We investigated the influence of the compatibility between mood and decision strategies on the subjective value of a decision outcome. Several studies have provided evidence for the idea that a sad mood induces people to analyse information carefully, probably fitting well with a deliberative decision strategy. In a happy mood, people tend to act more strongly on their feelings, probably fitting well with an intuitive decision strategy. However, sometimes the situation demands the use of decision strategies that seem incompatible with (...) mood states. We expected that decision makers would value a decision outcome higher in the case of a fit between mood and decision strategy than in the case of a non-fit. After a mood manipulation, participants were instructed to decide either based on their first affective reaction or after deliberation. Results confirmed our expectations: fitting decisions enhanced the subjective value of a decision outcome. (shrink)

Intuitive-automatic processes are crucial for making judgements and decisions. The fascinating complexity of these processes has attracted many decision researchers, prompting them to start investigating intuition empirically and to develop numerous models. Dual-process models assume a clear distinction between intuitive and deliberate processes but provide no further differentiation within both categories. We go beyond these models and argue that intuition is not a homogeneous concept, but a label used for different cognitive mechanisms. We suggest that these mechanisms have to be (...) distinguished to allow for fruitful investigations of intuition. Specifically, we argue that researchers should concentrate on investigating the processes underlying intuition before making strong claims about its performance. We summarise current models for intuition and propose a categorisation according to the underlying cognitive processes: (a) associative intuition based on simple learning-retrieval processes, (b) matching intuition based on comparisons with prototypes/exemplars, (c) accumulative intuition based on automatic evidence accumulation, and (d) constructive intuition based on construction of mental representations. We discuss how this differentiation might help to clarify the relationship between affect and intuition and we derive a very general hypothesis as to when intuition will lead to good decisions and when it will go astray. (shrink)

Intuitive-automatic processes are crucial for making judgements and decisions. The fascinating complexity of these processes has attracted many decision researchers, prompting them to start investigating intuition empirically and to develop numerous models. Dual-process models assume a clear distinction between intuitive and deliberate processes but provide no further differentiation within both categories. We go beyond these models and argue that intuition is not a homogeneous concept, but a label used for different cognitive mechanisms. We suggest that these mechanisms have to be (...) distinguished to allow for fruitful investigations of intuition. Specifically, we argue that researchers should concentrate on investigating the processes underlying intuition before making strong claims about its performance. We summarise current models for intuition and propose a categorisation according to the underlying cognitive processes: (a) associative intuition based on simple learning-retrieval processes, (b) matching intuition based on comparisons with prototypes/exemplars, (c) accumulative intuition based on automatic evidence accumulation, and (d) constructive intuition based on construction of mental representations. We discuss how this differentiation might help to clarify the relationship between affect and intuition and we derive a very general hypothesis as to when intuition will lead to good decisions and when it will go astray. (shrink)

The present study investigated whether individual differences between psychologists in thinking styles are associated with accuracy in diagnostic classification. We asked novice and experienced clinicians to classify two clinical cases of clients with two co-occurring psychological disorders. No significant difference in diagnostic accuracy was found between the two groups, but when combining the data from novices and experienced psychologists accuracy was found to be negatively associated with certain decision making strategies and with a higher self-assessed ability and preference for a (...) rational thinking style. Our results underscore the idea that it might be fruitful to look for explanations of differences in the accuracy of diagnostic judgments in individual differences between psychologists (such as in thinking styles or decision making strategies used), rather than in experience level. (shrink)

Eye-tracking studies have revealed a specific visual exploration style characterizing individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of stimulus type (static vs. dynamic) on visual exploration in children with ASD. Twenty-eight children with ASD, 28 children matched for developmental communication age and 28 children matched for chronological age watched a video and a series of photos involving the same joint attention scene. For each stimulus, Areas of Interest (AOI) were determined based (...) on Voronoi diagrams, which were defined around participants’ fixation densities, defined by the mean shift algorithm. To analyze the eye-tracking data on visual exploration, we used a method for creat-ing AOI a posteriori, based on participants’ actual fixations. The results showed the value of both kinds of stimuli. The photos allowed for the identification of more precise AOI, and show similarities in exploration between ASD and typical children. On the other hand, in video, among ASD children only, there are few differences in the way they look at the target depend-ing on the deictic cue used. This raises questions regarding their understanding of a joint atten-tion bid recorded on a video. Finally, whatever the stimulus, pointing seems to be the most im-portant element for children to look at the target. (shrink)

This paper analyzes the necessity and operation of conceptual macromolecule inside Edgar Morin’s school of thought due to the significant connection of his epistemological proposal and the language transformation with which the knowledge of reality is expressed in complex thought. This paper is organized as follows. First, we pointed the essential link between conceptualizer/observer subject and the macro-conceptualization. Second, we interpret the system or complex basic unity expounded in Method I based on complexity principles. Finally, it may be concluded that (...) the linguistic resources used by this paradigm are in accordance with the new ways to understand complexity. (shrink)

The machine-organism analogy has played a pivotal role in the history of Western philosophy and science. Notwithstanding its apparent simplicity, it hides complex epistemological issues about the status of both organism and machine and the nature of their interaction. What is the real object of this analogy: organisms as a whole, their parts or, rather, bodily functions? How can the machine serve as a model for interpreting biological phenomena, cognitive processes, or more broadly the social and cultural transformations of the (...) relations between individuals, and between individuals and the environments in which they live? Wired Bodies. New Perspectives on the Machine-Organism Analogy provides the reader with some of the latest perspectives on this vast debate, addressing three major topics:1) the development of a ‘mechanistic’ framework in medicine and biology; 2) the methodological issues underlying the use of ‘simulation’ in cognitive science; 3) the interaction between humans and machines according to 20th-century epistemology. (shrink)

Ainda é controversa a existência de associações entre construtos psicológicos e estados nutricionais. O presente trabalho teve por objetivo verificar as relações entre autoconceito, traços depressivos, satisfação e percepção corporal entre crianças com e sem excesso de peso. Participaram do estudo 4..

Gabriel Marcel, un grand penseur français du XXe siècle, est l'auteur d'un grand nombre d'ouvrages et d'études philosophiques, d'une importante oeuvre théâtrale et de remarquables critiques musicales. La première partie de ce recueil est constituée par des études consacrées à l'oeuvre marcellienne lue selon ses grands thèmes et moments. La seconde partie, de textes bien plus nombreux, traite des rapports et des analogies entre Gabriel Marcel et certains de ses contemporains, notamment N. Berdiaeff, G. Thibon et E. Lévinas.

Once dismissed as vestigial organelles, primary cilia have garnered the interest of scientists, given their importance in development/signaling, and for their implication in a new disease category known as ciliopathies. However, many, if not all, “cilia” proteins also have locations/functions outside of the primary cilium. These extraciliary functions can complicate the interpretation of a particular ciliopathy phenotype: it may be a result of defects at the cilium and/or at extraciliary locations, and it could be broadly related to a (...) unifying cellular process for these proteins, such as polarity. Assembly of a cilium has many similarities to the development of other polarized structures. This evolutionarily preserved process for the assembly of polarized cell structures offers a perspective on how the cilium may have evolved. We hypothesize that cilia proteins are critical for cell polarity, and that core polarity proteins may have been specialized to form various cellular protrusions, including primary cilia. (shrink)

Optimization by definition is the action of making most effective or the best use of a resource or situation and that is required almost in every field of engineering. In this work, the optimization of Least Mean square (LMS) algorithm is carried out with the help of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). Efforts have been made to find out the advantages and disadvantages of combining gradient based (LMS) algorithm with Swarm Intelligence SI (ACO, PSO). This optimization (...) of LMS algorithm will help us in further extending the uses of adaptive filtering to the system having multi-model error surface that is still a gray area of adaptive filtering. Because the available version of LMS algorithm that plays an important role in adaptive filtering is a gradient based algorithm, that get stuck at the local minima of system with multi-model error surface considering it global minima, resulting in an non-optimized convergence. By virtue of the proposed method we have got a profound solution for the problem associated with system with multimodal error surface. The results depict significant improvements in the performance and displayed fast convergence rate, rather stucking at local minima. Both the SI techniques displayed their own advantage and can be separately combined with LMS algorithm for adaptive filtering. This optimization of LMS algorithm will further help to resolve serious interference and noise issues and holds a very important application in the field of biomedical science. (shrink)

Cilia are unique eukaryotic organelles and exhibit remarkable conservation across evolution. Nevertheless, very different types of configurations are encountered, raising the question of their evolution. Cilia are constructed by intraflagellar transport (IFT), the movement of large protein complexes or trains that deliver cilia components to the distal tip for assembly. Recent data revealed that IFT trains are restricted to some but not all nine doublet microtubules in the protist Trypanosoma brucei. Here, we propose that restricted positioning of (...) IFT trains could offer potent options for cilia to evolve towards more complex (addition of new structural elements like in spermatozoa) or simpler configuration (loss of some elements like in primary cilia), and therefore be a driver of cilia diversification. We present two hypotheses to explain how IFT trains could be restricted to some doublets, either by a triage process taking place at the basal body level or by the development of molecular differences between ciliary microtubules. (shrink)