EFFECTS OF EVIDENCE ON ATTITUDES:

Abstract— A 1979 study by Lord, Ross, and Lepper has been widely cited as showing that examination of mixed evidence on a topic leads to polarization of altitudes The polarization phenomenon, we suggest, in fact encompasses two distinct change patterns—a shift from an initially moderate to a more extreme position (regarded here as genuine polarization) and a shift from an initially neutral to a moderate position (which might better be termed "articulating a position") The findings reported here indicate that genuine polarization is a real but infrequent outcome of exposure to mixed evidence In addition, we offer data in support of the view that the effective component of such interventions is simply cognitive engagement, rather than exposure to new evidence.     

PERSONALITY AND JOB PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE OF INCREMENTAL VALIDITY

It is suggested that personality variables are significant predictors of job performance when carefully matched with the appropriate occupation and organization. The present study investigates the relationship between specific personality variables and job performance in a sample ( N = 43) of accountants. The results indicate that even with the effects of cognitive ability taken into account, three personality scales (orientation towards work; degree of ascendancy; and degree and quality of interpersonal orientation) are significantly related to important aspects of job performance. It is suggested that the overall validity of selection strategies might be improved with the addition of measures of relevant personality dimensions when appropriately matched to an occupation and organization.     

THE SKILL OF PICTORIAL PERCEPTION: AN INTERPRETATION OF CROSS-CULTURAL EVIDENCE*

A theoretical framework is proposed for understanding perceptual skills in their functional context. Pictorial perception is construed as a functionally specialised skill whose pervasive importance in modern education derives from the proliferation of pictorial materials in Western culture. Drawing on cross-cultural research, the major components of the skill are identified as (1) detection of appropriate contexts for its application, (2) selection of a limiting frame of reference, (3) use of conventional criteria of fidelity to recognise depicted items, (4) sensitivity to impoverished depth cues, (5) an expectation of finding in the picture most of the information necessary for its disambiguation, and (6) various assumptions about the range of cognitive inferences that may legitimately be made ‘beyond the information given’. Training studies are interpreted as suggesting that the skill can be enhanced through guided experience.     

WARRANTED ASSERTABILITY MANEUVERS AND THE RULES OF ASSERTION

Abstract: In responding to the cases that motivate epistemic contextualism, invariantists sometimes use a warranted assertability maneuver (WAM), according to which we mistakenly judge an assertion to be true because we confuse conversational propriety with truth. I argue that no invariantist WAM against Stewart Cohen's Airport Case can succeed. The problem is that such a WAM is inconsistent with the known ways of accounting for the evidence that motivates the knowledge account of assertion.     

VALIDITY OF THE DIMENSIONS OF THE PAY SATISFACTION QUESTIONNAIRE: EVIDENCE OF DIFFERENTIAL PREDICTION

The present study investigated the validity of the dimensions of the Pay Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ), in particular the degree to which the dimensions of the PSQ were differentially predicted by a number of antecedents. A series of tests supported dimensionality of the PSQ. Perhaps more importantly, a theoretical model was hypothesized and tested which was based on the assumption that different variables predict each of the four dimensions of pay satisfaction. Data was collected from a heterogeneous sample of sales, managerial, professional-technical, and nonexempt employees from a large multidivision corporation. A series of analyses indicated that the items from the PSQ loaded on their hypothesized dimensions, and the dimensions were empirically distinct. Furthermore, the dimensions were differentially predicted by a series of antecedents. This differential prediction evidence supports the validity of the dimensions of the PSQ in a more rigorous and comprehensive manner than has been produced by past research.     

EXPLOITING PRAGMATIC RULES: DEVIOUS MESSAGES

Consideration of the relationship between semantics and pragmatics leads to a formal analysis of pragmatic implications customarily made by auditors in this culture. The analysis isolates four types of responses to yes-no demand questions: (1) explication, (2) prepositional implication, (3) relational implication, and (4) transparent question. It further shows how the latter three types can be exploited by devious communicators and proposes some possible social extensions of the system.     

PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK INFORMATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION: EVIDENCE OF CONCEPTUAL CONVERGENCE

This study investigates the degree to which performance feedback information can be conceptually housed within an existing theoretical framework of organizational communication. If one's job can be conceptualized as a work information environment, then logically there should be some communality between organizational communication and performance feedback information. In this study 213 faculty members at Iowa State University completed a questionnaire addressing patterns of organizational communication within their respective academic departments and feedback on their own job performance provided them by multiple sources. In order to uncover any underlying congruence between the communication and feedback constructs, the data were subjected to canonical correlation analysis. The results revealed that the type of feedback, source of feedback, and perceived reliability of feedback sources were all found to interact in logical patterns with selected dimensions of organizational communication.     

算术应用题表征策略的眼动研究

采用EyelinkⅡ眼动记录仪,以21名大学生为被试,探讨了大学生解决三步比较应用题的表征策略。实验设计为2(正确率:高、低)×2(题型:一致、不一致)×2(无关信息:插入、未插入)的三因素混合实验。结果表明:(1)大学生被试解三步式比较应用题存在直译策略和问题模型策略;(2)解题正确率高者解难度较大的应用题时倾向于对应用题情境进行加工,即采用问题模型策略,正确率低者未表现出这一倾向,往往采用直译策略。     

CHRONOMETRIC EVIDENCE FOR TWO TYPES OF ATTENTION

Abstract— Parallel processing in the human brain is subject to severe attention limits, but it is unclear whether such limits arise from a single intentional process or multiple distinct attention processes. We provide new evidence that two candidates, input attention and central attention, operate at different temporal stages of processing. This conclusion is supported by chronometric analyses showing that the same reference stage (letter identification) operates after the stage at which input attention operates, but prior to the stage at which central attention operates. The finding that attention operates at different temporal loci provides new support for the existence of distinct attentional processes.     

ON ANSWERING QUESTIONS INDIRECTLY: SOME RULES IN THE GRAMMAR OF DOING CONVERSATION1

The mechanisms through which an indirect response to a question counts as a direct answer to that question can fruitfully be regarded as a process in which the listener supplies, constructs, infers, or is reminded of such statements as will (together with the indirect response itself) allow the inference of a plausible direct answer. This analysis presents seven rules of conversational interpretation, and likens conversational logic to the enthymeme. It also supports a widely asserted characteristic of conversation in general: that participants expect each other to cooperate in making utterances “make sense.”     

A RULES APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF TELEVISION AND SOCIETY

A rule-based theoretical framework is presented as an alternative to scientific laws or purely interpretive approaches for examination of the activities undertaken by television audiences. Communication rules, which explains human actions in terms of its pragmatic and normative rather than causal features, is productively applied to the study of audience activity at two levels—the family and the larger society. Habitual, parametric, and tactical rule types are defined and described in relation to basic mass communication processes. Television-related interpersonal activities in the home are shown to be rule-governed while audience members and sources of media programming at the societal level are revealed to engage in rule-based interaction that perpetuates selected ideologies and their accompanying lifestyle models. Communication rules is proposed as a viable approach for resolving fundamental problems in mass communication theory building, including the “effects” vs. “uses” argument regarding direction of influence, and conceptual and methodological differences that have often polarized media critics and empiricists.