Craig Summers

Cognitive Salience of Haptic Object Properties: Role of Modality-Encoding Bias

The influence of modality-encoding bias on the relative importance (‘cognitive salience’) of object shape, size, and material, with the last determined by weight and thermal variations, was examined. Experiment 1 confirmed that for these stimulus objects all five properties were very accessible haptically, as measured by the time to identify the property level of each designated property; however, observers were still generally faster for geometric than material properties. In experiment 2, the influence of modality-encoding bias on cognitive salience was assessed by using a task involving free sorting by similarity. As predicted, modality-encoding bias strongly influenced cognitive salience. Observers favoured sorting by material under haptic-bias instructions, and three-dimensional geometric properties (especially shape) under visual-bias instructions. Videotaped hand movements indicated that modality-encoding biases reflect long-term knowledge of the relative speed and precision of manual exploration patterns, rather than exploration of the current set of objects.

Computers, ethics, and collective violence

It is the intention of the Journal of Systems and Software to publish, from time to time, articles cut from a different mold. This is one in that series. The object of the Controversy Corner articles is not so much to present info~ation as to stimulate thought. Topics chosen for this coverage are not traditional formal discussions of research work, but rather are informal presentations of key issues in the systems and software world. This series will succeed only to the extent that it stimulates not just thought, but action. If you have a strong reaction to the article that follows, either positive or negative, write to Robert L. Glass, Editor, Journal of Systems and Software, Computing Trends, P.O. Box 213, State College, PA 16804. We will publish the best of the responses as Controversy Revisited.

Multimedia environmental decision-making simulation

A Hypercard-based computer simulation is described here that allows testing and projections about decision making in commons dilemmas. Although the program applies to many different types of value tradeoffs, it focuses on issues related to the harvesting (and overharvesting) of natural resources. In particular, it uses the Atlantic fisheries to look at conflicts between satisfying immediate needs and protecting long-term sustainability. The program’s calculations and projections are based on variables including fish stocks, replenishment rate, average household expenses, value per ton of fish, amount of fishing per year, number of competitors, harvesting strategy of competing decision makers, actual fish caught per year, yearly income, and the levels of harvesting that would maintain a sustainable level of the resource. The multimedia interface includes on-screen movies, moving graphs of results, still photos, cartoon animation, and audio instructions. This simulation program provides an engaging way of collecting data on decision making in social dilemmas and is also well suited to public/educational presentations.

Do scientific and scholarly codes of ethics take social issues into account

Codes of ethics and ethics guidelines define standards of professional conduct, and ways to prioritize or balance ethical principles when these appear to be in conflict. In 1991 an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars met at the University of Toronto to discuss these problems in a Workshop on Ethical Considerations in Scholarship and Science. A document, “The Toronto Resolution”; (TTR), was developed, providing twelve principles for incorporation into scientific and scholarly codes, with the object of ensuring that professionals in science recognize the potential consequences of their work in the broader social context. To examine the extent to which existing codes are consonant with The Toronto Resolutions 12 principles, a content analysis was conducted on the codes of 21 Ontario‐based scientific and scholarly organizations. Criteria used in the content analysis were standardized and determined to be reliable. Only a weak correspondence was found between the contents of the codes of the...

Realities of decision-making and social issues: Implications for developing and implementing ethics guidelines

Abstract To demonstrate that psychological influences should be accounted for in developing and implementing effective ethics guidelines/codes of ethics in professional fields such as environmental epidemiology, widely accepted psychological studies are reviewed. It is shown that attitudes and good intentions are not well-correlated with actual behavior. THis suggests a need for codes which could both aid in professional decision-making and promote the public interest. As yet, there are no standard procedures for developing codes. The development and interpretation of codes is, in part, a political process that can be difficult to document or quantify. It may be useful to survey practitioners and other stakeholders to identify areas in which codes would be useful. However, surveys on values and ethical behavior must take into account questions of validity, reliability, competence versus performance, socially desirable responding, and demand characteristics. With regard to codes currently in use, studies are reviewed in two areas that are not well-recognized. To be effective at the individual level, codes should address the fact that, consciously or not, people make varying interpretations of ethical standards as a function of personal views and self-interest. At the macro level, the codes that are currently in use do not apply when professions as a whole contribute to social issues (e.g. environmental problems, militarism). An Appendix provides an initial outline of general attributes that may help to define a good code of ethics.

The role of discounting in global social issues

The willingness to trade off large but ill-defined future consequences for immediate work characterizes social problems such as environmental sustainability. This commentary argues that important applications of behavioral models of self-control are being overlooked in the experimental literature. Tying the experimental literature to longterm health, environmental, and other risks makes the experimental work more germane, and raises new research questions for experimental modeling.