Information processing biases

Concerns about psychotropic side effects, which can vary cross-culturally, often lead to premature cessation of psychotropics. This may be related to different propensities for and values placed on somatic experiences in different cultures. Transcultural research indicates that patients from non-Western cultures are more likely to present with predominantly somatic symptoms of psychiatric disorders (Ng, 1997 Parker, Gladstone 8c Chee, 2001), as cultural explanatory models and social demands may serve to bias information processing in the various domains of subjective experience (Angel 8c Thoits, 1987). Several studies have shown that the perception and reporting of side effects are influenced by cultural beliefs... 

In line with perceptual distortions and mood congruent hallucinations, patients with affective disorders frequently demonstrate mood congruent biases in information processing. Depressed patients are oversensitive to negative feedback and perceived failure during memory recall tests, being more likely than matched controls to make an error following a previously identified error (Elliott et al., 1996). However, the most reliably reported bias is in memory... 

There is one further bias in information processing that is perhaps worth commenting on in the context of safety and concerns our reactions to taking risks. The phenomenon to be described is one of a number of biases in information processing that occur when we are making choices. Originally described by two psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (1984), the work has had considerable impact on economic models of choice. 

At any time in this chain of information processing and decision making, we can—and do—impose our own individual bias, which is shaped by our past experiences, personality, intentions, aspirations, and expectations. You can see how our everyday sensations are dramatically influenced consciously and unconsciously by a number of person factors unique to the situation and the individual sensing the situation. Psychologists refer to such biased sensation as perception. 

Enantioselective processes involving chiral catalysts or reagents can provide sufficient spatial bias and transition state organization to obviate the need for control by substrate stereochemistry. Since such reactions do not require substrate spatial control, the corresponding transforms are easier to apply antithetically. The stereochemical information in the retron is used to determine which of the enantiomeric catalysts or reagents are appropriate and the transform is finally evaluated for chemical feasibility. Of course, such transforms are powerful because of their predictability and effectiveness in removing stereocenters from a target. 

It is important to note that theoretic argument and empiric study have shown that the LOO cross-validation approach is preferred to the use of an external test set for small to moderate sized chemical databases [39]. The problems with holding out an external test set include (1) structural features of the held out chemicals are not included in the modeling process, resulting in a loss of information, (2) predictions are made only on a subset of the available compounds, whereas LOO predicts the activity value for all compounds, and (3) personal bias can easily be introduced in selection of the external test set. The reader is referred to Hawkins et al. [39] and Kraker et al. [40] in addition to Section 31.6 for further discussion of proper model validation techniques. 

The cathodic dark currents measured under negative bias in a DSSC (Fig. 4) are related to the recombination reactions (4) and (5) in the illuminated cells. However, the relation between the dark current and reaction (4), especially, is difficult to quantify. In conventional solar cells, dark current measurements provide quantitative information about the photorecombination processes [34] because (1) the number of photogenerated charge carriers is only a small perturbation on the dark carrier density and (2) the current flows along the same pathway in the light and in the dark. Neither of these conditions hold for a DSSC. 

In most applications, the input, activation and output functions are the same for all neurons and they do not change during the training process. In other words, learning is the process by which an ANN modifies its weights and bias terms in response to the input information (spectra and concentration values). As for the biological systems, training involves the destruction , modification... 

Both in operation and in terms of study, this route is complicated by our predominant cultural bias of not really paying much attention to our bodies. Our bodies are too seldom thought of as sources of information. Researchers in humanistic and transpersonal psychology are just beginning to find out that the body has a wisdom of its own—a brain of its own, as it were—that can provide us with information about ourselves and external reality and process that information. Carlos Castaneda, for example, has told me that in Don Juan s system, a sorcerer considers his body a major source of information about the world around him the sensations in his body will tell him a great deal about events that otherwise would not be perceived through ordinary sensory channels. 

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