Neurocomputational Substrates Underlying the Effect of Identifiability on Third-Party Punishment

The identifiable target effect refers to the preference for helping identified victims and punishing identifiable perpetrators compared with equivalent but unidentifiable counterparts. The identifiable target effect is often attributed to the heightened moral emotions evoked by identified targets. However, the specific neurocognitive processes that mediate and/or modulate this effect remain largely unknown. Here, we combined a third-party punishment game with brain imaging and computational modeling to unravel the neurocomputational underpinnings of the identifiable transgressor effect. Human participants (males and females) acted as bystanders and punished identified or anonymous wrongdoers. Participants were more punitive toward identified wrongdoers than anonymous wrongdoers because they took a vicarious perspective of victims and adopted lower reference points of inequity (i.e., more stringent norms) in the identified context than in the unidentified context. Accordingly, there were larger activity of the ventral anterior insula, more distinct multivariate neural patterns in the dorsal anterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and lower strength between ventral anterior insula and dorsolateral PFC and between dorsal anterior insula and ventral striatum connectivity in response to identified transgressors than anonymous transgressors. These findings implicate the interplay of expectancy violations, emotions, and self-interest in the identifiability effect. Last, individual differences in the identifiability effect were associated with empathic concern/social dominance orientation, activity in the precuneus/cuneus and temporo-parietal junction, and intrinsic functional connectivity of the dorsolateral PFC. Together, our work is the first to uncover the neurocomputational processes mediating identifiable transgressor effect and to characterize psychophysiological profiles modulating the effect.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The identifiable target effect, more help to identified victims or stronger punishment to identifiable perpetrators, is common in daily life. We examined the neurocomputational mechanisms mediating/modulating the identifiability effect on third-party punishment by bridging literature from economics and cognitive neuroscience. Our findings reveal that identifiable transgressor effect is mediated by lower reference points of inequity (i.e., more stringent norms), which might be associated with a stronger involvement of the emotion processes and a weaker engagement of the analytic/deliberate processes. Furthermore, personality traits, altered brain activity, and intrinsic functional connectivity contribute to the individual variance in the identifiability effect. Overall, our study advances the understanding of the identifiability effect by shedding light on its component processes and modulating factors.

Numerical Feedback Roundness Affects the Choice of the Self vs. Others as a Reference Point

People can use social or personal information as a reference point against which they compare their performance. While previous research has shown that reference point choice can be affected by individual characteristics, situational factors, and goals, we suggest that properties of the performance feedback itself can also play a role in this choice. We focus on the effects of round vs. precise numerical feedback on reference point preferences. In three studies, we show that people are more likely to use themselves as a reference point to evaluate their performance following a feedback in the form of a round score (e.g., a score of 70 in a task) and to use others as a reference point following a precise score (e.g., a score of 71). Study 1 shows decreased interest in comparisons with others following round rather than precise feedback. Study 2 shows that round (vs. precise) feedback also increases actual choice of the self (vs. others) as a reference point. Study 3 demonstrates that the effect of the numerical feedback on reference point preferences extends to the choice of a benchmark for future comparisons. We discuss the implications of our results for the literature and practice, including how this can be used to encourage desirable behaviors.

Life satisfaction: The role of domain-specific reference points

In the evaluation of well-being, it is not only important what people have in absolute terms, but also how this compares to reference points in relative terms. We explore the relevance of relative comparisons by testing the effect of people's self-rated position on potential reference points for income and health on their subjective well-being. We used Multiple Discrepancies Theory as a framework to identify seven potentially relevant reference points for income and health. A representative sample (N = 550) of the Netherlands assessed their income and health relative to these reference points. In addition, we elicited monthly household income, health status (EQ-5D-5L), and subjective well-being (SWLS). In line with the literature, we found a negative convex relationship between subjective well-being and age and a positive relationship with being employed, income, and health. For income, subjective well-being was also associated with how current income compared to respondents' needs and progression over time, and for health especially with how current health compared to what they felt they deserved. Our findings suggest that income and health are important for subjective well-being both in absolute and relative terms. We found negative effects on life satisfaction if some of the domain specific reference points were not met.

Why Does Rubin's Vase Differ Radically From Optical Illusions? Framing Effects Contra Cognitive Illusions

Many researchers use the term "context" loosely to denote diverse kinds of reference points. The issue is not about terminology but rather about the common conflation of one kind of reference points, such as rules of perception, which is responsible for optical illusions, with another kind, known as "context" or "frame," as exemplified in Rubin's vase. Many researchers regard Rubin's vase as a special kind of optical illusions. This paper rather argues that the two phenomena are radically different. Optical illusions are occasional mistakes that people quickly recognize and eagerly correct, while the different figures of Rubin's vase are not mistakes but, rather, the outcomes of different perspectives that do not need correction. The competing figures in Rubin's vase can, at best, in light of more information, be more warranted or unwarranted. This paper discusses at length one ramification of the proposed distinction. The framing effects, such as loss/gain frame, are the products of contexts and, hence, resemble greatly the figures in Rubin's vase. In contrast, cognitive illusions generated occasionally by the rules of thumb (heuristics) are mistakes and, hence, resemble optical illusions. The proposed distinction carries other ramifications regarding, e.g., happiness studies, moral judgments, and the new philosophy of science.

[Cephalometric analysis of lateral skull X-ray images using soft computing components in the search for key points]

THE AIM OF THE STUDY

Was to investigate the efficiency of decoding teleradiological studies using an algorithm based on the use of convolutional neural networks - a simple convolutional architecture, as well as an extended U-Net architecture.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

For the experiment, a dataset was prepared by three orthodontists with over 10 years of clinical experience. Each of the orthodontists processed 100 X-ray images of the lateral projection of the head according to 27 parameters, 2700 measurements were made. The coordinates of the control points found by orthodontists in the images were compared with each other and a conclusion was made about the consistency of experts in the data obtained.

RESULTS

The results of convolutional neural network CNN were not satisfactory in 17 (62.96%) features, satisfactory in 10 (37.04%). The assessment of orthodontists resulted in non-satisfactory evaluation in 6 (22.22%), satisfactory in 8 (29.63%), good in 8 (29.63%), and excellent in 5 (18.52%) coordinates. Neural networks with U-Net architecture showed satisfactory results in 9 (33.3%) cases, good in 16 (59.3%) and excellent in 2 (7.4%) cases, with no non-satisfactory results.

CONCLUSION

The neural network of the U-Net architecture is more effective than a simple fully convolutional neural network and its results of determining anatomical reference points on two-dimensional images of the head are relatively comparable with the data obtained by medical specialists.

The Conceptualization of Space: Places in Signed Language Discourse

We examine the conceptualization of space in signed language discourse within the theory of cognitive grammar. Adopting a Places view, we define Place as a symbolic structure that associates a schematic semantic pole and a schematic phonological pole. Places acquire full contextual meaning and a specific spatial location in the context of a usage event. In the present article, we analyze the referential function of Places in different grammatical constructions throughout a selection of videos produced by deaf Argentine Sign Language signers. Our analysis examines Places, which are associated with entities in the surrounding spatial environment as well as Places that are created or recruited in discourse without reference to surrounding physical entities. We observe that Places are used in pointing, placing, and other grammatical constructions in order to introduce and track referents in ongoing discourse. We also examine the use of conceptual reference points, by which Places afford mental access to new related concepts that are the intended focus of attention. These results allow us to discuss three related issues. First, for signed language discourse, space is both semantically and phonologically loaded. Signers’ semantic and phonological choices for Place symbolic structures are motivated by embodied experience and the abstraction of usage events. Second, Places occur along a continuum from deixis to anaphor, united by the same conceptual system and differing in extent of phonological subjectification. Third, we suggest developmental implications of our Place analysis.

Parsimonious Minimal Learning Machine via Multiresponse Sparse Regression

The training procedure of the minimal learning machine (MLM) requires the selection of two sets of patterns from the training dataset. These sets are called input reference points (IRP) and output reference points (ORP), which are used to build a mapping between the input geometric configurations and their corresponding outputs. In the original MLM, the number of input reference points is the hyper-parameter and the patterns are chosen at random. Therefore, the conventional proposal does not consider which patterns will belong to each reference point group, since the model does not implement an appropriate way of selecting the most suitable patterns as reference points. Such an approach can impact on the decision function in terms of smoothness, resulting in high complexity models. This paper introduces a new approach to select IRP for MLM applied to classification tasks. The optimally selected minimal learning machine (OS-MLM) relies on the multiresponse sparse regression (MRSR) ranking method and the leave-one-out (LOO) criterion to sort the patterns in terms of relevance and select an appropriate number of input reference points, respectively. The experimental assessment conducted on UCI datasets reports the proposal was able to produce sparser models and achieve competitive performance when compared to the regular strategy of selecting MLM input RPs.

Leave or Stay as a Risky Choice: Effects of Salary Reference Points and Anchors on Turnover Intention

Within a risky choice framework, we examine how multiple reference points and anchors regulate pay perception and turnover intentions in real organizational contexts with actual employees. We hypothesize that the salary range is psychologically demarcated by three reference points into four regions, the minimum requirement (MR), the status quo (SQ), and the goal (G). Three studies were conducted: Study 1 analyzed the relationship between turnover intention and the subjective likelihood of falling into each of four expected salary regions; Study 2 tested the mediating effect of pay satisfaction on salary reference point-dependent turnover intention; and Study 3 explored the anchoring effect of estimated peer salaries. The results show that turnover intention was higher in the region below MR or between SQ and G but lower in the region above G or between MR and SQ. That is, turnover intention can be high even in situations of salary raise, if the raise is below a salary goal (i.e., leaving for a lack of opportunity) and low even in situations of salary loss, if the expected salary is still above the MR (i.e., staying for security). In addition, turnover intention was regulated by pay satisfaction and peer salaries. In conclusion, turnover intention can be viewed as a risky choice adapted to salary reference points.

Personal bests as reference points

Research in psychology, economics, and neuroscience suggests that small differences in outcomes are felt disproportionately when they bridge a reference point separating psychological losses from psychological gains. However, knowledge of where reference points come from is limited. We propose that one’s personal best, or past peak performance, acts as a reference point by inducing effort when current performance would otherwise fall short. Analyzing a massive dataset of online chess games, we find that players exert effort to set new personal best ratings and quit once they have done so. In education, fitness, and other domains, technology is making performance quantifiable. Our results suggest that these advances will motivate individuals to compete with their past selves.

Personal bests act as reference points. Examining 133 million chess games, we find that players exert effort to set new personal best ratings and quit once they have done so. Although specific and difficult goals have been shown to inspire greater motivation than vague pronouncements to “do your best,” doing one’s best can be a specific and difficult goal—and, as we show, motivates in a manner predicted by loss aversion.

Ten principles from evolutionary ecology essential for effective marine conservation

Sustainably managing marine species is crucial for the future health of the human population. Yet there are diverse perspectives concerning which species can be exploited sustainably, and how best to do so. Motivated by recent debates in the published literature over marine conservation challenges, we review ten principles connecting life‐history traits, population growth rate, and density‐dependent population regulation. We introduce a framework for categorizing life histories, POSE (Precocial–Opportunistic–Survivor–Episodic), which illustrates how a species’ life‐history traits determine a population's compensatory capacity. We show why considering the evolutionary context that has shaped life histories is crucial to sustainable management. We then review recent work that connects our framework to specific opportunities where the life‐history traits of marine species can be used to improve current conservation practices.