Jessica

    2015-01-01

    Human body odor is a source of important social information. In this study, we explore whether the sex of an individual can be established based on smelling axillary odor and whether exposure to male and female odors biases chemosensory and social perception. In a double-blind, pseudo-randomized application, 31 healthy normosmic heterosexual male and female raters were exposed to male and female chemosignals (odor samples of 27 heterosexual donors collected during a cardio workout) and a no odor sample. Recipients rated chemosensory samples on a masculinity-femininity scale and provided intensity, familiarity and pleasantness ratings. Additionally, the modulation of social perception (gender-neutral faces and personality attributes) and affective introspection (mood) by male and female chemosignals was assessed. Male and female axillary odors were rated as rather masculine, regardless of the sex of the donor. As opposed to the masculinity bias in the odor perception, a femininity bias modulating social perception appeared. A facilitated femininity detection in gender-neutral faces and personality attributes in male and female chemosignals appeared. No chemosensory effect on mood of the rater was observed. The results are discussed with regards to the use of male and female chemosignals in affective and social communication.

  15. An SIS model for cultural trait transmission with conformity bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walters, Caroline E; Kendal, Jeremy R

    2013-12-01

    Epidemiological models have been applied to human health-related behaviors that are affected by social interaction. Typically these models have not considered conformity bias, that is, the exaggerated propensity to adopt commonly observed behaviors or opinions, or content biases, where the content of the learned trait affects the probability of adoption. Here we consider an interaction of these two effects, presenting an SIS-type model for the spread and persistence of a behavior which is transmitted via social learning. Uptake is controlled by a nonlinear dependence on the proportion of individuals demonstrating the behavior in a population. Three equilibrium solutions are found, their linear stability is analyzed and the results are compared with a model for unbiased social learning. Our analysis focuses on the effects of the strength of conformity bias and the effects of content biases which alter a conformity threshold frequency of the behavior, above which there is an exaggerated propensity for adoption. The strength of the conformity bias is found to qualitatively alter the predictions regarding whether the trait becomes endemic within the population and the proportion of individuals who display the trait when it is endemic. As the conformity strength increases, the number of feasible equilibrium solutions increases from two to three, leading to a situation where the stable equilibrium attained is dependent upon the initial state. Varying the conformity threshold frequency directionally alters the behavior invasion threshold. Finally we discuss the possible application of this model to binge drinking behavior. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Social isolation, survey nonresponse, and nonresponse bias: An empirical evaluation using social network data within an organization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watanabe, Megumi; Olson, Kristen; Falci, Christina

    2017-03-01

    Survey researchers have long hypothesized that social isolation negatively affects the probability of survey participation and biases survey estimates. Previous research, however, has relied on proxy measures of isolation, such as being a marginalized group member within a population. We re-examine the relationship between social isolation and survey participation using direct measures of social isolation derived from social network data; specifically, instrumental research and expressive friendship connections among faculty within academic departments. Using a reconceptualization of social isolation, we find that social network isolation is negatively associated with unit response. Among women (a numerical minority group within the organization), we further find that social group isolation (i.e., lacking instrumental network connections to men, the majority group in the organization) is negatively associated with survey participation. Finally, we show that some survey estimates are systematically biased due to nonparticipation from socially isolated people. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Test Framing Generates a Stability Bias for Predictions of Learning by Causing People to Discount their Learning Beliefs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ariel, Robert; Hines, Jarrod C.; Hertzog, Christopher

    2014-01-01

    People estimate minimal changes in learning when making predictions of learning (POLs) for future study opportunities despite later showing increased performance and an awareness of that increase (Kornell & Bjork, 2009). This phenomenon is conceptualized as a stability bias in judgments about learning. We investigated the malleability of this effect, and whether it reflected people’s underlying beliefs about learning. We manipulated prediction framing to emphasize the role of testing vs. studying on memory and directly measured beliefs about multi-trial study effects on learning by having participants construct predicted learning curves before and after the experiment. Mean POLs were more sensitive to the number of study-test opportunities when performance was framed in terms of study benefits rather than testing benefits and POLs reflected pre-existing beliefs about learning. The stability bias is partially due to framing and reflects discounted beliefs about learning benefits rather than inherent belief in the stability of performance. PMID:25067885

  18. Social Mating System and Sex-Biased Dispersal in Mammals and Birds: A Phylogenetic Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mabry, Karen E.; Shelley, Erin L.; Davis, Katie E.; Blumstein, Daniel T.; Van Vuren, Dirk H.

    2013-01-01

    The hypothesis that patterns of sex-biased dispersal are related to social mating system in mammals and birds has gained widespread acceptance over the past 30 years. However, two major complications have obscured the relationship between these two behaviors: 1) dispersal frequency and dispersal distance, which measure different aspects of the dispersal process, have often been confounded, and 2) the relationship between mating system and sex-biased dispersal in these vertebrate groups has not been examined using modern phylogenetic comparative methods. Here, we present a phylogenetic analysis of the relationship between mating system and sex-biased dispersal in mammals and birds. Results indicate that the evolution of female-biased dispersal in mammals may be more likely on monogamous branches of the phylogeny, and that females may disperse farther than males in socially monogamous mammalian species. However, we found no support for a relationship between social mating system and sex-biased dispersal in birds when the effects of phylogeny are taken into consideration. We caution that although there are larger-scale behavioral differences in mating system and sex-biased dispersal between mammals and birds, mating system and sex-biased dispersal are far from perfectly associated within these taxa. PMID:23483957

  19. Randomized controlled trial of attention bias modification in a racially diverse, socially anxious, alcohol dependent sample.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clerkin, Elise M; Magee, Joshua C; Wells, Tony T; Beard, Courtney; Barnett, Nancy P

    2016-12-01

    Attention biases may be an important treatment target for both alcohol dependence and social anxiety. This is the first ABM trial to investigate two (vs. one) targets of attention bias within a sample with co-occurring symptoms of social anxiety and alcohol dependence. Additionally, we used trial-level bias scores (TL-BS) to capture the phenomena of attention bias in a more ecologically valid, dynamic way compared to traditional attention bias scores. Adult participants (N = 86; 41% Female; 52% African American; 40% White) with elevated social anxiety symptoms and alcohol dependence were randomly assigned to an 8-session training condition in this 2 (Social Anxiety ABM vs. Social Anxiety Control) by 2 (Alcohol ABM vs. Alcohol Control) design. Symptoms of social anxiety, alcohol dependence, and attention bias were assessed across time. Multilevel models estimated the trajectories for each measure within individuals, and tested whether these trajectories differed according to the randomized training conditions. Across time, there were significant or trending decreases in all attention TL-BS parameters (but not traditional attention bias scores) and most symptom measures. However, there were not significant differences in the trajectories of change between any ABM and control conditions for any symptom measures. These findings add to previous evidence questioning the robustness of ABM and point to the need to extend the effects of ABM to samples that are racially diverse and/or have co-occurring psychopathology. The results also illustrate the potential importance of calculating trial-level attention bias scores rather than only including traditional bias scores. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Randomized Controlled Trial of Attention Bias Modification in a Racially Diverse, Socially Anxious, Alcohol Dependent Sample

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clerkin, Elise M.; Magee, Joshua C.; Wells, Tony T.; Beard, Courtney; Barnett, Nancy P.

    2016-01-01

    Objective Attention biases may be an important treatment target for both alcohol dependence and social anxiety. This is the first ABM trial to investigate two (vs. one) targets of attention bias within a sample with co-occurring symptoms of social anxiety and alcohol dependence. Additionally, we used trial-level bias scores (TL-BS) to capture the phenomena of attention bias in a more ecologically valid, dynamic way compared to traditional attention bias scores. Method Adult participants (N=86; 41% Female; 52% African American; 40% White) with elevated social anxiety symptoms and alcohol dependence were randomly assigned to an 8-session training condition in this 2 (Social Anxiety ABM vs. Social Anxiety Control) by 2 (Alcohol ABM vs. Alcohol Control) design. Symptoms of social anxiety, alcohol dependence, and attention bias were assessed across time. Results Multilevel models estimated the trajectories for each measure within individuals, and tested whether these trajectories differed according to the randomized training conditions. Across time, there were significant or trending decreases in all attention TL-BS parameters (but not traditional attention bias scores) and most symptom measures. However, there were not significant differences in the trajectories of change between any ABM and control conditions for any symptom measures. Conclusions These findings add to previous evidence questioning the robustness of ABM and point to the need to extend the effects of ABM to samples that are racially diverse and/or have co-occurring psychopathology. The results also illustrate the potential importance of calculating trial-level attention bias scores rather than only including traditional bias scores. PMID:27591918

  1. Evaluating reproductive decisions as discrete choices under social influence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bentley, R Alexander; Brock, William A; Caiado, Camila C S; O'Brien, Michael J

    2016-04-19

    Discrete choice, coupled with social influence, plays a significant role in evolutionary studies of human fertility, as investigators explore how and why reproductive decisions are made. We have previously proposed that the relative magnitude of social influence can be compared against the transparency of pay-off, also known as the transparency of a decision, through a heuristic diagram that maps decision-making along two axes. The horizontal axis represents the degree to which an agent makes a decision individually versus one that is socially influenced, and the vertical axis represents the degree to which there is transparency in the pay-offs and risks associated with the decision the agent makes. Having previously parametrized the functions that underlie the diagram, we detail here how our estimation methods can be applied to real-world datasets concerning sexual health and contraception. © 2016 The Author(s).

  2. Social learning as a way to overcome choice-induced preferences? Insights from humans and rhesus macaques.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ELISABETTA eMONFARDINI

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Much theoretical attention is currently devoted to social learning. Yet, empirical studies formally comparing its effectiveness relative to individual learning are rare. Here, we focus on free choice, which is at the heart of individual reward-based learning, but absent in social learning. Choosing among two equally valued options is known to create a preference for the selected option in both humans and monkeys. We thus surmised that social learning should be more helpful when choice-induced preferences retard individual learning than when they optimize it. To test this prediction, the same task requiring to find which among two items concealed a reward was applied to rhesus macaques and humans. The initial trial was individual or social, rewarded or unrewarded. Learning was assessed on the second trial. Choice-induced preference strongly affected individual learning. Monkeys and humans performed much more poorly after an initial negative choice than after an initial positive choice. Comparison with social learning verified our prediction. For negative outcome, social learning surpassed or at least equaled individual learning in all subjects. For positive outcome, the predicted superiority of individual learning did occur in a majority of subjects (5/6 monkeys and 6/12 humans. A minority kept learning better socially though, perhaps due to a more dominant/aggressive attitude toward peers. Poor learning from errors due to over-valuation of personal choices is among the decision-making biases shared by humans and animals. The present study suggests that choice-immune social learning may help curbing this potentially harmful tendency. Learning from successes is an easier path. The present data suggest that whether one tends to walk it alone or with a peer's help might depend on the social dynamics within the actor/observer dyad.

  3. Biased self-perceived social competence and engagement in subtypes of aggression: Examination of peer rejection, social dominance goals, and sex of the child as moderators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McQuade, Julia D; Breaux, Rosanna P; Gómez, Angelina F; Zakarian, Rebecca J; Weatherly, Julia

    2016-09-01

    This study expands on prior research suggesting that children who either over- or under-estimate their social competence relative to others' reports are more likely to be aggressive. Linear and curvilinear associations between biased social self-perceptions and forms (physical vs. relational) and functions (proactive vs. reactive) of aggression were tested along with three moderators (peer rejection, social dominance goals, and child sex). Children in the fifth through eight grade (N = 167) completed self-reports of perceived social competence and social dominance goals. Teachers completed ratings of children's social competence, peer rejection, and reactive and proactive physical and relational aggression. Bias in self-perceived social competence was quantified as the residual difference between child and teacher ratings of the child's social competence. There was a significant interaction between quadratic bias and peer rejection predicting reactive physical aggression; rejected children with a positive bias or a negative bias were highest in reactive physical aggression. The interaction between linear bias, social dominance goals, and the sex of the child was also significant when predicting proactive physical aggression. Among girls who highly valued social dominance, a positive bias predicted greater proactive physical aggression. Results are discussed in terms of implications for aggression theory and intervention. Aggr. Behav. 42:498-509, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. Depressive symptoms and bias in perceived social competence among young adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whitton, Sarah W; Larson, Justine J; Hauser, Stuart T

    2008-07-01

    We examined associations between depressive symptoms and young adults' self-perceptions of social competence to explore whether higher symptoms are associated with self-evaluations that are more accurate (i.e., depressive realism), negatively biased (i.e., cognitive distortion), or less accurate (i.e., self-verification perspective). In 133 young adults, depressive symptoms and discrepancies between self- and peer ratings of social competence were assessed. Results demonstrated a linear relationship between depressive symptoms and self-peer discrepancies, such that higher symptoms were associated with underestimation of the self and low symptom levels were linked with overestimation of the self relative to peer evaluations. These findings suggest negative bias in dysphorics' self-perceptions, supporting cognitive distortion models, as well as positive bias in self-perceptions of those with low depressive symptoms. Copyright 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. No sex-biased dispersal in a primate with an uncommon social system—cooperative polyandry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samuel L. Díaz-Muñoz

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available An influential hypothesis proposed by Greenwood (1980 suggests that different mating systems result in female and male-biased dispersal, respectively, in birds and mammals. However, other aspects of social structure and behavior can also shape sex-biased dispersal. Although sex-specific patterns of kin cooperation are expected to affect the benefits of philopatry and dispersal patterns, empirical evidence is scarce. Unlike many mammals, Saguinus geoffroyi (Geoffroy’s tamarin has a breeding system in which typically multiple males mate with a single breeding female. Males typically form cooperative reproductive partnerships between relatives, whereas females generally compete for reproductive opportunities. This system of cooperative polyandry is predicted to result in female-biased dispersal, providing an opportunity to test the current hypotheses of sex-biased dispersal. Here we test for evidence of sex-biased dispersal in S. geoffroyi using demographic and genetic data from three populations. We find no sex bias in natal dispersal, contrary to the prediction based on the mating patterns. This pattern was consistent after controlling for the effects of historical population structure. Limited breeding opportunities within social groups likely drive both males and females to disperse, suggesting that dispersal is intimately related to the social context. The integration of genetic and field data revealed that tamarins are another exception to the presumed pattern of male-biased dispersal in mammals. A shift in focus from mating systems to social behavior, which plays a role in most all processes expected to influence sex-bias in dispersal, will be a fruitful target for research both within species and across taxa.

  6. Evolution of individual versus social learning on social networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tamura, Kohei; Kobayashi, Yutaka; Ihara, Yasuo

    2015-03-06

    A number of studies have investigated the roles played by individual and social learning in cultural phenomena and the relative advantages of the two learning strategies in variable environments. Because social learning involves the acquisition of behaviours from others, its utility depends on the availability of 'cultural models' exhibiting adaptive behaviours. This indicates that social networks play an essential role in the evolution of learning. However, possible effects of social structure on the evolution of learning have not been fully explored. Here, we develop a mathematical model to explore the evolutionary dynamics of learning strategies on social networks. We first derive the condition under which social learners (SLs) are selectively favoured over individual learners in a broad range of social network. We then obtain an analytical approximation of the long-term average frequency of SLs in homogeneous networks, from which we specify the condition, in terms of three relatedness measures, for social structure to facilitate the long-term evolution of social learning. Finally, we evaluate our approximation by Monte Carlo simulations in complete graphs, regular random graphs and scale-free networks. We formally show that whether social structure favours the evolution of social learning is determined by the relative magnitudes of two effects of social structure: localization in competition, by which competition between learning strategies is evaded, and localization in cultural transmission, which slows down the spread of adaptive traits. In addition, our estimates of the relatedness measures suggest that social structure disfavours the evolution of social learning when selection is weak. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

  7. Power and pay: The union and equal pay at B.C. Electric/Hydro

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Creese, G.

    1993-01-01

    The struggle for equal pay for women in one large office union, the Office and Technical Employees' Union (OTEU), at British Columbia Electric/Hydro is analyzed. The analysis concentrates on the second phase of the equal pay movement that preoccupied the union for over 30 years starting in 1949. Equal pay for equal job-evaluation was finally achieved in 1981, yet this struggle did not produce a subsequent questioning of gender bias within the job evaluation process or the structure of the existing hierarchy of jobs. The study illustrates some of the ways that gender hierarchies and inequities are defined and reinforced by employers seeking to maintain profits by keeping labor costs down, as BC Electric/Hydro resisted eliminating the differential in male and female pay, systematically restructured unequal pay, and continually resorted to lower community standards even when the company's own job evaluation system suggested equal comparators with male jobs. Gendered jobs are also shaped by union practices, as evidenced by the OTEU's role in restructuring the postwar gender division of labor in the late 1940s, as well as their early and persistent challenges to the female differential but, at the same time, the continued marginalization of equal pay as a women's issue rather than a general union issue. 66 refs

  8. Chemosensory communication of gender information: Masculinity bias in body odor perception and femininity bias introduced by chemosignals during social perception

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Smiljana eMutic

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Human body odor is a source of important social information. In this study, we explore whether the sex of an individual can be established based on smelling axillary odor and whether exposure to male and female odors biases chemosensory and social perception. In a double-blind, pseudo-randomized application, 31 healthy normosmic heterosexual male and female raters were exposed to male and female chemosignals (odor samples of 27 heterosexual donors collected during a cardio workout and a no odor sample. Recipients rated chemosensory samples on a masculinity-femininity scale and provided intensity, familiarity and pleasantness ratings. Additionally, the modulation of social perception (gender-neutral faces and personality attributes and affective introspection (mood by male and female chemosignals was assessed. Male and female axillary odors were rated as rather masculine, regardless of the sex of the donor. As opposed to the masculinity bias in the odor perception, a femininity bias modulating social perception appeared. A facilitated femininity detection in gender-neutral faces and personality attributes in association with both male and female chemosignals appeared. No chemosensory effect on mood of the rater was observed. The results are discussed with regards to the use of male and female chemosignals in affective and social communication.

  9. Skill learning and the evolution of social learning mechanisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Post, Daniel J; Franz, Mathias; Laland, Kevin N

    2016-08-24

    Social learning is potentially advantageous, but evolutionary theory predicts that (i) its benefits may be self-limiting because social learning can lead to information parasitism, and (ii) these limitations can be mitigated via forms of selective copying. However, these findings arise from a functional approach in which learning mechanisms are not specified, and which assumes that social learning avoids the costs of asocial learning but does not produce information about the environment. Whether these findings generalize to all kinds of social learning remains to be established. Using a detailed multi-scale evolutionary model, we investigate the payoffs and information production processes of specific social learning mechanisms (including local enhancement, stimulus enhancement and observational learning) and their evolutionary consequences in the context of skill learning in foraging groups. We find that local enhancement does not benefit foraging success, but could evolve as a side-effect of grouping. In contrast, stimulus enhancement and observational learning can be beneficial across a wide range of environmental conditions because they generate opportunities for new learning outcomes. In contrast to much existing theory, we find that the functional outcomes of social learning are mechanism specific. Social learning nearly always produces information about the environment, and does not always avoid the costs of asocial learning or support information parasitism. Our study supports work emphasizing the value of incorporating mechanistic detail in functional analyses.

  10. Does gender-fair language pay off? The social perception of professions from a cross-linguistic perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lisa Kristina Horvath

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In many languages, masculine forms (e.g., German Lehrer, ‘teachers, masc.’ have traditionally been used to refer to both women and men, although feminine forms are available, too. Feminine-masculine word pairs (e.g., German Lehrerinnen und Lehrer, ‘teachers, fem. and teachers, masc.’ are recommended as gender-fair alternatives. A large body of empirical research documents that the use of gender-fair forms instead of masculine forms has a substantial impact on mental representations. Masculine forms activate more male representations even when used in a generic sense, whereas word pairs (e.g., German Lehrerinnen und Lehrer, ‘teachers, fem. and teachers, masc.’ lead to a higher cognitive inclusion of women (i.e., visibility of women. Some recent studies, however, have also shown that in a professional context word pairs may be associated with lesser status. The present research is the first to investigate both effects within a single paradigm. A cross-linguistic (Italian and German study with 391 participants shows that word pairs help to avoid a male bias in the gender-typing of professions and increase women’s visibility; at the same time, they decrease the estimated salaries of typically feminine professions (but do not affect perceived social status or competence. This potential payoff has implications for language policies aiming at gender-fairness.

  11. Do Parental Networks Pay Off? Linking Children's Labor-Market Outcomes to Their Parents' Friends

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Plug, E.; van der Klaauw, B.; Ziegler, L.

    In this paper, we examine whether children are better off if their parents have more elaborate social networks. Using data on high-school friendships of parents, we analyze whether the number and characteristics of friends affect the labor-market outcomes of children. While parental friendships

  12. Bias against research on gender bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cislak, Aleksandra; Formanowicz, Magdalena; Saguy, Tamar

    2018-01-01

    The bias against women in academia is a documented phenomenon that has had detrimental consequences, not only for women, but also for the quality of science. First, gender bias in academia affects female scientists, resulting in their underrepresentation in academic institutions, particularly in higher ranks. The second type of gender bias in science relates to some findings applying only to male participants, which produces biased knowledge. Here, we identify a third potentially powerful source of gender bias in academia: the bias against research on gender bias. In a bibliometric investigation covering a broad range of social sciences, we analyzed published articles on gender bias and race bias and established that articles on gender bias are funded less often and published in journals with a lower Impact Factor than articles on comparable instances of social discrimination. This result suggests the possibility of an underappreciation of the phenomenon of gender bias and related research within the academic community. Addressing this meta-bias is crucial for the further examination of gender inequality, which severely affects many women across the world.

  13. Social Innovation and Collaborative Learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Linda Lundgaard; Hulgård, Lars

    2014-01-01

    In this chapter we explore the roots and inspirations as well as the innovative pedagogy, learning and study programmes in social innovation and social entrepreneurship at Roskilde University in Denmark. We further outline the contribution of academic capacity building nationally...... and internationally in the area of social entrepreneurship and social innovation. We sketch out six inspirational traditions that influence learning and teaching in social innovation and social entrepreneurship: 1/ features and concepts of classic entrepreneurship teaching, 2/ critical pedagogy of the oppressed...... and critical experiential learning, 3/ reform pedagogy as critical societal and subjective learning formats, 4/ creativity, scenarios and future workshops, 5/ collaborative and action learning trends and 6/ social entrepreneurship innovation labs, incubators and hubs. Consequently, we conclude...

  14. Facilitation of social learning in teacher education: the ‘Dimensions of Social Learning Framework’

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Laat, M.M.; Vrieling, E.; van den Beemt, A.A.J.; McDonald, J.; Cater-Steel, A.

    2017-01-01

    To understand the organization of social learning by groups in practice, this chapter elaborates on the use of a framework of dimensions and indicators to explore social learning within (prospective) teacher groups. The applied framework that we call the ‘Dimensions of Social Learning (DSL)

  15. Does social trust increase willingness to pay taxes to improve public healthcare? Cross-sectional cross-country instrumental variable analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Habibov, Nazim; Cheung, Alex; Auchynnikava, Alena

    2017-09-01

    The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of social trust on the willingness to pay more taxes to improve public healthcare in post-communist countries. The well-documented association between higher levels of social trust and better health has traditionally been assumed to reflect the notion that social trust is positively associated with support for public healthcare system through its encouragement of cooperative behaviour, social cohesion, social solidarity, and collective action. Hence, in this paper, we have explicitly tested the notion that social trust contributes to an increase in willingness to financially support public healthcare. We use micro data from the 2010 Life-in-Transition survey (N = 29,526). Classic binomial probit and instrumental variables ivprobit regressions are estimated to model the relationship between social trust and paying more taxes to improve public healthcare. We found that an increase in social trust is associated with a greater willingness to pay more taxes to improve public healthcare. From the perspective of policy-making, healthcare administrators, policy-makers, and international donors should be aware that social trust is an important factor in determining the willingness of the population to provide much-needed financial resources to supporting public healthcare. From a theoretical perspective, we found that estimating the effect of trust on support for healthcare without taking confounding and measurement error problems into consideration will likely lead to an underestimation of the true effect of trust. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Unconscious race and social class bias among acute care surgical clinicians and clinical treatment decisions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haider, Adil H; Schneider, Eric B; Sriram, N; Dossick, Deborah S; Scott, Valerie K; Swoboda, Sandra M; Losonczy, Lia; Haut, Elliott R; Efron, David T; Pronovost, Peter J; Lipsett, Pamela A; Cornwell, Edward E; MacKenzie, Ellen J; Cooper, Lisa A; Freischlag, Julie A

    2015-05-01

    Significant health inequities persist among minority and socially disadvantaged patients. Better understanding of how unconscious biases affect clinical decision making may help to illuminate clinicians' roles in propagating disparities. To determine whether clinicians' unconscious race and/or social class biases correlate with patient management decisions. We conducted a web-based survey among 230 physicians from surgery and related specialties at an academic, level I trauma center from December 1, 2011, through January 31, 2012. We administered clinical vignettes, each with 3 management questions. Eight vignettes assessed the relationship between unconscious bias and clinical decision making. We performed ordered logistic regression analysis on the Implicit Association Test (IAT) scores and used multivariable analysis to determine whether implicit bias was associated with the vignette responses. Differential response times (D scores) on the IAT as a surrogate for unconscious bias. Patient management vignettes varied by patient race or social class. Resulting D scores were calculated for each management decision. In total, 215 clinicians were included and consisted of 74 attending surgeons, 32 fellows, 86 residents, 19 interns, and 4 physicians with an undetermined level of education. Specialties included surgery (32.1%), anesthesia (18.1%), emergency medicine (18.1%), orthopedics (7.9%), otolaryngology (7.0%), neurosurgery (7.0%), critical care (6.0%), and urology (2.8%); 1.9% did not report a departmental affiliation. Implicit race and social class biases were present in most respondents. Among all clinicians, mean IAT D scores for race and social class were 0.42 (95% CI, 0.37-0.48) and 0.71 (95% CI, 0.65-0.78), respectively. Race and class scores were similar across departments (general surgery, orthopedics, urology, etc), race, or age. Women demonstrated less bias concerning race (mean IAT D score, 0.39 [95% CI, 0.29-0.49]) and social class (mean IAT D score

  17. Social media for lifelong learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kind, Terry; Evans, Yolanda

    2015-04-01

    Learning is ongoing, and can be considered a social activity. In this paper we aim to provide a review of the use of social media for lifelong learning. We start by defining lifelong learning, drawing upon principles of continuous professional development and adult learning theory. We searched Embase and MEDLINE from 2004-2014 for search terms relevant to social media and learning. We describe examples of lifelong learners using social media in medical education and healthcare that have been reported in the peer-reviewed literature. Medical or other health professions students may have qualities consistent with being a lifelong learner, yet once individuals move beyond structured learning environments they will need to recognize their own gaps in knowledge and skills over time and be motivated to fill them, thereby incorporating lifelong learning principles into their day-to-day practice. Engagement with social media can parallel engagement in the learning process over time, to the extent that online social networking fosters feedback and collaboration. The use of social media and online networking platforms are a key way to continuously learn in today's information sharing society. Additional research is needed, particularly rigorous studies that extend beyond learner satisfaction to knowledge, behaviour change, and outcomes.

  18. Power and pay: The union and equal pay at B. C. Electric/Hydro

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Creese, G

    The struggle for equal pay for women in one large office union, the Office and Technical Employees' Union (OTEU), at British Columbia Electric/Hydro is analyzed. The analysis concentrates on the second phase of the equal pay movement that preoccupied the union for over 30 years starting in 1949. Equal pay for equal job-evaluation was finally achieved in 1981, yet this struggle did not produce a subsequent questioning of gender bias within the job evaluation process or the structure of the existing hierarchy of jobs. The study illustrates some of the ways that gender hierarchies and inequities are defined and reinforced by employers seeking to maintain profits by keeping labor costs down, as BC Electric/Hydro resisted eliminating the differential in male and female pay, systematically restructured unequal pay, and continually resorted to lower community standards even when the company's own job evaluation system suggested equal comparators with male jobs. Gendered jobs are also shaped by union practices, as evidenced by the OTEU's role in restructuring the postwar gender division of labor in the late 1940s, as well as their early and persistent challenges to the female differential but, at the same time, the continued marginalization of equal pay as a women's issue rather than a general union issue. 66 refs.

  19. Off-Policy Reinforcement Learning for Synchronization in Multiagent Graphical Games.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jinna; Modares, Hamidreza; Chai, Tianyou; Lewis, Frank L; Xie, Lihua

    2017-10-01

    This paper develops an off-policy reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm to solve optimal synchronization of multiagent systems. This is accomplished by using the framework of graphical games. In contrast to traditional control protocols, which require complete knowledge of agent dynamics, the proposed off-policy RL algorithm is a model-free approach, in that it solves the optimal synchronization problem without knowing any knowledge of the agent dynamics. A prescribed control policy, called behavior policy, is applied to each agent to generate and collect data for learning. An off-policy Bellman equation is derived for each agent to learn the value function for the policy under evaluation, called target policy, and find an improved policy, simultaneously. Actor and critic neural networks along with least-square approach are employed to approximate target control policies and value functions using the data generated by applying prescribed behavior policies. Finally, an off-policy RL algorithm is presented that is implemented in real time and gives the approximate optimal control policy for each agent using only measured data. It is shown that the optimal distributed policies found by the proposed algorithm satisfy the global Nash equilibrium and synchronize all agents to the leader. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  20. Service Learning and Political Socialization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Owen, Diana

    2000-01-01

    Discusses the link between political socialization scholarship and service learning. States that information gleaned from socialization research on adolescents' political identities and beliefs can inform service learning, asserting that the relationship between political socialization and service learning needs to be encouraged. (CMK)

  1. Can Social Learning Increase Learning Speed, Performance or Both?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heinerman, J.V.; Stork, J.; Rebolledo Coy, M.A.; Hubert, J.G.; Eiben, A.E.; Bartz-Beielstein, Thomas; Haasdijk, Evert

    2017-01-01

    Social learning enables multiple robots to share learned experiences while completing a task. The literature offers contradicting examples of its benefits; robots trained with social learning reach a higher performance, an increased learning speed, or both, compared to their individual learning

  2. Seamless Language Learning: Second Language Learning with Social Media

    OpenAIRE

    Wong, Lung-Hsiang; Sing-Chai, Ching; Poh-Aw, Guat

    2017-01-01

    This conceptual paper describes a language learning model that applies social media to foster contextualized and connected language learning in communities. The model emphasizes weaving together different forms of language learning activities that take place in different learning contexts to achieve seamless language learning. It promotes social interactions with social media about the learners’ day-to-day life using the targeted second or foreign language. The paper first identifies three ke...

  3. Does a Positive Bias Relate to Social Behavior in Children with ADHD?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linnea, Kate; Hoza, Betsy; Tomb, Meghan; Kaiser, Nina

    2012-01-01

    This study examines whether positively biased self-perceptions relate to social behaviors in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as compared to control children. The social behaviors of children with ADHD (n = 87) were examined relative to control children (CTL; n = 38) during a laboratory-based dyadic social interaction…

  4. Small businesses performance in West African border regions: Do social networks pay off?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kuepié, Mathias; Tenikué, Michel; Walther, Olivier

    networks are also the most successful in terms of monthly sales and profit. The paper shows that the overall economic performance of traders is affected by the socio-professional position of the actors with whom they are connected. While social ties with local religious leaders have no effect......This paper studies the link between economic performance and social networks in West Africa. Using first-hand data collected on 358 small-scale traders in five border markets between Niger, Nigeria and Benin, we are particularly interested in testing whether the most well-connected actors of trade...... on their business, support received from civil servants, politicians, and security authorities translates into economic performance. The paper also shows significant differences between countries, regions and marketplaces. Social connections developed with state representatives have a much greater effect...

  5. Off-policy integral reinforcement learning optimal tracking control for continuous-time chaotic systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wei Qing-Lai; Song Rui-Zhuo; Xiao Wen-Dong; Sun Qiu-Ye

    2015-01-01

    This paper estimates an off-policy integral reinforcement learning (IRL) algorithm to obtain the optimal tracking control of unknown chaotic systems. Off-policy IRL can learn the solution of the HJB equation from the system data generated by an arbitrary control. Moreover, off-policy IRL can be regarded as a direct learning method, which avoids the identification of system dynamics. In this paper, the performance index function is first given based on the system tracking error and control error. For solving the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation, an off-policy IRL algorithm is proposed. It is proven that the iterative control makes the tracking error system asymptotically stable, and the iterative performance index function is convergent. Simulation study demonstrates the effectiveness of the developed tracking control method. (paper)

  6. Parametric study of biased scrape-off layer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parbhakar, K.

    1992-01-01

    The particle and energy balance equations in the scrape-off layer (SOL) plasma are solved analytically in a rectangular domain. The parallel flow is supposed to be convective, whereas the cross field flow is assumed diffusive, with modifications due to a radial E field. When the energy balance equation is neglected we get a quadratic equation for Λ, the e-folding density scale length. The normalized e-folding scale length Λ/Λ 0 (Λ 0 = Λ for E = 0) is a function of single parameter α (= eEλ 0 /2kT, where T is the plasma temperature, e the elementary charge and k is Boltzmann's constant), and monotonically increases with α. Taking the energy balance equation into account and neglecting R i (the ionization rate), the quadratic equation is further simplified, and Λ/Λ 0 again depends on a single parameter, determined by Q (the input power flux), D (the cross field diffusion coefficient), Λ (the sheath transmission coefficient for energy) and n p (the plate density). Now Λ/Λ 0 decreases with Q and increases linearly with D, γ and n p . The variation of Λ/Λ 0 with E is estimated for TdeV and ITER. We find that, by a proper choice of parameters, biasing may be a very valuable tool to modify the SOL properties at modest E fields, provided the heat load on the divertor plate is not excessively large

  7. Effect of vicarious fear learning on children's heart rate responses and attentional bias for novel animals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reynolds, Gemma; Field, Andy P; Askew, Chris

    2014-10-01

    Research with children has shown that vicarious learning can result in changes to 2 of Lang's (1968) 3 anxiety response systems: subjective report and behavioral avoidance. The current study extended this research by exploring the effect of vicarious learning on physiological responses (Lang's final response system) and attentional bias. The study used Askew and Field's (2007) vicarious learning procedure and demonstrated fear-related increases in children's cognitive, behavioral, and physiological responses. Cognitive and behavioral changes were retested 1 week and 1 month later, and remained elevated. In addition, a visual search task demonstrated that fear-related vicarious learning creates an attentional bias for novel animals, which is moderated by increases in fear beliefs during learning. The findings demonstrate that vicarious learning leads to lasting changes in all 3 of Lang's anxiety response systems and is sufficient to create attentional bias to threat in children. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

  8. How Strategic PR Can Pay Off.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gilley, J. Wade; Ackerman, Helen

    1988-01-01

    With careful public relations planning and a willingness to be involved, boards can enhance the stature of an institution. George Mason University's public relations strategy has paid off in public recognition, which has accelerated the flow of resources to the institution. (MLW)

  9. social desirability bias and possible implications for HIV-prevention ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Evaluations of the safety, effectiveness, and feasibility of HIV prevention interventions rely on self-reported sexual behaviour data. The accuracy of such data has sometimes been questioned. The absence of a so-called objective measure of sexual behaviour complicates this. Social desirability bias (SDB) is a key factor ...

  10. Cognitive Biases and the Link between Shyness and Social Anxiety in Early Adolescence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weeks, Murray; Ooi, Laura L.; Coplan, Robert J.

    2016-01-01

    Shy children display wariness in unfamiliar social situations and often experience feelings of social anxiety. This study explored the potential mediating role of cognitive biases in the link between shyness and social anxiety in early adolescence. In particular, we focused on judgments of the probability and cost of negative social situations…

  11. Reputation offsets trust judgments based on social biases among Airbnb users.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abrahao, Bruno; Parigi, Paolo; Gupta, Alok; Cook, Karen S

    2017-09-12

    To provide social exchange on a global level, sharing-economy companies leverage interpersonal trust between their members on a scale unimaginable even a few years ago. A challenge to this mission is the presence of social biases among a large heterogeneous and independent population of users, a factor that hinders the growth of these services. We investigate whether and to what extent a sharing-economy platform can design artificially engineered features, such as reputation systems, to override people's natural tendency to base judgments of trustworthiness on social biases. We focus on the common tendency to trust others who are similar (i.e., homophily) as a source of bias. We test this argument through an online experiment with 8,906 users of Airbnb, a leading hospitality company in the sharing economy. The experiment is based on an interpersonal investment game, in which we vary the characteristics of recipients to study trust through the interplay between homophily and reputation. Our findings show that reputation systems can significantly increase the trust between dissimilar users and that risk aversion has an inverse relationship with trust given high reputation. We also present evidence that our experimental findings are confirmed by analyses of 1 million actual hospitality interactions among users of Airbnb.

  12. Evolutionary thinking in microeconomic models: prestige bias and market bubbles.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adrian Viliami Bell

    Full Text Available Evolutionary models broadly support a number of social learning strategies likely important in economic behavior. Using a simple model of price dynamics, I show how prestige bias, or copying of famed (and likely successful individuals, influences price equilibria and investor disposition in a way that exacerbates or creates market bubbles. I discuss how integrating the social learning and demographic forces important in cultural evolution with economic models provides a fruitful line of inquiry into real-world behavior.

  13. From E-Learning to Social Learning--A Health Care Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hajli, Mahmood; Bugshan, Hatem; Lin, Xiaolin; Featherman, Mauricio

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: The emergence of Web 2.0 opened a new route for education to use the values derived from this development. The future of e-learning is social learning, where individuals can learn online due to the facility of social media. Social media such as online communities are places for social interactions between users. These social interactions…

  14. Group Modeling in Social Learning Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stankov, Slavomir; Glavinic, Vlado; Krpan, Divna

    2012-01-01

    Students' collaboration while learning could provide better learning environments. Collaboration assumes social interactions which occur in student groups. Social theories emphasize positive influence of such interactions on learning. In order to create an appropriate learning environment that enables social interactions, it is important to…

  15. "Social Learning" Buzz Masks Deeper Dimensions: Mitigating the Confusion Surrounding "Social Learning"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ganis, Frank

    2009-01-01

    There is a century of rich literature on social learning from the fields of education, psychology, and sociology characterizing a wide variety of practical applications such as instructional techniques, consumer behavior conditioning and determining criminal motives. In social learning theory, according to Bandura, there are four fundamental…

  16. Erratum to: The blocking effect in associative learning involves learned biases in rapid attentional capture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2018-04-01

    Luque, D., Vadillo, M, A., Gutiérrez-Cobo, M, J., Le Pelley, M, E. (2018). The blocking effect in associative learning involves learned biases in rapid attentional capture. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71, 522-544. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2016.1262435. The above article is part of the Special Issue on Associative Learning (in honour of Nick Mackintosh) and was inadvertently published in the February 2018 issue of Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. After publication of the Special Issue, an online collection on Associative Learning will be created on SAGE Journals and this paper will be included in that collection. The Publisher apologises for this error.

  17. Structure Mapping for Social Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christie, Stella

    2017-07-01

    Analogical reasoning is a foundational tool for human learning, allowing learners to recognize relational structures in new events and domains. Here I sketch some grounds for understanding and applying analogical reasoning in social learning. The social world is fundamentally characterized by relations between people, with common relational structures-such as kinships and social hierarchies-forming social units that dictate social behaviors. Just as young learners use analogical reasoning for learning relational structures in other domains-spatial relations, verbs, relational categories-analogical reasoning ought to be a useful cognitive tool for acquiring social relations and structures. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  18. Social Interpretation Bias in Children and Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders: Psychometric Examination of the Self-report of Ambiguous Social Situations for Youth (SASSY) Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonzalez, Araceli; Rozenman, Michelle; Langley, Audra K; Kendall, Philip C; Ginsburg, Golda S; Compton, Scott; Walkup, John T; Birmaher, Boris; Albano, Anne Marie; Piacentini, John

    2017-06-01

    Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health problems in youth, and faulty interpretation bias has been positively linked to anxiety severity, even within anxiety-disordered youth. Quick, reliable assessment of interpretation bias may be useful in identifying youth with certain types of anxiety or assessing changes on cognitive bias during intervention. This study examined the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Self-report of Ambiguous Social Situations for Youth (SASSY) scale, a self-report measure developed to assess interpretation bias in youth. Participants (N=488, age 7 to 17) met diagnostic criteria for Social Phobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and/or Separation Anxiety Disorder. An exploratory factor analysis was performed on baseline data from youth participating in a large randomized clinical trial. Exploratory factor analysis yielded two factors (Accusation/Blame, Social Rejection). The SASSY full scale and Social Rejection factor demonstrated adequate internal consistency, convergent validity with social anxiety, and discriminant validity as evidenced by non-significant correlations with measures of non-social anxiety. Further, the SASSY Social Rejection factor accurately distinguished children and adolescents with Social Phobia from those with other anxiety disorders, supporting its criterion validity, and revealed sensitivity to changes with treatment. Given the relevance to youth with social phobia, pre- and post-intervention data were examined for youth social phobia to test sensitivity to treatment effects; results suggested that SASSY scores reduced for treatment responders. Findings suggest the potential utility of the SASSY Social Rejection factor as a quick, reliable, and efficient way of assessing interpretation bias in anxious youth, particularly as related to social concerns, in research and clinical settings.

  19. M&E-NetPay: A Micropayment System for Mobile and Electronic Commerce

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaodi Huang

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available As an increasing number of people purchase goods and services online, micropayment systems are becoming particularly important for mobile and electronic commerce. We have designed and developed such a system called M&E-NetPay (Mobile and Electronic NetPay. With open interoperability and mobility, M&E-NetPay uses web services to connect brokers and vendors, providing secure, flexible and reliable credit services over the Internet. In particular, M&E-NetPay makes use of a secure, inexpensive and debit-based off-line protocol that allows vendors to interact only with customers, after validating coins. The design of the architecture and protocol of M&E-NetPay are presented, together with the implementation of its prototype in ringtone and wallpaper sites. To validate our system, we have conducted its evaluations on performance, usability and heuristics. Furthermore, we compare our system to the CORBA-based (Common Object Request Broker Architecture off-line micro-payment systems. The results have demonstrated that M&E-NetPay outperforms the .NET-based M&E-NetPay system in terms of performance and user satisfaction.

  20. Effect of Vicarious Fear Learning on Children’s Heart Rate Responses and Attentional Bias for Novel Animals

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Research with children has shown that vicarious learning can result in changes to 2 of Lang’s (1968) 3 anxiety response systems: subjective report and behavioral avoidance. The current study extended this research by exploring the effect of vicarious learning on physiological responses (Lang’s final response system) and attentional bias. The study used Askew and Field’s (2007) vicarious learning procedure and demonstrated fear-related increases in children’s cognitive, behavioral, and physiological responses. Cognitive and behavioral changes were retested 1 week and 1 month later, and remained elevated. In addition, a visual search task demonstrated that fear-related vicarious learning creates an attentional bias for novel animals, which is moderated by increases in fear beliefs during learning. The findings demonstrate that vicarious learning leads to lasting changes in all 3 of Lang’s anxiety response systems and is sufficient to create attentional bias to threat in children. PMID:25151521

  1. Attentional mechanisms of social perception are biased in social phobia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boll, Sabrina; Bartholomaeus, Marie; Peter, Ulrike; Lupke, Ulrike; Gamer, Matthias

    2016-05-01

    Previous studies of social phobia have reported an increased vigilance to social threat cues but also an avoidance of socially relevant stimuli such as eye gaze. The primary aim of this study was to examine attentional mechanisms relevant for perceiving social cues by means of abnormalities in scanning of facial features in patients with social phobia. In two novel experimental paradigms, patients with social phobia and healthy controls matched on age, gender and education were compared regarding their gazing behavior towards facial cues. The first experiment was an emotion classification paradigm which allowed for differentiating reflexive attentional shifts from sustained attention towards diagnostically relevant facial features. In the second experiment, attentional orienting by gaze direction was assessed in a gaze-cueing paradigm in which non-predictive gaze cues shifted attention towards or away from subsequently presented targets. We found that patients as compared to controls reflexively oriented their attention more frequently towards the eyes of emotional faces in the emotion classification paradigm. This initial hypervigilance for the eye region was observed at very early attentional stages when faces were presented for 150ms, and persisted when facial stimuli were shown for 3s. Moreover, a delayed attentional orienting into the direction of eye gaze was observed in individuals with social phobia suggesting a differential time course of eye gaze processing in patients and controls. Our findings suggest that basic mechanisms of early attentional exploration of social cues are biased in social phobia and might contribute to the development and maintenance of the disorder. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  2. Social comparison, personal relative deprivation, and materialism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Hyunji; Callan, Mitchell J; Gheorghiu, Ana I; Matthews, William J

    2017-06-01

    Across five studies, we found consistent evidence for the idea that personal relative deprivation (PRD), which refers to resentment stemming from the belief that one is deprived of deserved outcomes compared to others, uniquely contributes to materialism. In Study 1, self-reports of PRD positively predicted materialistic values over and above socioeconomic status, personal power, self-esteem, and emotional uncertainty. The experience of PRD starts with social comparison, and Studies 2 and 3 found that PRD mediated the positive relation between a tendency to make social comparisons of abilities and materialism. In Study 4, participants who learned that they had less (vs. similar) discretionary income than people like them reported a stronger desire for more money relative to donating more to charity. In Study 5, during a windfall-spending task, participants higher in PRD spent more on things they wanted relative to other spending categories (e.g., paying off debts). © 2016 The Authors. British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.

  3. Semi-supervised eigenvectors for large-scale locally-biased learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Toke Jansen; Mahoney, Michael W.

    2014-01-01

    improved scaling properties. We provide several empirical examples demonstrating how these semi-supervised eigenvectors can be used to perform locally-biased learning; and we discuss the relationship between our results and recent machine learning algorithms that use global eigenvectors of the graph......In many applications, one has side information, e.g., labels that are provided in a semi-supervised manner, about a specific target region of a large data set, and one wants to perform machine learning and data analysis tasks nearby that prespecified target region. For example, one might......-based machine learning and data analysis tools. At root, the reason is that eigenvectors are inherently global quantities, thus limiting the applicability of eigenvector-based methods in situations where one is interested in very local properties of the data. In this paper, we address this issue by providing...

  4. Individuals With OCD Lack Unrealistic Optimism Bias in Threat Estimation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zetsche, Ulrike; Rief, Winfried; Exner, Cornelia

    2015-07-01

    Overestimating the occurrence of threatening events has been highlighted as a central cognitive factor in the maintenance of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The present study examined the different facets of this cognitive bias, its underlying mechanisms, and its specificity to OCD. For this purpose, threat estimation, probabilistic classification learning (PCL) and psychopathological measures were assessed in 23 participants with OCD, 30 participants with social phobia, and 31 healthy controls. Whereas healthy participants showed an optimistic expectation bias regarding positive and negative future events, OCD participants lacked such a bias. This lack of an optimistic expectation bias was not specific to OCD. Compared to healthy controls, OCD participants overestimated their personal risk for experiencing negative events, but did not differ from controls in their risk estimation regarding other people. Finally, OCD participants' biases in the prediction of checking-related events were associated with their impairments in learning probabilistic cue-outcome associations in a disorder-relevant context. In sum, the present results add to a growing body of research demonstrating that cognitive biases in OCD are context-dependent. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  5. Exploring the Peer Interaction Effects on Learning Achievement in a Social Learning Platform Based on Social Network Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Yu-Tzu; Chen, Ming-Puu; Chang, Chia-Hu; Chang, Pu-Chen

    2017-01-01

    The benefits of social learning have been recognized by existing research. To explore knowledge distribution in social learning and its effects on learning achievement, we developed a social learning platform and explored students' behaviors of peer interactions by the proposed algorithms based on social network analysis. An empirical study was…

  6. Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Greeff, Joachim; Belpaeme, Tony

    2015-01-01

    Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children’s social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference); the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a “mental model” of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot’s performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot’s bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance. PMID:26422143

  7. Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Greeff, Joachim; Belpaeme, Tony

    2015-01-01

    Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children's social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference); the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a "mental model" of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot's performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot's bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance.

  8. Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joachim de Greeff

    Full Text Available Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children's social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference; the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a "mental model" of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot's performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot's bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance.

  9. Interpretation bias modification for youth and their parents: a novel treatment for early adolescent social anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reuland, Meg M; Teachman, Bethany A

    2014-12-01

    Social anxiety is the most prevalent anxiety disorder of late adolescence, yet current treatments reach only a minority of youth with the disorder. Effective and easy-to-disseminate treatments are needed. This study pilot tested the efficacy of a novel, online cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I) intervention for socially anxious youth and their parents. The CBM-I intervention targeted cognitive biases associated with early adolescents' maladaptive beliefs regarding social situations, and with parents' intrusive behavior, both of which have been theoretically linked with the maintenance of social anxiety in youth. To investigate the efficacy of intervening with parents and/or children, clinically diagnosed early adolescents (ages 10-15; N=18) and their mothers were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: the first targeted early adolescents' cognitive biases related to social anxiety (Child-only condition); the second targeted parents' biases associated with intrusive behavior (Parent-only condition); and the third targeted both youth and parents' biases in tandem (Combo condition). The use of a multiple baseline design allowed for the efficient assessment of causal links between the intervention and reduction in social anxiety symptoms in youth. Results provided converging evidence indicating modest support for the efficacy of CBM-I, with no reliable differences across conditions. Taken together, results suggest that online CBM-I with anxious youth and/or their parents holds promise as an effective and easily administered component of treatment for child social anxiety that deserves further evaluation in a larger trial. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Interpretation Bias Modification for Youth and their Parents: A Novel Treatment for Early Adolescent Social Anxiety

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reuland, Meg M.; Teachman, Bethany A.

    2014-01-01

    Social anxiety is the most prevalent anxiety disorder of late adolescence, yet current treatments reach only a minority of youth with the disorder. Effective and easy-to-disseminate treatments are needed. This study pilot tested the efficacy of a novel, online cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I) intervention for socially anxious youth and their parents. The CBM-I intervention targeted cognitive biases associated with early adolescents’ maladaptive beliefs regarding social situations, and with parents’ intrusive behavior, both of which have been theoretically linked with the maintenance of social anxiety in youth. To investigate the efficacy of intervening with parents and/or children, clinically diagnosed early adolescents (ages 10–15; N = 18) and their mothers were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: the first targeted early adolescents’ cognitive biases related to social anxiety (Child-only condition); the second targeted parents’ biases associated with intrusive behavior (Parent-only condition); and the third targeted both youth and parents’ biases in tandem (Combo condition). The use of a multiple baseline design allowed for the efficient assessment of causal links between the intervention and reduction in social anxiety symptoms in youth. Results provided converging evidence indicating modest support for the efficacy of CBM-I, with no reliable differences across conditions. Taken together, results suggest that online CBM-I with anxious youth and/or their parents holds promise as an effective and easily administered component of treatment for child social anxiety that deserves further evaluation in a larger trial. PMID:25445075

  11. LAS SPIN-OFFS ACADÉMICAS Y SU POSIBLE CONFIGURACIÓN COMO EMPRESAS DE ECONOMÍA SOCIAL / THE ACADEMIC SPIN-OFFS AND SET AS SOCIAL ECONOMY ENTERPRISES.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos VARGAS VASSEROT

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available El estudio trata de las posibilidades y limitaciones que tienen las empresas de economía social (cooperativas y sociedades laborales fundamentalmente para ser utilizadas para la creación de Empresas de Base Tecnológica en el ámbito académico. Primero se realiza una aproximación básica al concepto de la economía social, para posteriormente diferenciar las empresas simplemente innovadoras (start-up en terminología anglosajona de las empresas que explotan una tecnología o conocimiento transferido por una Universidad y en la que parte de los socios son investigadores de dicha institución (spin-offs académicas. Aunque ambas se engloban en un término amplio de Empresas de Base Tecnológica no son lo mismo. Mientras que para desarrollar empresas de alto y rápido desarrollo tecnológico por egresados y estudiantes universitarios no existe problema alguno para constituirse como empresas de economía social, para hacer una Empresa de Base Tecnológica académica existen determinadas barreras legales. Los investigadores y socios de la empresa suelen ser profesores que trabajan a tiempo completo y en exclusiva en la Universidad, lo que impide, en principio, estar realizando de manera continuada una actividad laboral o de prestación de servicios en una entidad privada, que es el núcleo de la actividad mutualista típica de las sociedades cooperativas y sociedades laborales. Además, si la Universidad participa en el capital social de la spin-off constituida, que es la tendencia, las ventajas de las empresas de economía social no son tan claras para el organismo público que suele preferir ser socio de una sociedad de capital / The study deals with the possibilities and constraints facing social economy enterprises (co-operatives and worker societies mainly to be used for creating Spin-off an academic field. First is a basic approach to the concept of social economy, to further differentiate the companies simply innovative (star-up in Anglo

  12. What will we learn from the CMB?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dodelson, S.

    1997-10-01

    Within the next decade, experiments measuring the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will add greatly to our knowledge of the universe. There are dozens of experiments scheduled to take data over the next several years, capped by the satellite missions of NASA (MAP) and ESA (PLANCK). What will we learn from these experiments? I argue that the potential pay-off is immense: We are quite likely to determine cosmological parameters to unprecedented accuracy. This will provide key information about the theory of structure formation and even about the physics behind inflation. If the experiments succeed, can anything spoil this pay-off? I focus on three possible spoilers - foregrounds, reionization, and defect models - and argue that we have every reason to be optimistic

  13. Observing others stay or switch - How social prediction errors are integrated into reward reversal learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ihssen, Niklas; Mussweiler, Thomas; Linden, David E J

    2016-08-01

    Reward properties of stimuli can undergo sudden changes, and the detection of these 'reversals' is often made difficult by the probabilistic nature of rewards/punishments. Here we tested whether and how humans use social information (someone else's choices) to overcome uncertainty during reversal learning. We show a substantial social influence during reversal learning, which was modulated by the type of observed behavior. Participants frequently followed observed conservative choices (no switches after punishment) made by the (fictitious) other player but ignored impulsive choices (switches), even though the experiment was set up so that both types of response behavior would be similarly beneficial/detrimental (Study 1). Computational modeling showed that participants integrated the observed choices as a 'social prediction error' instead of ignoring or blindly following the other player. Modeling also confirmed higher learning rates for 'conservative' versus 'impulsive' social prediction errors. Importantly, this 'conservative bias' was boosted by interpersonal similarity, which in conjunction with the lack of effects observed in a non-social control experiment (Study 2) confirmed its social nature. A third study suggested that relative weighting of observed impulsive responses increased with increased volatility (frequency of reversals). Finally, simulations showed that in the present paradigm integrating social and reward information was not necessarily more adaptive to maximize earnings than learning from reward alone. Moreover, integrating social information increased accuracy only when conservative and impulsive choices were weighted similarly during learning. These findings suggest that to guide decisions in choice contexts that involve reward reversals humans utilize social cues conforming with their preconceptions more strongly than cues conflicting with them, especially when the other is similar. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B

  14. Social influence protects collective decision making from equality bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hertz, Uri; Romand-Monnier, Margaux; Kyriakopoulou, Konstantina; Bahrami, Bahador

    2016-02-01

    A basic tenet of research on wisdom of the crowds-and key assumption of Condercet's (1785) Jury Theorem-is the independence of voters' opinions before votes are aggregated. However, we often look for others' opinions before casting our vote. Such social influence can push groups toward herding, leading to "madness of the crowds." To investigate the role of social influence in joint decision making, in Experiment 1 we had dyads of participants perform a visual oddball search task together. In the Independent (IND) condition participants initially made a private decision. If they disagreed, discussion and collective decision ensued. In the Influence (INF) condition no private decisions were made and collective decision was immediately negotiated. Dyads that did not accrue collective benefit under the IND condition improved with added social influence under the INF condition. In Experiment 2, covertly, we added noise to 1 of the dyad members' visual search display. The resulting increased heterogeneity in dyad members' performances impaired the dyadic performance under the IND condition (Bahrami et al., 2010). Importantly, dyadic performance improved with social influence under the INF condition, replicating results in Experiment 1. Further analyses revealed that under the IND condition, dyads exercised equality bias (Mahmoodi et al., 2015) by granting undue credit to the less-reliable partner. Under the INF condition, however, the more-reliable partner (correctly) dominated the joint decisions. Although social influence may impede collective success under ideal conditions, our results demonstrate how it can help the group members overcome factors such as equality bias, which could potentially lead to catastrophic failure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  15. Social Anxiety-Linked Attention Bias to Threat Is Indirectly Related to Post-Event Processing Via Subjective Emotional Reactivity to Social Stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Çek, Demet; Sánchez, Alvaro; Timpano, Kiara R

    2016-05-01

    Attention bias to threat (e.g., disgust faces) is a cognitive vulnerability factor for social anxiety occurring in early stages of information processing. Few studies have investigated the relationship between social anxiety and attention biases, in conjunction with emotional and cognitive responses to a social stressor. Elucidating these links would shed light on maintenance factors of social anxiety and could help identify malleable treatment targets. This study examined the associations between social anxiety level, attention bias to disgust (AB-disgust), subjective emotional and physiological reactivity to a social stressor, and subsequent post-event processing (PEP). We tested a mediational model where social anxiety level indirectly predicted subsequent PEP via its association with AB-disgust and immediate subjective emotional reactivity to social stress. Fifty-five undergraduates (45% female) completed a passive viewing task. Eye movements were tracked during the presentation of social stimuli (e.g., disgust faces) and used to calculate AB-disgust. Next, participants gave an impromptu speech in front of a video camera and watched a neutral video, followed by the completion of a PEP measure. Although there was no association between AB-disgust and physiological reactivity to the stressor, AB-disgust was significantly associated with greater subjective emotional reactivity from baseline to the speech. Analyses supported a partial mediation model where AB-disgust and subjective emotional reactivity to a social stressor partially accounted for the link between social anxiety levels and PEP. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  16. Why business unit controllers bias accounting figures: Involvement in management, social pressure and Machiavellianism

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Maas, V.S.; Hartmann, F.G.H.

    2009-01-01

    This paper investigates why some business unit controllers are more likely to deliberately bias accounting data than others. Different from the existing literature, we argue that involvement in management and social pressure are neither necessary, nor sufficient conditions for biasing behavior.

  17. Indicators of implicit and explicit social anxiety influence threat-related interpretive bias as a function of working memory capacity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elske eSalemink

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Interpretive biases play a crucial role in anxiety disorders. The aim of the current study was to examine factors that determine the relative strength of threat-related interpretive biases that are characteristic of individuals high in social anxiety. Different (dual process models argue that both implicit and explicit processes determine information processing biases and behaviour, and that their impact is moderated by the availability of executive resources such as working memory capacity (WMC. Based on these models, we expected indicators of implicit social anxiety to predict threat-related interpretive bias in individuals low, but not high in WMC. Indicators of explicit social anxiety should predict threat-related interpretive bias in individuals high, but not low in WMC. As expected, WMC moderated the impact of implicit social anxiety on threat-related interpretive bias, although the simple slope for individuals low in WMC was not statistically significant. The hypotheses regarding explicit social anxiety (with fear of negative evaluation used as an indicator were fully supported. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

  18. Olefin recovery from FCC off-gas can pay off

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brahn, M.G.

    1992-01-01

    This paper reports on olefins recovery from refinery FCC offgas streams which offers an attractive cash flow from olefins from a tail-gas stream that has typically been consumed as refinery fuel. Such recovery schemes can be employed in refineries or olefins plants, and can be tailored to fit individual requirements. Mobil Chemical Co. has operated such a dephlegmator-based off-gas recovery unit at its Beaumont, Tex., olefin plant since 1987. It reported that the project was paid out within 11 months of initial start-up

  19. Toward a Social Approach to Learning in Community Service Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cooks, Leda; Scharrer, Erica; Paredes, Mari Castaneda

    2004-01-01

    The authors describe a social approach to learning in community service learning that extends the contributions of three theoretical bodies of scholarship on learning: social constructionism, critical pedagogy, and community service learning. Building on the assumptions about learning described in each of these areas, engagement, identity, and…

  20. No trade-off between learning speed and associative flexibility in bumblebees: a reversal learning test with multiple colonies.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nigel E Raine

    Full Text Available Potential trade-offs between learning speed and memory-related performance could be important factors in the evolution of learning. Here, we test whether rapid learning interferes with the acquisition of new information using a reversal learning paradigm. Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris were trained to associate yellow with a floral reward. Subsequently the association between colour and reward was reversed, meaning bees then had to learn to visit blue flowers. We demonstrate that individuals that were fast to learn yellow as a predictor of reward were also quick to reverse this association. Furthermore, overnight memory retention tests suggest that faster learning individuals are also better at retaining previously learned information. There is also an effect of relatedness: colonies whose workers were fast to learn the association between yellow and reward also reversed this association rapidly. These results are inconsistent with a trade-off between learning speed and the reversal of a previously made association. On the contrary, they suggest that differences in learning performance and cognitive (behavioural flexibility could reflect more general differences in colony learning ability. Hence, this study provides additional evidence to support the idea that rapid learning and behavioural flexibility have adaptive value.

  1. Predictors of willingness to pay for physical activity of socially vulnerable groups in community-based programs

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Herens, M.C.; Ophem, van J.A.C.; Wagemakers, M.A.E.; Koelen, M.A.

    2015-01-01

    Willingness to pay (WTP) is used to assess individuals’ value attribution to health-related quality of life interventions. Little is known about predictors of WTP for sport and physical activity in socially vulnerable groups in communitybased physical activity (CBHEPA) programs. This study addresses

  2. Processing bias in children with separation anxiety disorder, social phobia and generalised anxiety disorder

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kindt, M.; Bögels, S.M.; Morren, M.

    2003-01-01

    The present study examined processing bias in children suffering from anxiety disorders. Processing bias was assessed using of the emotional Stroop task in clinically referred children with separation anxiety disorder (SAD), social phobia (SP), and/or generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and normal

  3. Information filtering via biased random walk on coupled social network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nie, Da-Cheng; Zhang, Zi-Ke; Dong, Qiang; Sun, Chongjing; Fu, Yan

    2014-01-01

    The recommender systems have advanced a great deal in the past two decades. However, most researchers focus their attentions on mining the similarities among users or objects in recommender systems and overlook the social influence which plays an important role in users' purchase process. In this paper, we design a biased random walk algorithm on coupled social networks which gives recommendation results based on both social interests and users' preference. Numerical analyses on two real data sets, Epinions and Friendfeed, demonstrate the improvement of recommendation performance by taking social interests into account, and experimental results show that our algorithm can alleviate the user cold-start problem more effectively compared with the mass diffusion and user-based collaborative filtering methods.

  4. Student’s social interaction in mathematics learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Apriliyanto, B.; Saputro, D. R. S.; Riyadi

    2018-03-01

    Mathematics learning achievement is influenced by the internal and external factor of the students. One of the influencing external factors is social interaction with friends in learning activities. In modern learning, the learning is student-centered, so the student interaction is needed to learn about certain basic competence. Potential and motivation of students in learning are expected to develop with good social interaction in order to get maximum results. Social interaction is an important aspect of learning Mathematics because students get the opportunity to express their own thoughts in order to encourage a reflection on the knowledge they have. This research uses the correlational descriptive method involving 36 students for the tenth grade, eleventh grade, and twelfth grade of SMA Negeri 1 Wuryantoro and data collecting technique using questionnaire for social interaction and documentation for learning outcome. The result of this research shows that learning achievement and social interaction of students are not good. Based on the result of data analysis, it is shown that the social interaction and Mathematics learning achievement are still in the low level. This research concludes that students’ social interaction influences student learning achievement in Mathematics subjects.

  5. Have we met before? Neural correlates of emotional learning in women with social phobia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laeger, Inga; Keuper, Kati; Heitmann, Carina; Kugel, Harald; Dobel, Christian; Eden, Annuschka; Arolt, Volker; Zwitserlood, Pienie; Dannlowski, Udo; Zwanzger, Peter

    2014-05-01

    Altered memory processes are thought to be a key mechanism in the etiology of anxiety disorders, but little is known about the neural correlates of fear learning and memory biases in patients with social phobia. The present study therefore examined whether patients with social phobia exhibit different patterns of neural activation when confronted with recently acquired emotional stimuli. Patients with social phobia and a group of healthy controls learned to associate pseudonames with pictures of persons displaying either a fearful or a neutral expression. The next day, participants read the pseudonames in the magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Afterwards, 2 memory tests were carried out. We enrolled 21 patients and 21 controls in our study. There were no group differences for learning performance, and results of the memory tests were mixed. On a neural level, patients showed weaker amygdala activation than controls for the contrast of names previously associated with fearful versus neutral faces. Social phobia severity was negatively related to amygdala activation. Moreover, a detailed psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed an inverse correlation between disorder severity and frontolimbic connectivity for the emotional > neutral pseudonames contrast. Our sample included only women. Our results support the theory of a disturbed cortico limbic interplay, even for recently learned emotional stimuli. We discuss the findings with regard to the vigilance-avoidance theory and contrast them to results indicating an oversensitive limbic system in patients with social phobia.

  6. LEARNING GAMES OR LEARNING STIMULATING GAMES: AN INDIRECT APPROACH TO LEARNING STIMULATING EFFECTS FROM OFF-THE-SHELF GAMES

    OpenAIRE

    Mats Wiklund; Peter Mozelius

    2014-01-01

    Playing games to support learning is a classic concept that is seeing a revival today in the widespread use of computer games. Inserting educational content into various types of computer games is a strong trend that some researchers have described as a mad rush. The aim of this article is to discuss possible learning stimulating effects of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games in a long-term perspective. We argue that COTS game players’ attitudes towards learning m...

  7. Cognitive Bias for Learning Speech Sounds From a Continuous Signal Space Seems Nonlinguistic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sabine van der Ham

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available When learning language, humans have a tendency to produce more extreme distributions of speech sounds than those observed most frequently: In rapid, casual speech, vowel sounds are centralized, yet cross-linguistically, peripheral vowels occur almost universally. We investigate whether adults’ generalization behavior reveals selective pressure for communication when they learn skewed distributions of speech-like sounds from a continuous signal space. The domain-specific hypothesis predicts that the emergence of sound categories is driven by a cognitive bias to make these categories maximally distinct, resulting in more skewed distributions in participants’ reproductions. However, our participants showed more centered distributions, which goes against this hypothesis, indicating that there are no strong innate linguistic biases that affect learning these speech-like sounds. The centralization behavior can be explained by a lack of communicative pressure to maintain categories.

  8. Estimating the Effects of Students' Social Networks: Does Attending a Norm-Enforcing School Pay Off?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carolan, Brian V.

    2010-01-01

    In an attempt to forge tighter social relations, small school reformers advocate school designs intended to create smaller, more trusting, and more collaborative settings. These efforts to enhance students' social capital in the form of social closure are ultimately tied to improving academic outcomes. Using data derived from ELS: 2002, this study…

  9. Cognitive Dissonance, Confirmatory Bias and Inadequate Information Processing: Evidence from Experimental Auctions

    OpenAIRE

    Cao, Ying; Just, David R.; Wansink, Brian

    2014-01-01

    Using psychological terms such as cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias, this study reveals how individual consumers inadequately process (food safety) information, pay limited attention to signals, and make purchase decisions that are bias towards their initial choices. While it is expected that reading extra information about potential risk associated with the food decreases consumers' willingness to pay (WTP), the magnitude of the impact varies across individuals. In general, consumer...

  10. The Effects of Training Contingency Awareness During Attention Bias Modification on Learning and Stress Reactivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lazarov, Amit; Abend, Rany; Seidner, Shiran; Pine, Daniel S; Bar-Haim, Yair

    2017-09-01

    Current attention bias modification (ABM) procedures are designed to implicitly train attention away from threatening stimuli with the hope of reducing stress reactivity and anxiety symptoms. However, the mechanisms underlying effective ABM delivery are not well understood, with awareness of the training contingency suggested as one possible factor contributing to ABM efficacy. Here, 45 high-anxious participants were trained to divert attention away from threat in two ABM sessions. They were randomly assigned to one of three training protocols: an implicit protocol, comprising two standard implicit ABM training sessions; an explicit protocol, comprising two sessions with explicit instruction as to the attention training contingency; and an implicit-explicit protocol, in which participants were not informed of the training contingency in the first ABM session and informed of it at the start of the second session. We examined learning processes and stress reactivity following a stress-induction task. Results indicate that relative to implicit instructions, explicit instructions led to stronger learning during the first training session. Following rest, the explicit and implicit groups exhibited consolidation-related improvement in performance, whereas no such improvement was noted for the implicit-explicit group. Finally, although stress reactivity was reduced after training, contingency awareness did not yield a differential effect on stress reactivity measured using both self-reports and skin conductance, within and across sessions. These results suggest that explicit ABM administration leads to greater initial learning during the training protocol while not differing from standard implicit administration in terms of off-line learning and stress reactivity. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  11. Expert Students in Social Learning Management Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Avogadro, Paolo; Calegari, Silvia; Dominoni, Matteo Alessandro

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: A social learning management system (social LMS) is a tool which favors social interactions and allows scholastic institutions to supervise and guide the learning process. The inclusion of the social feature to a "normal" LMS leads to the creation of educational social networks (EduSN), where the students interact and learn. The…

  12. Carbon Capture and Storage on its way to large-scale deployment: Social acceptance and willingness to pay in Germany

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kraeusel, Jonas; Möst, Dominik

    2012-01-01

    Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is an emerging technology to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants. In the wake of a rapidly changing German energy system, CCS can play an important role. By means of an online survey among 130 university students in Dresden, this paper investigates the level and influencing factors of social acceptance of CCS. Furthermore, the individual willingness to pay for CCS and renewable power delivery is measured and compared through a choice model. The survey results reveal that the attitude towards CCS is neutral. Moreover, it is shown that acceptance of CCS is an important factor for the willingness to pay. The level of willingness to pay for CCS technology is much lower than for renewable energy. - Highlights: ► Analysis of acceptance and willingness to pay of carbon capture and storage and renwable energies. ► Consumers always prefer green electricity compared to CCS power. ► Willingness to pay for green electricity is quite high.

  13. Research on the relationship of institutional innovation, organizational learning and synergistic effect: An empirical study of chineses university spin-offs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhang Hao

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: At present, the Central Government of China pays more attention to the synergistic innovation, and the national strategy policy of “innovation driven development” are made to implementations. Thus, the university plays an important role in the national innovation system, so that how the university gets involved in innovative activities becomes the primary problem of innovation strategy. This paper utilizes Chinese university spin-offs survey data to identify the influence process from institutional innovation and organizational learning to synergistic effect of organization. Design/methodology/approach: Firstly, we found that following the procedural view, each one of these three elements can be divided into two parts. Then, we established structural equation modeling with the connections between these six subdivisions. Secondly, by taking 270 university Spin-offs in China as samples, we verified the fit of the model through statistical data on the questionnaire survey. Thirdly, we analyzed the relationship and influence path of the institutional innovation, organizational learning and synergistic effect. Findings: The results of empirical research show that institutional implementation process is positive correlation on both sides of synergistic effect, and, the intermediary role is obvious that external organizational learning played a regulatory role between institutional innovation synergistic effects. Research limitations/implications: A large-scale questionnaire survey showed that the influence path of “institutions -organization-innovation performance" are existed. Therefore, the system analysis framework should be introduced to the emergence and development of University spin-offs, and further explored the synergistic process of institutional change and organizational evolution. Practical implications: University spin-offs are a mode of university - industry cooperation, and it takes participation in market competition

  14. 20 CFR 404.1044 - Vacation pay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Vacation pay. 404.1044 Section 404.1044 Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income Wages § 404.1044 Vacation pay. We consider...

  15. Social Learning by Design: The Role of Social Media

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brooks, Laura

    2009-01-01

    It is no secret that learning has a social context. As library media specialists work with students nearly every day, they take for granted their pedagogical roots in social learning theory based on the premise that students need modeling and observation to learn from one another. Information gathering becomes a key activity, and social…

  16. Bias-correction in vector autoregressive models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Engsted, Tom; Pedersen, Thomas Quistgaard

    2014-01-01

    We analyze the properties of various methods for bias-correcting parameter estimates in both stationary and non-stationary vector autoregressive models. First, we show that two analytical bias formulas from the existing literature are in fact identical. Next, based on a detailed simulation study......, we show that when the model is stationary this simple bias formula compares very favorably to bootstrap bias-correction, both in terms of bias and mean squared error. In non-stationary models, the analytical bias formula performs noticeably worse than bootstrapping. Both methods yield a notable...... improvement over ordinary least squares. We pay special attention to the risk of pushing an otherwise stationary model into the non-stationary region of the parameter space when correcting for bias. Finally, we consider a recently proposed reduced-bias weighted least squares estimator, and we find...

  17. Social performance deficits in social anxiety disorder: reality during conversation and biased perception during speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voncken, Marisol J; Bögels, Susan M

    2008-12-01

    Cognitive models emphasize that patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) are mainly characterized by biased perception of their social performance. In addition, there is a growing body of evidence showing that SAD patients suffer from actual deficits in social interaction. To unravel what characterizes SAD patients the most, underestimation of social performance (defined as the discrepancy between self-perceived and observer-perceived social performance), or actual (observer-perceived) social performance, 48 patients with SAD and 27 normal control participants were observed during a speech and conversation. Consistent with the cognitive model of SAD, patients with SAD underestimated their social performance relative to control participants during the two interactions, but primarily during the speech. Actual social performance deficits were clearly apparent in the conversation but not in the speech. In conclusion, interactions that pull for more interpersonal skills, like a conversation, elicit more actual social performance deficits whereas, situations with a performance character, like a speech, bring about more cognitive distortions in patients with SAD.

  18. Machine learning, social learning and the governance of self-driving cars.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stilgoe, Jack

    2018-02-01

    Self-driving cars, a quintessentially 'smart' technology, are not born smart. The algorithms that control their movements are learning as the technology emerges. Self-driving cars represent a high-stakes test of the powers of machine learning, as well as a test case for social learning in technology governance. Society is learning about the technology while the technology learns about society. Understanding and governing the politics of this technology means asking 'Who is learning, what are they learning and how are they learning?' Focusing on the successes and failures of social learning around the much-publicized crash of a Tesla Model S in 2016, I argue that trajectories and rhetorics of machine learning in transport pose a substantial governance challenge. 'Self-driving' or 'autonomous' cars are misnamed. As with other technologies, they are shaped by assumptions about social needs, solvable problems, and economic opportunities. Governing these technologies in the public interest means improving social learning by constructively engaging with the contingencies of machine learning.

  19. Active explorers show low learning performance in a social insect

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Eve UDINO; Margot PEREZ; Claudio CARERE; Patrizia d'ETTORRE

    2017-01-01

    An intriguing question in behavioral biology is whether consistent individual differences (called animal personalities) relate to variation in cognitive performance because commonly measured personality traits may be associated with risk-reward trade-offs.Social insects,whose learning abilities have been extensively characterized,show consistent behavioral variability,both at colony and at individual level.We investigated the possible link between personality traits and learning performance in the carpenter ant Camponotus aethiops.Exploratory activity,sociability,and aggression were assessed twice in ant foragers.Behaviors differed among individuals,they were partly repeatable across time and exploratory activity correlated positively with aggression.Learning abilities were quantified by differential conditioning of the maxilla-labium extension response,a task that requires cue perception and information storage.We found that exploratory activity of individual ants significantly predicted learning performance:"active-explorers" were slower in learning the task than "inactive-explorers".The results suggest for the first time a link between a personality trait and cognitive performance in eusocial insects,and that the underlying individual variability could affect colony performance and success.

  20. Reinforcement function design and bias for efficient learning in mobile robots

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Touzet, C.; Santos, J.M.

    1998-01-01

    The main paradigm in sub-symbolic learning robot domain is the reinforcement learning method. Various techniques have been developed to deal with the memorization/generalization problem, demonstrating the superior ability of artificial neural network implementations. In this paper, the authors address the issue of designing the reinforcement so as to optimize the exploration part of the learning. They also present and summarize works relative to the use of bias intended to achieve the effective synthesis of the desired behavior. Demonstrative experiments involving a self-organizing map implementation of the Q-learning and real mobile robots (Nomad 200 and Khepera) in a task of obstacle avoidance behavior synthesis are described. 3 figs., 5 tabs

  1. Willingness to join and pay for the newly proposed social health insurance among teachers in Wolaita Sodo Town, South Ethiopia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agago, Tesfamichael Alaro; Woldie, Mirkuzie; Ololo, Shimeles

    2014-07-01

    Cost-sharing between beneficiaries and governments is critical to achieve universal health care coverage. To address this, Ethiopia is currently introducing Social Health Insurance. However, there has been limited evidence on willingness to join the newly proposed insurance scheme in the country. The purpose of this study is to assess willingness to join and pay for the scheme among teachers in Wolaita Sodo Town government educational institutions, South Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study was conducted from February 5 to March 10, 2012 on 335 teachers. Stratified simple random sampling technique was used and data were collected using structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Binary and multiple logistic regressions were used to estimate the crude and adjusted odds ratios for willingness to pay. Three hundred twenty-eight teachers participated in the study with response rate of 98%. About 55% of the teachers had never heard of any type of health insurance scheme. However, 74.4% of them were willing to pay for the suggested insurance scheme. About 47% of those who were willing to pay agreed to contribute greater than or equal to 4% of their monthly salaries. Willingness to pay was more likely among those who had heard about health insurance, had previous history of inability to pay for medical bills and achieved higher educational status. The majority of the teachers were willing to join social health insurance; however, adequate awareness creation and discussion should be made with all employees at various levels for the successful implementation of the scheme.

  2. 20 CFR 404.1805 - Paying benefits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Paying benefits. 404.1805 Section 404.1805 Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Payment Procedures § 404.1805 Paying benefits. (a) As soon as possible after we have made a determination...

  3. Biased selection within the social health insurance market in Colombia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castano, Ramon; Zambrano, Andres

    2006-12-01

    Reducing the impact of insurance market failures with regulations such as community-rated premiums, standardized benefit packages and open enrolment, yield limited effect because they create room for selection bias. The Colombian social health insurance system started a market approach in 1993 expecting to improve performance of preexisting monopolistic insurance funds by exposing them to competition by new entrants. This paper tests the hypothesis that market failures would lead to biased selection favoring new entrants. Two household surveys are analyzed using Self-Reported Health Status and the presence of chronic conditions as prospective indicators of individual risk. Biased selection is found to take place, leading to adverse selection among incumbents, and favorable selection among new entrants. This pattern is absent in 1997 but is evident in 2003. Given that the two incumbents analyzed are public organizations, the fiscal implications of the findings in terms of government bailouts, are analyzed.

  4. Evolution of learning strategies in temporally and spatially variable environments: a review of theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aoki, Kenichi; Feldman, Marcus W

    2014-02-01

    The theoretical literature from 1985 to the present on the evolution of learning strategies in variable environments is reviewed, with the focus on deterministic dynamical models that are amenable to local stability analysis, and on deterministic models yielding evolutionarily stable strategies. Individual learning, unbiased and biased social learning, mixed learning, and learning schedules are considered. A rapidly changing environment or frequent migration in a spatially heterogeneous environment favors individual learning over unbiased social learning. However, results are not so straightforward in the context of learning schedules or when biases in social learning are introduced. The three major methods of modeling temporal environmental change--coevolutionary, two-timescale, and information decay--are compared and shown to sometimes yield contradictory results. The so-called Rogers' paradox is inherent in the two-timescale method as originally applied to the evolution of pure strategies, but is often eliminated when the other methods are used. Moreover, Rogers' paradox is not observed for the mixed learning strategies and learning schedules that we review. We believe that further theoretical work is necessary on learning schedules and biased social learning, based on models that are logically consistent and empirically pertinent. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Evolution of learning strategies in temporally and spatially variable environments: A review of theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aoki, Kenichi; Feldman, Marcus W.

    2013-01-01

    The theoretical literature from 1985 to the present on the evolution of learning strategies in variable environments is reviewed, with the focus on deterministic dynamical models that are amenable to local stability analysis, and on deterministic models yielding evolutionarily stable strategies. Individual learning, unbiased and biased social learning, mixed learning, and learning schedules are considered. A rapidly changing environment or frequent migration in a spatially heterogeneous environment favors individual learning over unbiased social learning. However, results are not so straightforward in the context of learning schedules or when biases in social learning are introduced. The three major methods of modeling temporal environmental change – coevolutionary, two-timescale, and information decay – are compared and shown to sometimes yield contradictory results. The so-called Rogers’ paradox is inherent in the two-timescale method as originally applied to the evolution of pure strategies, but is often eliminated when the other methods are used. Moreover, Rogers’ paradox is not observed for the mixed learning strategies and learning schedules that we review. We believe that further theoretical work is necessary on learning schedules and biased social learning, based on models that are logically consistent and empirically pertinent. PMID:24211681

  6. Social learning and evolution: the cultural intelligence hypothesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Schaik, Carel P.; Burkart, Judith M.

    2011-01-01

    If social learning is more efficient than independent individual exploration, animals should learn vital cultural skills exclusively, and routine skills faster, through social learning, provided they actually use social learning preferentially. Animals with opportunities for social learning indeed do so. Moreover, more frequent opportunities for social learning should boost an individual's repertoire of learned skills. This prediction is confirmed by comparisons among wild great ape populations and by social deprivation and enculturation experiments. These findings shaped the cultural intelligence hypothesis, which complements the traditional benefit hypotheses for the evolution of intelligence by specifying the conditions in which these benefits can be reaped. The evolutionary version of the hypothesis argues that species with frequent opportunities for social learning should more readily respond to selection for a greater number of learned skills. Because improved social learning also improves asocial learning, the hypothesis predicts a positive interspecific correlation between social-learning performance and individual learning ability. Variation among primates supports this prediction. The hypothesis also predicts that more heavily cultural species should be more intelligent. Preliminary tests involving birds and mammals support this prediction too. The cultural intelligence hypothesis can also account for the unusual cognitive abilities of humans, as well as our unique mechanisms of skill transfer. PMID:21357223

  7. Social learning and evolution: the cultural intelligence hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Schaik, Carel P; Burkart, Judith M

    2011-04-12

    If social learning is more efficient than independent individual exploration, animals should learn vital cultural skills exclusively, and routine skills faster, through social learning, provided they actually use social learning preferentially. Animals with opportunities for social learning indeed do so. Moreover, more frequent opportunities for social learning should boost an individual's repertoire of learned skills. This prediction is confirmed by comparisons among wild great ape populations and by social deprivation and enculturation experiments. These findings shaped the cultural intelligence hypothesis, which complements the traditional benefit hypotheses for the evolution of intelligence by specifying the conditions in which these benefits can be reaped. The evolutionary version of the hypothesis argues that species with frequent opportunities for social learning should more readily respond to selection for a greater number of learned skills. Because improved social learning also improves asocial learning, the hypothesis predicts a positive interspecific correlation between social-learning performance and individual learning ability. Variation among primates supports this prediction. The hypothesis also predicts that more heavily cultural species should be more intelligent. Preliminary tests involving birds and mammals support this prediction too. The cultural intelligence hypothesis can also account for the unusual cognitive abilities of humans, as well as our unique mechanisms of skill transfer.

  8. The versatile use of social media in today's business environment

    OpenAIRE

    Röös, Kristiina

    2016-01-01

    Nowadays, the use of social media has become essential for many businesses. It helps companies to market themselves, raise their brand awareness and move towards new achievements and experiences. Companies must pay better attention to the changing trends in social media, in order to stay competitive. Social media trends need to be followed and learned accordingly, because gaining success can not happen without challenges. This is a portfolio thesis that contents four previous learning as...

  9. Social demand for electricity from forest biomass in Spain: Does payment periodicity affect the willingness to pay?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Solino, Mario; Vazquez, Maria X.; Prada, Albino

    2009-01-01

    In this article, we analyze social preferences for a partial substitution programme of electricity generated by conventional energy sources, for energy generated from a local renewable energy source, such as forest biomass. This analysis sets arguments in favour of accelerating the introduction of this renewable technology in the Spanish Electricity System. Simultaneously, two methodological goals concerning the contingent valuation method are discussed. In the first one, we analyze if there are statistical differences in the willingness to pay (WTP) when a single- or a double-bounded format is employed to ask the valuation question. Results show that WTP estimates from single- and double-bounded significantly differ. In the second one, we analyze the effect of the periodicity of the payment vehicle on the estimates of welfare change. The timeframe specification of the payment vehicle has been scarcely studied, and this fact constitutes the main contribution of this paper to the specialized literature. Results show that periodicity influences upon the probability to favour the proposed change. The periodicity does not affect to the mean WTP obtained in the single-bounded format, but there are statistical differences in the double-bounded format. These results might be explained by the presence of yea saying and payment scale bias

  10. Neural correlates of attention biases, behavioral inhibition, and social anxiety in children: An ERP study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thai, Nhi; Taber-Thomas, Bradley C; Pérez-Edgar, Koraly E

    2016-06-01

    Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a biologically-based temperament characterized by vigilance toward threat. Over time, many children with BI increasingly fear social circumstances and display maladaptive social behavior. BI is also one of the strongest individual risk factors for developing social anxiety disorder. Although research has established a link between BI and anxiety, its causal mechanism remains unclear. Attention biases may underlie this relation. The current study examined neural markers of the BI-attention-anxiety link in children ages 9-12 years (N=99, Mean=9.97, SD=0.97). ERP measures were collected as children completed an attention-bias (dot-probe) task with neutral and angry faces. P2 and N2 amplitudes were associated with social anxiety and attention bias, respectively. Specifically, augmented P2 was related to decreased symptoms of social anxiety and moderated the relation between BI and social anxiety, suggesting that increasing attention mobilization may serve as a compensatory mechanism that attenuates social anxiety in individuals with high BI. The BI by N2 interaction found that larger N2 related to threat avoidance with increasing levels of BI, consistent with over-controlled socio-emotional functioning. Lastly, children without BI (BN) showed an augmented P1 to probes replacing angry faces, suggesting maintenance of attentional resources in threat-related contexts. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  11. Monitoring REDD+: From Social Safeguards to Social Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ravikumar, A.; Andersson, K.

    2010-12-01

    Krister Andersson 1 and Ashwin Ravikumar 1 The UNFCCC requires countries that participate in the REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) program to monitor both forest carbon inventories as well as the governance of REDD+ activities and their social consequences. Exactly how this should be done, however, remains an open question. This paper addresses this question by drawing on existing research on social-ecological systems and new institutional economics. We make the case for a monitoring system that goes beyond a narrow focus of qualitative indicators of REDD+ governance that seek to provide social safeguards for international investors to create a more comprehensive monitoring system that is useful for social learning about how policies affect a variety of forest outcomes. We describe the defining characteristics of five existing approaches to monitoring REDD+ governance. Applying evaluative criteria of affordability, comprehensiveness, transparency, uncertainty specification, and explanatory potential, we analyze the extent to which each of the programs contribute to broader social learning processes in participating countries. Our analysis finds that it makes sense to move from the current narrow focus of monitoring for control to monitoring for social learning. Particularly valuable to participating REDD+ actors would be the creation of learning systems that can help policy makers to identify opportunities for policy improvements, with the ultimate goal of making REDD+ more effective, efficient, and equitable. Such learning is not possible, however, without timely and systematic collection of data on the relationships between forests and forest users. 1University of Colorado at Boulder, Environmental Studies Program, Boulder, CO 80309-0397

  12. The Socialization of Newcomers into Organizations: Integrating Learning and Social Exchange Processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korte, Russell F.

    2007-01-01

    Traditional views of socialization focus primarily on the passive learning by the newcomer of the expectations of the organization. Theorizing and research on cognitive learning and social exchange indicate that the socialization process is vastly more complex. This paper views socialization through the lenses of cognitive learning and social…

  13. Direct Extraction of InP/GaAsSb/InP DHBT Equivalent-Circuit Elements From S-Parameters Measured at Cut-Off and Normal Bias Conditions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, Tom Keinicke; Leblanc, Rémy; Poulain, Julien

    2016-01-01

    A unique direct parameter extraction method for the small-signal equivalent-circuit model of InP/GaAsSb/InP double heterojunction bipolar transistors (DHBTs) is presented. $S$-parameters measured at cut-off bias are used, at first, to extract the distribution factor $X_{0}$ for the base-collector......A unique direct parameter extraction method for the small-signal equivalent-circuit model of InP/GaAsSb/InP double heterojunction bipolar transistors (DHBTs) is presented. $S$-parameters measured at cut-off bias are used, at first, to extract the distribution factor $X_{0}$ for the base......-collector capacitance at zero collector current and the collector-to-emitter overlap capacitance $C_{ceo}$ present in InP DHBT devices. Low-frequency $S$-parameters measured at normal bias conditions then allows the extraction of the external access resistances $R_{bx}$, $R_{e}$, and $R_{cx}$ as well as the intrinsic...

  14. Investigation of Bias in Job Evaluation Ratings of Comparable Worth Study Participants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mount, Michael K.; Ellis, Rebecca A.

    1987-01-01

    Investigated the effects of knowledge of current pay levels and perceived job gender on subsequent job evaluations. Confirmed the hypothesis that jobs with high pay levels would receive higher evaluations than jobs with low pay levels. Found evidence of a pro-female bias in the job evaluation ratings of 53 job evaluators. (Author/ABB)

  15. Threat Interference Biases Predict Socially Anxious Behavior: The Role of Inhibitory Control and Minute of Stressor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorlin, Eugenia I; Teachman, Bethany A

    2015-07-01

    The current study brings together two typically distinct lines of research. First, social anxiety is inconsistently associated with behavioral deficits in social performance, and the factors accounting for these deficits remain poorly understood. Second, research on selective processing of threat cues, termed cognitive biases, suggests these biases typically predict negative outcomes, but may sometimes be adaptive, depending on the context. Integrating these research areas, the current study examined whether conscious and/or unconscious threat interference biases (indexed by the unmasked and masked emotional Stroop) can explain unique variance, beyond self-reported anxiety measures, in behavioral avoidance and observer-rated anxious behavior during a public speaking task. Minute of speech and general inhibitory control (indexed by the color-word Stroop) were examined as within-subject and between-subject moderators, respectively. Highly socially anxious participants (N=135) completed the emotional and color-word Stroop blocks prior to completing a 4-minute videotaped speech task, which was later coded for anxious behaviors (e.g., speech dysfluency). Mixed-effects regression analyses revealed that general inhibitory control moderated the relationship between both conscious and unconscious threat interference bias and anxious behavior (though not avoidance), such that lower threat interference predicted higher levels of anxious behavior, but only among those with relatively weaker (versus stronger) inhibitory control. Minute of speech further moderated this relationship for unconscious (but not conscious) social-threat interference, such that lower social-threat interference predicted a steeper increase in anxious behaviors over the course of the speech (but only among those with weaker inhibitory control). Thus, both trait and state differences in inhibitory control resources may influence the behavioral impact of threat biases in social anxiety. Copyright © 2015

  16. Does it pay to be social responsible? Portuguese SMEs feedback

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luis Miguel Fonseca

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: The research on corporate social responsibility has been focused mainly on Anglo-Saxon countries and big companies. Most scholars agree there is a positive relationship between companies social and economic performance, however, this is not unanimous. Moreover, during economic downturns, companies struggle for survival and might consider corporate social responsibility efforts should be postponed. This research investigates if there is a positive relationship between social performance and key business results using a large sample of small and medium Portuguese companies over an extended period of time. Design/methodology/approach: The investigation is made by using survey responses from a sample of 2.222 small and medium companies (SMEs over a 10 year period, from the Portuguese IAPMEI – Public Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation Benchmarking and Good Practices database. The hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between social and key business results performance was tested with correlation analysis and was complemented with semi-structured interviews of key Portuguese Sustainability Managers. Findings: The research results support the existence of valid positive relationships between companies’ social performance and key business results, confirming it does pay to invest in corporate social responsibility even in less favorable economic scenarios and for small and medium companies across all business sectors. Research limitations/implications: It was not possible to use more powerful statistical methods such as Partial Least Squares (PLS or Structural Equation Modelling (SEM due to data constraints and more qualitative research should be done to triangulate the results and better understating of the cause and effect relationships. Practical implications: Both managers and academics should be aware of the relevance of corporate social responsibility to assure companies enduring success and create benefits for

  17. The influence of social comparison on cognitive bias modification and emotional vulnerability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Standage, Helen; Harris, Jemma; Fox, Elaine

    2014-02-01

    The Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) paradigm was devised to test predictions that cognitive biases have a causal influence on emotional status. Increasingly, however, researchers are testing the potential clinical applications of CBM. Although generally successful in reducing emotional vulnerability in clinical populations, the impact of CBM interventions has been somewhat variable. The aim of the current experiment was to investigate whether social comparison processing might be an important moderator of CBM. Healthy participants were presented with 80 valenced scenarios devised to induce a positive or negative interpretative bias. Critically, participants answered a series of questions designed to establish whether they assimilated or contrasted themselves with the valenced descriptions. The induction of an interpretation bias that was congruent with the valence of the training scenarios was successful only for participants who tended to assimilate the valenced scenarios, and not for those participants who tended to evaluate themselves against the scenarios. Furthermore, the predicted influence of CBM on emotional outcomes occurred only for those who had an assimilative rather than evaluative orientation toward CBM training material. Of key importance, results indicated that "evaluators" showed increased emotional vulnerability following positive CBM training. This result has both theoretical and clinical implications in suggesting that the success of CBM is dependent upon the way in which participants socially compare themselves with CBM training material. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

  18. Virtual Reality-Based Attention Bias Modification Training for Social Anxiety: A Feasibility and Proof of Concept Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Urech, Antoine; Krieger, Tobias; Chesham, Alvin; Mast, Fred W; Berger, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    Attention bias modification (ABM) programs have been considered as a promising new approach for the treatment of various disorders, including social anxiety disorder (SAD). However, previous studies yielded ambiguous results regarding the efficacy of ABM in SAD. The present proof-of-concept study investigates the feasibility of a newly developed virtual reality (VR)-based dot-probe training paradigm. It was designed to facilitate attentional disengagement from threatening stimuli in socially anxious individuals (N = 15). The following outcomes were examined: (a) self-reports of enjoyment, motivation, flow, and presence; (b) attentional bias for social stimuli; and (c) social anxiety symptoms. Results showed that ABM training is associated with high scores in enjoyment, motivation, flow, and presence. Furthermore, significant improvements in terms of attention bias and social anxiety symptoms were observed from pre- to follow-up assessment. The study suggests that VR is a feasible and presumably a promising new medium for ABM trainings. Controlled studies will need to be carried out.

  19. Virtual Reality-Based Attention Bias Modification Training for Social Anxiety: A Feasibility and Proof of Concept Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antoine eUrech

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Attention bias modification (ABM programs have been considered as a promising new approach for the treatment of various disorders, including social anxiety disorder (SAD. However, previous studies yielded ambiguous results regarding the efficacy of ABM in SAD. The present proof-of-concept study investigates the feasibility of a newly developed virtual reality (VR-based dot-probe training paradigm. It was designed to facilitate attentional disengagement from threatening stimuli in socially anxious individuals (N=15. The following outcomes were examined: (a self-reports of enjoyment, motivation, flow and presence, (b attentional bias for social stimuli, and (c social anxiety symptoms. Results showed that ABM training is associated with high scores in enjoyment, motivation, flow and presence. Furthermore, significant improvements in terms of attention bias and social anxiety symptoms were observed from pre- to follow-up assessment. The study suggests that VR is a feasible and presumably a promising new medium for ABM trainings. Controlled studies will need to be carried out.

  20. Written threat: Electrophysiological evidence for an attention bias to affective words in social anxiety disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wabnitz, Pascal; Martens, Ulla; Neuner, Frank

    2016-01-01

    Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is associated with heightened sensitivity to threat cues, typically represented by emotional facial expressions. To examine if this bias can be transferred to a general hypersensitivity or whether it is specific to disorder relevant cues, we investigated electrophysiological correlates of emotional word processing (alpha activity and event-related potentials) in 20 healthy participants and 20 participants with SAD. The experimental task was a silent reading of neutral, positive, physically threatening and socially threatening words (the latter were abusive swear words) while responding to a randomly presented dot. Subsequently, all participants were asked to recall as many words as possible during an unexpected recall test. Participants with SAD showed blunted sensory processing followed by a rapid processing of emotional words during early stages (early posterior negativity - EPN). At later stages, all participants showed enhanced processing of negative (physically and socially threatening) compared to neutral and positive words (N400). Moreover, at later processing stages alpha activity was increased specifically for negative words in participants with SAD but not in healthy controls. Recall of emotional words for all subjects was best for socially threatening words, followed by negative and positive words irrespective of social anxiety. The present findings indicate that SAD is associated with abnormalities in emotional word processing characterised by early hypervigilance to emotional cues followed by cognitive avoidance at later processing stages. Most importantly, the specificity of these attentional biases seems to change as a function of time with a general emotional bias at early and a more specific bias at later processing stages.

  1. Edmodo social learning network for elementary school mathematics learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ariani, Y.; Helsa, Y.; Ahmad, S.; Prahmana, RCI

    2017-12-01

    A developed instructional media can be as printed media, visual media, audio media, and multimedia. The development of instructional media can also take advantage of technological development by utilizing Edmodo social network. This research aims to develop a digital classroom learning model using Edmodo social learning network for elementary school mathematics learning which is practical, valid and effective in order to improve the quality of learning activities. The result of this research showed that the prototype of mathematics learning device for elementary school students using Edmodo was in good category. There were 72% of students passed the assessment as a result of Edmodo learning. Edmodo has become a promising way to engage students in a collaborative learning process.

  2. Melioration behaviour in the Harvard game is reduced by simplifying decision outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stillwell, David J; Tunney, Richard J

    2009-11-01

    Self-control experiments have previously been highlighted as examples of suboptimal decision making. In one such experiment, the Harvard game, participants make repeated choices between two alternatives. One alternative has a higher immediate pay-off than the other, but with repeated choices results in a lower overall pay-off. Preference for the alternative with the higher immediate pay-off seems to be impulsive and will result in a failure to maximize pay-offs. We report an experiment that modifies the Harvard game, dividing the pay-off from each choice into two separate consequences-the immediate and the historic components. Choosing the alternative with the higher immediate pay-off ends the session prematurely, leading to a loss of opportunities to earn further pay-offs and ultimately to a reduced overall pay-off. This makes it easier for participants to learn the outcomes of their actions. It also provides the opportunity for a further test of normative decision making by means of one of its most specific and paradoxical predictions-that the truly rational agent should switch from self-control to impulsivity toward the end of the experimental sessions. The finding that participants maximize their expected utility by both overcoming impulsivity and learning to switch implies that melioration behaviour is not due to the lure of impulsivity, but due to the difficulty of learning which components are included in the pay-off schedules.

  3. Development of Social Learning in Infants and Young Children

    OpenAIRE

    Eydam, Angelique

    2017-01-01

    Social learning is one important way that children learn about the world. This thesis presents and discusses several current social learning theories, exploring how they explain different facets of social learning. In particular, I examined the naïve theory of rational action, the theory of natural pedagogy, the ideomotor approach to social and imitative learning, and the normative account of social learning. Each theory is reviewed on how it explains four facets of social learning: imitation...

  4. Social Learning Analytics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buckingham Shum, Simon; Ferguson, Rebecca

    2012-01-01

    We propose that the design and implementation of effective "Social Learning Analytics (SLA)" present significant challenges and opportunities for both research and enterprise, in three important respects. The first is that the learning landscape is extraordinarily turbulent at present, in no small part due to technological drivers.…

  5. Aging increases the susceptibility to motor memory interference and reduces off-line gains in motor skill learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Roig, Marc; Ritterband-Rosenbaum, Anina; Jensen, Jesper Lundbye

    2014-01-01

    Declines in the ability to learn motor skills in older adults are commonly attributed to deficits in the encoding of sensorimotor information during motor practice. We investigated whether aging also impairs motor memory consolidation by assessing the susceptibility to memory interference and off...... greater susceptibility to memory interference and no off-line gains in motor skill learning. Performing B produced memory interference and reduced off-line gains only in the older group. However, older adults also showed deficits in memory consolidation independent of the interfering effects of B. Age......-related declines in motor skill learning are not produced exclusively by deficits in the encoding of sensorimotor information during practice. Aging also increases the susceptibility to memory interference and reduces off-line gains in motor skill learning after practice....

  6. Merit Pay Misfires

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramirez, Al

    2011-01-01

    Critics argue that the uniform salary schedule is unfair because it promotes mediocrity by rewarding poor performers while failing to recognize outstanding achievement on the job. Advocates for merit pay systems for preK-12 education also contend that the uniform salary schedule ignores the basic purpose of education--student learning. Although…

  7. Emotion and Social Network Perceptions: How Does Anger Bias Perceptions of Networks?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-03-01

    indicate the extent to which they felt angry because previous research suggests that labeling emotions may reduce their impact (Lerner & Keltner , 2000...AFRL-AFOSR-UK-TR-2013-0009 Emotion and Social Network Perceptions: How Does Anger Bias Perceptions of Networks? Professor...REPORT TYPE Final Report 3. DATES COVERED (From – To) 26 August 2011 – 23 February 2013 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Emotion and Social Network

  8. Off-Policy Actor-Critic Structure for Optimal Control of Unknown Systems With Disturbances.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Ruizhuo; Lewis, Frank L; Wei, Qinglai; Zhang, Huaguang

    2016-05-01

    An optimal control method is developed for unknown continuous-time systems with unknown disturbances in this paper. The integral reinforcement learning (IRL) algorithm is presented to obtain the iterative control. Off-policy learning is used to allow the dynamics to be completely unknown. Neural networks are used to construct critic and action networks. It is shown that if there are unknown disturbances, off-policy IRL may not converge or may be biased. For reducing the influence of unknown disturbances, a disturbances compensation controller is added. It is proven that the weight errors are uniformly ultimately bounded based on Lyapunov techniques. Convergence of the Hamiltonian function is also proven. The simulation study demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed optimal control method for unknown systems with disturbances.

  9. Traditions in spider monkeys are biased towards the social domain.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claire J Santorelli

    Full Text Available Cross-site comparison studies of behavioral variation can provide evidence for traditions in wild species once ecological and genetic factors are excluded as causes for cross-site differences. These studies ensure behavior variants are considered within the context of a species' ecology and evolutionary adaptations. We examined wide-scale geographic variation in the behavior of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi across five long-term field sites in Central America using a well established ethnographic cross-site survey method. Spider monkeys possess a relatively rare social system with a high degree of fission-fusion dynamics, also typical of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes and humans (Homo sapiens. From the initial 62 behaviors surveyed 65% failed to meet the necessary criteria for traditions. The remaining 22 behaviors showed cross-site variation in occurrence ranging from absent through to customary, representing to our knowledge, the first documented cases of traditions in this taxon and only the second case of multiple traditions in a New World monkey species. Of the 22 behavioral variants recorded across all sites, on average 57% occurred in the social domain, 19% in food-related domains and 24% in other domains. This social bias contrasts with the food-related bias reported in great ape cross-site comparison studies and has implications for the evolution of human culture. No pattern of geographical radiation was found in relation to distance across sites. Our findings promote A. geoffroyi as a model species to investigate traditions with field and captive based experiments and emphasize the importance of the social domain for the study of animal traditions.

  10. Adaptive cultural transmission biases in children and nonhuman primates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Price, Elizabeth E; Wood, Lara A; Whiten, Andrew

    2017-08-01

    Comparative and evolutionary developmental analyses seek to discover the similarities and differences between humans and non-human species that might illuminate both the evolutionary foundations of our nature that we share with other animals, and the distinctive characteristics that make human development unique. As our closest animal relatives, with whom we last shared common ancestry, non-human primates have been particularly important in this endeavour. Such studies have focused on social learning, traditions, and culture, and have discovered much about the 'how' of social learning, concerned with key underlying processes such as imitation and emulation. One of the core discoveries is that the adaptive adjustment of social learning options to different contexts is not unique to human, therefore multiple new strands of research have begun to focus on more subtle questions about when, from whom, and why such learning occurs. Here we review illustrative studies on both human infants and young children and on non-human primates to identify the similarities shared more broadly across the primate order, and the apparent specialisms that distinguish human development. Adaptive biases in social learning discussed include those modulated by task comprehension, experience, conformity to majorities, and the age, skill, proficiency and familiarity of potential alternative cultural models. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Social capital and localised learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lorenzen, Mark

    2007-01-01

      This conceptual paper analyses why social capital is important for learning and economic development, how it is created and its geography. It argues that with the rise of globalisation and learning-based competition, social capital is becoming valuable because it organises markets, lowering...... business firms' costs of co-ordinating and allowing them flexibly to connect and reconnect. The paper defines social capital as a matrix of various social relations, combined with particular normative and cognitive social institutions that facilitate co-operation and reciprocity, and suggests that social...... capital is formed at spatial scales lower than the national or international, because the density of matrices of social relations increases with proximity. The paper also offers a discussion of how national and regional policies may be suited for promoting social capital....

  12. Designing Socially Intelligent Virtual Companions

    OpenAIRE

    Yu, Han; Shen, Zhiqi; Wu, Qiong; Miao, Chunyan

    2014-01-01

    Virtual companions that interact with users in a socially complex environment require a wide range of social skills. Displaying curiosity is simultaneously a factor to improve a companion's believability and to unobtrusively affect the user's activities over time. Curiosity represents a drive to know new things. It is a major driving force for engaging learners in active learning. Existing research work pays little attention in curiosity. In this paper, we enrich the social skills of a virtua...

  13. Social Emotional Learning Skills and Educational Stress

    Science.gov (United States)

    Çelik, Ismail

    2013-01-01

    The basic aim of this research is to examine the predicting role of social emotional learning skills in educational stress. The participants were 238 adolescents at high school. In this study, the Social Emotional Learning Skills Scale and the Educational Stress Scale were used. The relationships between social emotional learning skills and…

  14. Off-lattice self-learning kinetic Monte Carlo: application to 2D cluster diffusion on the fcc(111) surface

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kara, Abdelkader; Yildirim, Handan; Rahman, Talat S; Trushin, Oleg

    2009-01-01

    We report developments of the kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) method with improved accuracy and increased versatility for the description of atomic diffusivity on metal surfaces. The on-lattice constraint built into our recently proposed self-learning KMC (SLKMC) (Trushin et al 2005 Phys. Rev. B 72 115401) is released, leaving atoms free to occupy 'off-lattice' positions to accommodate several processes responsible for small-cluster diffusion, periphery atom motion and heteroepitaxial growth. This technique combines the ideas embedded in the SLKMC method with a new pattern-recognition scheme fitted to an off-lattice model in which relative atomic positions are used to characterize and store configurations. Application of a combination of the 'drag' and the repulsive bias potential (RBP) methods for saddle point searches allows the treatment of concerted cluster, and multiple- and single-atom, motions on an equal footing. This tandem approach has helped reveal several new atomic mechanisms which contribute to cluster migration. We present applications of this off-lattice SLKMC to the diffusion of 2D islands of Cu (containing 2-30 atoms) on Cu and Ag(111), using the interatomic potential from the embedded-atom method. For the hetero-system Cu/Ag(111), this technique has uncovered mechanisms involving concerted motions such as shear, breathing and commensurate-incommensurate occupancies. Although the technique introduces complexities in storage and retrieval, it does not introduce noticeable extra computational cost.

  15. From the social learning theory to a social learning algorithm for global optimization

    OpenAIRE

    Gong, Yue-Jiao; Zhang, Jun; Li, Yun

    2014-01-01

    Traditionally, the Evolutionary Computation (EC) paradigm is inspired by Darwinian evolution or the swarm intelligence of animals. Bandura's Social Learning Theory pointed out that the social learning behavior of humans indicates a high level of intelligence in nature. We found that such intelligence of human society can be implemented by numerical computing and be utilized in computational algorithms for solving optimization problems. In this paper, we design a novel and generic optimization...

  16. Serial killers, spiders and cybersex: Social and survival information bias in the transmission of urban legends.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stubbersfield, Joseph M; Tehrani, Jamshid J; Flynn, Emma G

    2015-05-01

    This study uses urban legends to examine the effects of the social information bias and survival information bias on cultural transmission across three phases of transmission: the choose-to-receive phase, the encode-and-retrieve phase, and the choose-to-transmit phase. In line with previous research into content biases, a linear transmission chain design with 60 participants aged 18-52 was used to examine the encode-and-retrieve phase, while participants were asked to rank their interest in reading the story behind a headline and passing a story on for the other two phases. Legends which contained social information (Social Type), legends which contained survival information (Survival Type), and legends which contained both forms of information (Combined Type) were all recalled with significantly greater accuracy than control material, while Social and Combined Type legends were recalled with significantly greater accuracy than Survival Type legends. In another study with 30 participants aged 18-22, no significant differences were found between legend types in either the choose-to-receive phase or the choose-to-transmit phase. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

  17. Who needs cream and sugar when there is eco-labeling? Taste and willingness to pay for "eco-friendly" coffee.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sörqvist, Patrik; Hedblom, Daniel; Holmgren, Mattias; Haga, Andreas; Langeborg, Linda; Nöstl, Anatole; Kågström, Jonas

    2013-01-01

    Participants tasted two cups of coffee, decided which they preferred, and then rated each coffee. They were told (in lure) that one of the cups contained "eco-friendly" coffee while the other did not, although the two cups contained identical coffee. In Experiments 1 and 3, but not in Experiment 2, the participants were also told which cup contained which type of coffee before they tasted. The participants preferred the taste of, and were willing to pay more for, the "eco-friendly" coffee, at least those who scored high on a questionnaire on attitudes toward sustainable consumer behavior (Experiment 1). High sustainability consumers were also willing to pay more for "eco-friendly" coffee, even when they were told, after their decision, that they preferred the non-labeled alternative (Experiment 2). Moreover, the eco-label effect does not appear to be a consequence of social desirability, as participants were just as biased when reporting the taste estimates and willingness to pay anonymously (Experiment 3). Eco labels not only promote a willingness to pay more for the product but also lead to a more favorable perceptual experience of it.

  18. Who needs cream and sugar when there is eco-labeling? Taste and willingness to pay for "eco-friendly" coffee.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrik Sörqvist

    Full Text Available Participants tasted two cups of coffee, decided which they preferred, and then rated each coffee. They were told (in lure that one of the cups contained "eco-friendly" coffee while the other did not, although the two cups contained identical coffee. In Experiments 1 and 3, but not in Experiment 2, the participants were also told which cup contained which type of coffee before they tasted. The participants preferred the taste of, and were willing to pay more for, the "eco-friendly" coffee, at least those who scored high on a questionnaire on attitudes toward sustainable consumer behavior (Experiment 1. High sustainability consumers were also willing to pay more for "eco-friendly" coffee, even when they were told, after their decision, that they preferred the non-labeled alternative (Experiment 2. Moreover, the eco-label effect does not appear to be a consequence of social desirability, as participants were just as biased when reporting the taste estimates and willingness to pay anonymously (Experiment 3. Eco labels not only promote a willingness to pay more for the product but also lead to a more favorable perceptual experience of it.

  19. Social Structures for Learning

    OpenAIRE

    Bogenrieder, I.M.; Nooteboom, B.

    2001-01-01

    textabstractThis article investigates what learning groups there are in organizations, other than the familiar 'communities of practice'. It first develops an interdisciplinary theoretical framework for identifying, categorizing and understanding learning groups. For this, it employs a constructivist, interactionist theory of knowledge and learning. It employs elements of transaction cost theory and of social theory of trust. Transaction cost economics neglects learning and trust, but element...

  20. Biased self-perceptions of social competence and engagement in physical and relational aggression: the moderating role of peer status and sex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McQuade, Julia D; Achufusi, Adaora K; Shoulberg, Erin K; Murray-Close, Dianna

    2014-01-01

    This study sought to expand on prior research suggesting that children low in peer status who either over- or underestimate their social competence relative to others' reports are more likely to be aggressive (White and Kistner [2011]. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39, 645-656). The curvilinear associations between social competence bias and two forms of aggression (physical and relational) were examined in a sample of 4th through 6th graders (n = 183); moderation by both sex and peer status (peer preference and popularity) also were tested. Social competence bias was operationally defined as the residual difference between child and teacher ratings of the child's social competence. Aggression and peer status were measured using peer nomination procedures. There was a significant curvilinear association between social competence bias and physical aggression moderated by both types of peer status. For low peer status children greater underestimation and overestimation of social competence was associated with higher physical aggression. The curvilinear association between social competence bias and relational aggression was moderated by both peer status and sex. Popular boys had higher rates of relational aggression when they had accurate, rather than biased, self-perceptions of social competence. However, for very highly preferred girls, a more extreme positive bias was associated with an exponential increase in relational aggression. Results are discussed in terms of implications for aggression theory and intervention. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  1. Does attention redirection contribute to the effectiveness of attention bias modification on social anxiety?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yao, Nisha; Yu, Hongyu; Qian, Mingyi; Li, Songwei

    2015-12-01

    Attention bias modification (ABM) is designed to modify threat-related attention bias and thus alleviate anxiety. The current research examined whether consistently directing attention towards targeted goals per se contributes to ABM efficacy. We randomly assigned 68 non-clinical college students with elevated social anxiety to non-valence-specific attend-to-geometrics (AGC), attention modification (AMC), or attention control (ACC) conditions. We assessed subjective, behavioral, and physiological reactivity to a speech task and self-reported social anxiety symptoms. After training, participants in the AMC exhibited an attention avoidance from threat, and those in the AGC responded more rapidly toward targeted geometrics. There was a significant pre- to post-reduction in subjective speech distress across groups, but behavioral and physiological reactivity to speech, as well as self-report social anxiety symptoms, remained unchanged. These results lead to questions concerning effectiveness of ABM training for reducing social anxiety. Further examination of the current ABM protocol is required. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Social Decision Making in Adolescents and Young Adults: Evidence From the Ultimatum Game and Cognitive Biases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marchetti, Antonella; Baglio, Francesca; Castelli, Ilaria; Griffanti, Ludovica; Nemni, Raffaello; Rossetto, Federica; Valle, Annalisa; Zanette, Michela; Massaro, Davide

    2018-01-01

    During adolescence and early adulthood, individuals deal with important developmental changes, especially in the context of complex social interactions. Previous studies demonstrated that those changes have a significant impact on the social decision making process, in terms of a progressive increase of intentionality comprehension of others, of the sensitivity to fairness, and of the impermeability to decisional biases. However, neither adolescents nor adults reach the ideal level of maximization and of rationality of the homo economicus proposed by classical economics theory, thus remaining more close to the model of the "bounded rationality" proposed by cognitive psychology. In the present study, we analyzed two aspects of decision making in 110 participants from early adolescence to young adulthood: the sensitivity to fairness and the permeability to decisional biases (Outcome Bias and Hindsight Bias). To address these questions, we adopted a modified version of the Ultimatum Game task, where participants faced fair, unfair, and hyperfair offers from proposers described as generous, selfish, or neutral. We also administered two behavioral tasks testing the influence of the Outcome Bias and of the Hindsight Bias in the evaluation of the decision. Our behavioral results highlighted that the participants are still partially consequentialist, as the decisional process is influenced by a complex balance between the outcome and the psychological description of the proposer. As regards cognitive biases, the Outcome Bias and the Hindsight Bias are present in the whole sample, with no relevant age differences.

  3. Seamless Language Learning: Second Language Learning with Social Media

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Lung-Hsiang; Chai, Ching Sing; Aw, Guat Poh

    2017-01-01

    This conceptual paper describes a language learning model that applies social media to foster contextualized and connected language learning in communities. The model emphasizes weaving together different forms of language learning activities that take place in different learning contexts to achieve seamless language learning. it promotes social…

  4. Who Knows? Metacognitive Social Learning Strategies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heyes, Cecilia

    2016-03-01

    To make good use of learning from others (social learning), we need to learn from the right others; from agents who know better than we do. Research on social learning strategies (SLSs) has identified rules that focus social learning on the right agents, and has shown that the behaviour of many animals conforms to these rules. However, it has not asked what the rules are made of, that is, about the cognitive processes implementing SLSs. Here, I suggest that most SLSs depend on domain-general, sensorimotor processes. However, some SLSs have the characteristics tacitly ascribed to all of them. These metacognitive SLSs represent 'who knows' in a conscious, reportable way, and have the power to promote cultural evolution. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Discussion Paper Social and emotional learning for children with Learning Disability: Implications for inclusion.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valeria Cavioni

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses the key role of social and emotional learning programmes for children with Learning Disability (LD. The first part of the paper discusses the difficulties students with learning disability may encounter in their education, such as issues related to peer group acceptance, friendship and social isolation, low self-efficacy and self-esteem, and externalized and internalized behavior problems. The relationship between social and emotional learning programmes and learning disability is then discussed, underlining the benefits of social and emotional learning for students with LD. The paper concludes by highlighting the need for universal social and emotional learning as a vehicle for the academic and social inclusion of students with LD.

  6. The mediating role of state maladaptive emotion regulation in the relation between social anxiety symptoms and self-evaluation bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarfan, Laurel D; Cody, Meghan W; Clerkin, Elise M

    2018-03-16

    Although social anxiety symptoms are robustly linked to biased self-evaluations across time, the mechanisms of this relation remain unclear. The present study tested three maladaptive emotion regulation strategies - state post-event processing, state experiential avoidance, and state expressive suppression - as potential mediators of this relation. Undergraduate participants (N = 88; 61.4% Female) rated their social skill in an impromptu conversation task and then returned to the laboratory approximately two days later to evaluate their social skill in the conversation again. Consistent with expectations, state post-event processing and state experiential avoidance mediated the relation between social anxiety symptoms and worsening self-evaluations of social skill (controlling for research assistant evaluations), particularly for positive qualities (e.g. appeared confident, demonstrated social skill). State expressive suppression did not mediate the relation between social anxiety symptoms and changes in self-evaluation bias across time. These findings highlight the role that spontaneous, state experiential avoidance and state post-event processing may play in the relation between social anxiety symptoms and worsening self-evaluation biases of social skill across time.

  7. Public Willingness to Pay to Improve Services for Individuals With Serious Mental Illness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stone, Elizabeth M; McGinty, Emma E

    2018-05-08

    This study measured Americans' willingness to pay an additional $50 in taxes to improve health care and social services for individuals with serious mental illness. A nationally representative online survey was conducted with 1,010 respondents. Analysis examined how respondents' demographic characteristics and attitudes toward individuals with serious mental illness correlated with their willingness to pay additional taxes to improve health care and social services for this vulnerable population. A majority of respondents expressed willingness to pay $50 in additional taxes to improve health care services (60%) and social services (58%) for individuals with serious mental illness. Those with more negative attitudes toward individuals with serious mental illness were less willing to pay additional taxes to improve either service type. Many Americans are willing to pay additional taxes to improve health care and social services for individuals with serious mental illness.

  8. A self-learning algorithm for biased molecular dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tribello, Gareth A.; Ceriotti, Michele; Parrinello, Michele

    2010-01-01

    A new self-learning algorithm for accelerated dynamics, reconnaissance metadynamics, is proposed that is able to work with a very large number of collective coordinates. Acceleration of the dynamics is achieved by constructing a bias potential in terms of a patchwork of one-dimensional, locally valid collective coordinates. These collective coordinates are obtained from trajectory analyses so that they adapt to any new features encountered during the simulation. We show how this methodology can be used to enhance sampling in real chemical systems citing examples both from the physics of clusters and from the biological sciences. PMID:20876135

  9. Enhancing social skills through cooperative learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M J Booysen

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available The National Curriculum Statement of South Africa envisages qualified and competent teachers to deal with the diversity of learners and their needs in the classroom. One of the needs refers to all learners (Gr R-12 who need to acquire the necessary social skills to enable them to work effectively with others as members of a team, group, organization and community. These skills refer inter alia to: learning to work with others, listening to others, giving attention, asking clarifying questions, learning how to evaluate, and to praise others, handling conflict, reflecting on group work and allowing all group members to participate. The most obvious place to deal purposefully with the development of social skills is the classroom. This implies that alternative ways and methods of teaching must be introduced to develop the necessary social skills. This article reports on the findings obtained from a combined quantitative and qualitative study that set out to determine the levels of social competence achieved by a group of Grade 2 learners, and the possible association of a cooperative teaching and learning intervention programme for enhancing the social skills of these learners. The results revealed the latent potential of cooperative learning to enhance the social skills of Grade 2 learners. The significance of this research lies in the contribution it makes to establish the social competence of a group of Grade 2 learners and to determine the possibilities for enhancing their social skills through cooperative learning.

  10. The convergence of the gender pay gap: An alternative estimation approach

    OpenAIRE

    Castagnetti, Carolina; Rosti, Luisa; Töpfer, Marina

    2017-01-01

    So far, little work has been done on directly estimating differences of wage gaps. Stud- ies estimating pay differentials, generally compare them across different subsamples. This comparison does not allow to conduct any inference or, in the case of decompositions, to confront the respective decomposition components across subsamples. We propose an exten- sion of an Oaxaca-Blinder type decomposition based on the omitted variable bias formula to directly estimate the change in pay gaps across ...

  11. Attention Biases Towards and Away from Threat Mark the Relation between Early Dysregulated Fear and the Later Emergence of Social Withdrawal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morales, Santiago; Pérez-Edgar, Koraly E; Buss, Kristin A

    2015-08-01

    Fearful temperament, mostly studied as behavioral inhibition (BI), has been extensively associated with social withdrawal in childhood and the later emergence of anxiety disorders, especially social anxiety disorder (SAD). Recent studies have characterized a distinct type of fearful temperament marked by high levels of fear in low threat situations - labeled dysregulated fear. Dysregulated fear has been related to SAD over and above risks associated with BI. However, the mechanism by which dysregulated fear is related to SAD has not been studied. Cognitive mechanisms, such as attentional bias towards threat, may be a possible conduit. We examined differences in attentional bias towards threat in six-year-olds who displayed a pattern of dysregulated fear at age two (N = 23) compared with children who did not display dysregulated fear (N = 33). Moreover, we examined the concurrent relation between attentional bias and social withdrawal. Results indicated that children characterized by dysregulated fear showed a significant bias away from threat, and that this bias was significantly different from the children without dysregulated fear, who showed no significant bias. Moreover, attentional bias towards threat was positively related to social withdrawal only for the dysregulated fear group. These results are discussed in consideration of the existing knowledge of attentional bias to threat in the developmental and pediatric anxiety literatures, as well as recent studies that find important heterogeneity in attentional bias.

  12. The durability of public goods changes the dynamics and nature of social dilemmas.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sam P Brown

    Full Text Available An implicit assumption underpins basic models of the evolution of cooperation, mutualism and altruism: The benefits (or pay-offs of cooperation and defection are defined by the current frequency or distribution of cooperators. In social dilemmas involving durable public goods (group resources that can persist in the environment-ubiquitous from microbes to humans this assumption is violated. Here, we examine the consequences of relaxing this assumption, allowing pay-offs to depend on both current and past numbers of cooperators. We explicitly trace the dynamic of a public good created by cooperators, and define pay-offs in terms of the current public good. By raising the importance of cooperative history in determining the current fate of cooperators, durable public goods cause novel dynamics (e.g., transient increases in cooperation in Prisoner's Dilemmas, oscillations in Snowdrift Games, or shifts in invasion thresholds in Stag-hunt Games, while changes in durability can transform one game into another, by moving invasion thresholds for cooperation or conditions for coexistence with defectors. This enlarged view challenges our understanding of social cheats. For instance, groups of cooperators can do worse than groups of defectors, if they inherit fewer public goods, while a rise in defectors no longer entails a loss of social benefits, at least not in the present moment (as highlighted by concerns over environmental lags. Wherever durable public goods have yet to reach a steady state (for instance due to external perturbations, the history of cooperation will define the ongoing dynamics of cooperators.

  13. Transient nature of cooperation by pay-it-forward reciprocity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horita, Yutaka; Takezawa, Masanori; Kinjo, Takuji; Nakawake, Yo; Masuda, Naoki

    2016-01-20

    Humans often forward kindness received from others to strangers, a phenomenon called the upstream or pay-it-forward indirect reciprocity. Some field observations and laboratory experiments found evidence of pay-it-forward reciprocity in which chains of cooperative acts persist in social dilemma situations. Theoretically, however, cooperation based on pay-it-forward reciprocity is not sustainable. We carried out laboratory experiments of a pay-it-forward indirect reciprocity game (i.e., chained gift-giving game) on a large scale in terms of group size and time. We found that cooperation consistent with pay-it-forward reciprocity occurred only in a first few decisions per participant and that cooperation originated from inherent pro-sociality of individuals. In contrast, the same groups of participants showed persisting chains of cooperation in a different indirect reciprocity game in which participants earned reputation by cooperating. Our experimental results suggest that pay-it-forward reciprocity is transient and disappears when a person makes decisions repeatedly, whereas the reputation-based reciprocity is stable in the same situation.

  14. Predictors of Biased Self-perception in Individuals with High Social Anxiety: The Effect of Self-consciousness in the Private and Public Self Domains

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Henrik Nordahl

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available “Biased self-perception,” the tendency to perceive one’s social performance as more negative than observers do, is characteristic of socially anxious individuals. Self-attention processes are hypothesised to underlie biased self-perception, however, different models emphasise different aspects of self-attention, with attention to the public aspects of the self being prominent. The current study aimed to investigate the relative contribution of two types of dispositional self-attention; public- and private self-consciousness to biased self-perception in a high (n = 48 versus a low (n = 48 social anxiety group undergoing an interaction task. The main finding was that private self-consciousness explained substantial and unique variance in biased negative self-perception in individuals with high social anxiety, while public self-consciousness did not. This relationship was independent of increments in state anxiety. Private self-consciousness appeared to have a specific association with bias related to overestimation of negative social performance rather than underestimation of positive social performance. The implication of this finding is that current treatment models of Social anxiety disorder might include broader aspects of self-focused attention, especially in the context of formulating self-evaluation biases.

  15. Predictors of Biased Self-perception in Individuals with High Social Anxiety: The Effect of Self-consciousness in the Private and Public Self Domains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nordahl, Henrik; Plummer, Alice; Wells, Adrian

    2017-01-01

    "Biased self-perception," the tendency to perceive one's social performance as more negative than observers do, is characteristic of socially anxious individuals. Self-attention processes are hypothesised to underlie biased self-perception, however, different models emphasise different aspects of self-attention, with attention to the public aspects of the self being prominent. The current study aimed to investigate the relative contribution of two types of dispositional self-attention; public- and private self-consciousness to biased self-perception in a high ( n = 48) versus a low ( n = 48) social anxiety group undergoing an interaction task. The main finding was that private self-consciousness explained substantial and unique variance in biased negative self-perception in individuals with high social anxiety, while public self-consciousness did not. This relationship was independent of increments in state anxiety. Private self-consciousness appeared to have a specific association with bias related to overestimation of negative social performance rather than underestimation of positive social performance. The implication of this finding is that current treatment models of Social anxiety disorder might include broader aspects of self-focused attention, especially in the context of formulating self-evaluation biases.

  16. Immunization against social fear learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Golkar, Armita; Olsson, Andreas

    2016-06-01

    Social fear learning offers an efficient way to transmit information about potential threats; little is known, however, about the learning processes that counteract the social transmission of fear. In three separate experiments, we found that safety information transmitted from another individual (i.e., demonstrator) during preexposure prevented subsequent observational fear learning (Experiments 1-3), and this effect was maintained in a new context involving direct threat confrontation (Experiment 3). This protection from observational fear learning was specific to conditions in which information about both safety and danger was transmitted from the same demonstrator (Experiments 2-3) and was unaffected by increasing the number of the safety demonstrators (Experiment 3). Collectively, these findings demonstrate that observational preexposure can limit social transmission of fear. Future research is needed to better understand the conditions under which such effects generalize across individual demonstrators. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  17. Threshold Learning Dynamics in Social Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    González-Avella, Juan Carlos; Eguíluz, Victor M.; Marsili, Matteo; Vega-Redondo, Fernado; San Miguel, Maxi

    2011-01-01

    Social learning is defined as the ability of a population to aggregate information, a process which must crucially depend on the mechanisms of social interaction. Consumers choosing which product to buy, or voters deciding which option to take with respect to an important issue, typically confront external signals to the information gathered from their contacts. Economic models typically predict that correct social learning occurs in large populations unless some individuals display unbounded influence. We challenge this conclusion by showing that an intuitive threshold process of individual adjustment does not always lead to such social learning. We find, specifically, that three generic regimes exist separated by sharp discontinuous transitions. And only in one of them, where the threshold is within a suitable intermediate range, the population learns the correct information. In the other two, where the threshold is either too high or too low, the system either freezes or enters into persistent flux, respectively. These regimes are generally observed in different social networks (both complex or regular), but limited interaction is found to promote correct learning by enlarging the parameter region where it occurs. PMID:21637714

  18. Social Contact in Virtual Learning Environments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Heilesen, Simon

    2013-01-01

    A common question is whether technology will replace social contact. In this article it is argued that it will not, provided that we learn to use the characteristics of new media constructively in designing for learning. The term “social”, in this context is taken to mean “purposeful communication......” and not “recreational socializing” (even if socializing may indeed facilitate learning)...

  19. Domestic supply, job-specialisation and sex-differences in pay

    OpenAIRE

    Polavieja, Javier G.

    2008-01-01

    This paper proposes an explanation of sex-differences in job-allocation and pay. Job allocation calculations are considered to be related to 1) the distribution of housework and 2) the skill-specialization requirements of jobs. Both elements combined generate a particular incentive structure for each sex. Welfare policies and services can, however, lower the risks of skill-depreciation for women as well as increase their intra-household bargaining power, hence reducing the economic pay-offs o...

  20. Statistical learning in social action contexts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monroy, Claire; Meyer, Marlene; Gerson, Sarah; Hunnius, Sabine

    2017-01-01

    Sensitivity to the regularities and structure contained within sequential, goal-directed actions is an important building block for generating expectations about the actions we observe. Until now, research on statistical learning for actions has solely focused on individual action sequences, but many actions in daily life involve multiple actors in various interaction contexts. The current study is the first to investigate the role of statistical learning in tracking regularities between actions performed by different actors, and whether the social context characterizing their interaction influences learning. That is, are observers more likely to track regularities across actors if they are perceived as acting jointly as opposed to in parallel? We tested adults and toddlers to explore whether social context guides statistical learning and-if so-whether it does so from early in development. In a between-subjects eye-tracking experiment, participants were primed with a social context cue between two actors who either shared a goal of playing together ('Joint' condition) or stated the intention to act alone ('Parallel' condition). In subsequent videos, the actors performed sequential actions in which, for certain action pairs, the first actor's action reliably predicted the second actor's action. We analyzed predictive eye movements to upcoming actions as a measure of learning, and found that both adults and toddlers learned the statistical regularities across actors when their actions caused an effect. Further, adults with high statistical learning performance were sensitive to social context: those who observed actors with a shared goal were more likely to correctly predict upcoming actions. In contrast, there was no effect of social context in the toddler group, regardless of learning performance. These findings shed light on how adults and toddlers perceive statistical regularities across actors depending on the nature of the observed social situation and the

  1. Quantifying the Economic and Cultural Biases of Social Media through Trending Topics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carrascosa, Juan Miguel; Cuevas, Ruben; Gonzalez, Roberto; Azcorra, Arturo; Garcia, David

    2015-01-01

    Online social media has recently irrupted as the last major venue for the propagation of news and cultural content, competing with traditional mass media and allowing citizens to access new sources of information. In this paper, we study collectively filtered news and popular content in Twitter, known as Trending Topics (TTs), to quantify the extent to which they show similar biases known for mass media. We use two datasets collected in 2013 and 2014, including more than 300.000 TTs from 62 countries. The existing patterns of leader-follower relationships among countries reveal systemic biases known for mass media: Countries concentrate their attention to small groups of other countries, generating a pattern of centralization in which TTs follow the gradient of wealth across countries. At the same time, we find subjective biases within language communities linked to the cultural similarity of countries, in which countries with closer cultures and shared languages tend to follow each other's TTs. Moreover, using a novel methodology based on the Google News service, we study the influence of mass media in TTs for four countries. We find that roughly half of the TTs in Twitter overlap with news reported by mass media, and that the rest of TTs are more likely to spread internationally within Twitter. Our results confirm that online social media have the power to independently spread content beyond mass media, but at the same time social media content follows economic incentives and is subject to cultural factors and language barriers.

  2. Who Needs Cream and Sugar When There Is Eco-Labeling? Taste and Willingness to Pay for “Eco-Friendly” Coffee

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sörqvist, Patrik; Hedblom, Daniel; Holmgren, Mattias; Haga, Andreas; Langeborg, Linda; Nöstl, Anatole; Kågström, Jonas

    2013-01-01

    Participants tasted two cups of coffee, decided which they preferred, and then rated each coffee. They were told (in lure) that one of the cups contained “eco-friendly” coffee while the other did not, although the two cups contained identical coffee. In Experiments 1 and 3, but not in Experiment 2, the participants were also told which cup contained which type of coffee before they tasted. The participants preferred the taste of, and were willing to pay more for, the “eco-friendly” coffee, at least those who scored high on a questionnaire on attitudes toward sustainable consumer behavior (Experiment 1). High sustainability consumers were also willing to pay more for “eco-friendly” coffee, even when they were told, after their decision, that they preferred the non-labeled alternative (Experiment 2). Moreover, the eco-label effect does not appear to be a consequence of social desirability, as participants were just as biased when reporting the taste estimates and willingness to pay anonymously (Experiment 3). Eco labels not only promote a willingness to pay more for the product but also lead to a more favorable perceptual experience of it. PMID:24324623

  3. Collective Learning in Games through Social Networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kosterman, S.; Gierasimczuk, N.; Armentano, M.G.; Monteserin, A.; Tang, J.; Yannibelli, V.

    2015-01-01

    This paper argues that combining social networks communication and games can positively influence the learning behavior of players. We propose a computational model that combines features of social network learning (communication) and game-based learning (strategy reinforcement). The focus is on

  4. THE IMPACTS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IN HIGHER LEARNING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohd Ishak Bin Ismail

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Social networking sites, a web-based application have permeated the boundary between personal lives and student lives. Nowadays, students in higher learning used social networking site such as Facebook to facilitate their learning through the academic collaboration which it further enhances students’ social capital. Social networking site has many advantages to improve students’ learning. To date, Facebook is the leading social networking sites at this time which it being widely used by students in higher learning to communicate to each other, to carry out academic collaboration and sharing resources. Learning through social networking sites is based on the social interaction which learning are emphasizing on students, real world resources, active students` participation, diversity of learning resources and the use of digital tools to deliver meaningful learning. Many studies found the positive, neutral and negative impact of social networking sites on academic performance. Thus, this study will determine the relationship between Facebook usage and academic achievement. Also, it will investigate the association of social capital and academic collaboration to Facebook usage.

  5. Social learning in humans and other animals.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jean-François eGariépy

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Decisions made by individuals can be influenced by what others think and do. Social learning includes a wide array of behaviors such as imitation, observational learning of novel foraging techniques, peer or parental influences on individual preferences, as well as outright teaching. These processes are believed to underlie an important part of cultural variation among human populations and may also explain intraspecific variation in behavior between geographically distinct populations of animals. Recent neurobiological studies have begun to uncover the neural basis of social learning. Here we review experimental evidence from the past few decades showing that social learning is a widespread set of skills present in multiple animal species. In mammals, the temporoparietal junction, the dorsomedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, as well as the anterior cingulate gyrus, appear to play critical roles in social learning. Birds, fish and insects also learn from others, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. We discuss the evolutionary implications of these findings and highlight the importance of emerging animal models that permit precise modification of neural circuit function for elucidating the neural basis of social learning.

  6. The role of social learning for social-ecological systems in Korean village groves restoration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eunju Lee

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Recently, social learning has been recognized as a means to foster adaptation to changing conditions, and more broadly, social-ecological systems resilience. However, the discussion of social learning and social-ecological resilience in different cultural contexts is limited. In this study we introduce the Korean Village Groves Restoration Project (VGRP through the lens of social learning, and discuss implications of the VGRP for resilience in villages impacted by industrialization and decline of traditional forest resources. We conducted open-ended interviews with VGRP leaders, government and NGO officials, and residents in four villages in South Korea, and found that villages responded to ecosystem change in ways that could be explained by the characteristics of social learning including interaction, integration, systems orientation, and reflection. However, the processes of learning varied among the four villages, and were associated with different levels of learning and different learning outcomes related to changes in village grove management and governance. The cultural and historical context can be used to help understand social learning processes and their outcomes in the Korean cases.

  7. Performance Anxiety among African-American College Students: Racial Bias as a Factor in Social Phobia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Aleta Bok

    2006-01-01

    This article examines the etiology of social phobia, and proposes that the sensitivity to self-scrutiny common to social phobics can be exacerbated by the effects of longstanding racial bias. The impact of racism on identity and the importance of context are explored as salient factors in the onset of a case of social phobia for an…

  8. Mate familiarity and social learning in a monogamous lizard.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Munch, Kirke L; Noble, Daniel W A; Wapstra, Erik; While, Geoffrey M

    2018-05-08

    Social learning is thought to be advantageous as it allows an animal to gather information quickly without engaging in costly trial-and-error learning. However, animals should be selective about when and whom they learn from. Familiarity is predicted to positively influence an animal's reliance on social learning; yet, few studies have empirically tested this theory. We used a lizard (Liopholis whitii) that forms long-term monogamous pair bonds to examine the effects of partner familiarity on social learning in two novel foraging tasks, an association and a reversal task. We allowed female lizards to observe trained conspecifics that were either familiar (social mate) or unfamiliar execute these tasks and compared these two groups with control females that did not receive social information. Lizards preferentially relied on trial-and-error learning in the association task. In the reversal task, lizards that were demonstrated by familiar partners learnt in fewer trials compared to control lizards and made more correct choices. Our results provide some evidence for context-dependent learning with lizards differentiating between when they utilize social learning, and, to a limited degree, whom they learnt from. Understanding the role of the social context in which learning occurs provides important insights into the benefits of social learning and sociality more generally.

  9. A Social Learning Space Grid for MOOCs: Exploring a FutureLearn Case

    OpenAIRE

    Manathunga, Kalpani; Hernández-Leo, Davinia; Sharples, Mike

    2017-01-01

    Collaborative and social engagement promote active learning through knowledge intensive interactions. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are dynamic and diversified learning spaces with varying factors like flexible time frames, student count, demographics requiring higher engagement and motivation to continue learning and for designers to implement novel pedagogies including collaborative learning activities. This paper looks into available and potential collaborative and social learning sp...

  10. Skype me! Socially Contingent Interactions Help Toddlers Learn Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roseberry, Sarah; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick

    2013-01-01

    Language learning takes place in the context of social interactions, yet the mechanisms that render social interactions useful for learning language remain unclear. This paper focuses on whether social contingency might support word learning. Toddlers aged 24- to 30-months (N=36) were exposed to novel verbs in one of three conditions: live interaction training, socially contingent video training over video chat, and non-contingent video training (yoked video). Results suggest that children only learned novel verbs in socially contingent interactions (live interactions and video chat). The current study highlights the importance of social contingency in interactions for language learning and informs the literature on learning through screen media as the first study to examine word learning through video chat technology. PMID:24112079

  11. Corporate social responsibility in a competitive business environment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Newman, Carol; Rand, John; Tarp, Finn

    efficiency, and reveal that the impact is stronger for firms in non-competitive industries. Moreover, we show that local community focused corporate social responsibility initiatives drive the aggregate effect. This suggests that socially responsible actions by firms are likely to pay-off when stakeholder...... engagement has a localized focus. We provide evidence of reciprocity by showing that employees accept a lower share of additionally generated value added in exchange for working in a company that signals ‘good’ corporate values....

  12. Bias correction for selecting the minimal-error classifier from many machine learning models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ding, Ying; Tang, Shaowu; Liao, Serena G; Jia, Jia; Oesterreich, Steffi; Lin, Yan; Tseng, George C

    2014-11-15

    Supervised machine learning is commonly applied in genomic research to construct a classifier from the training data that is generalizable to predict independent testing data. When test datasets are not available, cross-validation is commonly used to estimate the error rate. Many machine learning methods are available, and it is well known that no universally best method exists in general. It has been a common practice to apply many machine learning methods and report the method that produces the smallest cross-validation error rate. Theoretically, such a procedure produces a selection bias. Consequently, many clinical studies with moderate sample sizes (e.g. n = 30-60) risk reporting a falsely small cross-validation error rate that could not be validated later in independent cohorts. In this article, we illustrated the probabilistic framework of the problem and explored the statistical and asymptotic properties. We proposed a new bias correction method based on learning curve fitting by inverse power law (IPL) and compared it with three existing methods: nested cross-validation, weighted mean correction and Tibshirani-Tibshirani procedure. All methods were compared in simulation datasets, five moderate size real datasets and two large breast cancer datasets. The result showed that IPL outperforms the other methods in bias correction with smaller variance, and it has an additional advantage to extrapolate error estimates for larger sample sizes, a practical feature to recommend whether more samples should be recruited to improve the classifier and accuracy. An R package 'MLbias' and all source files are publicly available. tsenglab.biostat.pitt.edu/software.htm. ctseng@pitt.edu Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  13. Learning to Play, Playing to Learn: Comparing the Experiences of Adult Foreign Language Learners with Off-the-Shelf and Specialized Games for Learning German

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Grove, Frederik; Van Looy, Jan; Mechant, Peter

    2013-01-01

    Learning opportunities offered by digital games have become an important research topic in recent years. Language learning is one of the areas in which games could prosper but the question then is whether these should be specialized language-learning games or commercial off-the-shelf games for entertainment. The goal of this paper is to compare…

  14. Exploring Student’s Blended Learning through Social Media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leon Andretti Abdillah

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Information technology (IT has been used widely in many aspects of our daily life. Social media as a leading application on the internet has changed many aspects of life become more globalized. This article discussed the use of social media to support learning activities for students in the faculty of computer science. The author used Facebook and WordPress as an alternative to electronic learning, those were: 1 online attendance tool, 2 media storage and dissemination of course materials, 3 and event scheduling for the lectures. Social media succeed to change the way of modern learning styles and environment. The results of this study are some learning activities such as (1 Preparation, (2 Weekly meeting activities, (3 Course Page, (4 Social Media as Online Attendance Tool, (5 Social Media as Learning Repository and Dissemination, and (6 Social Media as Online Event Scheduling. Change conventional learning model becomes visual and distanceless.

  15. A Team Formation and Project-based Learning Support Service for Social Learning Networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Spoelstra, Howard; Van Rosmalen, Peter; Van de Vrie, Evert; Obreza, Matija; Sloep, Peter

    2014-01-01

    The Internet affords new approaches to learning. Geographically dispersed self-directed learners can learn in computer-supported communities, forming social learning networks. However, self-directed learners can suffer from a lack of continuous motivation. And surprisingly, social learning networks

  16. Social exclusion in academia through biases in methodological quality evaluation: On the situation of women in science and philosophy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leuschner, Anna

    2015-12-01

    Empirical studies show that academia is socially exclusive. I argue that this social exclusion works, at least partly, through the systematic methodological disqualification of contributions from members of underrepresented social groups. As methodological quality criteria are underdetermined their interpretation and weighting can be biased with relation to gender, race, social background, etc. Such biased quality evaluation can take place on a local or global level. The current situation of women in academic philosophy illuminates this. I conclude that only mechanical solutions can effectively change the situation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Skype me! Socially contingent interactions help toddlers learn language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roseberry, Sarah; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta M

    2014-01-01

    Language learning takes place in the context of social interactions, yet the mechanisms that render social interactions useful for learning language remain unclear. This study focuses on whether social contingency might support word learning. Toddlers aged 24-30 months (N = 36) were exposed to novel verbs in one of three conditions: live interaction training, socially contingent video training over video chat, and noncontingent video training (yoked video). Results suggest that children only learned novel verbs in socially contingent interactions (live interactions and video chat). This study highlights the importance of social contingency in interactions for language learning and informs the literature on learning through screen media as the first study to examine word learning through video chat technology. © 2013 The Authors. Child Development © 2013 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

  18. The evolutionary basis of human social learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morgan, T J H; Rendell, L E; Ehn, M; Hoppitt, W; Laland, K N

    2012-02-22

    Humans are characterized by an extreme dependence on culturally transmitted information. Such dependence requires the complex integration of social and asocial information to generate effective learning and decision making. Recent formal theory predicts that natural selection should favour adaptive learning strategies, but relevant empirical work is scarce and rarely examines multiple strategies or tasks. We tested nine hypotheses derived from theoretical models, running a series of experiments investigating factors affecting when and how humans use social information, and whether such behaviour is adaptive, across several computer-based tasks. The number of demonstrators, consensus among demonstrators, confidence of subjects, task difficulty, number of sessions, cost of asocial learning, subject performance and demonstrator performance all influenced subjects' use of social information, and did so adaptively. Our analysis provides strong support for the hypothesis that human social learning is regulated by adaptive learning rules.

  19. Estimation of social value of statistical life using willingness-to-pay method in Nanjing, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Zhao; Liu, Pan; Xu, Xin

    2016-10-01

    Rational decision making regarding the safety related investment programs greatly depends on the economic valuation of traffic crashes. The primary objective of this study was to estimate the social value of statistical life in the city of Nanjing in China. A stated preference survey was conducted to investigate travelers' willingness to pay for traffic risk reduction. Face-to-face interviews were conducted at stations, shopping centers, schools, and parks in different districts in the urban area of Nanjing. The respondents were categorized into two groups, including motorists and non-motorists. Both the binary logit model and mixed logit model were developed for the two groups of people. The results revealed that the mixed logit model is superior to the fixed coefficient binary logit model. The factors that significantly affect people's willingness to pay for risk reduction include income, education, gender, age, drive age (for motorists), occupation, whether the charged fees were used to improve private vehicle equipment (for motorists), reduction in fatality rate, and change in travel cost. The Monte Carlo simulation method was used to generate the distribution of value of statistical life (VSL). Based on the mixed logit model, the VSL had a mean value of 3,729,493 RMB ($586,610) with a standard deviation of 2,181,592 RMB ($343,142) for motorists; and a mean of 3,281,283 RMB ($505,318) with a standard deviation of 2,376,975 RMB ($366,054) for non-motorists. Using the tax system to illustrate the contribution of different income groups to social funds, the social value of statistical life was estimated. The average social value of statistical life was found to be 7,184,406 RMB ($1,130,032). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Unifying generative and discriminative learning principles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Strickert Marc

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The recognition of functional binding sites in genomic DNA remains one of the fundamental challenges of genome research. During the last decades, a plethora of different and well-adapted models has been developed, but only little attention has been payed to the development of different and similarly well-adapted learning principles. Only recently it was noticed that discriminative learning principles can be superior over generative ones in diverse bioinformatics applications, too. Results Here, we propose a generalization of generative and discriminative learning principles containing the maximum likelihood, maximum a posteriori, maximum conditional likelihood, maximum supervised posterior, generative-discriminative trade-off, and penalized generative-discriminative trade-off learning principles as special cases, and we illustrate its efficacy for the recognition of vertebrate transcription factor binding sites. Conclusions We find that the proposed learning principle helps to improve the recognition of transcription factor binding sites, enabling better computational approaches for extracting as much information as possible from valuable wet-lab data. We make all implementations available in the open-source library Jstacs so that this learning principle can be easily applied to other classification problems in the field of genome and epigenome analysis.

  1. Associations among Negative Parenting, Attention Bias to Anger, and Social Anxiety among Youth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gulley, Lauren D.; Oppenheimer, Caroline W.; Hankin, Benjamin L.

    2014-01-01

    Theories of affective learning suggest that early experiences contribute to emotional disorders by influencing the development of processing biases for negative emotional stimuli. Although studies have shown that physically abused children preferentially attend to angry faces, it is unclear whether youth exposed to more typical aspects of negative…

  2. Off-policy reinforcement learning for H∞ control design.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Biao; Wu, Huai-Ning; Huang, Tingwen

    2015-01-01

    The H∞ control design problem is considered for nonlinear systems with unknown internal system model. It is known that the nonlinear H∞ control problem can be transformed into solving the so-called Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs (HJI) equation, which is a nonlinear partial differential equation that is generally impossible to be solved analytically. Even worse, model-based approaches cannot be used for approximately solving HJI equation, when the accurate system model is unavailable or costly to obtain in practice. To overcome these difficulties, an off-policy reinforcement leaning (RL) method is introduced to learn the solution of HJI equation from real system data instead of mathematical system model, and its convergence is proved. In the off-policy RL method, the system data can be generated with arbitrary policies rather than the evaluating policy, which is extremely important and promising for practical systems. For implementation purpose, a neural network (NN)-based actor-critic structure is employed and a least-square NN weight update algorithm is derived based on the method of weighted residuals. Finally, the developed NN-based off-policy RL method is tested on a linear F16 aircraft plant, and further applied to a rotational/translational actuator system.

  3. Variable-bias coin tossing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Colbeck, Roger; Kent, Adrian

    2006-01-01

    Alice is a charismatic quantum cryptographer who believes her parties are unmissable; Bob is a (relatively) glamorous string theorist who believes he is an indispensable guest. To prevent possibly traumatic collisions of self-perception and reality, their social code requires that decisions about invitation or acceptance be made via a cryptographically secure variable-bias coin toss (VBCT). This generates a shared random bit by the toss of a coin whose bias is secretly chosen, within a stipulated range, by one of the parties; the other party learns only the random bit. Thus one party can secretly influence the outcome, while both can save face by blaming any negative decisions on bad luck. We describe here some cryptographic VBCT protocols whose security is guaranteed by quantum theory and the impossibility of superluminal signaling, setting our results in the context of a general discussion of secure two-party computation. We also briefly discuss other cryptographic applications of VBCT

  4. Variable-bias coin tossing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colbeck, Roger; Kent, Adrian

    2006-03-01

    Alice is a charismatic quantum cryptographer who believes her parties are unmissable; Bob is a (relatively) glamorous string theorist who believes he is an indispensable guest. To prevent possibly traumatic collisions of self-perception and reality, their social code requires that decisions about invitation or acceptance be made via a cryptographically secure variable-bias coin toss (VBCT). This generates a shared random bit by the toss of a coin whose bias is secretly chosen, within a stipulated range, by one of the parties; the other party learns only the random bit. Thus one party can secretly influence the outcome, while both can save face by blaming any negative decisions on bad luck. We describe here some cryptographic VBCT protocols whose security is guaranteed by quantum theory and the impossibility of superluminal signaling, setting our results in the context of a general discussion of secure two-party computation. We also briefly discuss other cryptographic applications of VBCT.

  5. Employee Reactions to Merit Pay: Cognitive Approach and Social Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yingchun

    2010-01-01

    The dissertation aims to tackle one of the most pressing questions facing the merit pay system researchers and practitioners: Why do merit pay raises have such a small effect on employees' satisfaction, commitment and job performance? My approach to the study of this question is to develop explanatory frameworks from two perspectives: cognitive…

  6. Estrogenic involvement in social learning, social recognition and pathogen avoidance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choleris, Elena; Clipperton-Allen, Amy E; Phan, Anna; Valsecchi, Paola; Kavaliers, Martin

    2012-04-01

    Sociality comes with specific cognitive skills that allow the proper processing of information about others (social recognition), as well as of information originating from others (social learning). Because sociality and social interactions can also facilitate the spread of infection among individuals the ability to recognize and avoid pathogen threat is also essential. We review here various studies primarily from the rodent literature supporting estrogenic involvement in the regulation of social recognition, social learning (socially acquired food preferences and mate choice copying) and the recognition and avoidance of infected and potentially infected individuals. We consider both genomic and rapid estrogenic effects involving estrogen receptors α and β, and G-protein coupled estrogen receptor 1, along with their interactions with neuropeptide systems in the processing of social stimuli and the regulation and expression of these various socially relevant behaviors. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Do horses with poor welfare show `pessimistic' cognitive biases?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Henry, S.; Fureix, C.; Rowberry, R.; Bateson, M.; Hausberger, M.

    2017-02-01

    This field study tested the hypothesis that domestic horses living under putatively challenging-to-welfare conditions (for example involving social, spatial, feeding constraints) would present signs of poor welfare and co-occurring pessimistic judgement biases. Our subjects were 34 horses who had been housed for over 3 years in either restricted riding school situations ( e.g. kept in single boxes, with limited roughage, ridden by inexperienced riders; N = 25) or under more naturalistic conditions ( e.g. access to free-range, kept in stable social groups, leisure riding; N = 9). The horses' welfare was assessed by recording health-related, behavioural and postural indicators. Additionally, after learning a location task to discriminate a bucket containing either edible food (`positive' location) or unpalatable food (`negative' location), the horses were presented with a bucket located near the positive position, near the negative position and halfway between the positive and negative positions to assess their judgement biases. The riding school horses displayed the highest levels of behavioural and health-related problems and a pessimistic judgment bias, whereas the horses living under more naturalistic conditions displayed indications of good welfare and an optimistic bias. Moreover, pessimistic bias data strongly correlated with poor welfare data. This suggests that a lowered mood impacts a non-human species' perception of its environment and highlights cognitive biases as an appropriate tool to assess the impact of chronic living conditions on horse welfare.

  8. Do horses with poor welfare show 'pessimistic' cognitive biases?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Henry, S; Fureix, C; Rowberry, R; Bateson, M; Hausberger, M

    2017-02-01

    This field study tested the hypothesis that domestic horses living under putatively challenging-to-welfare conditions (for example involving social, spatial, feeding constraints) would present signs of poor welfare and co-occurring pessimistic judgement biases. Our subjects were 34 horses who had been housed for over 3 years in either restricted riding school situations (e.g. kept in single boxes, with limited roughage, ridden by inexperienced riders; N = 25) or under more naturalistic conditions (e.g. access to free-range, kept in stable social groups, leisure riding; N = 9). The horses' welfare was assessed by recording health-related, behavioural and postural indicators. Additionally, after learning a location task to discriminate a bucket containing either edible food ('positive' location) or unpalatable food ('negative' location), the horses were presented with a bucket located near the positive position, near the negative position and halfway between the positive and negative positions to assess their judgement biases. The riding school horses displayed the highest levels of behavioural and health-related problems and a pessimistic judgment bias, whereas the horses living under more naturalistic conditions displayed indications of good welfare and an optimistic bias. Moreover, pessimistic bias data strongly correlated with poor welfare data. This suggests that a lowered mood impacts a non-human species' perception of its environment and highlights cognitive biases as an appropriate tool to assess the impact of chronic living conditions on horse welfare.

  9. Limitless Learning: Assessing Social Media Use for Global Workplace Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Breunig, Karl Joachim

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: This empirical paper aims to assess how social media can foster workplace learning within a globally dispersed project environment. In general, there are few studies on the use of social media in organizations, and many of these emphasize on issues related to knowledge transfer. Although learning traditionally has been as acquisition of…

  10. Sleep parameters, functional status and time post-stroke are associated with off-line motor skill learning in people with chronic stroke

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catherine eSiengsukon

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Background: Mounting evidence demonstrates that individuals with stroke benefit from sleep to enhance learning of a motor task. While stage NREM2 sleep and REM sleep have been associated with off-line motor skill learning in neurologically-intact individuals, it remains unknown which sleep parameters or specific sleep stages are associated with off-line motor skill learning in individuals with stroke. Methods: Twenty individuals with chronic stroke (> 6 months following stroke and 10 neurologically slept for three consecutive nights in a sleep laboratory with polysomnography. Participants practiced a tracking task the morning before the third night and underwent a retention test the morning following the third night. Off-line learning on the tracking task was assessed. Pearson’s correlations assessed for associations between the magnitude of off-line learning and sleep variables, age, upper extremity motor function, stroke severity, depression and time since stroke occurrence.Results: Individuals with stroke performed with significantly less error on the tracking task following a night of sleep (p=.006 while the control participants did not (p=.816. Increased sleep efficiency (r= -.285, less time spent in stage NREM3 sleep (r=.260, and more time spent in stage REM sleep (r= -.266 was weakly-to-moderately associated with increased magnitude of off-line motor learning. Furthermore, higher upper-extremity motor function (r = -.400, lower stroke severity (r = .360, and less time since stroke occurrence (r=.311 were moderately associated with increased magnitude of off-line motor learning. Conclusion: This study is the first study to provide insight into which sleep stages and individual characteristics may be associated with off-line learning in people with stroke. Future work should continue to understand which factors or combination of factors promote off-line motor learning in people with neurologic injury to best promote motor recovery in

  11. Learning and Teaching Art: Through Social Media

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castro, Juan Carlos

    2012-01-01

    Social media practices are increasingly woven into the everyday lives of teens and adults, becoming a significant part of how they relate, know, and learn. In this article, I present findings from a design-based research study that explored how the dynamics of learning and teaching art shift through social media. Learning and teaching through…

  12. Using Social Learning Methodologies in Higher Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María-Estrella Sousa-Vieira

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available It is commonly accepted that contemporary cohorts of students witness and experience the benefits of information technologies in their learning processes. The so-called ``digital natives'' acquire, as a consequence of their early exposure to these technologies, different patterns of work, distinct attention conducts, new learning preferences and, generally, better skills for learning and working within rich online social contexts. So, it seems reasonable that the traditional education systems evolve and shape their practice to leverage those new patterns. Despite the fact that online social networks (OSNs are widely recognized as a powerful tool for adding a new social dimension to the learning management systems (LMSs, OSNs do not fully integrate the specific features of the learning process yet and LMSs do not exploit the advantages of an active social environment for reinforcing the learning experience. We report in this paper the design, development and use of a software platform which enlarges and adapts the basic features of an OSN in order to be useful for very general learning environments. The software allows the creation, assessment and reporting of a range of collaborative activities based on social interactions among the students, and offers a reward mechanism by means of ranking and reputation. We argue that this approach is helpful in increasing the students' motivation, besides improving the learning experience and performance. The software has been tested in an undergraduate course about computer networks. Different tests confirm that the impact on learning success is statistically significant and positive.

  13. Neural Correlates of Racial Ingroup Bias in Observing Computer-Animated Social Encounters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuta Katsumi

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Despite evidence for the role of group membership in the neural correlates of social cognition, the mechanisms associated with processing non-verbal behaviors displayed by racially ingroup vs. outgroup members remain unclear. Here, 20 Caucasian participants underwent fMRI recording while observing social encounters with ingroup and outgroup characters displaying dynamic and static non-verbal behaviors. Dynamic behaviors included approach and avoidance behaviors, preceded or not by a handshake; both dynamic and static behaviors were followed by participants’ ratings. Behaviorally, participants showed bias toward their ingroup members, demonstrated by faster/slower reaction times for evaluating ingroup static/approach behaviors, respectively. At the neural level, despite overall similar responses in the action observation network to ingroup and outgroup encounters, the medial prefrontal cortex showed dissociable activation, possibly reflecting spontaneous processing of ingroup static behaviors and positive evaluations of ingroup approach behaviors. The anterior cingulate and superior frontal cortices also showed sensitivity to race, reflected in coordinated and reduced activation for observing ingroup static behaviors. Finally, the posterior superior temporal sulcus showed uniquely increased activity to observing ingroup handshakes. These findings shed light on the mechanisms of racial ingroup bias in observing social encounters, and have implications for understanding factors related to successful interactions with individuals from diverse backgrounds.

  14. Social E-Learning in Topolor: A Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Lei; Al Qudah, Dana; Cristea, Alexandra I.

    2013-01-01

    Social e-learning is a process through which learners achieve their learning goals via social interactions with each other by sharing knowledge, skills, abilities and educational materials. Adaptive e-learning enables adaptation and personalization of the learning process, based on learner needs, knowledge, preferences and other characteristics.…

  15. Mechanisms underlying the social enhancement of vocal learning in songbirds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yining; Matheson, Laura E; Sakata, Jon T

    2016-06-14

    Social processes profoundly influence speech and language acquisition. Despite the importance of social influences, little is known about how social interactions modulate vocal learning. Like humans, songbirds learn their vocalizations during development, and they provide an excellent opportunity to reveal mechanisms of social influences on vocal learning. Using yoked experimental designs, we demonstrate that social interactions with adult tutors for as little as 1 d significantly enhanced vocal learning. Social influences on attention to song seemed central to the social enhancement of learning because socially tutored birds were more attentive to the tutor's songs than passively tutored birds, and because variation in attentiveness and in the social modulation of attention significantly predicted variation in vocal learning. Attention to song was influenced by both the nature and amount of tutor song: Pupils paid more attention to songs that tutors directed at them and to tutors that produced fewer songs. Tutors altered their song structure when directing songs at pupils in a manner that resembled how humans alter their vocalizations when speaking to infants, that was distinct from how tutors changed their songs when singing to females, and that could influence attention and learning. Furthermore, social interactions that rapidly enhanced learning increased the activity of noradrenergic and dopaminergic midbrain neurons. These data highlight striking parallels between humans and songbirds in the social modulation of vocal learning and suggest that social influences on attention and midbrain circuitry could represent shared mechanisms underlying the social modulation of vocal learning.

  16. Internet-based attention bias modification for social anxiety: a randomised controlled comparison of training towards negative and training towards positive cues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boettcher, Johanna; Leek, Linda; Matson, Lisa; Holmes, Emily A; Browning, Michael; MacLeod, Colin; Andersson, Gerhard; Carlbring, Per

    2013-01-01

    Biases in attention processes are thought to play a crucial role in the aetiology and maintenance of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). The goal of the present study was to examine the efficacy of a programme intended to train attention towards positive cues and a programme intended to train attention towards negative cues. In a randomised, controlled, double-blind design, the impact of these two training conditions on both selective attention and social anxiety were compared to that of a control training condition. A modified dot probe task was used, and delivered via the internet. A total of 129 individuals, diagnosed with SAD, were randomly assigned to one of these three conditions and took part in a 14-day programme with daily training/control sessions. Participants in all three groups did not on average display an attentional bias prior to the training. Critically, results on change in attention bias implied that significantly differential change in selective attention to threat was not detected in the three conditions. However, symptoms of social anxiety reduced significantly from pre- to follow-up-assessment in all three conditions (dwithin  = 0.63-1.24), with the procedure intended to train attention towards threat cues producing, relative to the control condition, a significantly greater reduction of social fears. There were no significant differences in social anxiety outcome between the training condition intended to induce attentional bias towards positive cues and the control condition. To our knowledge, this is the first RCT where a condition intended to induce attention bias to negative cues yielded greater emotional benefits than a control condition. Intriguingly, changes in symptoms are unlikely to be by the mechanism of change in attention processes since there was no change detected in bias per se. Implications of this finding for future research on attention bias modification in social anxiety are discussed. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01463137.

  17. Are Sex Effects on Ethical Decision-Making Fake or Real? A Meta-Analysis on the Contaminating Role of Social Desirability Response Bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Jianfeng; Ming, Xiaodong; Wang, Zhen; Adams, Susan M

    2017-02-01

    A meta-analysis of 143 studies was conducted to explore how the social desirability response bias may influence sex effects on ratings on measures of ethical decision-making. Women rated themselves as more ethical than did men; however, this sex effect on ethical decision-making was no longer significant when social desirability response bias was controlled. The indirect questioning approach was compared with the direct measurement approach for effectiveness in controlling social desirability response bias. The indirect questioning approach was found to be more effective.

  18. Social Interaction in Learning Networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sloep, Peter

    2009-01-01

    The original publication is available from www.springerlink.com. Sloep, P. (2009). Social Interaction in Learning Networks. In R. Koper (Ed.), Learning Network Services for Professional Development (pp 13-15). Berlin, Germany: Springer Verlag.

  19. Social Learning Theory in the Age of Social Media: Implications for Educational Practitioners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deaton, Shannon

    2015-01-01

    Following the research of Albert Bandura, the advent of social media has changed the platform for social interaction and human experience. Educators have a unique opportunity to apply the concepts of Bandura's Social Learning Theory toward enhanced student engagement and learning in a social media context. This article synthesizes current research…

  20. Taphonomic trade-offs in tropical marine death assemblages: Differential time averaging, shell loss, and probable bias in siliciclastic vs. carbonate facies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kidwell, Susan M.; Best, Mairi M. R.; Kaufman, Darrell S.

    2005-09-01

    Radiocarbon-calibrated amino-acid racemization ages of individually dated bivalve mollusk shells from Caribbean reef, nonreefal carbonate, and siliciclastic sediments in Panama indicate that siliciclastic sands and muds contain significantly older shells (median 375 yr, range up to ˜5400 yr) than nearby carbonate seafloors (median 72 yr, range up to ˜2900 yr; maximum shell ages differ significantly at p < 0.02 using extreme-value statistics). The implied difference in shell loss rates is contrary to physicochemical expectations but is consistent with observed differences in shell condition (greater bioerosion and dissolution in carbonates). Higher rates of shell loss in carbonate sediments should lead to greater compositional bias in surviving skeletal material, resulting in taphonomic trade-offs: less time averaging but probably higher taxonomic bias in pure carbonate sediments, and lower bias but greater time averaging in siliciclastic sediments from humid-weathered accretionary arc terrains, which are a widespread setting of tropical sedimentation.

  1. Eagerness and Optimistically Biased Metaperception: The More Eager to Learn Others’ Evaluations, the Higher the Estimation of Others’ Evaluations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jingyi Lu

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available People frequently judge how they are viewed by others during social interactions. These judgments are called metaperceptions. This study investigates the relationship between eagerness to determine the evaluation of others and metaperceptions. We propose that eagerness, which reflects approach motivation, induces positive emotions. We apply feelings-as-information theory and hypothesize that positive emotions cause optimistic self-evaluations and metaperceptions. Participants in three studies interact with judges during a singing contest (Study 1, a speech (Study 2, and an interview (Study 3. Results corroborate that eagerness to learn the evaluation of others is overall related to optimistically biased metaperceptions. This effect is mediated sequentially by positive emotions, optimistic self-evaluations, and increased metaperceptions.

  2. Behavioral evidence for differences in social and non-social category learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lucile eGamond

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available When meeting someone for the very first time one spontaneously categorizes the seen person on the basis of his/her appearance. Categorization is based on the association between some physical features and category labels that can be social (character trait… or non-social (tall, thin. Surprisingly little is known about how such associations are formed, particularly in the social domain. Here, we aimed at testing whether social and non-social category learning may be dissociated. We presented subjects with a large number of faces that had to be rated according to social or non-social labels, and induced an association between a facial feature (inter-eye distance and the category labels using two different procedures. In a first experiment, we used a feedback procedure to reinforce the association; behavioral measures revealed an association between the physical feature manipulated and abstract non-social categories, while no evidence for an association with social labels could be found. In a second experiment, we used passive exposure to the association between physical features and labels; we obtained behavioral evidence for learning of both social and non-social categories. These results support the view of the specificity of social category learning; they suggest that social categories are best acquired through unsupervised procedures that can be considered as a simplified proxy for group transmission.

  3. Do levels of social competence influence the perception of social affordances among students with low levels of education? An exploratory case study of the relationship between offline and online socializing factors

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Moekotte, Paulo; Brand-Gruwel, Saskia; Ritzen, Henk

    2018-01-01

    In this exploratory case study we investigate the relation between off line and online factors that influence social dynamics of online, collaborative learning, that is the levels of social competence and the perception of social affordances. We argued that low educated with low social competences

  4. Effect of vicarious fear learning on children's heart rate responses and attentional bias for novel animals

    OpenAIRE

    Reynolds, G; Field, AP; Askew, C

    2014-01-01

    Research with children has shown that vicarious learning can result in changes to 2 of Lang's (1968) 3 anxiety response systems: subjective report and behavioral avoidance. The current study extended this research by exploring the effect of vicarious learning on physiological responses (Lang's final response system) and attentional bias. The study used Askew and Field's (2007) vicarious learning procedure and demonstrated fear-related increases in children's cognitive, behavioral, and physiol...

  5. The Use Of Social Networking Sites For Learning In Institutions Of Higher Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mange Gladys Nkatha

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Institutions of higher learning are facing greater challenges to change and subjected to various transformations in the surrounding environment including technology. These challenge and motivate them to explore new ways to improve their teaching approaches. This study sought to investigate the use of social networking site in institutions of higher learning. To this end two objectives were formulated 1 to investigate the current state of the use of social networking sites by the students 2 investigate how social networking sites can be used to promote authentic learning in institutions of higher learning. The study adopted exploratory approach using descriptive survey design where a sample of 10 67 students were picked from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology JKUAT main campus. The findings indicate the use of social networking sites is a viable option as the students are not only members of social networking sites but also that majority have access to the requisite technological devices. Additionally recommendations for ensuring authentic learning were presented. The researcher recommends the exploration of the leveraging of the existing social networking sites for learning in conjunction with key stakeholders.

  6. Learning to make things happen: Infants' observational learning of social and physical causal events.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waismeyer, Anna; Meltzoff, Andrew N

    2017-10-01

    Infants learn about cause and effect through hands-on experience; however, they also can learn about causality simply from observation. Such observational causal learning is a central mechanism by which infants learn from and about other people. Across three experiments, we tested infants' observational causal learning of both social and physical causal events. Experiment 1 assessed infants' learning of a physical event in the absence of visible spatial contact between the causes and effects. Experiment 2 developed a novel paradigm to assess whether infants could learn about a social causal event from third-party observation of a social interaction between two people. Experiment 3 compared learning of physical and social events when the outcomes occurred probabilistically (happening some, but not all, of the time). Infants demonstrated significant learning in all three experiments, although learning about probabilistic cause-effect relations was most difficult. These findings about infant observational causal learning have implications for children's rapid nonverbal learning about people, things, and their causal relations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Not All Emotions Are Created Equal: The Negativity Bias in Social-Emotional Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaish, Amrisha; Grossman, Tobias; Woodward, Amanda

    2008-01-01

    There is ample empirical evidence for an asymmetry in the way that adults use positive versus negative information to make sense of their world; specifically, across an array of psychological situations and tasks, adults display a negativity bias, or the propensity to attend to, learn from, and use negative information far more than positive…

  8. Social learning through prediction error in the brain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joiner, Jessica; Piva, Matthew; Turrin, Courtney; Chang, Steve W. C.

    2017-06-01

    Learning about the world is critical to survival and success. In social animals, learning about others is a necessary component of navigating the social world, ultimately contributing to increasing evolutionary fitness. How humans and nonhuman animals represent the internal states and experiences of others has long been a subject of intense interest in the developmental psychology tradition, and, more recently, in studies of learning and decision making involving self and other. In this review, we explore how psychology conceptualizes the process of representing others, and how neuroscience has uncovered correlates of reinforcement learning signals to explore the neural mechanisms underlying social learning from the perspective of representing reward-related information about self and other. In particular, we discuss self-referenced and other-referenced types of reward prediction errors across multiple brain structures that effectively allow reinforcement learning algorithms to mediate social learning. Prediction-based computational principles in the brain may be strikingly conserved between self-referenced and other-referenced information.

  9. A Learning Architecture: How School Leaders Can Design for Learning Social Justice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scanlan, Martin

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: The field of socially just educational leadership focuses on reducing inequities within schools. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how one strand of social learning theory, communities of practice, can serve as a powerful tool for analyzing learning within a school ostensibly pursuing social justice. The author employs a core…

  10. Multi-dimensional technology-enabled social learning approach

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petreski, Hristijan; Tsekeridou, Sofia; Prasad, Neeli R.

    2013-01-01

    ’t respond to this systemic and structural changes and/or challenges and retains its status quo than it is jeopardizing its own existence or the existence of the education, as we know it. This paper aims to precede one step further by proposing a multi-dimensional approach for technology-enabled social...... in learning while socializing within their learning communities. However, their “educational” usage is still limited to facilitation of online learning communities and to collaborative authoring of learning material complementary to existing formal (e-) learning services. If the educational system doesn...

  11. Which Recommender System Can Best Fit Social Learning Platforms?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fazeli, Soude; Loni, Babak; Drachsler, Hendrik; Sloep, Peter

    2014-01-01

    This study aims to develop a recommender system for social learning platforms that combine traditional learning management systems with commercial social networks like Facebook. We therefore take into account social interactions of users to make recommendations on learning resources. We propose to

  12. Using respondent uncertainty to mitigate hypothetical bias in a stated choice experiment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richard C. Ready; Patricia A. Champ; Jennifer L. Lawton

    2010-01-01

    In a choice experiment study, willingness to pay for a public good estimated from hypothetical choices was three times as large as willingness to pay estimated from choices requiring actual payment. This hypothetical bias was related to the stated level of certainty of respondents. We develop protocols to measure respondent certainty in the context of a choice...

  13. The Relationship between Social-Emotional Learning Ability and Perceived Social Support in Gifted Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ogurlu, Üzeyir; Sevgi-Yalin, Hatun; Yavuz-Birben, Fazilet

    2018-01-01

    This study aimed to examine the relationship between social-emotional learning skills and perceived social support of gifted students. Based on this relationship, the authors also examined to what extent social and emotional learning skills were predictive of social support. In addition, gender variables were compared in social and emotional…

  14. 5 CFR 410.402 - Paying premium pay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Paying premium pay. 410.402 Section 410... for Training Expenses § 410.402 Paying premium pay. (a) Prohibitions. Except as provided by paragraph (b) of this section, an agency may not use its funds, appropriated or otherwise available, to pay...

  15. Social investment in the globalising learning economy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lundvall, Bengt-Åke; Lorenz, Edward

    2011-01-01

    This paper demonstrates the importance of social investment and egalitarian distribution policy for reproducing the basis of a learning economy.......This paper demonstrates the importance of social investment and egalitarian distribution policy for reproducing the basis of a learning economy....

  16. Environmental justice research shows the importance of social feedbacks in ecosystem service trade-offs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Neil M. Dawson

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available In this article, we shine a spotlight on approaches to research ecosystem service trade-offs and critically assess their representation of relevant social dynamics. Although studies linking ecosystem services and human well-being have provided theoretical insights into social and ecological trade-offs, we argue that ecosystem services research has paid insufficient attention to "social feedbacks," people's cognitive and behavioral responses to change. We demonstrate that augmenting ecosystem services research with environmental justice approaches (exploring perceptions of the distribution of costs and benefits, decision making procedures, and recognition of different values and identities can more effectively capture important responses to ecosystem governance. Spatial analysis of land use change, mixed-method assessment of multidimensional well-being, and qualitative environmental justice research were applied in three villages adjacent to Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area in northern Laos. Spatial analysis showed that, from 2006 to 2015, forest clearance for cultivation remained stable within the protected area. Well-being assessment revealed the local population benefited from rapidly increasing incomes, asset ownership, and reduced poverty during that time. In combination, spatial and well-being analyses paint a picture of limited trade-offs, despite growing incentives to exploit protected land and resources through cash crops and high-value forest products. In contrast, results from environmental justice research revealed profound trade-offs between conservation and local practices, and highlight governance deficiencies relating to procedure and recognition. Consequently, formal protected area rules were perceived to be illegitimate by many and actively undermined, for example through negotiated access with alternative authorities. We conclude that although well-being research provides an essential foundation to understand diverse

  17. Predictors of Rater Bias in the Assessment of Social-Emotional Competence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shapiro, Valerie B.; Kim, B. K. Elizabeth; Accomazzo, Sarah; Roscoe, Joe N.

    2016-01-01

    "The Devereux Student Strengths Assessment Mini" (DESSA-Mini) (LeBuffe, Shapiro, & Naglieri, 2014) efficiently monitors the growth of Social-Emotional Competence (SEC) in the routine implementation of Social Emotional Learning programs. The DESSA-Mini is used to assess approximately half a million children around the world. Since…

  18. Attention Biases to Threat Link Behavioral Inhibition to Social Withdrawal over Time in Very Young Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perez-Edgar, Koraly; Reeb-Sutherland, Bethany C.; McDermott, Jennifer Martin; White, Lauren K.; Henderson, Heather A.; Degnan, Kathryn A.; Hane, Amie A.; Pine, Daniel S.; Fox, Nathan A.

    2011-01-01

    Behaviorally inhibited children display a temperamental profile characterized by social withdrawal and anxious behaviors. Previous research, focused largely on adolescents, suggests that attention biases to threat may sustain high levels of behavioral inhibition (BI) over time, helping link early temperament to social outcomes. However, no prior…

  19. Teaching and Learning Social Justice through Online Service-Learning Courses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kathy L. Guthrie

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available Creating a virtual classroom in which diverse students feel welcome to discuss and experience topics related to social justice, action, and change is a study in the value of connectedness and collaboration. Through a combination of technologies, pedagogies, and on-site experiences, virtual cultures develop that encourage the formation of demanding yet stimulating learning environments in which communications and interactions are intellectually transformative. This article explores student perceptions of their participation in an online service-learning course while working in local service organizations. Qualitative methodology was used to identify the philosophical intersection at which multiple pedagogies meet: social justice, service-learning, civic engagement, and leadership as instructed in a web-based environment. This study illustrates the capacity for intentionally constructed online educational experiences focused on social justice, civic engagement, and leadership to affect learning and to provide educators with pedagogical best practices to facilitate requisite change in teaching practice.

  20. THE IMPACTS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IN HIGHER LEARNING

    OpenAIRE

    Mohd Ishak Bin Ismail; Ruzaini Bin Abdullah Arshah

    2016-01-01

    Social networking sites, a web-based application have permeated the boundary between personal lives and student lives. Nowadays, students in higher learning used social networking site such as Facebook to facilitate their learning through the academic collaboration which it further enhances students’ social capital. Social networking site has many advantages to improve students’ learning. To date, Facebook is the leading social networking sites at this time which it being widely used by stude...

  1. Social norms and rank-based nudging: Changing willingness to pay for healthy food.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aldrovandi, Silvio; Brown, Gordon D A; Wood, Alex M

    2015-09-01

    People's evaluations in the domain of healthy eating are at least partly determined by the choice context. We systematically test reference level and rank-based models of relative comparisons against each other and explore their application to social norms nudging, an intervention that aims at influencing consumers' behavior by addressing their inaccurate beliefs about their consumption relative to the consumption of others. Study 1 finds that the rank of a product or behavior among others in the immediate comparison context, rather than its objective attributes, influences its evaluation. Study 2 finds that when a comparator is presented in isolation the same rank-based process occurs based on information retrieved from memory. Study 3 finds that telling people how their consumption ranks within a normative comparison sample increases willingness to pay for a healthy food by over 30% relative to the normal social norms intervention that tells them how they compare to the average. We conclude that social norms interventions should present rank information (e.g., "you are in the most unhealthy 10% of eaters") rather than information relative to the average (e.g., "you consume 500 calories more than the average person"). (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  2. Social Emotional Learning and Educational Stress: A Predictive Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arslan, Serhat

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between social emotional learning and educational stress. Participants were 321 elementary students. Social emotional learning and educational stress scale were used as measures. The relationships between social emotional learning and educational stress were examined using correlation…

  3. Consistent individual differences in human social learning strategies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molleman, Lucas; van den Berg, Pieter; Weissing, Franz J

    2014-04-04

    Social learning has allowed humans to build up extensive cultural repertoires, enabling them to adapt to a wide variety of environmental and social conditions. However, it is unclear which social learning strategies people use, especially in social contexts where their payoffs depend on the behaviour of others. Here we show experimentally that individuals differ in their social learning strategies and that they tend to employ the same learning strategy irrespective of the interaction context. Payoff-based learners focus on their peers' success, while decision-based learners disregard payoffs and exclusively focus on their peers' past behaviour. These individual differences may be of considerable importance for cultural evolution. By means of a simple model, we demonstrate that groups harbouring individuals with different learning strategies may be faster in adopting technological innovations and can be more efficient through successful role differentiation. Our study highlights the importance of individual variation for human interactions and sheds new light on the dynamics of cultural evolution.

  4. Bias-Correction in Vector Autoregressive Models: A Simulation Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tom Engsted

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available We analyze the properties of various methods for bias-correcting parameter estimates in both stationary and non-stationary vector autoregressive models. First, we show that two analytical bias formulas from the existing literature are in fact identical. Next, based on a detailed simulation study, we show that when the model is stationary this simple bias formula compares very favorably to bootstrap bias-correction, both in terms of bias and mean squared error. In non-stationary models, the analytical bias formula performs noticeably worse than bootstrapping. Both methods yield a notable improvement over ordinary least squares. We pay special attention to the risk of pushing an otherwise stationary model into the non-stationary region of the parameter space when correcting for bias. Finally, we consider a recently proposed reduced-bias weighted least squares estimator, and we find that it compares very favorably in non-stationary models.

  5. Social learning of an associative foraging task in zebrafish

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zala, Sarah M.; Määttänen, Ilmari

    2013-05-01

    The zebrafish ( Danio rerio) is increasingly becoming an important model species for studies on the genetic and neural mechanisms controlling behaviour and cognition. Here, we utilized a conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm to study social learning in zebrafish. We tested whether social interactions with conditioned demonstrators enhance the ability of focal naïve individuals to learn an associative foraging task. We found that the presence of conditioned demonstrators improved focal fish foraging behaviour through the process of social transmission, whereas the presence of inexperienced demonstrators interfered with the learning of the control focal fish. Our results indicate that zebrafish use social learning for finding food and that this CPP paradigm is an efficient assay to study social learning and memory in zebrafish.

  6. Pays en transition

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Les périodes de transformation risquent de provoquer le chaos, mais elles sont également porteuses de rapides progrès sur le plan social et économique. Le CRDI est intervenu dans quelque 25 pays ayant amorcé une transition de la guerre à la paix, de la dictature à la démocratie ou d'une économie fermée à une.

  7. A model of using social media for collaborative learning to enhance learners’ performance on learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Waleed Mugahed Al-Rahmi

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Social media has been always described as the channel through which knowledge is transmitted between communities and learners. This social media has been utilized by colleges in a way to encourage collaborative learning and social interaction. This study explores the use of social media in the process of collaborative learning through learning Quran and Hadith. Through this investigation, different factors enhancing collaborative learning in learning Quran and Hadith in the context of using social media are going to be examined. 340 respondents participated in this study. The structural equation modeling (SEM was used to analyze the data obtained. Upon analysis and structural model validities, the study resulted in a model used for measuring the influences of the different variables. The study reported direct and indirect significant impacts of these variables on collaborative learning through the use of social media which might lead to a better performance by learners.

  8. A social insect perspective on the evolution of social learning mechanisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leadbeater, Ellouise; Dawson, Erika H

    2017-07-24

    The social world offers a wealth of opportunities to learn from others, and across the animal kingdom individuals capitalize on those opportunities. Here, we explore the role of natural selection in shaping the processes that underlie social information use, using a suite of experiments on social insects as case studies. We illustrate how an associative framework can encompass complex, context-specific social learning in the insect world and beyond, and based on the hypothesis that evolution acts to modify the associative process, suggest potential pathways by which social information use could evolve to become more efficient and effective. Social insects are distant relatives of vertebrate social learners, but the research we describe highlights routes by which natural selection could coopt similar cognitive raw material across the animal kingdom.

  9. [Learning about social determinants of health through chronicles, using a virtual learning environment].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Restrepo-Palacio, Sonia; Amaya-Guio, Jairo

    2016-01-01

    To describe the contributions of a pedagogical strategy based on the construction of chronicles, using a Virtual Learning Environment for training medical students from Universidad de La Sabana on social determinants of health. Descriptive study with a qualitative approach. Design and implementation of a Virtual Learning Environment based on the ADDIE instructional model. A Virtual Learning Environment was implemented with an instructional design based on the five phases of the ADDIE model, on the grounds of meaningful learning and social constructivism, and through the narration of chronicles or life stories as a pedagogical strategy. During the course, the structural determinants and intermediaries were addressed, and nine chronicles were produced by working groups made up of four or five students, who demonstrated meaningful learning from real life stories, presented a coherent sequence, and kept a thread; 82% of these students incorporated in their contents most of the social determinants of health, emphasizing on the concepts of equity or inequity, equality or inequality, justice or injustice and social cohesion. A Virtual Learning Environment, based on an appropriate instructional design, allows to facilitate learning of social determinants of health through a constructivist pedagogical approach by analyzing chronicles or life stories created by ninth-semester students of medicine from Universidad de La Sabana.

  10. Social networks and performance in distributed learning communities

    OpenAIRE

    Cadima, Rita; Ojeda Rodríguez, Jordi; Monguet Fierro, José María

    2012-01-01

    Social networks play an essential role in learning environments as a key channel for knowledge sharing and students' support. In distributed learning communities, knowledge sharing does not occur as spontaneously as when a working group shares the same physical space; knowledge sharing depends even more on student informal connections. In this study we analyse two distributed learning communities' social networks in order to understand how characteristics of the social structure can enhance s...

  11. On the Design of Social Media for Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jon Dron

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents two conceptual models that we have developed for understanding ways that social media can support learning. One model relates to the “social” aspect of social media, describing the different ways that people can learn with and from each other, in one or more of three social forms: groups, networks and sets. The other model relates to the ‘media’ side of social media, describing how technologies are constructed and the roles that people play in creating and enacting them, treating them in terms of softness and hardness. The two models are complementary: neither provides a complete picture but, in combination, they help to explain how and why different uses of social media may succeed or fail and, as importantly, are intended to help us design learning activities that make most effective use of the technologies. We offer some suggestions as to how media used to support different social forms can be softened and hardened for different kinds of learning applications.

  12. Internet-Based Attention Bias Modification for Social Anxiety: A Randomised Controlled Comparison of Training towards Negative and Training Towards Positive Cues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boettcher, Johanna; Leek, Linda; Matson, Lisa; Holmes, Emily A.; Browning, Michael; MacLeod, Colin; Andersson, Gerhard; Carlbring, Per

    2013-01-01

    Biases in attention processes are thought to play a crucial role in the aetiology and maintenance of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). The goal of the present study was to examine the efficacy of a programme intended to train attention towards positive cues and a programme intended to train attention towards negative cues. In a randomised, controlled, double-blind design, the impact of these two training conditions on both selective attention and social anxiety were compared to that of a control training condition. A modified dot probe task was used, and delivered via the internet. A total of 129 individuals, diagnosed with SAD, were randomly assigned to one of these three conditions and took part in a 14-day programme with daily training/control sessions. Participants in all three groups did not on average display an attentional bias prior to the training. Critically, results on change in attention bias implied that significantly differential change in selective attention to threat was not detected in the three conditions. However, symptoms of social anxiety reduced significantly from pre- to follow-up-assessment in all three conditions (dwithin  = 0.63–1.24), with the procedure intended to train attention towards threat cues producing, relative to the control condition, a significantly greater reduction of social fears. There were no significant differences in social anxiety outcome between the training condition intended to induce attentional bias towards positive cues and the control condition. To our knowledge, this is the first RCT where a condition intended to induce attention bias to negative cues yielded greater emotional benefits than a control condition. Intriguingly, changes in symptoms are unlikely to be by the mechanism of change in attention processes since there was no change detected in bias per se. Implications of this finding for future research on attention bias modification in social anxiety are discussed. Trial Registration Clinical

  13. Internet-based attention bias modification for social anxiety: a randomised controlled comparison of training towards negative and training towards positive cues.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Johanna Boettcher

    Full Text Available Biases in attention processes are thought to play a crucial role in the aetiology and maintenance of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD. The goal of the present study was to examine the efficacy of a programme intended to train attention towards positive cues and a programme intended to train attention towards negative cues. In a randomised, controlled, double-blind design, the impact of these two training conditions on both selective attention and social anxiety were compared to that of a control training condition. A modified dot probe task was used, and delivered via the internet. A total of 129 individuals, diagnosed with SAD, were randomly assigned to one of these three conditions and took part in a 14-day programme with daily training/control sessions. Participants in all three groups did not on average display an attentional bias prior to the training. Critically, results on change in attention bias implied that significantly differential change in selective attention to threat was not detected in the three conditions. However, symptoms of social anxiety reduced significantly from pre- to follow-up-assessment in all three conditions (dwithin  = 0.63-1.24, with the procedure intended to train attention towards threat cues producing, relative to the control condition, a significantly greater reduction of social fears. There were no significant differences in social anxiety outcome between the training condition intended to induce attentional bias towards positive cues and the control condition. To our knowledge, this is the first RCT where a condition intended to induce attention bias to negative cues yielded greater emotional benefits than a control condition. Intriguingly, changes in symptoms are unlikely to be by the mechanism of change in attention processes since there was no change detected in bias per se. Implications of this finding for future research on attention bias modification in social anxiety are discussed

  14. The space for social media in structured online learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gilly Salmon

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we explore the benefits of using social media in an online educational setting, with a particular focus on the use of Facebook and Twitter by participants in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC developed to enable educators to learn about the Carpe Diem learning design process. We define social media as digital social tools and environments located outside of the provision of a formal university-provided Learning Management System. We use data collected via interviews and surveys with the MOOC participants as well as social media postings made by the participants throughout the MOOC to offer insights into how participants’ usage and perception of social media in their online learning experiences differed and why. We identified that, although some participants benefitted from social media by crediting it, for example, with networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities, others objected or refused to engage with social media, perceiving it as a waste of their time. We make recommendations for the usage of social media for educational purposes within MOOCs and formal digital learning environments.

  15. Why copy others? Insights from the social learning strategies tournament.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rendell, L; Boyd, R; Cownden, D; Enquist, M; Eriksson, K; Feldman, M W; Fogarty, L; Ghirlanda, S; Lillicrap, T; Laland, K N

    2010-04-09

    Social learning (learning through observation or interaction with other individuals) is widespread in nature and is central to the remarkable success of humanity, yet it remains unclear why copying is profitable and how to copy most effectively. To address these questions, we organized a computer tournament in which entrants submitted strategies specifying how to use social learning and its asocial alternative (for example, trial-and-error learning) to acquire adaptive behavior in a complex environment. Most current theory predicts the emergence of mixed strategies that rely on some combination of the two types of learning. In the tournament, however, strategies that relied heavily on social learning were found to be remarkably successful, even when asocial information was no more costly than social information. Social learning proved advantageous because individuals frequently demonstrated the highest-payoff behavior in their repertoire, inadvertently filtering information for copiers. The winning strategy (discountmachine) relied nearly exclusively on social learning and weighted information according to the time since acquisition.

  16. An Analysis of Merit Pay Reforms in Educational Institutions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew Brulle

    2006-05-01

    Full Text Available With roots in behaviorist philosophy, performance pay for teachers is often linked to accountability regimes in school reform. The theory girding such programs suggests that pay as an economic incentive can help cause teachers to increase student outcomes as measured by standardized test scores. What is little noticed by many educationists, but particularly by policy makers, is how programmatic effects affect the ontology of educational environment. There are several ways to approach the viability of such programs. In this study of three pay-for-performance programs, two in the U.S. and one in the UK, we provide theoretic insights in light of three variables: (i their psychological framework, (ii teacher efficacy and the teacher-student relationship, and (iii how the psychological impact of such programs coincides with larger institutional forces. Using theory to examine pay-for-performance is necessary in order to get beneath mere data and secure more thorough understandings of the phenomenological impacts of performance pay. And better understanding of these foundational features is necessary, even critical, in order to fully appreciate the economic and informational trade-offs in implementation. Our study suggests that as a small-scale reform measure and when it specifically accounts for complexities of educational production, performance pay may be a viable reform option.

  17. Effects of social approval bias on self-reported fruit and vegetable consumption: a randomized controlled trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcus Al C

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Self-reports of dietary intake in the context of nutrition intervention research can be biased by the tendency of respondents to answer consistent with expected norms (social approval bias. The objective of this study was to assess the potential influence of social approval bias on self-reports of fruit and vegetable intake obtained using both food frequency questionnaire (FFQ and 24-hour recall methods. Methods A randomized blinded trial compared reported fruit and vegetable intake among subjects exposed to a potentially biasing prompt to that from control subjects. Subjects included 163 women residing in Colorado between 35 and 65 years of age who were randomly selected and recruited by telephone to complete what they were told would be a future telephone survey about health. Randomly half of the subjects then received a letter prior to the interview describing this as a study of fruit and vegetable intake. The letter included a brief statement of the benefits of fruits and vegetables, a 5-A-Day sticker, and a 5-a-Day refrigerator magnet. The remainder received the same letter, but describing the study purpose only as a more general nutrition survey, with neither the fruit and vegetable message nor the 5-A-Day materials. Subjects were then interviewed on the telephone within 10 days following the letters using an eight-item FFQ and a limited 24-hour recall to estimate fruit and vegetable intake. All interviewers were blinded to the treatment condition. Results By the FFQ method, subjects who viewed the potentially biasing prompts reported consuming more fruits and vegetables than did control subjects (5.2 vs. 3.7 servings per day, p Conclusion Self-reports of fruit and vegetable intake using either a food frequency questionnaire or a limited 24-hour recall are both susceptible to substantial social approval bias. Valid assessments of intervention effects in nutritional intervention trials may require objective measures of

  18. Social Cognition as Reinforcement Learning: Feedback Modulates Emotion Inference.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaki, Jamil; Kallman, Seth; Wimmer, G Elliott; Ochsner, Kevin; Shohamy, Daphna

    2016-09-01

    Neuroscientific studies of social cognition typically employ paradigms in which perceivers draw single-shot inferences about the internal states of strangers. Real-world social inference features much different parameters: People often encounter and learn about particular social targets (e.g., friends) over time and receive feedback about whether their inferences are correct or incorrect. Here, we examined this process and, more broadly, the intersection between social cognition and reinforcement learning. Perceivers were scanned using fMRI while repeatedly encountering three social targets who produced conflicting visual and verbal emotional cues. Perceivers guessed how targets felt and received feedback about whether they had guessed correctly. Visual cues reliably predicted one target's emotion, verbal cues predicted a second target's emotion, and neither reliably predicted the third target's emotion. Perceivers successfully used this information to update their judgments over time. Furthermore, trial-by-trial learning signals-estimated using two reinforcement learning models-tracked activity in ventral striatum and ventromedial pFC, structures associated with reinforcement learning, and regions associated with updating social impressions, including TPJ. These data suggest that learning about others' emotions, like other forms of feedback learning, relies on domain-general reinforcement mechanisms as well as domain-specific social information processing.

  19. The Welfare Cost of Homicides in Brazil: Accounting for Heterogeneity in the Willingness to Pay for Mortality Reductions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cerqueira, Daniel; Soares, Rodrigo R

    2016-03-01

    This paper estimates the health dimension of the welfare cost of homicides in Brazil incorporating age, gender, educational, and regional heterogeneities. We use a marginal willingness to pay approach to assign monetary values to the welfare cost of increased mortality due to violence. Results indicate that the present discounted value of the welfare cost of homicides in Brazil corresponds to roughly 78% of the GDP or, in terms of yearly flow, 2.3%. The analysis also shows that reliance on aggregate data to perform such calculations can lead to biases of around 20% in the estimated social cost of violence. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  20. Skype me! Socially Contingent Interactions Help Toddlers Learn Language

    OpenAIRE

    Roseberry, Sarah; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick

    2013-01-01

    Language learning takes place in the context of social interactions, yet the mechanisms that render social interactions useful for learning language remain unclear. This paper focuses on whether social contingency might support word learning. Toddlers aged 24- to 30-months (N=36) were exposed to novel verbs in one of three conditions: live interaction training, socially contingent video training over video chat, and non-contingent video training (yoked video). Results sugges...

  1. Spin-offs of the Third Mission and social innovation: the case study of the research–training–intervention project of Geodata Ltd

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Del Gottardo Ezio

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available As a result of enactment of Law 297/1999, many Italian universities could improve the opportunities in applied research, activating spin-offs and start-ups in conformity with those regulations. This is a new challenge in the universities’ mission: universities are capable (and therefore they are asked to generate not only new knowledge and competent professional profiles, but also to make a new effort in implementing the “third mission” for promoting social innovation. Considering this background, we present a research project - a training intervention named “Participatory culture, personal branding and organisational wellness” - by Espéro Pvt, a spin-off of the University of Salento, for Geodata Engineering Ltd., located in Turin, Italy. Presented below are the theoretical framework (learning organisation, empowerment evaluation and organisational wellness and the methodology, as well as the first results.

  2. Impact of attention biases to threat and effortful control on individual variations in negative affect and social withdrawal in very young children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cole, Claire E; Zapp, Daniel J; Fettig, Nicole B; Pérez-Edgar, Koraly

    2016-01-01

    Early temperamental sensitivity may form the basis for the later development of socioemotional maladjustment. In particular, temperamental negative affect places children at risk for the development of anxiety. However, not all children who show negative affect go on to develop anxiety or extreme social withdrawal. Recent research indicates that reactive control, in the form of attention to threat, may serve as a bridge between early temperament and the development of later social difficulties. In addition, variation in effortful control may also modulate this trajectory. Children (mean age=5.57 years) were assessed for attention bias to threatening and pleasant faces using a dot-probe paradigm. Attention bias to threatening (but not happy) faces moderated the direct positive relation between negative affect and social withdrawal. Children with threat biases showed a significant link between negative affect and social withdrawal, whereas children who avoided threat did not. In contrast, effortful control did not moderate the relation between negative affect and social withdrawal. Rather, there was a direct negative relation between effortful control and social withdrawal. The findings from this short report indicate that the relations among temperament, attention bias, and social withdrawal appears early in life and point to early emerging specificity in reactive and regulatory functioning. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. How trait anxiety, interpretation bias and memory affect acquired fear in children learning about new animals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Field, Zoë C; Field, Andy P

    2013-06-01

    Cognitive models of vulnerability to anxiety propose that information processing biases such as interpretation bias play a part in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. However, at present little is known about the role of memory in information processing accounts of child anxiety. The current study investigates the relationships between interpretation biases, memory and fear responses when learning about new stimuli. Children (aged 8-11 years) were presented with ambiguous information regarding a novel animal, and their fear, interpretation bias, and memory for the information was measured. The main findings were: (1) trait anxiety and interpretation bias significantly predicted acquired fear; (2) interpretation bias did not significantly mediate the relationship between trait anxiety and acquired fear; (3) interpretation bias appeared to be a more important predictor of acquired fear than trait anxiety per se; and (4) the relationship between interpretation bias and acquired fear was not mediated by the number of negative memories but was mediated by the number of positive and false-positive memories. The findings suggest that information processing models of child anxiety need to explain the role of positive memory in the formation of fear responses.

  4. A comparison of pay-as-bid and marginal pricing in electricity markets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ren, Yongjun

    This thesis investigates the behaviour of electricity markets under marginal and pay-as-bid pricing. Marginal pricing is believed to yield the maximum social welfare and is currently implemented by most electricity markets. However, in view of recent electricity market failures, pay-as-bid has been extensively discussed as a possible alternative to marginal pricing. In this research, marginal and pay-as-bid pricing have been analyzed in electricity markets with both perfect and imperfect competition. The perfect competition case is studied under both exact and uncertain system marginal cost prediction. The comparison of the two pricing methods is conducted through two steps: (i) identify the best offer strategy of the generating companies (gencos); (ii) analyze the market performance under these optimum genco strategies. The analysis results together with numerical simulations show that pay-as-bid and marginal pricing are equivalent in a perfect market with exact system marginal cost prediction. In perfect markets with uncertain demand prediction, the two pricing methods are also equivalent but in an expected value sense. If we compare from the perspective of second order statistics, all market performance measures exhibit much lower values under pay-as-bid than under marginal pricing. The risk of deviating from the mean is therefore much higher under marginal pricing than under pay-as-bid. In an imperfect competition market with exact demand prediction, the research shows that pay-as-bid pricing yields lower consumer payments and lower genco profits. This research provides quantitative evidence that challenges some common claims about pay-as-bid pricing. One is that under pay-as-bid, participants would soon learn how to offer so as to obtain the same or higher profits than what they would have obtained under marginal pricing. This research however shows that, under pay-as-bid, participants can at best earn the same profit or expected profit as under marginal

  5. Social support and child protection: Lessons learned and learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Ross A

    2015-03-01

    Social support has been a topic of research for nearly 50 years, and its applications to prevention and intervention have grown significantly, including programs advancing child protection. This article summarizes the central conclusions of the 1994 review of research on social support and the prevention of child maltreatment prepared for the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, and surveys advances in the field since its publication. Among the lessons learned twenty years ago are (a) the diversity of the social support needs of at-risk families and their association with child endangerment, (b) the need to supplement the emotionally affirmative aspects of social support with efforts to socialize parenting practices and monitor child well-being, (c) the desirability of integrating formal and informal sources of social support for recipients, and (d) the importance of considering the complex recipient reactions to receiving support from others. The lessons we are now learning derive from research exploring the potential of online communication to enhance social support, the neurobiology of stress and its buffering through social support, and the lessons of evaluation research that are identifying the effective ingredients of social support interventions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Fear acquisition and liking of out-group and in-group members: Learning bias or attention?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koenig, Stephan; Nauroth, Peter; Lucke, Sara; Lachnit, Harald; Gollwitzer, Mario; Uengoer, Metin

    2017-10-01

    The present study explores the notion of an out-group fear learning bias that is characterized by facilitated fear acquisition toward harm-doing out-group members. Participants were conditioned with two in-group and two out-group faces as conditioned stimuli. During acquisition, one in-group and one out-group face was paired with an aversive shock whereas the other in-group and out-group face was presented without shock. Psychophysiological measures of fear conditioning (skin conductance and pupil size) and explicit and implicit liking exhibited increased differential responding to out-group faces compared to in-group faces. However, the results did not clearly indicate that harm-doing out-group members were more readily associated with fear than harm-doing in-group members. In contrast, the out-group face not paired with shock decreased conditioned fear and disliking at least to the same extent that the shock-associated out-group face increased these measures. Based on these results, we suggest an account of the out-group fear learning bias that relates to an attentional bias to process in-group information. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Company learning about corporate social responsibility

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cramer, J.M.

    2005-01-01

    This article analyses the learning experiences gained by 19 Dutch companies when implementing the concept of corporate social responsibility in their own business practices. It is concluded that learning processes took place at individual level and, in certain cases, at group level. Learning at

  8. Selective social learning in infancy: looking for mechanisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crivello, Cristina; Phillips, Sara; Poulin-Dubois, Diane

    2018-05-01

    Although there is mounting evidence that selective social learning begins in infancy, the psychological mechanisms underlying this ability are currently a controversial issue. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether theory of mind abilities and statistical learning skills are related to infants' selective social learning. Seventy-seven 18-month-olds were first exposed to a reliable or an unreliable speaker and then completed a word learning task, two theory of mind tasks, and a statistical learning task. If domain-general abilities are linked to selective social learning, then infants who demonstrate superior performance on the statistical learning task should perform better on the selective learning task, that is, should be less likely to learn words from an unreliable speaker. Alternatively, if domain-specific abilities are involved, then superior performance on theory of mind tasks should be related to selective learning performance. Findings revealed that, as expected, infants were more likely to learn a novel word from a reliable speaker. Importantly, infants who passed a theory of mind task assessing knowledge attribution were significantly less likely to learn a novel word from an unreliable speaker compared to infants who failed this task. No such effect was observed for the other tasks. These results suggest that infants who possess superior social-cognitive abilities are more apt to reject an unreliable speaker as informant. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/zuuCniHYzqo. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  9. How relevant is social interaction in second language learning?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura eVerga

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Verbal language is the most widespread mode of human communication, and an intrinsically social activity. This claim is strengthen by evidence emerging from different fields, which clearly indicate that social interaction influences human communication, and more specifically, language learning. Indeed, research conducted with infants and children shows that interaction with a caregiver is necessary to acquire language. Further evidence on the influence of sociality on language comes from social and linguistic pathologies, in which deficits in social and linguistic abilities are tightly intertwined, as it is the case for Autism, for example. However, studies on adult second language learning have been mostly focused on individualistic approaches, partly because of methodological constraints especially of imaging methods. The question as to whether social interaction should be considered as a critical factor impacting upon adult language learning still remains underspecified. Here, we review evidence in support of the view that sociality plays a significant role in communication and language learning, in an attempt to emphasize factors that could facilitate this process in adult language learning. We suggest that sociality should be considered as a potentially influential factor in adult language learning and that future studies in this domain should explicitly target this factor.

  10. How relevant is social interaction in second language learning?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verga, Laura; Kotz, Sonja A

    2013-09-03

    Verbal language is the most widespread mode of human communication, and an intrinsically social activity. This claim is strengthened by evidence emerging from different fields, which clearly indicates that social interaction influences human communication, and more specifically, language learning. Indeed, research conducted with infants and children shows that interaction with a caregiver is necessary to acquire language. Further evidence on the influence of sociality on language comes from social and linguistic pathologies, in which deficits in social and linguistic abilities are tightly intertwined, as is the case for Autism, for example. However, studies on adult second language (L2) learning have been mostly focused on individualistic approaches, partly because of methodological constraints, especially of imaging methods. The question as to whether social interaction should be considered as a critical factor impacting upon adult language learning still remains underspecified. Here, we review evidence in support of the view that sociality plays a significant role in communication and language learning, in an attempt to emphasize factors that could facilitate this process in adult language learning. We suggest that sociality should be considered as a potentially influential factor in adult language learning and that future studies in this domain should explicitly target this factor.

  11. Influence of Learning Styles on Social Structures in Online Learning Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cela, Karina; Sicilia, Miguel-Ángel; Sánchez-Alonso, Salvador

    2016-01-01

    In e-learning settings, the interactions of students with one another, with the course content and with the instructors generate a considerable amount of information that may be useful for understanding how people learn online. The objective of the present research was to use social network analysis to explore the social structure of an e-learning…

  12. Analyzing the social factors that influence willingness to pay for invasive alien species management under two different strategies: eradication and prevention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    García-Llorente, Marina; Martín-López, Berta; Nunes, Paulo A L D; González, José A; Alcorlo, Paloma; Montes, Carlos

    2011-09-01

    Biological invasions occur worldwide, and have been the object of ecological and socio-economic research for decades. However, the manner in which different stakeholder groups identify the problems associated with invasive species and confront invasive species management under different policies remains poorly understood. In this study, we conducted an econometric analysis of the social factors influencing willingness to pay for invasive alien species management under two different regimes: eradication and prevention in the Doñana Natural Protected Area (SW Spain). Controlling for the participation of local residents, tourists and conservationists, email and face-to-face questionnaires were conducted. Results indicated that respondents were more willing to pay for eradication than prevention; and public support for invasive alien species management was influenced by an individual's knowledge and perception of invasive alien species, active interest in nature, and socio-demographic attributes. We concluded that invasive alien species management research should confront the challenges to engage stakeholders and accept any tradeoffs necessary to modify different conservation policies to ensure effective management is implemented. Finally, our willingness to pay estimates suggest the Department of Environment of Andalusian Government has suitable social support to meet the budgetary expenditures required for invasive alien species plans and adequate resources to justify an increase in the invasive alien species management budget.

  13. Survey of pay satisfaction, job satisfaction and employee turnover in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Survey of pay satisfaction, job satisfaction and employee turnover in selected business organisations in Lagos, Nigeria. ... Global Journal of Social Sciences ... The study was an attempt at investigating the relatedness of pay satisfaction, job satisfaction and employee turnover in business organizations in Lagos Nigeria.

  14. Social Fear Learning: from Animal Models to Human Function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Debiec, Jacek; Olsson, Andreas

    2017-07-01

    Learning about potential threats is critical for survival. Learned fear responses are acquired either through direct experiences or indirectly through social transmission. Social fear learning (SFL), also known as vicarious fear learning, is a paradigm successfully used for studying the transmission of threat information between individuals. Animal and human studies have begun to elucidate the behavioral, neural and molecular mechanisms of SFL. Recent research suggests that social learning mechanisms underlie a wide range of adaptive and maladaptive phenomena, from supporting flexible avoidance in dynamic environments to intergenerational transmission of trauma and anxiety disorders. This review discusses recent advances in SFL studies and their implications for basic, social and clinical sciences. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Self-reported Cognitive Biases Moderate the Associations Between Social Stress and Paranoid Ideation in a Virtual Reality Experimental Study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pot-Kolder, Roos; Veling, Wim; Counotte, Jacqueline; van der Gaag, Mark

    2017-01-01

    Introduction: Cognitive biases are associated with psychosis liability and paranoid ideation. This study investigated the moderating relationship between pre-existing self-reported cognitive biases and the occurrence of paranoid ideation in response to different levels of social stress in a virtual

  16. Student Employment as a Model for Experiential Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fede, Jacquelyn H.; Gorman, Kathleen S.; Cimini, Maria E.

    2018-01-01

    Background: Evidence suggests experiential learning promotes the development of a range of transferrable skills including communication, responsibility, and social skills. However, many students are unable to participate in internships or other common forms of experiential education because they need to work for pay. University employment has been…

  17. Blackboxing: social learning strategies and cultural evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heyes, Cecilia

    2016-05-05

    Social learning strategies (SLSs) enable humans, non-human animals, and artificial agents to make adaptive decisions aboutwhenthey should copy other agents, andwhothey should copy. Behavioural ecologists and economists have discovered an impressive range of SLSs, and explored their likely impact on behavioural efficiency and reproductive fitness while using the 'phenotypic gambit'; ignoring, or remaining deliberately agnostic about, the nature and origins of the cognitive processes that implement SLSs. Here I argue that this 'blackboxing' of SLSs is no longer a viable scientific strategy. It has contributed, through the 'social learning strategies tournament', to the premature conclusion that social learning is generally better than asocial learning, and to a deep puzzle about the relationship between SLSs and cultural evolution. The puzzle can be solved by recognizing that whereas most SLSs are 'planetary'--they depend on domain-general cognitive processes--some SLSs, found only in humans, are 'cook-like'--they depend on explicit, metacognitive rules, such ascopy digital natives. These metacognitive SLSs contribute to cultural evolution by fostering the development of processes that enhance the exclusivity, specificity, and accuracy of social learning. © 2016 The Author(s).

  18. Blackboxing: social learning strategies and cultural evolution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heyes, Cecilia

    2016-01-01

    Social learning strategies (SLSs) enable humans, non-human animals, and artificial agents to make adaptive decisions about when they should copy other agents, and who they should copy. Behavioural ecologists and economists have discovered an impressive range of SLSs, and explored their likely impact on behavioural efficiency and reproductive fitness while using the ‘phenotypic gambit’; ignoring, or remaining deliberately agnostic about, the nature and origins of the cognitive processes that implement SLSs. Here I argue that this ‘blackboxing' of SLSs is no longer a viable scientific strategy. It has contributed, through the ‘social learning strategies tournament', to the premature conclusion that social learning is generally better than asocial learning, and to a deep puzzle about the relationship between SLSs and cultural evolution. The puzzle can be solved by recognizing that whereas most SLSs are ‘planetary'—they depend on domain-general cognitive processes—some SLSs, found only in humans, are ‘cook-like'—they depend on explicit, metacognitive rules, such as copy digital natives. These metacognitive SLSs contribute to cultural evolution by fostering the development of processes that enhance the exclusivity, specificity, and accuracy of social learning. PMID:27069046

  19. Does social environment influence learning ability in a family-living lizard?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riley, Julia L; Noble, Daniel W A; Byrne, Richard W; Whiting, Martin J

    2017-05-01

    Early developmental environment can have profound effects on individual physiology, behaviour, and learning. In birds and mammals, social isolation during development is known to negatively affect learning ability; yet in other taxa, like reptiles, the effect of social isolation during development on learning ability is unknown. We investigated how social environment affects learning ability in the family-living tree skink (Egernia striolata). We hypothesized that early social environment shapes cognitive development in skinks and predicted that skinks raised in social isolation would have reduced learning ability compared to skinks raised socially. Offspring were separated at birth into two rearing treatments: (1) raised alone or (2) in a pair. After 1 year, we quantified spatial learning ability of skinks in these rearing treatments (N = 14 solitary, 14 social). We found no effect of rearing treatment on learning ability. The number of skinks to successfully learn the task, the number of trials taken to learn the task, the latency to perform the task, and the number of errors in each trial did not differ between isolated and socially reared skinks. Our results were unexpected, yet the facultative nature of this species' social system may result in a reduced effect of social isolation on behaviour when compared to species with obligate sociality. Overall, our findings do not provide evidence that social environment affects development of spatial learning ability in this family-living lizard.

  20. The Effects of Integrating Social Learning Environment with Online Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raspopovic, Miroslava; Cvetanovic, Svetlana; Medan, Ivana; Ljubojevic, Danijela

    2017-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to present the learning and teaching styles using the Social Learning Environment (SLE), which was developed based on the computer supported collaborative learning approach. To avoid burdening learners with multiple platforms and tools, SLE was designed and developed in order to integrate existing systems, institutional…

  1. Development, direction, and damage limitation: social learning in domestic fowl.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nicol, Christine J

    2004-02-01

    This review highlights two areas of particular interest in the study of social learning in fowl. First, the role of social learning in the development of feeding and foraging behavior in young chicks and older birds is described. The role of the hen as a demonstrator and possible teacher is considered, and the subsequent social influence of brood mates and other companions on food avoidance and food preference learning is discussed. Second, the way in which work on domestic fowl has contributed to an understanding of the importance of directed social learning is examined. The well-characterized hierarchical social organization of small chicken flocks has been used to design studies which demonstrate that the probability of social transmission is strongly influenced by social relationships between birds. The practical implications of understanding the role of social learning in the spread of injurious behaviors in this economically important species are briefly considered.

  2. Towards identifying Collaborative Learning groups using Social Media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Selver Softic

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available This work reports about the preliminary results and ongoing research based upon profiling collaborative learning groups of persons within the social micro-blogging platforms like Twitter that share potentially common interests on special topic. Hereby the focus is held on spontaneously initiated collaborative learning in Social Media and detection of collaborative learning groups based upon their communication dynamics. Research questions targeted to be answered are: are there any useful data mining algorithms to fulfill the task of pre-selection and clustering of users in social networks, how good do they perform, and what are the metrics that could be used for detection and evaluation in the realm of this task. Basic approach presented here uses as preamble hypothesis that users and their interests in Social Networks can be identified through content generated by them and content they consume. Special focus is held on topic oriented approach as least common bounding point. Those should be also the basic criteria used to detect and outline the learning groups. The aim of this work is to deliver first scientific pre-work for successfully implementation of recommender systems using social network metrics and content features of social network users for the purposes of better learning group communication and information consumption.

  3. Learning as Social Exchange in City Year London

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Revsbech, Christine

    Learning as Social Exchange in City Year London: Action towards an image of greatness contributes to the growing field of research on social entrepreneurship. The thesis is the result of an interesting, anthropological study of a social voluntary organisation, City Year London, a British affiliate...... of an American charity. Young volunteers were followed in their daily activities working as mentors for public primary school children, and the interaction between staff and volunteers in City Year London were observed. Also, interviews with both volunteers and staff were carried out. The thesis explores...... the empirical findings applying an understanding of learning as social exchange of value. The rich empirical data has led to analyses that draw on and contribute to economic anthropology, learning theories and social entrepreneurship....

  4. Positively Biased Processing of Mother's Emotions Predicts Children's Social and Emotional Functioning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donohue, Meghan Rose; Goodman, Sherryl H; Tully, Erin C

    Risk for internalizing problems and social skills deficits likely emerges in early childhood when emotion processing and social competencies are developing. Positively biased processing of social information is typical during early childhood and may be protective against poorer psychosocial outcomes. We tested the hypothesis that young children with relatively less positively biased attention to, interpretations of, and attributions for their mother's emotions would exhibit poorer prosocial skills and more internalizing problems. A sample of 4- to 6-year-old children ( N =82) observed their mothers express happiness, sadness and anger during a simulated emotional phone conversation. Children's attention to their mother when she expressed each emotion was rated from video. Immediately following the phone conversation, children were asked questions about the conversation to assess their interpretations of the intensity of mother's emotions and misattributions of personal responsibility for her emotions. Children's prosocial skills and internalizing problems were assessed using mother-report rating scales. Interpretations of mother's positive emotions as relatively less intense than her negative emotions, misattributions of personal responsibility for her negative emotions, and lack of misattributions of personal responsibility for her positive emotions were associated with poorer prosocial skills. Children who attended relatively less to mother's positive than her negative emotions had higher levels of internalizing problems. These findings suggest that children's attention to, interpretations of, and attributions for their mother's emotions may be important targets of early interventions for preventing prosocial skills deficits and internalizing problems.

  5. Why Teach Social Entrepreneurship: Enhance Learning and University-Community Relations through Service-Learning Outreach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wessel, Stacy; Godshalk, Veronica M.

    2004-01-01

    This article focuses on providing a convincing argument for incorporating social entrepreneurship into the business professor's classroom. The outreach provided by social entrepreneurship enhances learning and promotes university-community relations. Service-learning engagement activities, in the form of social entrepreneurship, create a three-way…

  6. Investigating d-cycloserine as a potential pharmacological enhancer of an emotional bias learning procedure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woud, Marcella L; Blackwell, Simon E; Steudte-Schmiedgen, Susann; Browning, Michael; Holmes, Emily A; Harmer, Catherine J; Margraf, Jürgen; Reinecke, Andrea

    2018-05-01

    The partial N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor agonist d-cycloserine may enhance psychological therapies. However, its exact mechanism of action is still being investigated. Cognitive bias modification techniques allow isolation of cognitive processes and thus investigation of how they may be affected by d-cycloserine. We used a cognitive bias modification paradigm targeting appraisals of a stressful event, Cognitive Bias Modification-Appraisal, to investigate whether d-cycloserine enhanced the modification of appraisal, and whether it caused greater reduction in indices of psychopathology. Participants received either 250 mg of d-cycloserine ( n=19) or placebo ( n=19). As a stressor task, participants recalled a negative life event, followed by positive Cognitive Bias Modification-Appraisal training. Before and after Cognitive Bias Modification-Appraisal, appraisals and indices of psychopathology related to the stressor were assessed. Cognitive Bias Modification-Appraisal successfully modified appraisals, but d-cycloserine did not affect appraisals post-training. There were no post-training group differences in frequency of intrusions. Interestingly, d-cycloserine led to a greater reduction in distress and impact on state mood from recalling the event, and lower distress post-training was associated with fewer intrusions. Therefore, d-cycloserine may affect emotional reactivity to recalling a negative event when combined with induction of a positive appraisal style, but via a mechanism other than enhanced learning of the appraisal style.

  7. Adequacy of Pay Structure and Its Impact on Personal Outcomes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siti Salwa Salim

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Pay structure consists of two salient elements: monetary and non-monetary rewards. The ability of administrators to adequately provide these rewards may have a significant impact on personal outcomes. Although this relationship is vital, the role of adequacy of pay structures as an important antecedent was given less emphasis in the organizational pay structure research literature. Thus, this study was undertaken to examine the association between the adequacy of pay structure and personal outcomes. A survey method was conducted to collect data from employees who worked in private institutions of higher learning in Malaysia. The SmartPLS path model analysis demonstrated that job satisfaction and organizational commitment were important outcomes of the adequacy of pay structure in the studied organizations. Furthermore, this study also provided the relevant discussions, implications and conclusion.

  8. Indicators of implicit and explicit social anxiety influence threat-related interpretive bias as a function of working memory capacity

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Salemink, E.; Friese, M.; Drake, E.; Mackintosh, B.; Hoppitt, L.

    2013-01-01

    Interpretive biases play a crucial role in anxiety disorders. The aim of the current study was to examine factors that determine the relative strength of threat-related interpretive biases that are characteristic of individuals high in social anxiety. Different (dual process) models argue that both

  9. Multi-Agent Inference in Social Networks: A Finite Population Learning Approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Jianqing; Tong, Xin; Zeng, Yao

    When people in a society want to make inference about some parameter, each person may want to use data collected by other people. Information (data) exchange in social networks is usually costly, so to make reliable statistical decisions, people need to trade off the benefits and costs of information acquisition. Conflicts of interests and coordination problems will arise in the process. Classical statistics does not consider people's incentives and interactions in the data collection process. To address this imperfection, this work explores multi-agent Bayesian inference problems with a game theoretic social network model. Motivated by our interest in aggregate inference at the societal level, we propose a new concept, finite population learning , to address whether with high probability, a large fraction of people in a given finite population network can make "good" inference. Serving as a foundation, this concept enables us to study the long run trend of aggregate inference quality as population grows.

  10. Understanding the Dynamics of Learning across social worlds

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mengiste, Shegaw Anagaw; Aanestad, Margunn

    2013-01-01

    participation, politics and learning in IS implementation and use. We consider learning to be an integral part of the social practice, and it occurs mainly through encounters and negotiations between actors from different social worlds who might have competing interests and values. The paper also analysed how......This paper adopts a novel learning perspective on information systems development. Building on the works of Anselm Strauss we conceptualize development processes as “negotiated orders” where members from different “social worlds” encounter and negotiate differences and tensions. We argue...

  11. LearnWeb 2.0. Integrating Social Software for Lifelong Learning.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Marenzi, Ivana; Demidova, Elena; Nejdl, Wolfgang

    2008-01-01

    Marenzi, I., Demidova, E., & Nejdl, W. (2008). LearnWeb 2.0. Integrating Social Software for Lifelong Learning. Proceedings of the ED-Media 2008. World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications. June, 30 - July, 4, 2008, Austria, Vienna.

  12. Social strategy games in communicating trade-offs between mitigation and adaptation in cities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Juhola, Sirkku; Driscoll, Patrick Arthur; Suarez, Pablo

    2013-01-01

    and mitigation strategies and what kinds of negative and positive synergies can be identified between them. This paper explores how social games can help people to understand the trade-offs between mitigation and adaptation measures in an urban environment and examines the possibilities of using social gaming...... as a research method. Data was collected from Denmark, Finland and the US through organized gaming sessions. The conclusion of the study is that social games are a promising method to understand complex planning problems....

  13. When Punishment Pays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roberts, Gilbert

    2013-01-01

    Explaining cooperation in groups remains a key problem because reciprocity breaks down between more than two. Punishing individuals who contribute little provides a potential answer but changes the dilemma to why pay the costs of punishing which, like cooperation itself, provides a public good. Nevertheless, people are observed to punish others in behavioural economic games, posing a problem for existing theory which highlights the difficulty in explaining the spread and persistence of punishment. Here, I consider the apparent mismatch between theory and evidence and show by means of instructive analysis and simulation how much of the experimental evidence for punishment comes from scenarios in which punishers may expect to obtain a net benefit from punishing free-riders. In repeated games within groups, punishment works by imposing costs on defectors so that it pays them to switch to cooperating. Both punishers and non-punishers then benefit from the resulting increase in cooperation, hence investing in punishment can constitute a social dilemma. However, I show the conditions in which the benefits of increased cooperation are so great that they more than offset the costs of punishing, thereby removing the temptation to free-ride on others' investments and making punishment explicable in terms of direct self-interest. Crucially, this is because of the leveraging effect imposed in typical studies whereby people can pay a small cost to inflict a heavy loss on a punished individual. In contrast to previous models suggesting punishment is disadvantaged when rare, I show it can invade until it comes into a producer-scrounger equilibrium with non-punishers. I conclude that adding punishment to an iterated public goods game can solve the problem of achieving cooperation by removing the social dilemma. PMID:23483907

  14. Learning and the Psycho-Societal Nature of Social Practice: Tracing the Invisible Social Dimension in Work and Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Henning Salling Olesen

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper introduces a psycho-societal approach to empirical learning research combining a materialist theory of socialization with a hermeneutic interpretation methodology. The focus is on individual subjectivity as well as subjective aspects of social interaction. The term “approach” indicates the intrinsic connection between the theorizing of an empirical object, the research process and the epistemic subject. The practical method is an interpretation procedure based in interview transcripts or field observation notes. By interpreting articulations and interactions in the perspective of the subjective meaning for agents and interlocutors, it seeks to understand learning as a subjective process of experiencing social reality. In particular, this methodology is interested in the relation between what is “visible,” i.e., a conscious level of knowing and learning by participating in social interaction, and “invisible,” i.e., collective unconscious meanings that can be traced in texts and interaction by sensitive interpretation.

  15. Evolution of learning in fluctuating environments: when selection favors both social and exploratory individual learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borenstein, Elhanan; Feldman, Marcus W; Aoki, Kenichi

    2008-03-01

    Cumulative cultural change requires organisms that are capable of both exploratory individual learning and faithful social learning. In our model, an organism's phenotype is initially determined innately (by its genotypic value) or by social learning (copying a phenotype from the parental generation), and then may or may not be modified by individual learning (exploration around the initial phenotype). The environment alternates periodically between two states, each defined as a certain range of phenotypes that can survive. These states may overlap, in which case the same phenotype can survive in both states, or they may not. We find that a joint social and exploratory individual learning strategy-the strategy that supports cumulative culture-is likely to spread when the environmental states do not overlap. In particular, when the environmental states are contiguous and mutation is allowed among the genotypic values, this strategy will spread in either moderately or highly stable environments, depending on the exact nature of the individual learning applied. On the other hand, natural selection often favors a social learning strategy without exploration when the environmental states overlap. We find only partial support for the "consensus" view, which holds that individual learning, social learning, and innate determination of behavior will evolve at short, intermediate, and long environmental periodicities, respectively.

  16. Balancing the Trade-off Between Learning Prospects and Spillover Risks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Perri, Alessandra; Andersson, Ulf; Nell, Phillip Christopher

    2013-01-01

    This paper investigates local vertical linkages of foreign subsidiaries and the dual role of such linkages as conduits for learning as well as potential channels for spillovers to competitors. On the basis of data from 97 subsidiaries, we analyze the quality of such linkages under varying levels ...... find a curvilinear relationship between the extent of competitive pressure and the quality of local linkages confirming our argument of a trade-off between learning prospects and spillover risks. Furthermore, the level of subsidiary capabilities moderates this relationship.......This paper investigates local vertical linkages of foreign subsidiaries and the dual role of such linkages as conduits for learning as well as potential channels for spillovers to competitors. On the basis of data from 97 subsidiaries, we analyze the quality of such linkages under varying levels...... of competition and subsidiary capabilities. Our theoretical development and the results from the analysis document a far more complex and dynamic relationship between levels of competition and MNCs’ local participation in knowledge intensive activities, i.e. learning and spillovers, than previous studies do. We...

  17. Prosocial effects of prolactin in male rats: Social recognition, social approach and social learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donhoffner, Mary E; Al Saleh, Samar; Schink, Olivia; Wood, Ruth I

    2017-11-01

    Prolactin (PRL) and oxytocin (OT) are pituitary hormones essential for lactation, but also promote sexual behavior. OT stimulates social behaviors, such as recognition, approach, and learning, but less is known about PRL in these behaviors. Since PRL and OT have complementary functions in reproduction, we hypothesized that PRL increases social recognition, approach, and learning. Male Long-Evans rats received ovine PRL (oPRL; 0.5, 2.0 or 5.0mg/kg), the PRL antagonist bromocriptine (0.1, 3.0 or 5.0mg/kg) or saline 20 mins before testing for recognition of familiar vs. unfamiliar stimulus males. Saline controls preferred the unfamiliar male (psocial approach, we determined if PRL restores approach 2h after defeat by an aggressive male. Defeated rats avoided the aggressive male. 2mg/kg oPRL, before or after defeat, restored approach towards the aggressive male (psocial learning, we tested social transmission of food preference. Rats choose between two unfamiliar flavors, one of which they have previously been exposed to through interaction with a demonstrator rat. Vehicle controls preferred chow with the demonstrated flavor over the novel flavor. oPRL-treated rats were similar. Bromocriptine-treated rats failed to show a preference. When tested one week later, only oPRL-treated rats preferred the demonstrated flavor. The results suggest that PRL is required for social recognition and learning, and that increasing PRL enhances social memory and approach, similar to OT. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Socially Challenged Collaborative Learning of Secondary School Students in Singapore

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christopher Pang

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Using a grounded theory research design, this paper examined the collaborative learning experiences of secondary school students in Singapore. The core phenomenon that emerged was the need for social interactions in collaborative learning, both in classroom and online settings. Educators often take for granted that effective collaborative learning will occur naturally once students are assigned to work in groups. In examining students’ dissatisfaction when working in groups, this study highlighted the importance of surfacing these hidden assumptions for careful scrutiny. The key factors identified were centered on the need to address social challenges within collaborative learning. These included a pragmatic, results-oriented approach with limited interpersonal engagement used by students that can compromise collaborative learning outcomes. Having a deeper understanding of the challenges that resulted from limited social interactions provides educators with insights when designing classroom and online learning activities. This paper contributes to the understanding of groups’ active learning to inform pedagogical practices for educators engaged in designing better collaborative learning experiences. Educators and curriculum designers need to be aware of the social drawbacks in collaborative learning in order to design a more socially engaging learning environment.

  19. Which recommender system can best fit social learning platforms?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fazeli, Soude; Loni, Babak; Drachsler, Hendrik; Sloep, Peter

    2014-01-01

    In this presentation, we present a study that aims to develop a recommender system for social learning platforms that combine traditional learning management systems with commercial social networks like Facebook. We therefore take into account social interactions of users to make recommendations on

  20. A social-ecological analysis of ecosystem services supply and trade-offs in European wood-pastures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartel, Tibor

    2018-01-01

    Wood-pastures are complex social-ecological systems (SES), which are the product of long-term interaction between society and its surrounding landscape. Traditionally characterized by multifunctional low-intensity management that enhanced a wide range of ecosystem services (ES), current farm management has shifted toward more intensive farm models. This study assesses the supply of ES in four study areas dominated by managed wood-pastures in Spain, Sweden, and Romania. On the basis of 144 farm surveys and the use of multivariate techniques, we characterize farm management and structure in the study areas and identify the trade-offs in ES supply associated with this management. We link these trade-offs to multiple factors that characterize the landholding: economic, social, environmental, technological, and governance. Finally, we analyze how landholders’ values and perspectives have an effect on management decisions. Results show a differentiated pattern of ES supply in the four study areas. We identified four types of trade-offs in ES supply that appear depending on what is being promoted by the farm management and that are associated with different dimensions of wood-pasture management: productivity-related trade-offs, crop production–related trade-offs, multifunctionality-related trade-offs, and farm accessibility–related trade-offs. These trade-offs are influenced by complex interactions between the properties of the SES, which have a direct influence on landholders’ perspectives and motivations. The findings of this paper advance the understanding of the dynamics between agroecosystems and society and can inform system-based agricultural and conservation policies. PMID:29732404

  1. Reputation offsets trust judgments based on social biases among Airbnb users

    OpenAIRE

    Abrahao, Bruno; Parigi, Paolo; Gupta, Alok; Cook, Karen S.

    2017-01-01

    We investigate the extent to which artificial features engineered by sharing-economy platforms, such as reputation systems, can be used to override people’s tendency to base judgments of trustworthiness on social biases, such as to trust others who are similar (i.e., homophily). To this end, we engaged 8,906 users of Airbnb as volunteers in an online experiment. We demonstrate that homophily based on several demographic characteristics is a relatively weak driver of trust. In fact, having hig...

  2. Social Media and Social Networking Applications for Teaching and Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeo, Michelle Mei Ling

    2014-01-01

    This paper aims to better understand the experiences of the youth and the educators with the tapping of social media like YouTube videos and the social networking application of Facebook for teaching and learning. This paper is interested in appropriating the benefits of leveraging of social media and networking applications like YouTube and…

  3. Correcting for non-response bias in contingent valuation surveys concerning environmental non-market goods

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bonnichsen, Ole; Olsen, Søren Bøye

    2016-01-01

    Data collection for economic valuation by using Internet surveys and pre-recruited Internet panels can be associated with severe disadvantages. Problems concerning sample coverage and sample representativeness can be expected. Representation errors may occur since people can choose whether....... This paper analyses a sample used for an Internet contingent valuation method survey eliciting preferences for improvements in water quality of a river. We find that some variables that affect the survey participation decision also affect willingness-to-pay, consequently biasing our welfare estimates. We...... show how adjusting willingness-to-pay for this bias can be accomplished by using a grouped data model incorporating a correlation parameter to account for selection....

  4. Predicting World Cup results: do goals seem more likely when they pay off?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bar-Hillel, Maya; Budescu, David V; Amar, Moty

    2008-04-01

    Bar-Hillel and Budescu (1995) failed to find a desirability bias in probability estimation. The World Cup soccer tournament provided an opportunity to revisit the phenomenon in a context in which desirability biases are notoriously rampant. Participants estimated the probabilities of various teams' winning their upcoming games. They were promised money if one team-randomly designated by the experimenter-won its upcoming game. Participants assigned a higher probability to a victory by their target team than did other participants, whose promised monetary reward was contingent on the victory of its opponent. Prima facie, this seems to be a desirability bias. However, in a follow-up study that made one team salient, without promising monetary rewards, participants also judged their target team to be more likely to win. On grounds of parsimony, we conclude that what appears to be a desirability bias may just be a salience/marking effect, and-although optimism is a robust and ubiquitous human phenomenon-that wishful thinking still remains elusive.

  5. When do we communicate stereotypes? Influence of the social context on the linguistic expectancy bias

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wigboldus, DHJ; Spears, R; Semin, GR

    The linguistic expectancy bias (LEB) refers to the tendency to describe expectancy consistent information at a higher level of linguistic abstraction than expectancy inconsistent information. Two experiments examined the influence of the social communicative context on the production of this

  6. An Investigation of the Learning Strategies as Bias Factors in Second Language Cloze Tests

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ajideh, Parviz; Yaghoubi-Notash, Massoud; Khalili, Abdolreza

    2017-01-01

    The present study investigated the contribution of the EFL students' learning strategies to the explanation of the variance in their results on language tests. More specifically, it examined the role of these strategies as bias factors in the results of English cloze tests. Based on this aim, first, 158 intermediate EFL learners were selected from…

  7. Which Recommender System Can Best Fit Social Learning Platforms?

    OpenAIRE

    Fazeli, Soude; Loni, Babak; Drachsler, Hendrik; Sloep, Peter

    2014-01-01

    In this presentation, we present a study that aims to develop a recommender system for social learning platforms that combine traditional learning management systems with commercial social networks like Facebook. We therefore take into account social interactions of users to make recommendations on learning resources. We propose to make use of graph-walking methods for improving performance of the well-known baseline algorithms. We evaluate the proposed graph-based approach in terms of their ...

  8. Social innovation education: towards a framework for learning design

    OpenAIRE

    Alden Rivers, Bethany; Armellini, Alejandro; Maxwell, Rachel; Allen, Sue; Durkin, Chris

    2015-01-01

    Purpose—This paper proposes a theoretical framework to support the embedding of social innovation education in existing academic programmes.\\ud Design/methodology/approach—By adopting Conole et al.’s (2004) methodological approach to reviewing, mapping and modelling learning theory, this study addresses four research questions: 1) How can social innovation education be defined? 2) Which learning theories best support social innovation education? 3) How do such learning theories relate to exis...

  9. Learning from and with Customers with Social Media: A Model for Social Customer Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hannu Kärkkäinen

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Social media can enable and significantly increase the collaboration andlearning from customers in various ways, for instance by novel social waysof providing and receiving feedback from new products and concepts. Wehave created a model that can support managers and researchers to betteranalyse and understand the possibilities of social media approaches especiallyfrom the business-to-business (B2B customer interface standpoint. Weused the model to analyse found various types of business-to-business relatedsocial media approaches to create new understanding of the scarcelyresearched field of social media in the customer learning and the customerinterface of B2B innovation.

  10. PARANOID INDIVIDUALS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA SHOW GREATER SOCIAL COGNITIVE BIAS AND WORSE SOCIAL FUNCTIONING THAN NON-PARANOID INDIVIDUALS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinkham, Amy E; Harvey, Philip D; Penn, David L

    2016-03-01

    Paranoia is a common symptom of schizophrenia that may be related to how individuals process and respond to social stimuli. Previous investigations support a link between increased paranoia and greater social cognitive impairments, but these studies have been limited to single domains of social cognition, and no studies have examined how paranoia may influence functional outcome. Data from 147 individuals with schizophrenia were used to examine whether actively paranoid and non-paranoid individuals with schizophrenia differ in social cognition and functional outcomes. On measures assessing social cognitive bias, paranoid individuals endorsed more hostile and blaming attributions and identified more faces as untrustworthy; however, paranoid and non-paranoid individuals did not differ on emotion recognition and theory of mind tasks assessing social cognitive ability. Likewise, paranoid individuals showed greater impairments in real-world interpersonal relationships and social acceptability as compared to non-paranoid patients, but these differences did not extend to performance based tasks assessing functional capacity and social competence. These findings isolate specific social cognitive disparities between paranoid and non-paranoid subgroups and suggest that paranoia may exacerbate the social dysfunction that is commonly experienced by individuals with schizophrenia.

  11. Early-Life Stress Triggers Juvenile Zebra Finches to Switch Social Learning Strategies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farine, Damien R; Spencer, Karen A; Boogert, Neeltje J

    2015-08-17

    Stress during early life can cause disease and cognitive impairment in humans and non-humans alike. However, stress and other environmental factors can also program developmental pathways. We investigate whether differential exposure to developmental stress can drive divergent social learning strategies between siblings. In many species, juveniles acquire essential foraging skills by copying others: they can copy peers (horizontal social learning), learn from their parents (vertical social learning), or learn from other adults (oblique social learning). However, whether juveniles' learning strategies are condition dependent largely remains a mystery. We found that juvenile zebra finches living in flocks socially learned novel foraging skills exclusively from adults. By experimentally manipulating developmental stress, we further show that social learning targets are phenotypically plastic. While control juveniles learned foraging skills from their parents, their siblings, exposed as nestlings to experimentally elevated stress hormone levels, learned exclusively from unrelated adults. Thus, early-life conditions triggered individuals to switch strategies from vertical to oblique social learning. This switch could arise from stress-induced differences in developmental rate, cognitive and physical state, or the use of stress as an environmental cue. Acquisition of alternative social learning strategies may impact juveniles' fit to their environment and ultimately change their developmental trajectories. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  12. Effects of social organization, trap arrangement and density, sampling scale, and population density on bias in population size estimation using some common mark-recapture estimators.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manan Gupta

    Full Text Available Mark-recapture estimators are commonly used for population size estimation, and typically yield unbiased estimates for most solitary species with low to moderate home range sizes. However, these methods assume independence of captures among individuals, an assumption that is clearly violated in social species that show fission-fusion dynamics, such as the Asian elephant. In the specific case of Asian elephants, doubts have been raised about the accuracy of population size estimates. More importantly, the potential problem for the use of mark-recapture methods posed by social organization in general has not been systematically addressed. We developed an individual-based simulation framework to systematically examine the potential effects of type of social organization, as well as other factors such as trap density and arrangement, spatial scale of sampling, and population density, on bias in population sizes estimated by POPAN, Robust Design, and Robust Design with detection heterogeneity. In the present study, we ran simulations with biological, demographic and ecological parameters relevant to Asian elephant populations, but the simulation framework is easily extended to address questions relevant to other social species. We collected capture history data from the simulations, and used those data to test for bias in population size estimation. Social organization significantly affected bias in most analyses, but the effect sizes were variable, depending on other factors. Social organization tended to introduce large bias when trap arrangement was uniform and sampling effort was low. POPAN clearly outperformed the two Robust Design models we tested, yielding close to zero bias if traps were arranged at random in the study area, and when population density and trap density were not too low. Social organization did not have a major effect on bias for these parameter combinations at which POPAN gave more or less unbiased population size estimates

  13. Is Collaborative, Community-Engaged Scholarship More Rigorous than Traditional Scholarship? On Advocacy, Bias, and Social Science Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warren, Mark R.; Calderón, José; Kupscznk, Luke Aubry; Squires, Gregory; Su, Celina

    2018-01-01

    Contrary to the charge that advocacy-oriented research cannot meet social science research standards because it is inherently biased, the authors of this article argue that collaborative, community-engaged scholarship (CCES) must meet high standards of rigor if it is to be useful to support equity-oriented, social justice agendas. In fact, they…

  14. Cognitive culture: theoretical and empirical insights into social learning strategies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rendell, Luke; Fogarty, Laurel; Hoppitt, William J E; Morgan, Thomas J H; Webster, Mike M; Laland, Kevin N

    2011-02-01

    Research into social learning (learning from others) has expanded significantly in recent years, not least because of productive interactions between theoretical and empirical approaches. This has been coupled with a new emphasis on learning strategies, which places social learning within a cognitive decision-making framework. Understanding when, how and why individuals learn from others is a significant challenge, but one that is critical to numerous fields in multiple academic disciplines, including the study of social cognition. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Functionality for learning networks: lessons learned from social web applications

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Berlanga, Adriana; Sloep, Peter; Brouns, Francis; Van Rosmalen, Peter; Bitter-Rijpkema, Marlies; Koper, Rob

    2007-01-01

    Berlanga, A. J., Sloep, P., Brouns, F., Van Rosmalen, P., Bitter-Rijpkema, M., & Koper, R. (2007). Functionality for learning networks: lessons learned from social web applications. Proceedings of the ePortfolio 2007 Conference. October, 18-19, 2007, Maastricht, The Netherlands. [See also

  16. Social learning and the replication process: an experimental investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Derex, Maxime; Feron, Romain; Godelle, Bernard; Raymond, Michel

    2015-06-07

    Human cultural traits typically result from a gradual process that has been described as analogous to biological evolution. This observation has led pioneering scholars to draw inspiration from population genetics to develop a rigorous and successful theoretical framework of cultural evolution. Social learning, the mechanism allowing information to be transmitted between individuals, has thus been described as a simple replication mechanism. Although useful, the extent to which this idealization appropriately describes the actual social learning events has not been carefully assessed. Here, we used a specifically developed computer task to evaluate (i) the extent to which social learning leads to the replication of an observed behaviour and (ii) the consequences it has for fitness landscape exploration. Our results show that social learning does not lead to a dichotomous choice between disregarding and replicating social information. Rather, it appeared that individuals combine and transform information coming from multiple sources to produce new solutions. As a consequence, landscape exploration was promoted by the use of social information. These results invite us to rethink the way social learning is commonly modelled and could question the validity of predictions coming from models considering this process as replicative. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

  17. Teacher-Pay Experiments Mounting Amid Debate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olson, Lynn

    2007-01-01

    The debate over linking teacher pay to student test scores that ignited on Capitol Hill recently underscores the growing momentum--and continued controversy--behind tying what teachers earn to what students learn. Both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers came out swinging against language in a draft bill for…

  18. Social Software: Participants' Experience Using Social Networking for Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Batchelder, Cecil W.

    2010-01-01

    Social networking tools used in learning provides instructional design with tools for transformative change in education. This study focused on defining the meanings and essences of social networking through the lived common experiences of 7 college students. The problem of the study was a lack of learner voice in understanding the value of social…

  19. LES PAYS EN TRANSITION

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Cathy Egan

    En 2002, une certaine paix sociale avait été rétablie, bien qu'elle fut instable et souvent entachée de violence. Le pays amorçait le ... mieux comprendre comment il recueille et diffuse l'information destinée ... transition) et les technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC). Les étapes suivantes ont consisté à ...

  20. The Relationship between Pay-for-Performance Perceptions and Pay Satisfaction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heneman, Robert L.; And Others

    1988-01-01

    Assessed relationship between pay-for-performance perceptions and pay satisfaction among 104 hospital employees. Results indicated positive relationship between pay-for-performance perceptions and pay-raise satisfaction, pay-level satisfaction, and overall pay satisfaction even after effects of salary level, salary increases, performance ratings,…

  1. Cooperative Learning and Learning Achievement in Social Science Subjects for Sociable Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herpratiwi; Darsono; Sasmiati; Pujiyatli

    2018-01-01

    Purpose: The research objective was to compare students' learning achievement for sociable learning motivation students in social science (IPS) using cooperative learning. Research Methods: This research used a quasi-experimental method with a pre-test/post-test design involving 35 fifth-grade students. The learning process was conducted four…

  2. Social Networks as Learning Environments for Higher Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J.A.Cortés

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Learning is considered as a social activity, a student does not learn only of the teacher and the textbook or only in the classroom, learn also from many other agents related to the media, peers and society in general. And since the explosion of the Internet, the information is within the reach of everyone, is there where the main area of opportunity in new technologies applied to education, as well as taking advantage of recent socialization trends that can be leveraged to improve not only informing of their daily practices, but rather as a tool that explore different branches of education research. One can foresee the future of higher education as a social learning environment, open and collaborative, where people construct knowledge in interaction with others, in a comprehensive manner. The mobility and ubiquity that provide mobile devices enable the connection from anywhere and at any time. In modern educational environments can be expected to facilitate mobile devices in the classroom expansion in digital environments, so that students and teachers can build the teaching-learning process collectively, this partial derivative results in the development of draft research approved by the CONADI in “Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia”, "Social Networks: A teaching strategy in learning environments in higher education."

  3. The behavioral basis of policies fostering long-run transitions: Stakeholders, limited rationality and social context

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gazheli, A.; Antal, A.; van den Bergh, J.C.J.M.

    2015-01-01

    Writings on sustainability transitions generally pay slight attention to the specific behavioral characteristics of individuals, groups and organizations. This paper examines how modern insights about bounded rationality, social interaction and learning can contribute to making transition polices

  4. Communities of clinical practice: the social organization of clinical learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Egan, Tony; Jaye, Chrystal

    2009-01-01

    The social organization of clinical learning is under-theorized in the sociological literature on the social organization of health care. Professional scopes of practice and jurisdictions are formally defined by professional principles and standards and reflected in legislation; however, these are mediated through the day-to-day clinical activities of social groupings of clinical teams. The activities of health service providers typically occur within communities of clinical practice. These are also major sites for clinical curriculum delivery, where clinical students learn not only clinical skills but also how to be health professionals. In this article, we apply Wenger's model of social learning within organizations to curriculum delivery within a health service setting. Here, social participation is the basis of learning. We suggest that it offers a powerful framework for recognizing and explaining paradox and incongruence in clinical teaching and learning, and also for recognizing opportunities, and devising means, to add value to students' learning experiences.

  5. BEHAVIORAL BIASES IN TRADING SECURITIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Turcan Ciprian Sebastian

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available The main thesis of this paper represents the importance and the effects that human behavior has over capital markets. It is important to see the link between the asset valuation and investor sentiment that motivate to pay for an asset a certain prices over/below the intrinsic value. The main behavioral aspects discussed are emotional factors such as: fear of regret, overconfidence, perseverance, loss aversion ,heuristic biases, misinformation and thinking errors, herding and their consequences.

  6. Social learning research in ecological economics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Siebenhüner, Bernd; Rodela, Romina; Ecker, Franz

    2016-01-01

    Social learning studies emerged as part of the ecological economics research agenda rather recently. Questions of how human societies and organisations learn and transition on the basis of environmental knowledge relate to the core ideas of ecological economics with its pluralistic understanding

  7. Social Learning Strategies: Bridge-Building between Fields.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kendal, Rachel L; Boogert, Neeltje J; Rendell, Luke; Laland, Kevin N; Webster, Mike; Jones, Patricia L

    2018-07-01

    While social learning is widespread, indiscriminate copying of others is rarely beneficial. Theory suggests that individuals should be selective in what, when, and whom they copy, by following 'social learning strategies' (SLSs). The SLS concept has stimulated extensive experimental work, integrated theory, and empirical findings, and created impetus to the social learning and cultural evolution fields. However, the SLS concept needs updating to accommodate recent findings that individuals switch between strategies flexibly, that multiple strategies are deployed simultaneously, and that there is no one-to-one correspondence between psychological heuristics deployed and resulting population-level patterns. The field would also benefit from the simultaneous study of mechanism and function. SLSs provide a useful vehicle for bridge-building between cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  8. Practice of Connectivism As Learning Theory: Enhancing Learning Process Through Social Networking Site (Facebook

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fahriye Altınay Aksal

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The impact of the digital age within learning and social interaction has been growing rapidly. The realm of digital age and computer mediated communication requires reconsidering instruction based on collaborative interactive learning process and socio-contextual experience for learning. Social networking sites such as facebook can help create group space for digital dialogue to inform, question and challenge within a frame of connectivism as learning theory within the digital age. The aim of this study is to elaborate the practice of connectivism as learning theory in terms of internship course. Facebook group space provided social learning platform for dialogue and negotiation beside the classroom learning and teaching process in this study. The 35 internship students provided self-reports within a frame of this qualitative research. This showed how principles of theory practiced and how this theory and facebook group space contribute learning, selfleadership, decision making and reflection skills. As the research reflects a practice of new theory based on action research, learning is not individualistic attempt in the digital age as regards the debate on learning in digital age within a frame of connectivism

  9. Social learning and innovation. Ice fishing communities on Lake Milles Lacs

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Assche, van K.; Beunen, R.; Holm, J.; Lo, M.

    2013-01-01

    Social learning took place largely outside the sphere of government and spurred substantial technological and institutional innovation. Unique patterns of networks, informal institutions and social learning environments delineate options for social learning that are more likely to succeed, to lead

  10. The Effect of Socially Shared Regulation Approach on Learning Performance in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Lanqin; Li, Xin; Huang, Ronghuai

    2017-01-01

    Students' abilities to socially shared regulation of their learning are crucial to productive and successful collaborative learning. However, how group members sustain and regulate collaborative processes is a neglected area in the field of collaborative learning. Furthermore, how group members engage in socially shared regulation still remains to…

  11. 5 CFR 534.305 - Pay periods and computation of pay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Pay periods and computation of pay. 534... PAY UNDER OTHER SYSTEMS Basic Pay for Employees of Temporary Organizations § 534.305 Pay periods and computation of pay. (a) The requirements of 5 U.S.C. 5504, must be applied to employees of temporary...

  12. Understanding Interorganizational Learning Based on Social Spaces and Learning Episodes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anelise Rebelato Mozzato

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Different organizational settings have been gaining ground in the world economy, resulting in a proliferation of different forms of strategic alliances that translate into a growth in the number of organizations that have started to deal with interorganizational relationships with different actors. These circumstances reinforce Crossan, Lane, White and Djurfeldt (1995 and Crossan, Mauer and White (2011 in exploring what authors refer to as the fourth, interorganizational, level of learning. These authors, amongst others, suggest that the process of interorganizational learning (IOL warrants investigation, as its scope of analysis needs widening and deepening. Therefore, this theoretical essay is an attempt to understand IOL as a dynamic process found in interorganizational cooperative relationships that can take place in different structured and unstructured social spaces and that can generate learning episodes. According to this view, IOL is understood as part of an organizational learning continuum and is analyzed within the framework of practical rationality in an approach that is less cognitive and more social-behavioral.

  13. Experimental evolution reveals trade-offs between mating and immunity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McNamara, Kathryn B; Wedell, Nina; Simmons, Leigh W

    2013-08-23

    Immune system maintenance and upregulation is costly. Sexual selection intensity, which increases male investment into reproductive traits, is expected to create trade-offs with immune function. We assayed phenoloxidase (PO) and lytic activity of individuals from populations of the Indian meal moth, Plodia interpunctella, which had been evolving under different intensities of sexual selection. We found significant divergence among populations, with males from female-biased populations having lower PO activity than males from balanced sex ratio or male-biased populations. There was no divergence in anti-bacterial lytic activity. Our data suggest that it is the increased male mating demands in female-biased populations that trades-off against immunity, and not the increased investment in sperm transfer per mating that characterizes male-biased populations.

  14. SOCIAL COMPLEXITY AND LEARNING FORAGING TASKS IN BEES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    AMAYA-MÁRQUEZ MARISOL

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Social complexity and models concerning central place foraging were tested with respect to learning predictions using the social honey bee (Apis mellifera and solitary blue orchard bee (Osmia lignaria when given foraging problems. Both species were presented the same foraging problems, where 1 only reward molarity varied between flower morphs, and 2 only reward volume varied between flower morphs. Experiments utilized blue vs. white flower patches to standardize rewards in each experimental situation. Although honey bees learned faster than blue orchard bees when given a molarity difference reward problem, there was no significant difference in learning rate when presented a volume difference reward problem. Further, the rate at which blue orchard bees learned the volume difference problem was not significantly different from that with which honey bees learned about reward molarity differences. The results do not support the predictions of the social complexity theory, but do support those of the central place model

  15. Enhancing Formal E-Learning with Edutainment on Social Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Labus, A.; Despotovic-Zrakic, M.; Radenkovic, B.; Bogdanovic, Z.; Radenkovic, M.

    2015-01-01

    This paper reports on the investigation of the possibilities of enhancing the formal e-learning process by harnessing the potential of informal game-based learning on social networks. The goal of the research is to improve the outcomes of the formal learning process through the design and implementation of an educational game on a social network…

  16. Economic valuation of the visual externalities of off-shore wind farms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ladenburg, Jacob; Dubgaard, Alex; Martinsen, Louise

    The primary focus of the study presented in this report is visual externalities of off-shore wind farms and the Danish population’s willingness to pay for having these ex-ternalities reduced. The investigation is part of the Danish monitoring programme for off-shore wind farms, comprising several...

  17. Research Paper: Effectiveness of Social Skills Training on Behavioral Problems in Adolescents with Intellectual Disability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abbas Nesayan

    2016-07-01

    Conclusion This research showed that social skills training were not significantly effective on behavioral problems in adolescents with intellectual disability. Although our results were not effective, research evidence shows that people with cognitive delays (such as intellectual disability require social skill training programs that include all of their academic, career, daily life, and social skills. As social skills learning plays a role in personal and social adjustment, it is necessary to pay more attention to these skills.

  18. The Pay-What-You-Want game: What can be learned from the experimental evidence on Dictator and Trust Games?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Greiff Matthias

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper introduces the Pay-What-You-Want game which represents the interaction between a buyer and a seller in a Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW situation. The PWYW game embeds the dictator game and the trust game as subgames. This allows us to use previous experimental studies with the dictator and the trust game to identify three factors that can influence the success of PWYW pricing in business practice: (i social context, (ii social information, and (iii deservingness. Only few cases of PWYW pricing for a longer period of time have been documented. By addressing repeated games, we isolate two additional factors which are likely to contribute to successful implementations of PWYW as a long term pricing strategy. These are (iv communication and (v the reduction of goal conflicts. The central contribution of this study is an attempt to bridge the gap between laboratory experiments and the research on PWYW pricing, which relies largely on evidence from the field. By reviewing the relevant experiments, this study identifies factors crucial for the success of PWYW pricing and provides guidance to developing long-term applications of PWYW pricing.

  19. The Space for Social Media in Structured Online Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salmon, Gilly; Ross, Bella; Pechenkina, Ekaterina; Chase, Anne-Marie

    2015-01-01

    In this paper, we explore the benefits of using social media in an online educational setting, with a particular focus on the use of Facebook and Twitter by participants in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) developed to enable educators to learn about the Carpe Diem learning design process. We define social media as digital social tools and…

  20. Problem-Based Learning in Social Work Education

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Monrad, Merete; Mølholt, Anne-Kirstine

    2017-01-01

    ’ experiences of PBL. In this article we address this gap by exploring experiences of learning and learning preferences among master’s-level students in a Danish social work education setting where extensive problem-based project work is used. We find a discrepancy between students’ preferred learning and when...

  1. Exploring Student’s Blended Learning through Social Media

    OpenAIRE

    Leon Andretti Abdillah

    2016-01-01

    Information technology (IT) has been used widely in many aspects of our daily life. After discuss politics related aspects for some articles. In this article author would like to discuss social media for students learning environment. Social media as a leading application on the internet has changed many aspects of life become more globalized. This article discusses the use of social media to support learning activities for students in the faculty of computer science. The author uses Facebook...

  2. Social media for informal science learning in China: A case study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ke Zhang

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available This article reports a case study on a popular informal science learning community via social media in China, named GuoKr (meaning “nutshell” in English. Data were collected through a variety of Chinese social media and social networking sites, web-based community portals, and discussion boards. Content analyses and data mining were conducted to investigate how GuoKr successfully attracted and engaged public in informal learning on scientific topics in particular. The study found three key characteristics that contributed to the success of such learning communities: (a utilizing a variety of social media to empower participants with just-in-time, accidental learning opportunities; (b daily tweets related to emerging or ongoing social events or hot topics to provide brief but intriguing knowledge “bites”, which often leads to extended readings and related resources; and (c the integration of social media and traditional face-to-face local events to engage the public in science-related learning and knowledge sharing. Practical and research implications are discussed with suggestions for future research as related to ubiquitous learning communities for informal science learning.

  3. Towards quantitative off-axis electron holographic mapping of the electric field around the tip of a sharp biased metallic needle

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Beleggia, Marco; Kasama, Takeshi; Larson, D. J.

    2014-01-01

    We apply off-axis electron holography and Lorentz microscopy in the transmission electron microscope to map the electric field generated by a sharp biased metallic tip. A combination of experimental data and modelling provides quantitative information about the potential and the field around...... the tip. Close to the tip apex, we measure a maximum field intensity of 82 MV/m, corresponding to a field k factor of 2.5, in excellent agreement with theory. In order to verify the validity of the measurements, we use the inferred charge density distribution in the tip region to generate simulated phase...

  4. Brief learning induces a memory bias for arousing-negative words: an fMRI study in high and low trait anxious persons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eden, Annuschka S; Dehmelt, Vera; Bischoff, Matthias; Zwitserlood, Pienie; Kugel, Harald; Keuper, Kati; Zwanzger, Peter; Dobel, Christian

    2015-01-01

    Persons suffering from anxiety disorders display facilitated processing of arousing and negative stimuli, such as negative words. This memory bias is reflected in better recall and increased amygdala activity in response to such stimuli. However, individual learning histories were not considered in most studies, a concern that we meet here. Thirty-four female persons (half with high-, half with low trait anxiety) participated in a criterion-based associative word-learning paradigm, in which neutral pseudowords were paired with aversive or neutral pictures, which should lead to a valence change for the negatively paired pseudowords. After learning, pseudowords were tested with fMRI to investigate differential brain activation of the amygdala evoked by the newly acquired valence. Explicit and implicit memory was assessed directly after training and in three follow-ups at 4-day intervals. The behavioral results demonstrate that associative word-learning leads to an explicit (but no implicit) memory bias for negatively linked pseudowords, relative to neutral ones, which confirms earlier studies. Bilateral amygdala activation underlines the behavioral effect: Higher trait anxiety is correlated with stronger amygdala activation for negatively linked pseudowords than for neutrally linked ones. Most interestingly, this effect is also present for negatively paired pseudowords that participants could not remember well. Moreover, neutrally paired pseudowords evoked higher amygdala reactivity than completely novel ones in highly anxious persons, which can be taken as evidence for generalization. These findings demonstrate that few word-learning trials generate a memory bias for emotional stimuli, indexed both behaviorally and neurophysiologically. Importantly, the typical memory bias for emotional stimuli and the generalization to neutral ones is larger in high anxious persons.

  5. Brief learning induces a memory bias for arousing-negative words: An fMRI study in high and low trait anxious persons

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annuschka Salima Eden

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Persons suffering from anxiety disorders display facilitated processing of arousing and negative stimuli, such as negative words. This memory bias is reflected in better recall and increased amygdala activity in response to such stimuli. However, individual learning histories were not considered in most studies, a concern that we meet here. Thirty-four female persons (half with high-, half with low trait anxiety participated in a criterion-based associative word-learning paradigm, in which neutral pseudowords were paired with aversive or neutral pictures, which should lead to a valence change for the negatively paired pseudowords. After learning, pseudowords were tested with fMRI to investigate differential brain activation of the amygdala evoked by the newly acquired valence. Explicit and implicit memory was assessed directly after training and in three follow-ups at four-day intervals. The behavioral results demonstrate that associative word-learning leads to an explicit (but no implicit memory bias for negatively linked pseudowords, relative to neutral ones, which confirms earlier studies. Bilateral amygdala activation underlines the behavioral effect: Higher trait anxiety is correlated with stronger amygdala activation for negatively linked pseudowords than for neutrally linked ones. Most interestingly, this effect is also present for negatively paired pseudowords that participants could not remember well. Moreover, neutrally paired pseudowords evoked higher amygdala reactivity than completely novel ones in highly anxious persons, which can be taken as evidence for generalization. These findings demonstrate that few word-learning trials generate a memory bias for emotional stimuli, indexed both behaviorally and neurophysiologically. Importantly, the typical memory bias for emotional stimuli and the generalization to neutral ones is larger in high anxious persons.

  6. From Personal to Social: Learning Environments that Work

    Science.gov (United States)

    Camacho, Mar; Guilana, Sonia

    2011-01-01

    VLE (Virtual Learning Environments) are rapidly falling short to meet the demands of a networked society. Web 2.0 and social networks are proving to offer a more personalized, open environment for students to learn formally as they are already doing informally. With the irruption of social media into society, and therefore, education, many voices…

  7. Online Learning for Social Constructivism: Creating a Conducive ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    On-line learning is a process which is facilitated through the use of the Internet and the World Wide Web. It has the potential for stimulating learning on a social constructivist paradigm given the wide range of applications available on the Internet and the web. The social constructivist paradigm is associated with creative ...

  8. Similarity and Difference in Fee-Paying and No-Fee Learner Expectations, Interaction and Reaction to Learning in a Massive Open Online Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cross, Simon; Whitelock, Denise

    2017-01-01

    The new pedagogical opportunities that massive open online course (MOOC) learning environments offer for the teaching of fee-paying students on university-accredited courses are of growing interest to educators. This paper presents a case study from a postgraduate-taught course at the Open University, UK, where a MOOC performed the dual role of a…

  9. Identity, Language Learning, and Social Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Norton, Bonny; Toohey, Kelleen

    2011-01-01

    In this review article on identity, language learning, and social change, we argue that contemporary poststructuralist theories of language, identity, and power offer new perspectives on language learning and teaching, and have been of considerable interest in our field. We first review poststructuralist theories of language, subjectivity, and…

  10. Learning from others mistakes: how social media etiquette distorts informal learning online.

    OpenAIRE

    Osborne, Nicola

    2014-01-01

    Informal learning and information exchange form an important part of interactions between professionals in social media spaces but these spaces also trigger complex performances of self (Goffman 1959, Barbour and Marshall 2012). This paper, drawing upon research investigating the nature and efficacy of collaborative learning between professional participants within social media spaces, expands upon key findings on the roles of self-presentation, and emerging etiquette practices around peer co...

  11. Social Networks and the Building of Learning Communities: An Experimental Study of a Social MOOC

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Lima, Mariana; Zorrilla, Marta

    2017-01-01

    This study aimed to analyze the student's behaviour in relation to their degree of commitment, participation, and contribution in a MOOC based on a social learning approach. Interaction data was collected on the learning platform and in social networks, both of which were used in the third edition of a social MOOC course. This data was then…

  12. The Influence of Social Media on Collaborative Learning in a Cohort Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natasha James-Waldon

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper provides an overview of the impact that social media has on the development of collaborative learning within a cohort environment in a doctoral program. The researchers surveyed doctoral students in an education program to determine how social media use has influenced the doctoral students. The study looked at the following areas: a the ability of social media use to develop a collaborative learning environment, b access to social media content which supports learning, and c whether social media use has contributed to the enhancement of the doctoral students’ academic achievement and learning progress. As social media use and on-line learning become more prevalent in education, it is important to continue to understand the impact that social media has on improving students’ ability to achieve their academic goals. This study provides insight on how doctoral students used social media and how social media use has influenced academic development in their cohort environment. In addition, this paper provides a discerning view into the role social media plays when developing a collaborative learning environment in a cohort.

  13. Promoting Social and Emotional Learning with Games: "It's Fun and We Learn Things"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hromek, Robyn; Roffey, Sue

    2009-01-01

    This article has two broad objectives: (a) It reviews the theoretical and practical literature on the use of games to facilitate social and emotional learning (SEL). (b) Based on this review, it argues that games are a powerful way of developing social and emotional learning in young people. In addition, we draw on our collective experience as…

  14. The effects of age, rank and neophobia on social learning in horses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krueger, Konstanze; Farmer, Kate; Heinze, Jürgen

    2014-05-01

    Social learning is said to meet the demands of complex environments in which individuals compete over resources and cooperate to share resources. Horses (Equus caballus) were thought to lack social learning skills because they feed on homogenously distributed resources with few reasons for conflict. However, the horse's social environment is complex, which raises the possibility that its capacity for social transfer of feeding behaviour has been underestimated. We conducted a social learning experiment using 30 socially kept horses of different ages. Five horses, one from each group, were chosen as demonstrators, and the remaining 25 horses were designated observers. Observers from each group were allowed to watch their group demonstrator opening a feeding apparatus. We found that young, low-ranking and more exploratory horses learned by observing older members of their own group, and the older the horse, the more slowly it appeared to learn. Social learning may be an adaptive specialisation to the social environment. Older animals may avoid the potential costs of acquiring complex and potentially disadvantageous feeding behaviours from younger group members. We argue that horses show social learning in the context of their social ecology and that research procedures must take such contexts into account. Misconceptions about the horse's sociality may have hampered earlier studies.

  15. Social Entrepreneurs in Rio De Janeiro: Learning Experiences and Social Capital

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scheiber, Laura

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to gain insight into how social entrepreneurs dedicated to violence prevention in Rio de Janeiro learn to take on the role of a social entrepreneur. Based on a two-tiered interview process with 27 social entrepreneurs in Rio de Janeiro conducted over a period of nine months, the study explores the breadth of…

  16. Priority for the worse-off and the social cost of carbon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adler, Matthew; Anthoff, David; Bosetti, Valentina; Garner, Greg; Keller, Klaus; Treich, Nicolas

    2017-06-01

    The social cost of carbon (SCC) is a key tool in climate policy. The SCC expresses in monetary terms the social impact of the emission of a ton of CO2 in a given year. The SCC is calculated using a `social welfare function’ (SWF): a method for assessing social welfare. The dominant SWF in climate policy is the discounted-utilitarian SWF. Individuals’ well-being numbers (utilities) are summed, and the values for later generations are reduced (`discounted’). This SWF has been criticized for ignoring the distribution of well-being and including an arbitrary time preference. Here, we use a `prioritarian’ SWF, with no time discount, to calculate the SCC. This SWF gives extra weight (`priority’) to worse-off individuals. Prioritarianism is a well-developed concept in ethics and welfare economics, but has been rarely used in climate scholarship. We find substantial differences between the discounted-utilitarian and non-discounted prioritarian SCCs.

  17. What's in a Name: Dimensions of Social Learning in Teacher Groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vrieling, E.; van den Beemt, A.; de Laat, M.

    2016-01-01

    Induced by a literature review, this paper presents a framework of dimensions and indicators highlighting the underpinning aspects and values of social learning within teacher groups. Notions of social networks, communities of practice and learning teams were taken as the main perspectives to influence this social learning framework. The review…

  18. Association of Unconscious Race and Social Class Bias With Vignette-Based Clinical Assessments by Medical Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haider, Adil H.; Sexton, Janel; Sriram, N.; Cooper, Lisa A.; Efron, David T.; Swoboda, Sandra; Villegas, Cassandra V.; Haut, Elliott R.; Bonds, Morgan; Pronovost, Peter J.; Lipsett, Pamela A.; Freischlag, Julie A.; Cornwell, Edward E.

    2012-01-01

    Context Studies involving physicians suggest that unconscious bias may be related to clinical decision making and may predict poor patient-physician interaction. The presence of unconscious race and social class bias and its association with clinical assessments or decision making among medical students is unknown. Objective To estimate unconscious race and social class bias among first-year medical students and investigate its relationship with assessments made during clinical vignettes. Design, Setting, and Participants A secure Web-based survey was administered to 211 medical students entering classes at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, in August 2009 and August 2010. The survey included the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to assess unconscious preferences, direct questions regarding students’ explicit race and social class preferences, and 8 clinical assessment vignettes focused on pain assessment, informed consent, patient reliability, and patient trust. Adjusting for student demographics, multiple logistic regression was used to determine whether responses to the vignettes were associated with unconscious race or social class preferences. Main Outcome Measures Association of scores on an established IAT for race and a novel IAT for social class with vignette responses. Results Among the 202 students who completed the survey, IAT responses were consistent with an implicit preference toward white persons among 140 students (69%, 95% CI, 61%–75%). Responses were consistent with a preference toward those in the upper class among 174 students (86%, 95% CI, 80%–90%). Assessments generally did not vary by patient race or occupation, and multivariable analyses for all vignettes found no significant relationship between implicit biases and clinical assessments. Regression coefficient for the association between pain assessment and race IAT scores was −0.49 (95% CI, −1.00 to 0.03) and for social class, the coefficient was −0.04 (95% CI

  19. An experimental examination of catastrophizing-related interpretation bias for ambiguous facial expressions of pain using an incidental learning task

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ali eKHATIBI

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Individuals with pain-related concerns are likely to interpret ambiguous pain-related information in a threatening manner. It is unknown whether this interpretation bias also occurs for ambiguous pain-related facial expressions. This study examined whether individuals who habitually attach a catastrophic meaning to pain are characterized by negative interpretation bias for ambiguous pain-related facial expressions. Sixty-four female undergraduates completed an incidental learning task during which pictures of faces were presented, each followed by a visual target at one of two locations. Participants indicated target location by pressing one of two response keys. During the learning phase, happy and painful facial expressions predicted target location. During two test phases, morphed facial expressions of pain and happiness were added, equally often followed by a target at either location. Faster responses following morphs to targets at the location predicted by painful expressions compared to targets at the location predicted by happy expressions were taken to reflect pain-related interpretation bias. During one test phase, faces were preceded by either a safe or threatening context cue. High, but not low, pain-catastrophizers responded faster following morphs to targets at the location predicted by painful expressions than to targets at the other location (when participants were aware of the contingency between expression type and target location. When context cues were presented, there was no indication of interpretation bias. Participants were also asked to directly classify the facial expressions that were presented during the incidental learning task. Participants classified morphs more often as happy than as painful, independent of their level of pain catastrophizing. This observation is discussed in terms of differences between indirect and direct measures of interpretation bias.

  20. E-learning on the road: online learning and social media for continuing professional competency.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alan M Batt

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Background The impact of social media and online learning in health professions education has previously shown generally positive results in medical, nursing and pharmacy students. To date there has not been any extensive research into social media and online learning use by prehospital health care professionals such as paramedics. Aim & Methods We sought to identify the extent to which Irish pre-hospital practitioners make use of online learning and social media for continuous professional competency (CPC, and the means by which they do so. A cross-sectional online survey of practitioners was conducted to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data. The release of the survey was in a controlled manner to PHECC registrants via various channels. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. Results A total of 248 respondents completed the survey in full by closing date of 31 March 2015, representing 5.4% of all registrants (n=4,555. 77% of respondents were male, and the majority were registered as Emergency Medical Technicians (49%, followed by Advanced Paramedics (26%. Over 78% of respondents used a mobile device in the course of their clinical duties; the majority used an iOS device. Social media and online learning were considered learning tools by over 75% of respondents, and over 74% agreed they should be further incorporated into prehospital education. The most popular platforms for CPC activities were YouTube and Facebook. The majority of respondents (88% viewed self-directed activities to constitute continuous professional development activity, but 64% felt that an activity that resulted in the awarding of a certificate was better value. Over 90% of respondents had previous experience with online learning, but only 42% indicated they had previously purchased or paid for online learning. Conclusion Prehospital practitioners in Ireland in the population studied consider online learning and social media acceptable for CPC purposes. The main

  1. 5 CFR 550.604 - Biweekly pay periods and computation of pay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Biweekly pay periods and computation of pay. 550.604 Section 550.604 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS PAY ADMINISTRATION (GENERAL) Computation of Pay for Biweekly Pay Periods § 550.604 Biweekly pay...

  2. The Need for Formal Evidence Synthesis in Food Policy: A Case Study of Willingness-to-Pay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Beth Clark

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Meta-analysis is increasingly utilised in the understanding of consumer behaviour, including in relation to farm animal welfare. However, the issue of publication bias has received little attention. As willingness-to-pay (WTP is widely used in policy, it is important to explore publication bias. This research aimed to evaluate publication bias in WTP, specifically public WTP for farm animal welfare. A systematic review of four databases yielded 54 studies for random effects meta-analysis. Publication bias was assessed by the Egger test, rank test, contour-enhanced funnel plots, and the Vevea and Hedges weight-function model. Results consistently indicated the presence of publication bias, highlighting an overestimation of WTP for farm animal welfare. Stakeholders should be wary of WTP estimates that have not been critically evaluated for publication bias.

  3. Economics of social trade-off: Balancing wastewater treatment cost and ecosystem damage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Yu; Dinar, Ariel; Hellegers, Petra

    2018-04-01

    We have developed a social optimization model that integrates the financial and ecological costs associated with wastewater treatment and ecosystem damage. The social optimal abatement level of water pollution is determined by finding the trade-off between the cost of pollution control and its resulting ecosystem damage. The model is applied to data from the Lake Taihu region in China to demonstrate this trade-off. A wastewater treatment cost function is estimated with a sizable sample from China, and an ecological damage cost function is estimated following an ecosystem service valuation framework. Results show that the wastewater treatment cost function has economies of scale in facility capacity, and diseconomies in pollutant removal efficiency. Results also show that a low value of the ecosystem service will lead to serious ecological damage. One important policy implication is that the assimilative capacity of the lake should be enhanced by forbidding over extraction of water from the lake. It is also suggested that more work should be done to improve the accuracy of the economic valuation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Explaining financial and prosocial biases in favor of attractive people: Interdisciplinary perspectives from economics, social psychology, and evolutionary psychology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maestripieri, Dario; Henry, Andrea; Nickels, Nora

    2017-01-01

    Financial and prosocial biases in favor of attractive adults have been documented in the labor market, in social transactions in everyday life, and in studies involving experimental economic games. According to the taste-based discrimination model developed by economists, attractiveness-related financial and prosocial biases are the result of preferences or prejudices similar to those displayed toward members of a particular sex, racial, ethnic, or religious group. Other explanations proposed by economists and social psychologists maintain that attractiveness is a marker of personality, intelligence, trustworthiness, professional competence, or productivity. Evolutionary psychologists have argued that attractive adults are favored because they are preferred sexual partners. Evidence that stereotypes about attractive people are causally related to financial or prosocial biases toward them is weak or nonexistent. Consistent with evolutionary explanations, biases in favor of attractive women appear to be more consistent or stronger than those in favor of attractive men, and biases are more consistently reported in interactions between opposite-sex than same-sex individuals. Evolutionary explanations also account for increased prosocial behavior in situations in which attractive individuals are simply bystanders. Finally, evolutionary explanations are consistent with the psychological, physiological, and behavioral changes that occur when individuals are exposed to potential mates, which facilitate the expression of courtship behavior and increase the probability of occurrence of mating. Therefore, multiple lines of evidence suggest that mating motives play a more important role in driving financial and prosocial biases toward attractive adults than previously recognized.

  5. Effect of Methods of Learning and Self Regulated Learning toward Outcomes of Learning Social Studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tjalla, Awaluddin; Sofiah, Evi

    2015-01-01

    This research aims to reveal the influence of learning methods and self-regulated learning on students learning scores for Social Studies object. The research was done in Islamic Junior High School (MTs Manba'ul Ulum), Batuceper City Tangerang using quasi-experimental method. The research employed simple random technique to 28 students. Data were…

  6. Social learning: medical student perceptions of geriatric house calls.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abbey, Linda; Willett, Rita; Selby-Penczak, Rachel; McKnight, Roberta

    2010-01-01

    Bandura's social learning theory provides a useful conceptual framework to understand medical students' perceptions of a house calls experience at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. Social learning and role modeling reflect Liaison Committee on Medical Education guidelines for "Medical schools (to) ensure that the learning environment for medical students promotes the development of explicit and appropriate professional attributes (attitudes, behaviors, and identity) in their medical students." This qualitative study reports findings from open-ended survey questions from 123 medical students who observed a preceptor during house calls to elderly homebound patients. Their comments included reflections on the medical treatment as well as interactions with family and professional care providers. Student insights about the social learning process they experienced during house calls to geriatric patients characterized physician role models as dedicated, compassionate, and communicative. They also described patient care in the home environment as comprehensive, personalized, more relaxed, and comfortable. Student perceptions reflect an appreciation of the richness and complexity of details learned from home visits and social interaction with patients, families, and caregivers.

  7. Observation of patients with vesicoureteral reflux off antibiotic prophylaxis: physician bias on patient selection and risk factors for recurrent febrile urinary tract infection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drzewiecki, Beth A; Thomas, John C; Pope, John C; Adams, Mark C; Brock, John W; Tanaka, Stacy T

    2012-10-01

    Observation off continuous antibiotic prophylaxis is an option for vesicoureteral reflux. We evaluated the characteristics of patients observed off continuous antibiotic prophylaxis and risk factors for febrile urinary tract infection. We identified children 1 to 18 years old with primary vesicoureteral reflux between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010. We excluded patients with prior surgical correction from analysis. We recorded age, gender, race/ethnicity, primary language, insurance carrier, age at vesicoureteral reflux diagnosis, initial presentation and vesicoureteral reflux severity. We quantified bladder and bowel dysfunction with a validated questionnaire if toilet trained. We compared patients off vs on continuous antibiotic prophylaxis with the chi-square test for categorical variables and the Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables. We used a univariate Cox proportional hazards model to assess predictors of febrile urinary tract infection during observation off continuous antibiotic prophylaxis. Of 529 eligible patients 224 were observed off continuous antibiotic prophylaxis. Patients off continuous antibiotic prophylaxis tended to be older (p urinary tract infection (p = 0.05), to have nondilating vesicoureteral reflux on most recent cystogram (p urinary tract infection developed in 19 (8.5%). Risk factors associated with febrile urinary tract infection included initial presentation of multiple febrile urinary tract infections (p = 0.03), older age at diagnosis (p = 0.03) and older age starting observation off continuous antibiotic prophylaxis (p = 0.0003). Criteria to select patients with vesicoureteral reflux for observation off continuous antibiotic prophylaxis remain poorly defined in the literature. Observation will fail in a subset of patients with vesicoureteral reflux. Physician biases regarding patient selection for observation off continuous antibiotic prophylaxis should be considered when interpreting studies that evaluate treatment

  8. Lifelong learning and participation: a pedagogical turn in social work and social policy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Helle Krogh; Rothuizen, Jan Jaap; Molpeceres, Mariangeles

    2012-01-01

    other things because a unilateral focus on the economic aspects may cause dissolution of the social cohesion and decrease in well-being for far too many people. The HEAR ME project aimed at developing strategies for lifelong learning and new roles for older people based on their competences, network...... in involvement of older people in voluntary social work as mentors for young people. The challenge of the ageing societies is quite often discussed as the ‘burden of the elderly’ and discussed as an economic problem. However, the challenge is not only economical. It is also a social and cultural challenge, among...... and an assumed desire of generativity. Action learning seems to be an appropriate learning concept in relation to keeping older people engaged in the community. The authors thus point at participating and lifelong learning as part of the answers to the demographic challenges, and they suggest what you might call...

  9. A Social-Cognitive Framework for Pedagogical Agents as Learning Companions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Yanghee; Baylor, Amy L.

    2006-01-01

    Teaching and learning are highly social activities. Seminal psychologists such as Vygotsky, Piaget, and Bandura have theorized that social interaction is a key mechanism in the process of learning and development. In particular, the benefits of peer interaction for learning and motivation in classrooms have been broadly demonstrated through…

  10. The Impact of Robot Tutor Nonverbal Social Behavior on Child Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James Kennedy

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Several studies have indicated that interacting with social robots in educational contexts may lead to a greater learning than interactions with computers or virtual agents. As such, an increasing amount of social human–robot interaction research is being conducted in the learning domain, particularly with children. However, it is unclear precisely what social behavior a robot should employ in such interactions. Inspiration can be taken from human–human studies; this often leads to an assumption that the more social behavior an agent utilizes, the better the learning outcome will be. We apply a nonverbal behavior metric to a series of studies in which children are taught how to identify prime numbers by a robot with various behavioral manipulations. We find a trend, which generally agrees with the pedagogy literature, but also that overt nonverbal behavior does not account for all learning differences. We discuss the impact of novelty, child expectations, and responses to social cues to further the understanding of the relationship between robot social behavior and learning. We suggest that the combination of nonverbal behavior and social cue congruency is necessary to facilitate learning.

  11. Learning in clinical practice: Stimulating and discouraging response to social comparison.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raat, Janet; Kuks, Jan; Cohen-Schotanus, Janke

    2010-01-01

    Social comparison theory is relevant for learning in general. In a clinical context, we examined four hypotheses concerning: preferred other to compare with, preferred direction of comparison, response to social comparison and influence of personal social comparison orientation (SCO). To investigate the relevance of social comparison for clinical workplace learning. Students (n = 437) from nine different hospitals completed two questionnaires measuring their SCO and the direction of and response to their comparisons. t-tests were used to analyse the data. Students substantially did compare. They preferred to compare with peer students more than with residents or staff, and with peers doing better more than with peers doing worse. Their response to social comparison was more often stimulating for learning than discouraging. Students high in SCO reported a stronger stimulating and discouraging response to their comparisons than students low in SCO. Social comparison does play a role in clinical workplace learning. The mainly stimulating response to social comparison indicates a positive learning influence. The preferred comparison with peers emphasizes the role of peers in the learning process. Further research should focus on student comparison behaviour and on situations that strengthen the positive effects of social comparison and reduce the negative or obstructing ones.

  12. Towards a de-biased social psychology: The effects of ideological perspective go beyond politics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Funder, David C

    2015-01-01

    Reasonable conservatives are in short supply and will not arrive to save social psychology any time soon. The field needs to save itself through de-biasing. The effects of a liberal worldview permeate and distort discussion of many topics that are not overtly political, including behavioral genetics and evolutionary psychology, the fundamental attribution error, and the remarkably persistent consistency controversy.

  13. Social networks as ICT collaborative and supportive learning media ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... ICT collaborative and supportive learning media utilisation within the Nigerian educational system. The concept of ICT was concisely explained vis-à-vis the social network concept, theory and collaborative and supportive learning media utilisation. Different types of social network are highlighted among which Facebook, ...

  14. The influence of attention biases and adult attachment style on treatment outcome for adults with social anxiety disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Byrow, Yulisha; Peters, Lorna

    2017-08-01

    Attention biases figure prominently in CBT models of social anxiety and are thought to maintain symptoms of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Studies have shown that individual differences in pre-treatment attention biases predict cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) outcome. However, these findings have been inconsistent as to whether vigilance towards threat predicts better or poorer treatment outcome. Adult attachment style is an individual characteristic that may influence the relationship between attention bias and SAD. This study investigates the relationship between attention biases and CBT treatment outcome for SAD. Furthermore, we examined the influence of adult attachment style on this relationship. Participants with a primary diagnosis of SAD completed a passive viewing (measuring vigilance towards threat) and a novel difficulty to disengage (measuring difficulty to disengage attention) eye-tracking task prior to attending 12 CBT group sessions targeting SAD. Symptom severity was measured at pre- and post-treatment. Regression analyses were conducted on a sample of 50 participants. Greater vigilance for threat than avoidance of threat at pre-treatment predicted poorer treatment outcomes. Greater difficulty disengaging from happy faces, compared to neutral faces, predicted poorer treatment outcomes. Attachment style did not moderate these relationships. The associations between attention biases and specific components of CBT treatment were not examined. The novel findings regarding difficulty to disengage attention require replication. The findings have implications for the theoretical models of SAD and for the treatment of SAD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. Multilingual and social semiotic perspectives on literacy learning and teaching

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Laursen, Helle Pia

    to the complex processes involved in biliterate meaning making and script learning. Multilingual and social semiotic perspectives on literacy learning and teaching – summaryOn the basis of data from the longitudinal study Signs of Language, I focus on how a social semiotic perspective on literacy learning...... and teaching can contribute to expanding the conceptualization of literacy to be more sensitive to the complex processes involved in biliterate meaning making and script learning.......Multilingual and social semiotic perspectives on literacy learning and teaching – abstract In the context of an increasing multilingualism, literacy teaching has become a central and contested issue in public and political debate. International comparisons of levels of literacy have been...

  16. Social-Cognitive Biases in Simulated Airline Luggage Screening

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Jeremy R.; Madhavan, Poomima

    2011-01-01

    This study illustrated how social cognitive biases affect the decision making process of air1ine luggage screeners. Participants (n = 96) performed a computer simulated task to detect hidden weapons in 200 x-ray images of passenger luggage. Participants saw each image for two (high time pressure) or six seconds (low time pressure). Participants observed pictures of the "passenger" who owns the luggage . The "pre-anchor group" answered questions about the passenger before the luggage image appeared, the "post-snchor" group answered questions after the luggage appeared, and the "no-anchor group" answered no questions. Participants either stopped or did not stop the bag. and rated their confidence in their decision. Participants under high time pressure had lower hit rates and higher false alarms, Significant differences between the pre-, no-, and post-anchor groups were based on the gender and race of the passengers. Participants had higher false alarm rates in response to male than female passengers.

  17. Constructivism and Learning in the Age of Social Media: Changing Minds and Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schrader, Dawn E.

    2015-01-01

    Social media provide new means and opportunities for learning that are consistent with major tenets of both social and cognitive constructivism, and extend the process of learning and meaning construction to more diverse communities and universally accessible shared activities that are jointly and concurrently engaged in by both peers and experts.

  18. COOPERATIVE LEARNING AS A MEANS OF STIMULATING LIFE SKILLS IN PROFESSIONALLY-BIASED FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander Komarov

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available The article is devoted to the contribution of foreign language learning to stimulating students’ life skills at non-linguistic higher institutions. In the article, the author considers the possibilities of motivating students to exercise life skills in the process of foreign language instruction. The author analyses the cooperative learning technology as a means that enables students to be involved into interaction with one another as well as it develops their team-building skills to successfully cooperate and communicate with each other. The author describes different forms of cooperative leaning, which give students an opportunity to mutually enrich and complement each other’s skills in foreign language learning. The author argues that cooperative learning technology stimulates the students’ existent life skills and makes them work in the process of professionally-biased instruction of a foreign language.

  19. Analysis of bias effects on the total ionizing dose response in a 180 nm technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Zhangli; Hu Zhiyuan; Zhang, Zhengxuan; Shao Hua; Chen Ming; Bi Dawei; Ning Bingxu; Zou Shichang

    2011-01-01

    The effects of gamma ray irradiation on the shallow trench isolation (STI) leakage current in a 180 nm technology are investigated. The radiation response is strongly influenced by the bias modes, gate bias during irradiation, substrate bias during irradiation and operating substrate bias after irradiation. We found that the worst case occurs under the ON bias condition for the ON, OFF and PASS bias mode. A positive gate bias during irradiation significantly enhances the STI leakage current, indicating the electric field influence on the charge buildup process during radiation. Also, a negative substrate bias during irradiation enhances the STI leakage current. However a negative operating substrate bias effectively suppresses the STI leakage current, and can be used to eliminate the leakage current produced by the charge trapped in the deep STI oxide. Appropriate substrate bias should be introduced to alleviate the total ionizing dose (TID) response, and lead to acceptable threshold voltage shift and subthreshold hump effect. Depending on the simulation results, we believe that the electric field distribution in the STI oxide is the key parameter influencing bias effects on the radiation response of transistor. - Highlights: → ON bias is the worst bias condition for the ON, PASS and OFF bias modes. → Larger gate bias during irradiation leads to more pronounced characteristic degradation. → TID induced STI leakage can be suppressed by negative operating substrate bias voltage. → Negative substrate bias during irradiation leads to larger increase of off-state leakage. → Electric field in the STI oxide greatly influences the device's radiation effect.

  20. Intranasal oxytocin enhances socially-reinforced learning in rhesus monkeys

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lisa A Parr

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available There are currently no drugs approved for the treatment of social deficits associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD. One hypothesis for these deficits is that individuals with ASD lack the motivation to attend to social cues because those cues are not implicitly rewarding. Therefore, any drug that could enhance the rewarding quality of social stimuli could have a profound impact on the treatment of ASD, and other social disorders. Oxytocin (OT is a neuropeptide that has been effective in enhancing social cognition and social reward in humans. The present study examined the ability of OT to selectively enhance learning after social compared to nonsocial reward in rhesus monkeys, an important species for modeling the neurobiology of social behavior in humans. Monkeys were required to learn an implicit visual matching task after receiving either intranasal (IN OT or Placebo (saline. Correct trials were rewarded with the presentation of positive and negative social (play faces/threat faces or nonsocial (banana/cage locks stimuli, plus food. Incorrect trials were not rewarded. Results demonstrated a strong effect of socially-reinforced learning, monkeys’ performed significantly better when reinforced with social versus nonsocial stimuli. Additionally, socially-reinforced learning was significantly better and occurred faster after IN-OT compared to placebo treatment. Performance in the IN-OT, but not Placebo, condition was also significantly better when the reinforcement stimuli were emotionally positive compared to negative facial expressions. These data support the hypothesis that OT may function to enhance prosocial behavior in primates by increasing the rewarding quality of emotionally positive, social compared to emotionally negative or nonsocial images. These data also support the use of the rhesus monkey as a model for exploring the neurobiological basis of social behavior and its impairment.