scholarly journals Skill and strategic control

Synthese ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Fridland

AbstractThis paper provides an account of the strategic control involved in skilled action. When I discuss strategic control, I have in mind the practical goals, plans, and strategies that skilled agents use in order to specify, structure, and organize their skilled actions, which they have learned through practice. The idea is that skilled agents are better than novices not only at implementing the intentions that they have but also at forming the right intentions. More specifically, skilled agents are able formulate and modify, adjust and adapt their practical intentions in ways that are appropriate, effective, and flexible given their overall goals. Further, to specify the kind of action plans that are involved in strategic control, I’ll rely on empirical evidence concerning mental practice and mental imagery from sports psychology as well as evidence highlighting the systematic differences in the cognitive representations of skills between experts and non-experts. I’ll claim that, together, this evidence suggests that the intentions that structure skilled actions are practical and not theoretical, that is, that they are perceptual and motor and not abstract, amodal, or linguistic. Importantly, despite their grounded nature, these plans are still personal-level, deliberate, rational states. That is, the practical intentions used to specify and structure skilled actions are best conceived of as higher-order, motor-modal structures, which can be manipulated and used by the agent for the purpose of reasoning, deliberation, decision-making and, of course, the actual online structuring and organizing of action.

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 533-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gideon Keren ◽  
Yaacov Schul

Over the past two decades, there has been an upsurge in theoretical frameworks alluding to the existence of two different processing systems that supposedly operate according to different rules. This article critically examines the scientific advance offered by these theories (in particular advances in the domains of reasoning, decision making, and social cognition) and questions their theoretical coherence as well as the evidence for their existence. We scrutinize the conceptual underpinnings of two-system models and explicate the assumptions underlying these models to see whether they are reasonable. We also evaluate the empirical paradigms used to validate two-system models and ponder about their explanatory strength and predictive power. Given the popularity of these models, we discuss the appeal of two-system theories and suggest potential reasons for their prevalence. We comment on the potential costs associated with these models and allude to the desired nature of potential alternatives. We conclude that two-system models currently provide little scientific advance, and we encourage researchers to adopt more rigorous conceptual definitions and employ more stringent criteria for testing the empirical evidence in support for two-system theories.


Author(s):  
D. Cherns

The use of high resolution electron microscopy (HREM) to determine the atomic structure of grain boundaries and interfaces is a topic of great current interest. Grain boundary structure has been considered for many years as central to an understanding of the mechanical and transport properties of materials. Some more recent attention has focussed on the atomic structures of metalsemiconductor interfaces which are believed to control electrical properties of contacts. The atomic structures of interfaces in semiconductor or metal multilayers is an area of growing interest for understanding the unusual electrical or mechanical properties which these new materials possess. However, although the point-to-point resolutions of currently available HREMs, ∼2-3Å, appear sufficient to solve many of these problems, few atomic models of grain boundaries and interfaces have been derived. Moreover, with a new generation of 300-400kV instruments promising resolutions in the 1.6-2.0 Å range, and resolutions better than 1.5Å expected from specialist instruments, it is an appropriate time to consider the usefulness of HREM for interface studies.


2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronny Swain

The paper describes the development of the 1998 revision of the Psychological Society of Ireland's Code of Professional Ethics. The Code incorporates the European Meta-Code of Ethics and an ethical decision-making procedure borrowed from the Canadian Psychological Association. An example using the procedure is presented. To aid decision making, a classification of different kinds of stakeholder (i.e., interested party) affected by ethical decisions is offered. The author contends (1) that psychologists should assert the right, which is an important aspect of professional autonomy, to make discretionary judgments, (2) that to be justified in doing so they need to educate themselves in sound and deliberative judgment, and (3) that the process is facilitated by a code such as the Irish one, which emphasizes ethical awareness and decision making. The need for awareness and judgment is underlined by the variability in the ethical codes of different organizations and different European states: in such a context, codes should be used as broad yardsticks, rather than precise templates.


2009 ◽  
pp. 42-61
Author(s):  
A. Oleynik

Power involves a number of models of choice: maximizing, satisficing, coercion, and minimizing missed opportunities. The latter is explored in detail and linked to a particular type of power, domination by virtue of a constellation of interests. It is shown that domination by virtue of a constellation of interests calls for justification through references to a common good, i.e. a rent to be shared between Principal and Agent. Two sources of sub-optimal outcomes are compared: individual decision-making and interactions. Interactions organized in the form of power relationships lead to sub-optimal outcomes for at least one side, Agent. Some empirical evidence from Russia is provided for illustrative purposes.


2008 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 607-608
Author(s):  
Csaba Pléh

ErősFerenc, LénárdKataés BókayAntal(szerk.) Typus Budapestiensis. Tanulmányok a pszichoanalízis budapesti iskolájának történetéről éshatásáról. Thalassa, Budapest, 2008, 447 oldalHargittaiIstván: Doktor DNS. Őszinte beszélgetések James D. Watsonnal. Vince Kiadó, Budapest, 2008, 223 oldalKutrovátzGábor,LángBenedekésZemplénGábor: A tudomány határa. Typotex,Budapest, 2008, 376 oldalEngerl, C. andSinger, W. (eds) Better than conscious? Decision making, the human mind, and implications for institutions . MIT Press, Cambridge, 2008, xiv + 449 oldalKondor, Zsuzsanna: Embedded thinking. Multimedia and the new rationality. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, 2008, xi + 169 oldalSíklakiIstván(szerk.): Szóbeli befolyásolás. I–II. Typotex, Budapest,_n


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-66
Author(s):  
Zsuzsanna Gödör ◽  
Georgina Szabó

Abstract As they say, money can’t buy happiness. However, the lack of it can make people’s lives much harder. From the moment we open our first bank account, we have to make lots of financial decisions in our life. Should I save some money or should I spend it? Is it a good idea to ask for a loan? How to invest my money? When we make such decisions, unfortunately we sometimes make mistakes, too. In this study, we selected seven common decision making biases - anchoring and adjustment, overconfidence, high optimism, the law of small numbers, framing effect, disposition effect and gambler’s fallacy – and tested them on the Hungarian population via an online survey. In the focus of our study was the question whether the presence of economic knowledge helps people make better decisions? The decision making biases found in literature mostly appeared in the sample as well. It proves that people do apply them when making decisions and in certain cases this could result in serious and costly errors. That’s why it would be absolutely important for people to learn about them, thus increasing their awareness and attention when making decisions. Furthermore, in our research we did find some connection between decisions and the knowledge of economics, people with some knowledge of economics opted for the better solution in bigger proportion


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Efrain Garcia-Sanchez ◽  
Nelson Molina Valencia ◽  
Estefanía Buitrago ◽  
Zabdi Sanz ◽  
Valentina Ramírez ◽  
...  

El autoritarismo es un constructo ampliamente estudiado en psicología para investigar comportamientos políticos. Para su medición se suele usar la escala de autoritarismo de derechas (RWA), la cual tiene variaciones en sus propiedades psicométricas según cada contexto. En este artículo traducimos y adaptamos una versión reducida del autoritarismo de derechas al contexto colombiano. En dos estudios (NEstudio1=417;NEstudio2=396), identificamos tres dimensiones: agresión-autoritaria, sumisión-autoritaria y convencionalismo; y encontramos que la RWA estuvo asociada positivamente con: dominancia social, deshumanización del adversario, apoyo al conflicto, patriotismo, sexismo, homofobia y la prohibición de políticas sociales consideradas como liberales (e.g., aborto, matrimonio igualitario, eutanasia). Se aporta evidencia empírica a favor de las propiedades psicométricas de la escala de RWA en el contexto colombiano. Authoritarianism is widely used construct to study political behaviors.For its measurement, researchers usually use the right authoritarianism scale (RWA), which has variations in its psychometric properties according to each context. In this article we translate and adapt a reduced version of RWA to the Colombian context. In two studies (NStudy1=417; NStudy2=396), we identified three dimensions: authoritarian-aggression, authoritarian-submission,and conventionalism. We also found that RWA was positively associated with: social dominance, dehumanization of the adversary, support for conflict, patriotism, sexism, homophobia and the prohibition of social policies considered liberal (e.g., abortion, equal marriage, euthanasia). Empirical evidence is provided in favor of the psychometric properties of the RWA scale in the Colombian context


2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (02) ◽  
pp. 140-146
Author(s):  
M. R. Edwards ◽  
S. P. James ◽  
W. S. Dernell ◽  
R. J. Scott ◽  
A. M. Bachand ◽  
...  

SummaryThe biomechanical characteristics of 1.2 mm diameter allogeneic cortical bone pins harvested from the canine tibia were evaluated and compared to 1.1 mm diameter stainless steel pins and 1.3 mm diameter polydioxanone (PDS) pins using impact testing and four-point bending. The biomechanical performance of allogeneic cortical bone pins using impact testing was uniform with no significant differences between sites, side, and gender. In four-point bending, cortical bone pins harvested from the left tibia (204.8 ± 77.4 N/mm) were significantly stiffer than the right tibia (123.7 ± 54.4 N/mm, P=0.0001). The site of bone pin harvest also had a significant effect on stiffness, but this was dependent on interactions with gender and side. Site C in male dogs had the highest mean stiffness in the left tibia (224.4 ± 40.4 N/mm), but lowest stiffness in the right tibia (84.9 ± 24.2 N/mm). Site A in female dogs had the highest mean stiffness in the left tibia (344.9 ± 117.4 N/mm), but lowest stiffness in the right tibia (60.8 ± 3.7 N/mm). The raw and adjusted bending properties of 1.2 mm cortical bone pins were significantly better than 1.3 mm PDS pins, but significantly worse than 1.1 mm stainless steel pins (P<0.0001). In conclusion, cortical bone pins may be suitable as an implant for fracture fixation based on initial biomechanical comparison to stainless steel and PDS pins used in clinical practice.


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