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Results for “causality”

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PubMed1990

Perceived causality occurs with stroboscopic movement of one or both stimulus elements.

It was shown by magnitude estimation that the perception of causality first described by Michotte (1946/1963) also occurs consistently and strongly with stroboscopic, ie apparent or phi, movement. This is so when the 'causal' movement is stroboscopic and the 'caused' movement real, when these movements are reversed, and when both movements are stroboscopic. The effect is not due to prior experience with Michotte-type displays.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Experimental test of a method for determining causal connectivities of species in reactions.

Theoretical analysis has shown the possibility of determining causal connectivities of reacting species and the reaction mechanism in complex chemical and biochemical reaction systems by applying pulse changes of concentrations of one or more species, of arbitrary magnitude, and measuring the temporal response of as many species as possible. This method, limited to measured and pulsed species, is given here an experimental test on a part of glycolysis including the sequence of reactions from glucose to fructose 1,6-biphosphate, followed by the bifurcation of that sequence into two branches, one ending in glycerol 3-phosphate, the other in glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate. Pulses of concentrations of one species at a time are applied to the open system in a non-equilibrium stationary state, and the temporal responses in concentrations of six metabolites are measured by capillary zone electrophoresis. From the results of these measurements and the use of the theory for their interpretation, we establish the causal connectivities of the metabolites and thus the reaction mechanism, including the bifurcation of one chain of reactions into two. In this test case of the pulse method, no prior knowledge was assumed of the biochemistry of this system. We conclude that the pulse method is relatively simple and effective in determining reaction mechanisms in complex systems, including reactants, products, intermediates, and catalysts and their effectors. The method is likely to be useful for substantially more complex systems.

Electrophoresis, Capillary↗

PubMed2002

Evidence for a causal role of CD38 expression in granulocytic differentiation of human HL-60 cells.

Granulocytic differentiation of human HL-60 cells can be induced by retinoic acid and is accompanied by a massive expression of CD38, a multi-functional enzyme responsible for metabolizing cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR), a Ca(2+) messenger. Immunofluorescence staining showed that CD38 was expressed not only on the surface of intact HL-60 cells but also intracellularly, which was revealed after permeabilization with Triton. Concomitant with CD38 expression was the accumulation of cADPR, and both time courses preceded the onset of differentiation, suggesting a causal role for CD38. Consistently, treatment of HL-60 cells with a permeant inhibitor of CD38, nicotinamide, inhibited both the CD38 activity and differentiation. More specific blockage of CD38 expression was achieved by using morpholino antisense oligonucleotides targeting its mRNA, which produced a corresponding inhibition of differentiation as well. Similar inhibitory effects were observed when CD38 expression was reduced by the RNA interference technique targeting two separate regions of the coding sequence of CD38. Further support came from transfecting HL-60 cells with a Tet-On expression vector containing a full-length CD38. Subsequent treatments with doxycycline induced both CD38 expression and differentiation in the absence of retinoic acid. These results provide the first evidence that CD38 expression and the consequential accumulation of cADPR play a causal role in mediating cellular differentiation.

ADP-ribosyl Cyclase↗

PubMed1986

Causal attributions, perceived consequences of unemployment, and perceptions of employment prospects among adolescents in New Zealand.

The present study investigated the causal attributions and perceived consequences of unemployment, as well as perceptions of employment prospects, among high school students in New Zealand. A sample of Form 4 (Grade 9) boys (M age 14.3 years) and girls (14.4 years) and a sample of Form 6 and 7 (Grades 11 and 12) boys (16.9 years) and girls (16.6 years) were tested. No sex or age differences were found in students' causal attributions about unemployment. Societal factors were judged as the most important cause for unemployment. Luck was considered the least important reason. Form 4 students placed a greater emphasis on economic consequences, whereas Form 6 and 7 students regarded social consequences as more important. The consistency in the present findings and those from studies in other countries suggests that cross-cultural similarities do exist in adolescents' perceptions of unemployment.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1999

Infants' processing of causal and noncausal events at 3.5 months of age.

Infants' processing of causal (direct launching) and noncausal (delayed reaction, launching without collision) events was investigated with 30 infants who were 3.5 months old. The habituation-dishabituation technique was used. Results showed that the infants did not process direct launching as causal. However, their pattern of responding revealed a tendency to key on the spatial and temporal properties of the events. Those findings are discussed in terms of their compatibility with a modular, an information-processing, and a Piagetian framework.

Child Development↗

PubMed1995

The role of work-related causal attributions in occupational crisis.

The role of work-related causal attributions in occupational crisis states was examined. Participants were 66 Finnish women (25-45 years old) attending vocational counseling. Measures for occupational crisis and work-related causal attributions were developed. The locus, stability, controllability, and recurrence of the causes were examined in seven positive and seven negative work-related events. Participants in a state of occupational crisis emphasized stable-external and recurrent-external attributions in negative events, whereas participants not in crisis used nonrecurrent attributions combined with internal, unstable, and controllable attributions. Attributions were activated regardless of occupation, age, or education level. Among the background variables, non-person-centered occupations and organizational changes were related to occupational crises.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Effects of affect, stereotype consistency, and valence of behavior on causal attributions.

The authors examined 3 hypotheses about the effects of 2 positive and 2 negative affects on causal attributions. On the basis of cognitive appraisal theories of emotion, they predicted that the grateful and angry participants would attribute causality for like-valenced behaviors to the target more strongly than would the happy and sad participants, respectively. Following an affect-induction procedure, 229 Anglo-American participants read a description of an African American target whose behavior was stereotype consistent or stereotype inconsistent and positive or negative in valence. As predicted, when the behavior was negative, the angry participants attributed it more strongly to the target than did the sad participants. When the behavior was positive, the grateful participants attributed it more strongly to the target than did the happy participants. The importance of distinguishing among affects and considering their multidimensional nature in predicting effects on social judgments is emphasized.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Judgement of two causal candidates from contingency information: II. Effects of information about one cause on judgements of the other cause.

When judgements are being made about two causes there are eight possible kinds of contingency information: occurrences and nonoccurrences of the outcome when both causes are present, when Cause 1 alone is present, when Cause 2 alone is present, and when neither cause is present. It is proposed that contingency information is used to some extent to judge proportionate strength, which is the proportion of occurrences of the outcome that each cause can account for. This leads to a prediction that judgements of one cause will be influenced by information about occurrences, but not nonoccurrences, of the outcome when only the other cause is present. In six experiments consistent support was found for this prediction when the cause being judged had a positive relation with the outcome, but no consistent tendency was found when the cause being judged had a negative relation with the outcome. The effects found for causes with positive contingency cannot be explained by the Rescorla-Wagner model of causal judgement nor by the hypothesis that causal judgements are based on conditional contingencies.

Cues↗

PubMed2006

Inattentional blindness for negative relationships in human causal learning.

The present study focuses on the effect of selective attention on causal learning. Three effects of the level of attention to predictive symptoms in positive and negative contingency learning tasks are reported. First, participants accurately detected a positive relationship between an incidental cue and a contingent outcome, although judgements were slightly lower than those for the attended cue. Second, participants were unable to detect negative relationships between incidental cues and outcomes, which suggests a major role of selective attention in this type of learning. Third, participants retrieved the frequency of each trial type more accurately in the attended conditions than in the incidental conditions. These findings show how attention guides and constrains human causal learning and reveal an inattentional blindness effect for negative contingency learning.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2001

Re-examination of the role of within-compound associations in the retrospective revaluation of causal judgements.

We investigated blocking and retrospective revaluation of causal judgements using a scenario in which food cues acted as potential causes of an allergic reaction as the outcome. In the blocking contingency, the treatment cues were either paired or unpaired with the outcome prior to a second stage in which sequential compounds of treatment and target cues were paired with the outcome. The order of this compound and treatment training was reversed in retrospective revaluation contingencies. When the interstimulus interval between the treatment and target cues was unfilled on compound trials (Experiments 1 and 3), both blocking and retrospective revaluation were observed in that the target cue trained in compound with the paired treatment cue attracted lower causal ratings than the target cue trained in compound with the unpaired treatment cue. By contrast, performing a mental arithmetic task using numerals presented during the interstimulus interval had no effect on the magnitude of blocking but rendered retrospective revaluation unreliable (Experiments 2 and 3). These results provide further support for accounts of revaluation based upon within-compound associations.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Spatial separation of target and competitor cues enhances blocking of human causality judgements.

Three experiments were carried out. Each required subjects to make judgements about the causal status of cues following a two-stage blocking procedure. In Stage 1 a competitor cue was consistently paired with an outcome, and in Stage 2 the competitor continued to be paired with the outcome but was accompanied by a target cue. It was predicted that causal judgements for the target would be reduced by the presence of the competitor. In Experiments 1 and 2 the blocking procedure was implemented as a computer simulation of a card game during which subjects had to learn which cards produced the best payouts. The cues that subjects used to make their judgement were colours and symbols that appeared on the backs of the cards. When the target and competitor cues appeared on the same card blocking effects did not emerge, but when they appeared as part of different cards blocking effects were found. Thus, spatial separation of target and competitor cues appeared to facilitate blocking. Experiment 3 replicated the blocking result using spatially separated target and competitor cues.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Human agency and associative learning: Pavlovian principles govern social process in causal relationship detection.

Estimates of a worker's causal relationship (CR) to production obeyed associative principles, despite the participants' a priori beliefs that workers are responsible or "at cause" for production. In three experiments, social analogues of conditioned stimuli (workers) and unconditioned stimuli (company production information) were manipulated in familiar Pavlovian paradigms. The findings included (1) CR acquisition, (2) unconditioned stimulus-intensity effects, and (3) CR blocking. The research plan employed an approach that Neal Miller (1959) termed "extension of liberalized S-R theory" and drew on the Rescorla-Wagner model to integrate the experimental results, to illuminate the empirical data of social attribution research, and to guide the study of causal relationship detection using social stimuli.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Outcome additivity, elemental processing and blocking in human causality judgements.

Informing participants in a causal judgement task that outcomes are additive can increase blocking effects (Experiment 1). Outcome additivity information emphasizes the fact that the outcome following a compound is the sum of the effects of its elements. We suggest that the effect of providing outcome additivity information is to encourage elemental processing and thereby enhance blocking. Experiment 2 showed that blocking could be enhanced by factors encouraging elemental processing, and Experiment 3 demonstrated that blocking was reduced by manipulating the visual presentation of cues to encourage configural processing. While these experiments do not rule out the role of inference in causal judgement tasks, the results are most parsimoniously explained by associative accounts that allow flexibility in the encoding of compound cues.

Association↗

PubMed2025

New insights into causal relationship between serum lipids, obesity, and asthma: a Mendelian randomization study.

OBJECTIVE: To identify causal risk factors for asthma using a Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. METHODS: Genetic variants associated with the exposures at the genome-wide significance level (p < 5 × 10 - 8) were obtained from corresponding genome-wide association studies. Summary-level statistical data for asthma were obtained from the UK Biobank (UKB) and the FinnGen Consortia. Univariate and multivariate MR analyses were performed to clarify causal relationships among obesity, serum lipids, and asthma. Meta-analyses were performed to combine UKB and FinnGen results using a fixed-effects model. RESULTS: In FinnGen, the odds for asthma increased for every 1-SD increase in body mass index (BMI; odds ratio [OR] 1.292, p = 1.34 × 10-7), together with body fat percentage (BF%; OR 1.449, p = 4.90×10-3), and total cholesterol level (OR = 0.949, p = 0.027). However, higher BMI and BF% were found to increase the risk for asthma in the multivariate MR analysis. In the UKB, the BMI results were replicated. Meta-analysis revealed that high-density lipoprotein cholesterol could also increase the risk for asthma, although there were no associations with other risk factors included in this study. CONCLUSION: This MR study found that genetically predicted higher BF% and BMI could increase the risk for asthma and corroborated some risk factors for asthma from previous MR studies. Moreover, the results suggest that higher BMI and BF% could serve as independent risk factors for asthma.

Humans↗

PubMed2005

Why did I get chronic fatigue syndrome? A qualitative interview study of causal attributions in women patients.

OBJECTIVES: To explore causal attributions among women with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). DESIGN: Qualitative study where data from individual semi-structured interviews were analysed according to Malterud's systematic text condensation. SETTING: Bergen, Norway. SUBJECTS: A purposeful sample of eight women aged 25-55, recruited among members of a self-help organization. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Accounts of causal attribution for CFS among the informants, focusing on gender. RESULTS: The participants agreed that their way of living could have increased the vulnerability of their resistance resources. Pressure they put upon themselves, workload burdens without subsequent relaxation, emotional conflicts, or preparing for assumed problem-solving were mentioned as gendered dimensions. They presented different explanations regarding potential triggers encountering their fragile immune systems, most often a virus infection. The participants thought women might have a weaker immune system than men, or that CFS was caused by a virus that women are more likely to catch. In their experience, their symptoms were activated when people put pressure on them, such that they might be nervous as to whether they could live up to the demands of their surroundings, and in the case of emotional strain related to family and work. CONCLUSION: More studies are needed exploring hypotheses concerning the complex interplay between molecular predispositions and more or less gendered lifestyle issues in CFS. Doctors need to challenge their strong beliefs regarding medically unexplained conditions, where facts still remain unresolved. Recognizing this, the doctor may provide realistic support and advice, and contribute to the establishment of common ground for understanding and managing the condition.

Adult↗

PubMed1984

Age differences in attributions to causality: implications for intellectual assessment.

Negative attributions and failure expectations held by elderly test-takers may be confounding ability-extraneous variables and thus may contribute to lowered intellectual performance. The present study, using the contextualistic model, examined these confounds through experimental manipulation of causal attributions to test outcome in younger and older individuals. Eighty females (40 elderly; 40 younger) were exposed to noncontingent failure (unsolvable test items) and received a verbal massage stating their failure and relating it to either their ability, effort, or no cause. A fourth group exposed to identical failure was not given feedback. Subjects in all four groups for both ages were then administered three solvable intelligence sub-tests: Reasoning, Hidden Patterns, and Paper Folding. Older subjects exhibited significantly lower success expectations and performed more poorly on all three tests. Also, older and younger subjects, in the absence of suggested causal ascription, showed differential performance in the Paper Folding Test. Younger subjects with no experimenter-given cause for failure exhibited facilitation of performance while older subjects' performances, under the same conditions, showed deficits. Results are discussed in reference to attributional style research and the contextualistic viewpoint.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1986

"Happy are they who are happy . . ." a test between two causal models of relationships between happiness and its correlates.

The intention of the study was to test between two causal models of relationships between happiness and five of its correlates (i.e., housing satisfaction, financial satisfaction, perceived health, locus of control, and activity level). In Model 1, happiness was identified as a propensity variable that is a source of influence on the lower order correlates. Model 2 is a traditional formulation whereby levels of happiness are determined by its correlates. The models were tested by causal modeling procedures, using 18-month longitudinal data from 408 elderly subjects. The findings support Model 1 over Model 2 for 17/18 predictions that differentiated the models. The status of happiness as a trait was discussed with reference to: the type of items included in the happiness scale; and relationships with variables not included in the research.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

Causal and pathoplastic risk factors of depression: findings of the Tampere Depression Project.

Factors associated with low self-esteem in non-depressive subjects increase the individual's vulnerability to depression (causal risk factors), and factors correlated to low self-esteem in depressive subjects make the current disorder more severe (pathoplastic risk factors). Using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and Depression Scale we intended to explore correlates of low self-esteem in non-depressive and depressive subjects in a random sample of 1643 individuals attending community health centres in Central Finland. According to our study, self-esteem in non-depressive men was affected mainly by poor socioeconomic situation; in depressive men particularly low self-esteem was associated with negative family factors. Low self-esteem in non-depressive women was correlated to poor socioeconomic situation, poor health, and negative family factors. In depressive women self-esteem was affected by poor physical and poor mental health. Taking into consideration causal and pathoplastic risk factors, general practitioners can improve recognition of depression. By paying attention to pathoplastic factors, it is possible to improve detection of more severe forms of depression.

Adolescent↗