An Evaluation of Preference for Mode of Instruction Following Variations in Response Effort

The current study evaluated preference for mode of instruction (i.e., visual or vocal) for four children diagnosed with a language-based learning disability. Each participant was an elementary student who was initially referred to a neuropsychology clinic specializing in learning disabilities. As a part of the evaluation, measures of each participant’s academic skills were collected. Following the diagnostic evaluation, each participant was referred to a behavioral psychologist to participate in this two-experiment study. In Experiment 1, preference for mode of instruction was evaluated within a concurrent schedules design across increasing task difficulty. In Experiment 2, changes in preference for mode of instruction following increases in task amount were evaluated via a progressive ratio arrangement within a concurrent schedules design. Results from both experiments showed that preference for mode of instruction can change under high-effort conditions (i.e., task difficulty and task amount).     

Path dependent preferences: The role of early experience and biased search in preference development

What is the role of early experiences in shaping preferences? What are the mechanisms by which such early encounters influence the way preferences are formed? In this research, we examine the impact of the entry position and favorability of initial (and ongoing) experiences on preference development. We predict that the starting point will heavily influence which particular region people select from initially, and favorableness of early experiences and myopic search will both limit their search to that particular region. Across four studies, we find that when the initial experiences are favorable, subjects engage in lower levels of search, experience only a narrow breadth of possible alternatives, demonstrate less ongoing experimentation, and have a reduction in the amount of preference development.     

Implicit learning of semantic preferences of English words by Chinese learners

The aim of the present study was to explore whether Chinese learners could implicitly learn the semantic preferences of novel English words. In training, participants learned four novel verbs and were exposed to a set of verb-noun phrases that included these new words. What the participants were not told was that the use of the verbs depended on the concreteness of the nouns (i.e., the semantic preference rule). In testing, participants were required to choose between two possible verbs (one of which violated the semantic preference rule) for nouns that never occurred in training. The results showed that participants acquired unconscious knowledge of semantic preferences under incidental learning conditions, as measured by verbal reports and structural knowledge attributions. Our results provide further evidence for implicit learning of semantic preferences, suggesting that implicit learning is an important mechanism in the acquisition of L2 collocations.     

Remembering the street names of one's childhood neighbourhood: a study of very long-term retention

Life-span retention of street names was studied in a sample of former students of a Dutch elementary school. Participants were requested to recall the street names of their childhood neighbourhood and indicate their position on a map. In addition, information was gathered concerning (a) the extensiveness of the original learning experience, (b) its elaborateness, and (c) the amount of interference from similar materials occurring between original learning experience and time of recall. Retention intervals varied from 0 to 71 years. Amount of exposure, elaborateness of learning, and retroactive interference all contributed to the memorability of names. In addition, the forgetting curve showed a permastore effect (Bahrick, 1984), suggesting that memory for non-schematic, incidentally learned material is subject to processes of forgetting similar to those that affect intentionally learned material, such as subject-matter acquired in school.     

Remembering the Street Names of One's Childhood Neighbourhood: A Study of Very Long-term Retention

Life-span retention of street names was studied in a sample of former students of a Dutch elementary school. Participants were requested to recall the street names of their childhood neighbourhood and indicate their position on a map. In addition, information was gathered concerning (a) the extensiveness of the original learning experience, (b) its elaborateness, and (c) the amount of interference from similar materials occurring between original learning experience and time of recall. Retention intervals varied from 0 to 71 years. Amount of exposure, elaborateness of learning, and retroactive interference all contributed to the memorability of names. In addition, the forgetting curve showed a permastore effect (Bahrick, 1984), suggesting that memory for non-schematic, incidentally learned material is subject to processes of forgetting similar to those that affect intentionally learned material, such as subject-matter acquired in school.     

Multicultural experience enhances creativity: the when and how

Many practices aimed at cultivating multicultural competence in educational and organizational settings (e.g., exchange programs, diversity education in college, diversity management at work) assume that multicultural experience fosters creativity. In line with this assumption, the research reported in this article is the first to empirically demonstrate that exposure to multiple cultures in and of itself can enhance creativity. Overall, the authors found that extensiveness of multicultural experiences was positively related to both creative performance (insight learning, remote association, and idea generation) and creativity-supporting cognitive processes (retrieval of unconventional knowledge, recruitment of ideas from unfamiliar cultures for creative idea expansion). Furthermore, their studies showed that the serendipitous creative benefits resulting from multicultural experiences may depend on the extent to which individuals open themselves to foreign cultures, and that creativity is facilitated in contexts that deemphasize the need for firm answers or existential concerns. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for promoting creativity in increasingly global learning and work environments.     

Time and Money

This article analyzes the simultaneous determination of economic satisfaction and leisure satisfaction, separately for women and for men. Different hypotheses are tested; including the hypothesis that leisure satisfaction depends on both the quantity and quality of leisure—where quality is proxied by good intensiveness and social intensiveness. Evidence suggests that gender matters, such that good intensiveness is more important for men (e.g. housing conditions), whereas social intensiveness is more important for women (e.g. the presence of children and participation in leisure-time activities). Conversely, concerning economic satisfaction men appear more directly affected by income levels than women. In addition, we find that intra-household effects and especially individual characteristics are more pronounced for women than for men for both domain satisfactions.     

The Influence of Time Estimation and Time‐Saving Preferences on Learning to Make Temporally Dependent Decisions from Experience

In this paper, we merge research related to experiential learning, temporal perception, and the value of time and money by examining decisions where the timing of action (response) determines the outcome received. We predicted that time‐saving preferences and impatience would decrease maximization (i.e., taking action when it returned the largest reward), and that the constraints of temporal perception would compound their effects. Across three studies, participants undershot on average (i.e., responded earlier than the period of time during which a response would return the maximal reward) showed a preference for shorter‐delay options and often did not find the maximal reward. In addition, participants' reliance on temporal perception increased undershooting, increased preferences for shorter‐delay options, and reduced maximization. Nevertheless, participants who found the maximal reward continued to maximize at a high rate rather than opting for shorter delays and smaller rewards. Thus, while most participants appeared to have a preference for saving time, most behaved as reward maximizers rather than temporal discounters. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Children’s Judgments of Cultural Expertise: The Influence of Cultural Status and Learning Method

The authors investigated children’s use of cultural status (i.e., foreign vs. American) and learning method to evaluate informants’ expertise in novel cultural practices. Ninety-six 6- to 9-year-olds heard about a foreign informant (i.e., member of an unfamiliar out-group) and an American informant (i.e., member of the participant’s in-group) who each learned about a novel cultural practice differently (i.e., from a person vs. from a book). Participants decided which informant executed the cultural practice better, which informant they would prefer to learn from, and which learning method they would want to use themselves (i.e., learning method preference). Overall, participants endorsed foreign informants over American informants and foreign informants who learned from a person were generally viewed as the preferred option for imparting information in this context. These findings suggest that during the transition to middle childhood, learning context is an important influence on children’s evaluations of cultural identity and learning methods.     

Parental psychological control and dimensions of identity formation in emerging adulthood.

Longitudinal data were used to evaluate whether parental psychological control would have a negative impact on identity formation. Perceived psychological control and 4 identity dimensions (i.e., commitment making, exploration in breadth, identification with commitment, and exploration in depth) were assessed 5 times in a college sample. Associations between psychological control and identity (i.e., negative associations with both commitment dimensions and a positive association with exploration in breadth) were stable across time. Further, the developmental pathways of these constructs appeared to be correlated: Increases in psychological control were associated with simultaneous decreases in both commitment dimensions. Finally, reciprocal effects were found: Psychological control inhibited progress in both commitment dimensions, whereas exploration in breadth led to increased psychological control. The authors have provided suggestions for helping emerging adults to approach the task of identity formation.     

Examining the moderating effects of time on task and task complexity on the within person self-efficacy and performance relationship

ObjectivesThe study examined two moderating variables that may influence the direction of the effect of self-efficacy upon performance, namely; time spent on task and task complexity.DesignMultilevel analysis was conducted to examine within person and between group relationships.MethodEighty eight novice golfers putted in 4 sessions over a period of 2 days (completing 800 putts in total). Each session contained 10 trials of 20 putts. The golfers were split into 2 conditions; a stable task condition where task requirements remained constant across time and a dynamic task condition, where task complexity changed across time.ResultsIn early learning (i.e., the first 10 trials) results revealed a slight negative effect between self-efficacy and subsequent performance. However, across the 40 trials self-efficacy had a positive effect upon subsequent performance. Further, there was a significant task condition (stable vs. dynamic) interaction. In the easy task condition, self-efficacy showed a slight (but non-significant) positive effect upon performance. However, in the dynamic learning condition, self-efficacy had a positive and significant effect upon subsequent performance.ConclusionPrevious tests of the within person self-efficacy relationship tend to limit learning to 10 trials or less. The study is the first to examine the reciprocal relationship between self-efficacy and performance as a result of task experience (i.e., time spent on the task) and task complexity simultaneously. Positive effects emerged as a result of extended time learning the task and by varying the degree of task complexity whilst learning.     

Self-structure and emotional experience

Two studies examine individual differences in affective reactivity by linking emotional experience to cognitive self-structure. Consistent with the view that individuals with an evaluative compartmentalised self-structure are emotionally reactive, we find that evaluative compartmentalisation is associated with the experience of, and desire for, high-arousal positive (HAP) affect, whereas evaluative integration is associated with the experience of low-arousal positive (LAP) and low-arousal negative affect and the desire for LAP affect. Although compartmentalised individuals are less granular in their tendency to report experiencing both HAP and LAP, they are strongly differentiated in their perceptions of high-arousal states as positive and low-arousal states as negative. Thus, compartmentalised individuals' reactivity may be explained by their preference for HAP states and the ‘breadth’ of their emotionality (e.g., the tendency to experience sadness and nervousness at the same time).     

Retributive versus compensatory justice: Observers' preference for punishing in response to criminal offenses

In the current paper, the author examines whether independent observers of criminal offenses have a relative preference for either retributive justice (i.e., punishing the offender) or compensatory justice (i.e., compensating the victim for the harm done). In Study 1, results revealed that participants recommended higher sums of money if a financial transaction was framed as offender punishment (i.e., the offender would pay money to the victim) than if it was framed as victim compensation (i.e., the victim would receive money from the offender). In Study 2, participants were asked to gather information about court trials following three severe offenses to evaluate whether justice had been done in these cases. Results revealed that participants gathered more information about offender punishment than about victim compensation. In Study 3 these findings were extended by investigating whether observers' relative preference for punishing is moderated by emotional proximity to the victim. Results revealed that the relative preference for punishing only occurred among participants who did not experience emotional proximity to the victim. It is concluded that observers prefer retributive over compensatory justice, provided that they do not feel emotionally close to the victim. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Early development of perceptual expertise: Within-basic-level categorization experience facilitates the formation of subordinate-level category representations in 6- to 7-month-old infants

A behavioral manifestation of perceptual expertise is the shift in recognition downward toward the subordinate level. Here, a familiarization-novelty preference procedure was used to determine whether 6- to 7-month-old infants could be induced to form category representations for cats and dogs at the subordinate level. In Experiment 1, the infants succeeded in forming subordinate-level category representations for beagle dogs and Siamese cats, but only when provided with previous experience on a subordinate-level category-formation task from within the same basic-level category (i.e., Saint Bernard dogs or tabby cats). When the prior category-formation task involved a different basic-level category, subsequent subordinate-level category learning was not in evidence. The preferences in Experiment 1 were shown in Experiments 2 and 3 not to be attributable to a priori preference or within-category discrimination failure. The findings suggest that within-basic-level categorization experience can facilitate the formation of subordinate-level category representations in the first half-year of life.     

The influence of robotic guidance on error detection and correction mechanisms

New technologies have expanded the available methods to help individuals learn or re-learn motor skills. Despite equivocal evidence for the impact of robotic guidance for motor skill acquisition (Marchal-Crespo, McHughen, Cramer, & Reinkensmeyer, 2010), we have recently shown that robotic guidance mixed with unassisted practice can significantly improve the learning of a golf putting task (Bested & Tremblay, 2018). To understand the mechanisms associated with this new mixed approach (i.e., unassisted and robot-guided practice) for the learning of a golf putting task, the current study aimed to determine if such mixed practice extends to one’s ability to detect errors. Participants completed a pre-test, an acquisition phase, as well as immediate, delayed (24-h), and transfer post-tests. During the pre-test, kinematic data from the putter was converted into highly accurate, consistent, and smooth trajectories delivered by a robot arm. During acquisition, 2 groups performed putts towards 3 different targets with robotic guidance on either 0% or 50% of acquisition trials. Only the 50% guidance group significantly reduced ball endpoint distance and variability, as well as ball endpoint error estimations, between the pre-test and the post-tests (i.e., immediate retention, 24-h retention, and 24-h transfer). The current study showed that allowing one to experience both robotic guidance and unassisted (i.e., errorful) performances enhances one’s ability to detect errors, which can explain the beneficial motor learning effects of a mixed practice schedule.     

Self-control and its influence on global/local processing: An investigation of the role of frontal alpha asymmetry and dispositional approach tendencies

People often inhibit or override their dominant response tendencies in order to complete tasks successfully. Exerting such self-control has been shown to influence attentional breadth differently depending on approach-motivated tendencies, as indexed by individuals’ behavioral activation system (BAS) scores. Approach motivation and attentional breadth have previously been associated with frontal alpha asymmetry (i.e., lateralized cortical activity in the frontal regions) where greater left-frontal activation is associated with greater approach motivation and reduced attentional breadth. The process model of self-control posits that exercising self-control leads to a subsequent increase in approach behavior in high BAS individuals, and this could be due to a shift towards left-hemisphere-frontal processing. This was the first study to examine both frontal asymmetry and attentional breadth before and after exercising self-control in low and high BAS individuals. Greater BAS, and greater difficulty exercising self-control, both positively related to more narrowed attentional breadth after completing the manipulation relative to before, but only after exercising self-control. However, breadth of attention and changes in attentional breadth were unrelated to frontal asymmetry, suggesting that the influence of self-control on individuals’ attentional breadth was not due to changes in frontal activation patterns.     

Preferences for emotional information in older and younger adults: a meta-analysis of memory and attention tasks

The authors conducted a meta-analysis to determine the magnitude of older and younger adults' preferences for emotional stimuli in studies of attention and memory. Analyses involved 1,085 older adults from 37 independent samples and 3,150 younger adults from 86 independent samples. Both age groups exhibited small to medium emotion salience effects (i.e., preference for emotionally valenced stimuli over neutral stimuli) as well as positivity preferences (i.e., preference for positively valenced stimuli over neutral stimuli) and negativity preferences (i.e., preference for negatively valenced stimuli to neutral stimuli). There were few age differences overall. Type of measurement appeared to influence the magnitude of effects; recognition studies indicated significant age effects, where older adults showed smaller effects for emotion salience and negativity preferences than younger adults.     

Effect of salespeople's acquisition–retention trade-off on performance

This research examines the impact of the acquisition–retention resource allocation at the individual salesperson level – that is, the proportion of their time dedicated to acquisition versus retention activities – on their sales performance. We extend prior research that investigates the acquisition–retention trade-off below (i.e., customer value approach) or above (i.e., firm portfolio approach) the salesperson's perspective by also incorporating many ‘within-firm’ factors that are critical to capturing the contingent nature of the allocation decision. The results suggest that firms can double their sales gains by implementing a trade-off strategy that customizes the acquisition allocation at the salesperson level. Using matched triadic data gathered from 227 salespersons, 106 supervisors and the seller's database, the authors find an inverted U-shaped linkage between the proportion of time allocated to acquisition activities and sales performance. Moderation analyses show that salespeople's optimal acquisition allocation depends on their knowledge breadth and job commitment, their supervisor's experience and job commitment and the quantity and quality of the prospects in their relationship portfolio.     

Group Preference and Convergent Tendencies in Small Groups: A Content Analysis of Group Brainstorming Performance

This study examined the impact of preference for working in groups on interaction during a brainstorming session. Groups of 4 people were composed based on their individual group preference scores (i.e., high or low preference for working in groups). These groups worked as 4 independent individuals (nominal participants) or as an interactive group of 4. It was hypothesized that convergent tendencies promoted in interactive settings would hinder group brainstorming performance and that high group preference would enhance these convergent tendencies. These predictions were generally supported by the findings.     

Family as a source of support under stress: Benefits of greater breadth of family inclusion

Family has profound meaning and represents the most important ingroup for most people, yet, we know very little about how lay perceptions of family affect well-being. In the current work, we examined how lay theories about breadth of family inclusion (i.e., including a broader variety of entities in one’s definition of family) were related to family experiences and to well-being. In Study 1, we found that lay theories about family as including a wider variety of entities (i.e., greater breadth of inclusion) predicted more positive family evaluations, more positive qualities, and greater family importance. In Study 2, we found that greater breadth of family inclusion was associated with greater resilience in the face of stress. Finally, in Study 3 we used an experimental manipulation of breadth of family inclusion, establishing that broader views of family produced greater social needs fulfillment. Implications for the role of ingroup memberships and identities in promoting well-being are discussed.