Neural markers of subordinate‐level categorization in 6‐ to 7‐month‐old infants

Subordinate‐level category‐learning processes in infants were investigated with ERP and looking‐time measures. ERPs were recorded while 6‐ to 7‐month‐olds were presented with Saint Bernard images during familiarization, followed by novel Saint Bernards interspersed with Beagles during test. In addition, infant looking times were measured during a paired‐preference test (novel Saint Bernard vs. novel Beagle) conducted at the conclusion of ERP recording. Slow wave activity corresponded with learning a familiarized category at the subordinate and basic levels, whereas Negative central (Nc) and P400 components were linked with novel category preference. The results provide the first evidence identifying the neural markers of subordinate‐level categorization observed in looking‐time tasks conducted with infants. Moreover, when considered in conjunction with prior research investigating the neural markers of basic‐level categorization in infants, the findings indicate that (1) slow wave and Nc components of infant ERP waveforms are general markers for processes of category learning on the one hand and novel category preference on the other, (2) novel category preference for a contrast category at the basic and subordinate levels have the Nc component in common, but novel category preference at the subordinate level is accompanied by an additional P400 component, a finding in keeping with the notion that subordinate‐level categorization is governed by mechanisms supplementary to those underlying basic‐level categorization, and (3) slow wave activity associated with subordinate‐level learning followed that associated with basic‐level learning by approximately 200 ms, a result in accord with a coarse‐to‐fine scheme for the emergence of category partitioning.     

The team‐level model of climate for innovation: A two‐level confirmatory factor analysis

The level structure of West's (1990) four‐factor model of team climate for innovation was assessed by means of multi‐level confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA). The sample consisted of 1,487 individuals (195 teams) from a wide range of professions. Results showed that a considerable portion of the variance in the data was explained on the team level with intra‐class correlations ranging from .30 to .39. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that the overall measurement model fitted the data well at both the team and individual levels, while the factor loadings were slightly different across the levels with item loadings showing partial invariance. Results from confirmatory factor analyses conducted on separate levels, however, showed that the four‐factor model displayed the best fit to the data for both individual and team levels. A second‐order one‐factor model also fitted the data well on both levels. The results indicate that the team climate for innovation model can be used as a team‐level consensus model of team climate for innovation.     

Model and interactive algorithm of bi‐level multi‐objective decision‐making with multiple interconnected decision makers

Furthering a prior research on two‐person bi‐level multi‐objective decision‐making problems of the leader‐follower Stackelberg game, we present an extended model of bi‐level multi‐objective decision‐making with multiple interconnected decision makers at the lower level. In the model, the upper level decision maker acts as a leader and the lower level decision makers behave as the followers, and inter‐connections and interactions exist among these followers in decision‐making scenarios. Following the rules of leader‐follower Stackelberg game, we develop an interactive algorithm of the model for solving multi‐objective decision‐making problems and reflecting the interactive natures among the decision makers. Finally, the authors exemplify the model and algorithm, and draw a conclusion on points of contributions and the significance of this study in decision‐making and support. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Training‐induced recovery of low‐level vision followed by mid‐level perceptual improvements in developmental object and face agnosia

Long‐term deprivation of normal visual inputs can cause perceptual impairments at various levels of visual function, from basic visual acuity deficits, through mid‐level deficits such as contour integration and motion coherence, to high‐level face and object agnosia. Yet it is unclear whether training during adulthood, at a post‐developmental stage of the adult visual system, can overcome such developmental impairments. Here, we visually trained LG, a developmental object and face agnosic individual. Prior to training, at the age of 20, LG's basic and mid‐level visual functions such as visual acuity, crowding effects, and contour integration were underdeveloped relative to normal adult vision, corresponding to or poorer than those of 5–6 year olds (Gilaie‐Dotan, Perry, Bonneh, Malach & Bentin, 2009). Intensive visual training, based on lateral interactions, was applied for a period of 9 months. LG's directly trained but also untrained visual functions such as visual acuity, crowding, binocular stereopsis and also mid‐level contour integration improved significantly and reached near‐age‐level performance, with long‐term (over 4 years) persistence. Moreover, mid‐level functions that were tested post‐training were found to be normal in LG. Some possible subtle improvement was observed in LG's higher‐order visual functions such as object recognition and part integration, while LG's face perception skills have not improved thus far. These results suggest that corrective training at a post‐developmental stage, even in the adult visual system, can prove effective, and its enduring effects are the basis for a revival of a developmental cascade that can lead to reduced perceptual impairments.     

The Irony of Social Trust: Individual‐level and Contextual‐level Links with Protest Intention and Radical Right Support in Switzerland

This research examines how social trust translates into dynamics of mobilisation for inclusion or exclusion in Swiss cantons by studying how social trust is linked to equality‐directed protest intention versus radical right support, comparing individual‐level and contextual‐level relationships. The study is based on data from the Swiss Household Panel collected between 2002 and 2008. The impact of individual‐level and contextual‐level social trust is analysed in three‐level regression models of repeated observations, nested in individuals who are nested in cantons. The results indicate complex patterns that depend on the level at which social trust is assessed and confirm the need for a contextualised view of social trust and social capital. For individuals, higher social trust is associated with higher protest intention and lower radical right support. However, in cantons characterised by higher rates of social trust, individuals are less likely to engage in protest actions and more likely to support the radical right. Further analyses show that canton‐level social trust is intertwined with other contextual factors, suggesting that in certain configurations, that is, combined with low levels of cultural and social diversity, climates of social trust may be linked to more restricted forms of solidarity and the persistence of inequality. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of pay level on organization‐based self‐esteem and performance: A field study

Most compensation managers implicitly assume (or perhaps hope) that high pay levels will maintain and enhance future performance. To date, this assumption has been largely untested. Given the importance of pay level and the large expense that pay represents to most organizations, understanding how and why pay level influences the behaviour of employees in organizations is an important question. The purpose of this study is to examine the motivational effects of pay level on employee performance. To examine these issues, we collected field study data from a variety of sources, at three different times, and assessed the effects of employee pay level on subsequent self‐esteem and performance. Specifically, we hypothesized that the effects of pay level on performance would be mediated by pay level effects on organization‐based self‐esteem. We base this hypothesis on the premise that level of pay within an organization communicates a sense of how much the organization values an employee and thus affects employee organization‐based self‐esteem which, in turn, enhances job performance. After controlling for organization tenure, and previous pay change, results supported a mediated model that suggests that pay level affects employee self‐esteem, which in turn, affects employee performance.     

Engaging in self‐regulation results in low‐level construals

Previous research has suggested that self‐regulation results in low‐level construals but has inferred construal levels after self‐regulation only indirectly, through construal‐dependent judgments and choices. In the present paper, we demonstrate a direct link between engaging in self‐regulation and low‐level construals, by manipulating self‐regulation and subsequently assessing construal levels using well‐established and straightforward measures of construal level in three studies. Participants who engaged in self‐regulation subsequently provided lower egocentric spatial distance estimates (Studies 1A and 1B), formed more groups when categorizing objects (Study 2), and used more concrete language when describing cartoon main characters' behavior (Study 3) than participants who did not engage in self‐regulation. These findings provide direct evidence that low‐level construals result from engaging in self‐regulation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self‐Enhancement on a Self‐Categorization Leash: Evidence for a Dual‐Process Model of First‐ and Third‐Person Perceptions

Research suggests that first‐ and third‐person perceptions are driven by the motive to self‐enhance and cognitive processes involving the perception of social norms. This article proposes and tests a dual‐process model that predicts an interaction between cognition and motivation. Consistent with the model, Experiment 1 (N = 112) showed that self‐enhancement drove influence judgments when messages were normatively neutral—people reported first‐person perceptions for in‐group‐favoring messages and third‐person perceptions for out‐group‐favoring messages. Experiment 2 (N = 208) showed an additive effect when social norms were also in‐group‐enhancing, but showed a decreased effect when social norms and group‐enhancement were discordant. The findings are hard to reconcile with pure motivational or cognitive explanations, but are consistent with the proposed dual‐process model.     

A Critical Test of Self‐Enhancement,Exposure, and Self‐Categorization Explanations for First‐ and Third‐Person Perceptions

The third‐person perception is the tendency for people to believe that others are more influenced by media content than themselves (W. P. Davison, 1983 ). The current study provides a critical test of self‐enhancement, exposure, and self‐categorization explanations for first‐ (i.e., self more influenced than others) and third‐person perceptions. Male and female participants (N = 323) judged the extent to which pornography elicited“aroused and excited” (i.e., male normative) versus“repulsed and offended” (i.e., female normative) reactions in themselves relative to average men and women. Men perceived an average woman to be more repulsed and offended by pornography than themselves, and women perceived an average man to be more aroused and excited than themselves (i.e., large third‐person perceptions). Further, men perceived themselves to be more aroused and excited by pornography than an average woman (independent of the degree to which pornography was judged as antisocial), and women perceived themselves to be more repulsed and offended than an average man (i.e., large first‐person perceptions). There were relatively small effects for same sex comparisons independent of norm. The pattern and magnitude of first‐ and third‐person perceptions are consistent with self‐categorization theory, irreconcilable with the exposure hypothesis, and difficult to reconcile with the self‐enhancement explanation.     

Comparing infants’ preference for correlated audiovisual speech with signal‐level computational models

How much of infant behaviour can be accounted for by signal‐level analyses of stimuli? The current paper directly compares the moment‐by‐moment behaviour of 8‐month‐old infants in an audiovisual preferential looking task with that of several computational models that use the same video stimuli as presented to the infants. One type of model utilizes only signal‐level properties of visual motion whereas the other adds audiovisual integration (either through correlation or instantaneous addition of audio and visual signals). Together these models account for a significant portion of the variance in infant looking.     

The effect of construal level on risk‐taking

In a series of studies, we examined the influence of people's mind‐set (construal level (CL): abstract versus concrete) on their risk‐taking behavior. We measured differences in CL (study 1, CL as trait) and manipulated CL (studies 1–5, CL as state) with different priming methods, which were unrelated to the dependent variable of risk‐taking behavior (studies 1, 3, 4, and 5: Balloon Analog Risk Task; study 2: Angling Risk Task). In all studies, abstract CL resulted in greater risk‐taking compared with concrete CL, which led to lower risk‐taking. Risky and safe game strategies mediated the CL effect on risk‐taking. A concrete mind‐set increased the safe game strategy, whereas an abstract mind‐set increased the risky game strategy. Furthermore, different potential mediators were explored (i.e., focus on payoffs and probabilities, prevention versus promotion focus, attention to pros versus cons, and mood). A concrete mind‐set increased prevention strategies and a negative mood when compared with an abstract mind‐set. In turn, an abstract mind‐set increased attention to pros (of an action). Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Item‐level Frame‐of‐reference Effects in Personality Testing: An investigation of incremental validity in an organizational setting

A recent line of research has investigated the frame‐of‐reference effect on personality scale scores, in which self‐report personality items are contextualized to the specific performance setting (e.g., work, school) within which the performance criterion is gathered. Contextualization has been shown to increase both the reliability and the criterion‐related validity of the personality scale scores by facilitating the self‐presentation of respondents, and by more closely measuring the personality construct relevant to the performance domain. The current research extends this area of personality research in two ways. First, this study tests the generalizability of the effectiveness of item‐level contextualization within an organizational setting. Second, this study also provides the necessary test of the incremental validity of this contextualized approach to personality measurement above and beyond the traditional, noncontextualized approach. The results confirm that a work‐specific personality measure, contextualized at the item level, adds to the prediction of job performance above and beyond that obtained by a noncontextual measure of the same personality traits. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Individual‐level and community‐level effects of war trauma on social representations related to humanitarian law

Theoretical and empirical accounts of violent intergroup conflict or reactions to victimization suggested psychosocial processes that are likely to paradoxically enhance war victims' justification of violations of humanitarian norms. To test for differences and similarities between individual and community reactions, multilevel analyses of the ‘People on War’ dataset were conducted. This data combines survey responses from fourteen different communities recently involved in armed conflict (N = 12, 047). At the individual level, findings support a specific cycle‐of‐violence hypothesis, indicating that victims of war report less support for a legal conception of humanitarian norms than do non‐victims. In contrast, at the community level, the higher the rate of victims, the more frequently community members adopt a legal conception of humanitarian norms. Further, the strength of condemnation of humanitarian norm violations is positively related to war duration and magnitude of fatalities. These findings are interpreted within a social‐representational framework. The collective experience of generalized vulnerability strengthens a shared perception of the need for formal justice, which cannot be reduced to the sum of the psychological consequences of community members' individual experiences of war trauma. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The association between team‐level social capital and individual‐level work engagement: Differences between subtypes of social capital and the impact of intra‐team agreement

The study explored the association between team‐level social capital and individual‐level work engagement. Questionnaire data were collected from six companies in the dairy industry. Seven hundred seventy‐two participants divided into 65 teams were included. In confirmatory factor analyses, we found a superior model fit to a four dimensional model of social capital: bonding social capital, bridging social capital and two types of linking social capital. The results showed a positive association between all subtypes of social capital at the team level and work engagement at the individual level. However, this association only remained significant for linking social capital in relation the workplace as a whole when we adjusted for psychosocial working conditions. The level of intra‐team agreement in social capital score did not moderate the association between social capital and work engagement. In conclusion, the results provide further support for previous findings suggesting a positive association between social capital and work engagement. They add to the existing knowledge by suggesting that linking social capital in relation to the workplace is the most important explanatory variable for work engagement, thus emphasizing the need to distinguish between subtypes of social capital in research and practice.     

CIT in small municipalities: Officer‐level outcomes

Research on the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) as a method to deal with mental illness in policing encounters has primarily focused on officers from large urban areas. The current study examined officer‐level outcomes in a non‐urban geographical setting using a pre/post‐CIT training design. The sample included 46 police officers from seven departments that would be considered rural and 13 that would be classified as suburban. Officers completed scales to gauge change in mental illness attitudes at the beginning and end of their one‐week CIT training. CIT training resulted in reductions in stigmatic attitudes with seven large effect sizes (ranging from η² = .24 to .59) across the two measures. The findings from this research are a direct response to the call for greater diversity in the size of police settings in the CIT literature and serve to expand the empirical base for CIT in relation to officer‐level outcomes.     

Picture‐IAT versus Word‐IAT: level of stimulus representation influences on the IAT

The Implicit Association Test is a paradigm designed to assess individual differences in implicit cognition. The goal of this report was to examine the reasons for discrepant effect magnitudes obtained with two presumably interchangeable versions: Picture‐IAT (P‐IAT) and Word‐IAT (W‐IAT). We show that this discrepancy is due to the relation between stimuli and referent category: the level of representation (LR) at which a stimulus represents an intended category. Experiment 1 replicates the discrepancies found in previous research. Experiments 2–4 show that increasing the LR of stimuli increases the IAT effect. LR affects the magnitude of the IAT effect even when modality and other features of the stimuli are kept constant. The utility of LR for future investigations examining the IAT paradigm is discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bootstrap confidence intervals in multi‐level simultaneous component analysis

Multi‐level simultaneous component analysis (MLSCA) was designed for the exploratory analysis of hierarchically ordered data. MLSCA specifies a component model for each level in the data, where appropriate constraints express possible similarities between groups of objects at a certain level, yielding four MLSCA variants. The present paper discusses different bootstrap strategies for estimating confidence intervals (CIs) on the individual parameters. In selecting a proper strategy, the main issues to address are the resampling scheme and the non‐uniqueness of the parameters. The resampling scheme depends on which level(s) in the hierarchy are considered random, and which fixed. The degree of non‐uniqueness depends on the MLSCA variant, and, in two variants, the extent to which the user exploits the transformational freedom. A comparative simulation study examines the quality of bootstrap CIs of different MLSCA parameters. Generally, the quality of bootstrap CIs appears to be good, provided the sample sizes are sufficient at each level that is considered to be random. The latter implies that if more than a single level is considered random, the total number of observations necessary to obtain reliable inferential information increases dramatically. An empirical example illustrates the use of bootstrap CIs in MLSCA.     

A Self‐Categorization Explanation for the Third‐Person Effect

Three studies tested a self‐categorization theory explanation for the third‐person effect. In Study 1 (N= 49) undergraduate students judged the influence of the National Enquirer, Wall Street Journal, and TV show Friends on themselves, relative to low‐ and high‐status outgroup members, and other undergraduate students. The profile of first‐ and third‐person perceptions was largely consistent with predictions, and the size of the third‐person effect decreased as perceived similarity to target others increased—but only for media that were normative for comparison others. Study 2 (N= 49) provided evidence for this process with different media and showed that the profile of first‐ and third‐person perceptions matched closely with perceived norms of media consumption—but not the social desirability of those media. Study 3 (N= 64) showed that the third‐person effect for the same media and target other shifts with the frame of reference in which the judgment is made. Taken together, the findings are consistent with self‐categorization theory and difficult to reconcile with other explanations.     

The Effect of Prosody on Distributional Learning in 12‐ to 13‐Month‐Old Infants

Distributional information is a potential cue for learning syntactic categories. Recent studies demonstrate a developmental trajectory in the level of abstraction of distributional learning in young infants. Here we investigate the effect of prosody on infants' learning of adjacent relations between words. Twelve‐ to thirteen‐month‐old infants were exposed to an artificial language comprised of 3‐word‐sentences of the form aXb and cYd, where X and Y words differed in the number of syllables. Training sentences contained a prosodic boundary between either the first and the second word or the second and the third word. Subsequently, infants were tested on novel test sentences that contained new X and Y words and also contained a flat prosody with no grouping cues. Infants successfully discriminated between novel grammatical and ungrammatical sentences, suggesting that the learned adjacent relations can be abstracted across words and prosodic conditions. Under the conditions tested, prosody may be only a weak constraint on syntactic categorization. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parental choice: What parents want in a son‐in‐law and a daughter‐in‐law across 67 pre‐industrial societies

Parents are influential over mate choice, and in most human societies they choose spouses for their offspring according to their own preferences. However, surprising little is known about the qualities which make a woman desirable as a daughter‐in‐law and a man desirable as a son‐in‐law. Using evidence from 67 societies such traits are identified and three hypotheses are tested: first, the hypothesis is tested that parents desire in an in‐law qualities which are beneficial to them and their kin. Second, it is hypothesized that such preferences are contingent upon the sex of the in‐law, as traits are weighted differently in a daughter‐in‐law and in a son‐in‐law. The third hypothesis tested is that parental preferences vary according to the subsistence type of a given society, as traits are valued differently in agropastoral societies and foraging societies. The evidence presented here provides support for all three hypotheses.