David Hardman - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by David Hardman

Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 2009

It is argued that people are largely rational in the sense of achieving their personal goals (rat... more It is argued that people are largely rational in the sense of achieving their personal goals (rationality 1 ) but have only a limited ability to reason or act for good reasons sanctioned by a normative theory (rationality 2 ). In the case of deductive reasoning research, people are rational 2 to the extent that they can follow the instructions and deduce necessary conclusions in accordance with logical principles. A brief review of such research is provided to demonstrate that people do possess a significant degree of abstract deductive competence, despite the prevalence of error and bias on reasoning tasks. The major rival theories of deduction based on mental rules and mental logic are then discussed and compared. It is argued that neither theory is fully defined or strictly testable and that therefore much of the current debate between theorists of these two camps is futile. However, a broadly model based approach is favoured on grounds of (a) greater psychological plausibility a...

Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2004

This chapter presents both the cognitive science and the judgment and decision making approaches ... more This chapter presents both the cognitive science and the judgment and decision making approaches to the psychology of clinical reasoning and medical decision making. The field of cognitive psychology and cognitive science has produced a general model of how people apply knowledge in practice (Anderson, 1993; Kintsch, 1998a), characterized by rapid recognition of complex representations. Although some researchers have used this framework in studying the psychology of medical decision making (Custers, Regehr & Norman, 1996; Norman, 2000), its potential has not been fully realized. The psychological research approach most closely associated with medical decision making-the field of judgment and decision making (JDM)-has used the general cognitive psychology model only superficially. In its comparisons of medical decision making behavior with decision theoretic norms, it has identified important phenomena (Chapman & Elstein, 2000). However, in practice, it has had limitations as a description of medical decision making and as a guide for improving it. Cognitive psychology's general model, represented by the "script" metaphor (Schank & Abelson, 1977), offers a powerful descriptive framework (Abernathy & Hamm, 1995) which, in combination with decision theory's normative framework, promises new progress for attempts to improve medical decision making (Goldstein & Weber, 1995; Hamm et al., 2000). A wide variety of psychologists, educators, behavioral scientists, physicians and other health-care providers do research on the psychology of clinical reasoning and medical

Http Www Libreriasaulamedica Com, 2008

Tienda online donde Comprar Judgment and Decision Making: Psychological Perspectives al precio 33... more Tienda online donde Comprar Judgment and Decision Making: Psychological Perspectives al precio 33,48 € de David Hardman, tienda de Libros de Medicina, Libros de Psicologia - Psicologia General

Safety-Critical Systems: The Convergence of High Tech and Human Factors, 1996

Risk is an inescapable fact of life. We are all confronted by risks; we all have to take risks wh... more Risk is an inescapable fact of life. We are all confronted by risks; we all have to take risks whether we like it or not — whether we even know it or not. Although there has been a considerable effort to understand how — and how well — people react to threats there are still many unresolved arguments and uncertainties about the nature of risk. How should risk be defined? How should uncertain threats be classified and responded to? How do people intuitively construe risk? This paper does not provide any definitive answers to these questions but offers a precis of some of the research that has offered illuminating or provocative insights.

Safer Systems, 1997

Given reliable statistical evidence, calculations of quantitative values of risk may be attempted... more Given reliable statistical evidence, calculations of quantitative values of risk may be attempted. Novel technologies however are, by their nature, characterised by a lack of appropriate historical data which creates difficulties for conventional quantitative approaches to risk assessment. Numerical risk assessments which convey spurious validity and precision can be dangerously misleading. Here we describe and explain the psychological rationale for a decision support system called StAR that utilises quantitative information where appropriate, but which is also able to use qualitative information in the form of arguments for and against the presence of risk. The user is presented with a summary statement of risk, together with the arguments that underlie this assessment. Furthermore, the user is able to search beyond these top-level arguments in order to discover more about the available evidence. We argue that this approach is well-suited to the way in which people naturally reason about decisions, and we show how the StAR approach has been implemented in the domain of toxicological risk assessment.

Thinking & Reasoning, 1998

ABSTRACT Mental models theorists have proposed that reasoners tend to “focus” on what is explicit... more ABSTRACT Mental models theorists have proposed that reasoners tend to “focus” on what is explicit in their mental models, and that certain debiasing procedures can induce them to direct their attention to other relevant information. For instance, Green and Larking 1995; also Green, 1995a facilitated performance on the Wason selection task by inducing participants to consider counterexamples to the conditional rule. However, these authors acknowledged that one aspect of their data might require some modification to the mental models theory. This research is discussed here, and it is suggested that the results may be better accommodated by mental inference rules theory than by mental models theory.

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A, 1995

It was hypothesized that the perceived irrelevance of the proposition “Some X are not Y” is a fac... more It was hypothesized that the perceived irrelevance of the proposition “Some X are not Y” is a factor contributing to the difficulty of nearly all the determinate syllogisms classed as multiple model by Johnson-Laird and Byrne (1991), according to mental models theory. Experiment 1 supported this hypothesis by showing that subjects frequently correctly evaluate valid “Some … not” conclusions but rarely produce them, even when they have evaluated them elsewhere. Explanations of these findings based on the use of superficial strategies were ruled out. Experiment 2 further supported the hypothesis by showing that performance increased across the no-conclusion, multiple-choice, and evaluation task formats, and that this effect generalized to problems containing the quantifier “only”. However, the initial hypothesis was rejected in light of Experiment 3, which found no difference between multiple-choice and no-conclusion formats when the number of allowable conclusions was controlled for....

Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 2008

Reviews the book, "Rethinking Cognitive Computation: Turing and the Science of the Mind&quot... more Reviews the book, "Rethinking Cognitive Computation: Turing and the Science of the Mind" by Andrew Wells (2005). Wells's purpose in this book is not simply to correct past misunderstandings of what a Turing machine is. He also believes that we have not fully appreciated the implications of Turing's paper for cognitive psychology. In particular, the Turing machine concept has frequently been taken to support a computational theory of mind, whilst ignoring the link between mind and environment. By contrast, Wells argues that Turing saw the external environment as an important constraint on the way in which a Turing machine could perform its calculations. Thus, considerations of both internal and external structure are necessary for a complete account of psychology. Wells refers to this perspective as ecological functionalism. In summary, this book is a terrific achievement. The nature of the subject matter does mean that the reader has to do some work to get to grips with some of the material within; in fact, in some chapters Wells asks the reader to work through exercises to understand how a Turing machine moves between states. But, this book should be read by anyone interested in the relevance of Turing's work to current debates about the nature of cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 2007

Abstract Salmon and Daly (1998) found that middleborn children in a sample of adults indicated th... more Abstract Salmon and Daly (1998) found that middleborn children in a sample of adults indicated themselves to be less closely affiliated to their family than were firstborns and lastborns. They argued, along with Sulloway (1996, p. 305), that this effect results from middleborn children losing out in the competition with firstborns and lastborns for parental investment. The study reported here was an attempt to replicate this finding using three samples of children and a sample of adults. We followed the methodology of Salmon and Daly and, additionally, reported data on inter-sibling affiliation that had not been reported in their study. None of the results showed any evidence of a middleborn effect. Some possible reasons are presented as to why birth order effects in familial sentiment might be hard to find.

Expert Systems, 1997

Zeckhauser and Viscusi, 1990), it is also of increasing con-Arguments for qualitative cern to gov... more Zeckhauser and Viscusi, 1990), it is also of increasing con-Arguments for qualitative cern to governments, organisations, and the general public that the risk from new technologies be minimised as far risk assessment: the StAR as is practicable (Royal Society, 1992; Health and Safety Executive, 1996). Only by conducting a proper risk assess-risk adviser ment is it possible to decide how to minimise any potential risk to the public, whether this be by finding ways to manage the risk or by abandoning the technology. Many of the risks we face are easily quantified because there is reliable statistical evidence on which to base a judgment. For example, the probability of being involved in a

Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1996

ABSTRACT The new notation for mental-models theory proposed by Johnson-Laird and Byrne (1991; 199... more ABSTRACT The new notation for mental-models theory proposed by Johnson-Laird and Byrne (1991; 1993) makes predictions that are inconsistent with those made previously by those authors. Notably, two frequently observed reasoning fallacies are not predicted by the theory. Moreover, the assumption made in the domain of syllogistic reasoning, that arbitrary numbers of individuals are used to represent premises, is also shown to cause problems for the prediction of problem difficulty.

British Journal of Psychology, 2002

Statistical combinations of specifi c measures have been shown to be superior to expert judgment ... more Statistical combinations of specifi c measures have been shown to be superior to expert judgment in several fields. In this study, judgment analysis was applied to examination marking to investigate factors that influenced marks awarded and contributed to differences between fi rst and ...

Safer systems: proceedings of the Fifth …, 1997

Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 2010

In The God Delusion Richard Dawkins stated that he was not writing with the intent of converting ... more In The God Delusion Richard Dawkins stated that he was not writing with the intent of converting committed theists but, rather, with the aim of influencing those who were undecided between belief and atheism. After reading The Greatest Show on Earth, I imagine that Dawkins is likewise trying to convince the undecided rather than the hard-core creationists. On the opening page he compares the teacher of evolution to a teacher of Roman history whose class is continually disrupted by "a baying pack of ignoramuses" who vociferously assert that the Roman empire did not exist. Some might wonder whether a less confrontational tone would be more effec- tive in getting the reader on board. I am not so sure. Dawkins gives the example of Wendy Wright, the president of 'Concerned Women for America', who was inter- viewed for the Channel Four documentary The Genius of Charles Darwin. She re- peatedly questions the existence of "intermediate" fossils, whilst Dawkins repeat- edly ripostes that they are in the museums if only she would care to look. When one listens to Wendy Wright and the many people like her (see some of the risible crea- tionist videos on YouTube) one feels that they are a lost cause. However, for anyone who is unsure about the case for evolution and is willing to actually read about the evidence, then The Greatest Show on Earth is a brilliant exposition. Each chapter deals with a different aspect of the case and then asks how this could be explained by young earth creationism (creationists who believe that