Converging Concepts of Evolutionary Epistemology and Cognitive Biology Within a Framework of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis

Journal for General Philosophy of Science - Evolutionary epistemology (EE) has experienced a continuous rise over the last decades. Important new theoretical considerations and novel empirical...     

The Relative Contribution of Emotional Competence and Cognitive Ability to Individual and Team Performance

The relative contributions of emotional competence and cognitive ability to individual and team performance, team-member attitudes, and leadership perceptions were examined. Focusing on emotional competencies, we predicted that, although both cognitive ability and emotional competence would predict performance, cognitive ability would account for more variance on individual tasks, whereas emotional competence would account for more variance in team performance and attitudes. We also predicted that emotional competence would be positively related to team attitudes and to both leader emergence and effectiveness. Using a sample of undergraduate business majors who completed tasks alone and as members of teams, our results generally supported the hypotheses. Implications for the reach and impact of work relating emotional competencies to performance are offered.     

Team Autonomy, Performance, and Member Job Strain: Uncovering the Teamwork KSA Link

En raison du développement des équipes de travail dans les organisations, on souhaite obtenir des informations sur la meilleure façon de structurer les groupes pour les rendre efficients. Cette étude porte sur la relation de l'expérience de l'autonomie et du travail en équipe, des capacités et des compétences (KSAs) avec la performance du groupe et l'effort émanant de ses membres. Deux modèles ont été mis à l'épreuve à partir d'une recherche théorique et empirique continue. Des données provenant d'un échantillon de 41 équipes de production (174 participants) apportèrent des éléments en faveur du modèle de médiation selon lequel l'autonomie est associée à la perfomance et à l'effort par l'intermédiaire des KSAs. Le modèle alternatif de modération qui suppose que l'autonomie et les KSAs interagissent pour déboucher sur la performance et l'effort ne fut pas corroboré.
Given the increasing use of work teams in organizations, interest exists in identifying the best ways to design teams so that they lead to positive outcomes. This study examined how team autonomy and teamwork knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) relate to team performance and member job strain. Based on extant empirical and theoretical work, two models were tested. findings from a sample of 41 production teams (174 team members) showed support for the mediation model—that autonomy is associated with performance and strain through teamwork KSAs. The alternative moderation model, suggesting that autonomy and teamwork KSAs interact in predicting performance and strain, was not supported.     

Reflective Personality: Identifying Cognitive Style and Cognitive Complexity

Categorized among learning practices, reflection involves cognitive processing. Some people say they reflect often, whereas others claim they are less inclined to reflect on a regular basis. The present study examines reflection in an academic learning setting. In contrast with previous studies testing reflective task accomplishment, we are interested in personality traits that can predict reflection or a reflective outcome. By means of a survey university students are questioned about their learning practices when working on their final thesis. To test whether certain traits influence reflection and whether reflection produces cognitive outcomes at the individual level, we performed hierarchical regression analysis. In addition, structural equation modeling is used to test for the mediation effects of reflection. The data stress a mediating role of reflection in the relationship between particular personality traits and cognitive complexity.     

A Developmental Analysis of Playfulness as a Clue to Cognitive Style1

A quality of play labeled playfulness is hypothesized to become later a personality trait of the individual relating to cognitive style, particularly divergent thinking. Operationally, playfulness was defined, identified and measured in kindergartners as physical, social and cognitive spontaneity, manifest joy and sense of humor. The importance of exploring a possible developmental transformation in operational correlates of this trait at later age levels is discussed. Special emphasis is put on playfulness as a motivational aspect of divergent thinking during the adolescent years with a view of linking early identification and measurement of playfulness to prediction of creative potential.     

Evaluating Self-Concept and Ego Development Within Erikson's Psychosocial Framework: A Formulation

The purpose of this article is to suggest criteria developed within the context of Erikson's first five psychosocial stages that may be helpful in evaluating self-concept and ego development. The strength of Erikson's theory has been in its contribution to the understanding of the self's development over a series of psychosocial stages. A weakness, however, has been in the ambiguity about what behaviors to look for during any particular stage that allow one to evaluate the status of a person's psychological growth. To assess areas of strengths and weaknesses in the self's growth as it progresses through these stages, five behavioral expressions tables are presented, each illustrating possible behaviors and implicit attitudes associated with positive and negative ego resolutions at each stage. Implications for the evaluation of problem areas and counseling are noted.     

Cognitive Style as an Antecedent to Adaptiveness,Customer Orientation,and Self-Perceived Selling Performance

Data from 396 real estate salespeople offer structural model evidence of the antecedence of salesperson cognitive style (Jung, 1971) to adaptive selling behavior, and to sales orientation-customer orientation and self-perceived selling performance. Four hypotheses were supported: Salespeople who prefer information intake by intuiting (rather than sensing) and information processing/decision-making by thinking (rather than feeling) were found to be more likely to practice adaptive selling; the more adaptive selling was practiced, the greater customer orientation became; and the greater the customer orientation, the better the self-perceived selling performance. Implications exist for salesperson training, management, and motivation research.     

Cognitive Resources and Leadership Performance: A Rejoinder

I feel very honoured by the distinguished group of colleagues who consented to comment on my paper. All raised thought-provoking questions which merit a detailed reply. I only regret that the strict space limitation imposed by the editor restricts my response to points on which my paper was unclear, and to a few important substantive issues. It would have been very satisfying to explore the many constructive and highly intriguing insights contained in the commentators' contributions.     

竞争情境、认知风格对学生运算性程序知识学习迁移的影响

研究竞争情境对不同性别、认知风格学生运算性程序知识学习迁移的影响。结果发现：1对于不同类型的迁移题,竞争对不同认知风格学生的学习迁移有不同的影响。其表现为：对于同型题,场独立倾向学生在竞争情境下的迁移成绩要显著高于非竞争情境,场依存倾向学生在竞争情境下的学习成绩明显低于非竞争情境。对于近迁移和远迁移题,场独立和场依存倾向学生迁移成绩差异不显著;2对于不同类型的迁移题,竞争对不同性别学生的学习迁移具有不同影响。其表现为：对于远迁移题,在非竞争情境下,男生和女生的迁移成绩差异不显著;在竞争情境下,男生和女生的迁移成绩差异显著,男生的成绩要明显优于女生;对于同型题和近迁移题,男生和女生的迁移成绩差异不显著。     

The Adaptable Mind in Design: Relating Personality,Cognitive Style,and Creative Performance

This study examined domain-specific relationships between creative personality traits, cognitive styles, and creative performance in design. Design students (n = 39) completed the Adjective Check List (ACL) and the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) to gauge personality and cognitive style, respectively. The ACL was scored using Domino's Creativity Scale (ACL-Cr) to identify creative personality traits. The sample also completed a design task that was evaluated for creativity using the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT). Findings indicated that participants showing flexibility between cerebral, limbic, right, and left modes of thinking had significantly higher mean scores on creative personality than did those who exhibited a more entrenched cognitive style. Creative personality traits (ACL-Cr) significantly predicted creative performance on the design task. While cognitive style (HBDI) did not predict creative performance, flexibility between styles was significantly correlated to the creative personality. In sum, individuals exhibiting adaptable thinking appear to possess the flexibility necessary to design creatively and potentially transform the domain with original and imaginative solutions.     

认知风格分析测验(CSA)修订及大学生样本的划界尝试

以大学生为对象,对“认知风格分析测验”(Cognitive Style Analysis,CSA)进行了项目分析、信度、效度检验等一系列研究,并通过大学生样本划界尝试。项目的区分度检验表明测验中所有项目都具有较好的区分度,两个维度间的相关分析进一步确证了CSA的结构效度。进一步的信度分析表明CSA具备可接受的内部一致性信度和重测信度。跨文化比较结果表明,我国大学生认知风格的划界与英国常模具有显著差异。     

Integrity Testing and Job Performance Within High Performance Work Teams: A Short Note

Integrity tests have exhibited robust validity for predicting performance among traditional jobs. However, some organizations have shifted to self-managed work teams and the relationship between integrity and performance within these jobs is untested. One hundred fourteen high performance team members within a single department completed the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI). The HPI Reliability scale was used as the integrity measure. The subjects' job performance was evaluated by their team leaders. Performance ratings were transformed to equalize ratings across the eight teams. Results indicate that integrity was related to transformed performance ratings (r = .25) within a high performance team environment. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

A Developing Model Of Exploratory Psychotherapeutic Research: The Process Within The Process

A method to facilitate exploratory or discovery-oriented psychotherapy process research is presented. The personal and professional contexts out of which the need for this new approach to psychotherapy process research arose are described. Several changes in scientific values and beliefs that have occurred as a consequence of the development and use of this methodology are noted.     

Time to Death and Cognitive Performance

We review a program of research that examines people's judgments about how they are seen by others. The research indicates that people tend to anchor on their own experience when making such judgments, with the result that their assessments are often egocentrically biased. Our review focuses on two biases in particular, the spotlight effect, or people's tendency to overestimate the extent to which their behavior and appearance are noticed and evaluated by others, and the illusion of transparency, or people's tendency to overestimate the extent to which their internal states "leak out" and are detectable by others.     

Temporal Aspects of Team Cognition: A Case Study on Concerns Sharing Within Basketball

This case study investigated team cognition in basketball. The focus was on how concerns in a real match situation were shared among teammates and how the sharedness evolved. The activity of five basketball players (M age = 17.60, SD = 0.89) was studied. The data were collected and processed according to a procedure defined for course-of-action analysis (Theureau, 2003). The results indicated that the instances when all the teammates shared the same typical concern were relatively rare, but temporal analysis revealed two kinds of convergence phenomena (simultaneous and progressive). In conclusion, shared understanding emerged within this team as essentially “local sharing of understanding.”     

Reflection Toward Creativity: Team Reflexivity as a Linking Mechanism Between Team Goal Orientation and Team Creative Performance

Purpose

This study aims at testing the mediating role of team reflexivity in the relationships between team learning, performance-prove, and performance-avoid goal orientations and team creative performance and assessing the relative importance of the three types of team goal orientation in team reflexivity and creative performance.

Methodology

We conducted Study 1 on 68 student teams by using a two-wave time-lagged design. In Study 2, we carried out a cross-sectional field study on 108 intact work teams in diverse Korean companies.

Findings

Team learning goal orientation was significantly associated with team creative performance. While team learning and performance-prove goal orientations were equally influential in predicting team reflexivity, team performance-avoid goal orientation had no relationship with team reflexivity and creative performance. Team reflexivity mediated the relationships between team learning and performance-prove goal orientations and team creative performance.

Implications

By revealing that team learning and performance-prove goal orientations can contribute to team creative performance through the facilitation of team reflective process, this study provides practitioners with insight into critical antecedents and team process that are conducive to the creative performance of work teams.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to explore a mediating mechanism between team goal orientation and creative performance. This study attends to the role of team reflexivity as a key team-regulatory process that underlies the relationship between team goal orientation and team performance. Furthermore, the use of multiple studies in different contexts strengthens the robustness of the study findings.