Individual differences trancend the rationality debate

Individual differences are indeed an important aid to our understanding of human cognition, but the importance of the rationality debate is open to question. An understanding of the process involved, and how and why differences occur, is fundamental to our understanding of human reasoning and decision making

Circular economy and behaviour change: Using persuasive communication to encourage pro-circular behaviours towards the purchase of remanufactured refrigeration equipment

Refrigerated Display Cabinets (RDCs) are used in the retail sector to display chilled and frozen food, and beverages. The manufacture of RDCs is typified by the extensive use of materials and energy, meaning that the development of a Circular Economy in this sector is particularly important. A number of behavioural barriers are preventing the development of the Circular Economy but an appropriate behaviour change intervention could help to overcome them. This paper investigates how effective the use of Persuasive Communication could be in influencing the Behavioural Attitudes, Product Perceptions and Behavioural Intentions towards the purchase of remanufactured RDCs. Participants in this study are engineers and academic experts of retail refrigeration equipment. The study was carried out in three consecutive stages. In the first stage participants completed a questionnaire, which assessed their Behavioural Attitudes, Product Perceptions and Behavioural Intentions. In the second stage participants were exposed to the intervention, which was the Persuasive Communication in the form of an audio-visual presentation. In the third stage participants completed a second questionnaire which assessed the impact of the intervention. The results show that the Persuasive Communication had a positive impact on the participants' Behavioural Attitudes, Product Perceptions and Behavioural Intentions towards the purchase of remanufactured RDCs. This paper demonstrates how effective this type of intervention could be, if developed further to create a target market and generate demand for remanufactured RDC

Natural disaster preparation and response: a guide for state housing authorities

A natural disaster is a rapid onset event that threatens or causes death, injury or damage to property or the environment, requiring a coordinated multi-agency and community response. The most costly and significant impacts of natural disasters and other environmental emergencies are on buildings. Damage or total loss of residential dwellings and social infrastructure especially accentuate hardship, homelessness, displacement and psychological trauma. For this reason, State Housing Authorities (SHAs) are among the key stakeholders with significant roles in disaster management. The overall aim of the project is to provide guidance for SHAs and to assist them prepare for and respond to natural disasters and other environmental emergencies

Working memory and high-level cognition in children: An analysis of timing and accuracy in complex span tasks

This study examined working memory (WM) using complex span tasks (CSTs) to improve theoretical understanding of the relationship between WM and high-level cognition (HLC) in children. Ninety-two children aged between seven and eight years were tested on three computer-paced CSTs and measures of non-verbal reasoning, reading and mathematics. Processing times in the CSTs were restricted based on individually titrated processing speeds, and performance was compared to participant-led tasks with no time restrictions. Storage, processing accuracy, and both processing and recall times within the CSTs were used as performance indices to understand the effects of time restrictions at a granular level. Restricting processing times did not impair storage, challenging models that argue for a role of maintenance in WM. A task-switching account best explained the effect of time restrictions on performance indices and their inter-relationships. Principal component analysis showed that a single factor with all performance indices from just one CST (Counting span) was the best predictor of HLC. Storage in both the participant-led and computer-paced versions of this task explained unique and shared variance in HLC. However, the latter accounted for more variance in HLC when contributions from processing time were included in the model. Processing time in this condition also explained variance above and beyond storage. This suggests that faster processing is important to keep information active in WM; however, this is only evident when time restrictions are placed on the task and important when WM performance is applied in broader contexts that rely on this resource

Children’s Verbal, Visual and Spatial Processing and Storage Abilities: An Analysis of Verbal Comprehension, Reading, Counting and Mathematics

The importance of working memory (WM) in reading and mathematics performance has been widely studied, with recent research examining the components of WM (i.e., storage and processing) and their roles in these educational outcomes. However, the differing relationships between these abilities and the foundational skills involved in the development of reading and mathematics have received less attention. Additionally, the separation of verbal, visual and spatial storage and processing and subsequent links with foundational skills and downstream reading and mathematics has not been widely examined. The current study investigated the separate contributions of processing and storage from verbal, visual and spatial tasks to reading and mathematics, whilst considering influences on the underlying skills of verbal comprehension and counting, respectively. Ninety-two children aged 7- to 8-years were assessed. It was found that verbal comprehension (with some caveats) was predicted by verbal storage and reading was predicted by verbal and spatial storage. Counting was predicted by visual processing and storage, whilst mathematics was related to verbal and spatial storage. We argue that resources for tasks relying on external representations of stimuli related mainly to storage, and were largely verbal and spatial in nature. When a task required internal representation, there was a draw on visual processing and storage abilities. Findings suggest a possible meaningful separability of types of processing. Further investigation of this could lead to the development of an enhanced WM model, which might better inform interventions and reasonable adjustments for children who struggle with reading and mathematics due to WM deficits

If psychosis were cancer: A speculative comparison.

In this paper, we consider the metaphorical consequences of likening psychosis to cancer. While we find the comparison unhelpful for clinical purposes, we argue that it can be a helpful lens through which to examine service provision for psychosis in young people. Through this lens, specialist community-based services would appear to compare reasonably well. Inpatient care for young people with psychosis, on the other hand, suffers very badly by comparison with teenage cancer care. We note some of the many positive features of inpatient cancer care for young adults, and – drawing upon previous research on inpatient psychiatric care – observe that many of these are usually absent from mental health facilities. We conclude that this metaphor may be a helpful rhetorical device for communicating the lack of ‘parity of esteem’ between mental and physical healthcare. This inequity must be made visible in health policy, in commissioning, and in service provision

Radi(c)al departures Comparing conventional octolinear versus concentric circles schematic maps for the Berlin U-Bahn/S-Bahn networks using objective and subjective measures of effectiveness

An experiment is reported in which two designs of Berlin U-/S-Bahn network maps were compared for usability. One was conventional, based on standard schematic design rules used worldwide: Straight lines with tightly radiused corners, and only horizontal, vertical, or 45° diagonal angles permitted. The other was a novel concept, based on concentric circles and spokes radiating from a central point. The former has the benefit of simple line trajectories, the latter potentially has the benefit of a coherent overall appearance. The experiment investigated both an objective performance measure (time required to plan complex journeys) and a variety of subjective measures (choice between maps, ratings of statements associated with usability, direct ratings of usability). All subjects planned journeys using both designs. Overall, performance was worse for the concentric circles map, and it received poor ratings. However, in line with previous research, objective and subjective measures were dissociated. For example, many subjects expressed a preference for the design that was not the best for them in terms of objective performance

Executive Function and Academic Achievement in Primary School Children: The Use of Task-Related Processing Speed

This article argues that individual differences in processing speed are important in the relationship between executive function (EF) and academic achievement in primary school children. It proposes that processing times within EF tasks can be used to predict academic attainment and aid in the development of intervention programmes

Ontological dependence in a spacetime-world

Priority Monism (hereafter, ‘Monism’), as defined by Jonathan Schaffer (Philos Rev 119:131–176, 2010), has a number of components. It is the view that: the cosmos exists; the cosmos is a maximal actual concrete object, of which all actual concrete objects are parts; the cosmos is basic—there is no object upon which the cosmos depends, ontologically; ontological dependence is a primitive and unanalysable relation. In a recent attack, Lowe (Spinoza on monism. Palgave Macmillan, London, pp 92–122, 2012) has offered a series of arguments to show that Monism fails. He offers up four tranches of argument, with different focuses. These focal points are: (1) being a concrete object; (2) aggregation and dependence; (3) analyses of ontological dependence; (4) Schaffer’s no-overlap principle. These are all technical notions, but each figures at the heart of a cluster of arguments that Lowe puts forward. To respond, I work through each tranche of argument in turn. Before that, in the first section, I offer a cursory statement of Monism, as Schaffer presents it in his 2010 paper, Monism: The Priority of the Whole. I then respond to each of Lowe’s criticisms in turn, deploying material from Schaffer’s 2009 paper Spacetime: the One Substance, as well as various pieces of conceptual machinery from Lowe’s own works (The possibility of metaphysics. Clarendon, Oxford, 1998, 2010) to deflect Lowe’s (Spinoza on monism. Palgave Macmillan, London, pp 92–122, 2012) attacks. In the process of defending Monism from Lowe (Spinoza on monism. Palgave Macmillan, London, pp 92–122, 2012), I end up offering some subtle refinements to Schaffer’s (Philos Rev 119:131–176, 2010) view and explain how the resulting ‘hybrid’ view fares in the wider dialectic