This paper concerns the representation of introspective belief and knowledge in multi-agent systems. An introspective agent is an agent that has the ability to refer to itself and reason about its own beliefs. It is well-known that representing introspective beliefs is theoretically very problematic. An agent which is given strong introspective abilities is most likely to have inconsistent beli...

Low back pain remains a major health problem with huge societal cost. Biomedical models fail to explain the disability seen in response to reported back pain and therefore patients' beliefs, cognitions and related behaviours have become a focus for both research and practice. This study used the Pain Beliefs Questionnaire and had two aims: To examine the extent to which pain beliefs are related...

The Eccles' expectancy-value model posits that a cascade of mechanisms explain associations between parents' beliefs and youths' achievement-related behaviors. Specifically, parents' beliefs predict parents' behaviors; in turn, parents' behaviors predict youths' motivational beliefs, and youths' motivational beliefs predict their behaviors. This investigation focused on testing this model with ...

We present a computational framework for the generation of elementary speech acts to establish conceptual alignment between a computer system and its user. We clearly distinguish between two phases of the alignment process: message interpretation and message generation. In the interpretation phase, presuppositions are extracted from the user’s message and compared with the system’s ontology. Su...

Dynamic doxastic logic concerns an agent who inhabits a world and is able to form theories about it. In particular there are three types of doxastic action of which he is capable: expanding his beliefs by accepting a proposition φ without modifying the resulting set of beliefs; revising his beliefs by accepting a proposition φ and modifying the resulting set of beliefs; and contracting his beli...

An analytic cognitive style denotes a propensity to set aside highly salient intuitions when engaging in problem solving. We assess the hypothesis that an analytic cognitive style is associated with a history of questioning, altering, and rejecting (i.e., unbelieving) supernatural claims, both religious and paranormal. In two studies, we examined associations of God beliefs, religious engagemen...

Background: Previous studies indicate that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and control beliefs can affect burnout and their unique role in this situation has been examined, but fewer studies have examined their combined role in adolescent's academic burnout following traumatic events. Objective: This study examined the combined effect of PTSD symptom severity and control beliefs on academi...

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is increasingly conceptualized as a transdiagnostic factor underlying anxiety disorders and depression. Current understanding of the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and specific obsessive compulsive symptom domains remains limited. The purpose of the present study was to explore the prevalence of obsessive compulsive beliefs and intolerance of unc...

• General just-world beliefs (GJWB) influence aggression after ostracism. • Ostracized people with weak GJWB behave more aggressively. • Perceived deservingness mediates the effect of GJWB onaggression after ostracism. a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o The present research examined the influence of general just-world beliefs on aggression following ostracism. The findings provided convergin...

Cognitive models of clinical disorders conceptualise cognitive and behavioural safety-seeking behaviours as central to symptom persistence because they prevent disconfirmation of key maintaining beliefs. Despite growing evidence of the role of negative beliefs about intrusive memories in depression, it remains unclear why such beliefs persist. Accordingly, we examined whether safety behaviours ...