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Fear generalization is a crucial mechanism underlying maladaptive behavior, but factors influencing this process are not fully understood. We investigated the effects of cue training and context on fear generalization and how cognitive rules influence responses to different conditions. We also examined the role of stimulus intensity in fear generalization to provide insight into fear generalization mechanisms. Participants (n = 104) completed a fear emotion task with two stages: acquisition and generalization testing. Subjective fear expectancy ratings were used as outcome measures. Participants who received single threat cue training exhibited stronger fear generalization responses than those who received discrimination training with threat and safe cues. Participants who received discrimination training and used linear rules had the strongest fear response to the largest stimulus. Therefore, a safe cue may mitigate fear generalization but could increase fear responses to more intense stimuli. Altering context did not change the fear generalization response because fear generalization is mainly governed by the association between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned fear stimulus. The present study emphasizes the multifaceted nature of fear generalization and the importance of examining multiple factors to understand this phenomenon. These findings elucidate fear learning and provide insights needed for effective interventions for maladaptive behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fear generalization is a crucial mechanism underlying maladaptive behavior, but factors influencing this process are not fully understood. We investigated the effects of cue training and context on fear generalization and how cognitive rules influence responses to different conditions. We also examined the role of stimulus intensity in fear generalization to provide insight into fear generalization mechanisms. Participants (n = 104) completed a fear emotion task with two stages: acquisition and generalization testing. Subjective fear expectancy ratings were used as outcome measures. Participants who received single threat cue training exhibited stronger fear generalization responses than those who received discrimination training with threat and safe cues. Participants who received discrimination training and used linear rules had the strongest fear response to the largest stimulus. Therefore, a safe cue may mitigate fear generalization but could increase fear responses to more intense stimuli. Altering context did not change the fear generalization response because fear generalization is mainly governed by the association between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned fear stimulus. The present study emphasizes the multifaceted nature of fear generalization and the importance of examining multiple factors to understand this phenomenon. These findings elucidate fear learning and provide insights needed for effective interventions for maladaptive behavior.

The objective of the present study was to undercover the cognitive rules developed by athletes in pacing strategy during a trail running competition. Fifty participants completed a questionnaire on how decisions were made around pacing. Each questionnaire consisted of 12 scenarios that featured the two components of affective balance (effort and pleasure) as information cues. We applied repeated-measures analyses of variance and Tukey's post hoc tests to the data. The results showed that pleasure and effort had a significant effect on deciding to reduce the pace and deciding to maintain the pace. The type of cognitive rule depended on the pacing outcome, with a subtractive integration rule when deciding to maintain the pace and a conjunction integration rule when deciding to reduce the pace. The presence of two different cognitive rules emphasized the importance of information integration in pacing strategy. • Pleasure and effort had a significant effect on deciding to reduce the pace and deciding to maintain the pace in trail running. • Two different cognitive rules were found in pacing strategy. • A subtractive integration was developed by athletes when they decided to maintain the pace. • A conjunction integration rule was developed by athletes when they decided to reduce the pace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To deepen the understanding of the sociotechnical regime that directs the selection of structural frames in multifamily buildings in Sweden, we study the perceptions of contractor representatives. Contract managers (CMs) employed at contractor firms were interviewed regarding their role, the selection of the structural frame and how they perceived different options. The results show that CMs largely influence the selection of the structural frame in multifamily buildings, which are guided by the established concrete-based sociotechnical regime. The regime is maintained through cognitive rules regarding structural frame options and the alignment of skills of construction professionals. Because of their influence and their investments in the skills of construction workers, CMs make important contributions to maintain the regime and the concrete path dependency. Furthermore, the regime varies in strength in different locations. Some locations carry a strong norm to cast concrete frames on site. This makes it more difficult to deviate from the established practice. In other locations, wood-promoting initiatives have changed the cognitive rules associated with the regime. Nonetheless, the sociotechnical regime makes the selection of concrete structural frames beneficial. This prevents wood-framed multifamily buildings from entering common usage, even though such buildings can contribute to mitigating climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Daily life demands constant making judgments or decisions. Some of those decisions may be more or less complex depending on ethical, social, historical and political context of social factors and the interaction of these factors with subjects who judge. The aim of this article is to show how Functional Theory of Cognition allows detailed cognitive decision making process analysis, in which they operate: the valuation of stimuli, integration of psychological representation of these stimuli and finally, explicit answer. This process of judgment meets three rules: addition, multiplication, average, for observing the functions that are generated between the factors involved in decisions and issuing a judgment. This theory has had important applications in the areas of clinical psychology and health, political psychology, sports psychology and developmental psychology, areas in which the paper presents the most relevant findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurses, nurse’s aides, and physicians were presented with vignettes describing elderly patients and were asked to assess their level of pain from four external cues (facial expression, verbalizations, avoidance of movements and positions, and interpersonal contact) in three conditions: when the illness was not known, when it was known to be arthritis, and when it was known to be cancer. For all health caregivers, the most important cue for judging pain was patients’ facial expression. When the nature of the illness was not known, the impact of this cue was stronger than when the nature of the illness was known. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rules exert an important influence on rational individual behaviour. In economic analyses, two different types of rules occur that both induce rule-following behaviour. However, they are rarely distinguished. The differentiation of institutions (as interpersonal rules) and cognitive rules (as intrapersonal rules) allows for a clarification of substantial differences between the two types of rules, for example, concerning the incorporated knowledge and rule-persistence. Furthermore, the analysis of the interrelation of the two types of rules offers fruitful insights that still are not much explored in economics. The important dimensions to be considered are rule-harmony that stabilises institutional arrangements, and rule-conflict that induces pressure on persistent institutions. In this context, competition can be seen as a medium of interaction that allows individual agents to learn both about the behaviour of interacting agents and the nature and effects of the institutional framework. The integration of competition - as the core concept of economics - into the interplay of institutions and cognitive rules explores a missing point within the analysis of the economics of rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Understanding why people drink alcohol is important for the health and safety of individuals and the public. The aim of this study was to examine from a cognitive point of view the hypothesized link between drinking and stress.Methods: 25 scenarios were constructed by combining two items, either two life-change events or a social situation and an emotional state. In the initial three experiments, 159 male and 43 female alcoholics and 157 male and 93 female nonalcoholics in France judged the degree to which these scenarios were stressful and subsequently the degree to which they stimulated an urge to drink. In the final experiment, 126 of the male alcoholics were studied at the beginning and end of an inpatient alcohol rehabilitation program.Results: The alcoholics and nonalcoholics, regardless of gender, assigned similar stress values to the scenarios and used the same cognitive rules for combining the stress associated with two items (disjunctive rules for two life-change events and additive ones for a personal emotion combined with a social situation). They differed, however, in how they judged the urge to drink. The nonalcoholics reported little stimulus to drink from any combination of items, whereas the alcoholics not only perceived the individual items as stimulating an urge to drink but also used the same cognitive rule in judging the combined urge to drink of two items as they used in judging the combined stress. After completing rehabilitation, the alcoholics judged the combinations of life-change events as stimulating less stress and less urge to drink. Nevertheless, they continued to use a disjunctive combination rule.Conclusions: Stress and drinking are linked at a fundamental cognitive level among alcoholics, though not among nonalcoholics. Alcoholics should be helped to recognize this link, to reduce their feelings of stress, and to find outlets other than drink. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our objective was to study ordinary people’s judgments, through the use of external indices, of the expected degree of retirement satisfaction and to characterize the cognitive process involved in making these judgments. The method used was an application of Integration Information Theory (IIT). The total sample comprised 2 subsamples of 50 workers and 53 recently retired people. Results showed that the overall degree of retirement satisfaction and the factors taken into account in the judgment process are surprisingly similar in both groups. There was also no fundamental difference in integration patterns between workers and retirees. All participants used an additive rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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