Enhanced perceived responsibility decreases metamemory but not memory accuracy in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Mixed findings have been obtained in prior research with respect to the presence and severity of memory and metamemory deficits in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We tested the hypothesis that experimentally induced increments of subjective responsibility would lead to a disproportionately strong decline of memory confidence and enhanced response latencies in OCD while leaving memory accuracy unaffected. Twenty-eight OCD patients and 28 healthy controls were presented a computerized memory test framed with two different scenarios. In the neutral scenario, the participant was requested to imagine purchasing 15 items from a do-it-yourself store. In the recognition phase, the 15 needed items were presented along with 15 distractor items. The participant was asked to decide whether items were on his or her shopping list or not, graded by subjective confidence. In the responsibility scenario, the general experimental setup was analogous except that the participant now had to envision that he or she was a helper in a region recently struck by an earthquake, dispatched to provide 15 urgently needed goods from a nearby town. In line with prior work by our group, samples did not differ in either condition on memory accuracy in a subsequent recognition task. As hypothesized, OCD participants were less certain in their responses for the high responsibility condition than controls. Whereas patients and controls did not differ in their subjective estimates for memorized items, patients expressed stronger doubt that their earthquake mission was successful. The findings indicate that low memory confidence in OCD may only be elicited in situations where perceived responsibility is high and that patients may share higher performance standards ("good is not good enough") than controls when perceived responsibility is inflated.     

Newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: a meta-analytic review of antecedents, outcomes, and methods

The authors tested a model of antecedents and outcomes of newcomer adjustment using 70 unique samples of newcomers with meta-analytic and path modeling techniques. Specifically, they proposed and tested a model in which adjustment (role clarity, self-efficacy, and social acceptance) mediated the effects of organizational socialization tactics and information seeking on socialization outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job performance, intentions to remain, and turnover). The results generally supported this model. In addition, the authors examined the moderating effects of methodology on these relationships by coding for 3 methodological issues: data collection type (longitudinal vs. cross-sectional), sample characteristics (school-to-work vs. work-to-work transitions), and measurement of the antecedents (facet vs. composite measurement). Discussion focuses on the implications of the findings and suggestions for future research.     

Work-family conflict: experiences and health implications among immigrant Latinos

Work-family conflict research has focused almost exclusively on professional, White adults. The goal of this article was to expand the understanding of culture and industry in shaping experiences and consequences of work-family conflict. Using in-depth interview data (n = 26) and structured survey data (n = 200) from immigrant Latinos employed in the poultry processing industry, the authors evaluated predictions drawn from emerging models emphasizing the influence of cultural characteristics such as collectivism and gender ideology on work-family conflict. Results indicated that immigrant Latinos in poultry processing experienced infrequent work-to-family conflict; both the level and the antecedents of work-to-family conflict differed by gender, with physical demands contributing to greater conflict for women but not men. In addition, there was little evidence that work-family conflict was associated with health in this population. These results demonstrate how traditional models of work-family conflict need to be modified to reflect the needs and circumstances of diverse workers in the new global economy.     

A multilevel study of leadership, empowerment, and performance in teams

A multilevel model of leadership, empowerment, and performance was tested using a sample of 62 teams, 445 individual members, 62 team leaders, and 31 external managers from 31 stores of a Fortune 500 company. Leader-member exchange and leadership climate related differently to individual and team empowerment and interacted to influence individual empowerment. Also, several relationships were supported in more but not in less interdependent teams. Specifically, leader-member exchange related to individual performance partially through individual empowerment; leadership climate related to team performance partially through team empowerment; team empowerment moderated the relationship between individual empowerment and performance; and individual performance was positively related to team performance. Contributions to team leadership theory, research, and practices are discussed.     

Working memory deficit in children with mathematical difficulties: a general or specific deficit?

This study examined whether children with mathematical difficulties (MDs) or comorbid mathematical and reading difficulties have a working memory deficit and whether the hypothesized working memory deficit includes the whole working memory system or only specific components. In the study, 31 10-year-olds with MDs and 37 10-year-olds with both mathematical and reading difficulties were compared with 47 age-matched and 50 younger controls (9-year-olds) on a number of working memory tasks. Compared with the age-matched controls, both groups of children with MDs performed worse on tasks tapping the central executive (e.g., visual matrix span) and the phonological loop (e.g., word span). More important, the MD group performed worse than the younger controls on the counting span task, whereas the group with comorbid mathematical and reading difficulties performed worse on the counting span task and the visual matrix span task. These findings provide support for the assumption that children with MDs have a working memory deficit. More specifically, children with MDs have a central executive deficit connected to concurrent processing and storage of numerical and visual information.     

Postural change effects on infants' AB task performance: visual, postural, or spatial?

Smith and colleagues (Smith, L. B., Thelen, E., Titzer, R., & McLin, D. (1999). Knowing in the context of acting: The task dynamics of the A-not-B error. Psychological Review, 106, 235-260) demonstrated that 10-month-olds succeed on a Piagetian AB search task if they are moved from a sitting position to a standing position between A and B trials. These authors explained this result by suggesting that because the reach must be executed by different muscle forces from the standing position, an appropriate reach to B is programmed without the memory of the previous reach interfering with the current reach. In the main study reported here, the influences of postural and spatial factors are separated by adding a condition in which the table containing the hiding wells is moved up at the same time as the infant is shifted to standing, thereby allowing a postural change without a change in the spatial relations between the hand and hiding locations. Results showed that in both a standard control condition and the sitting-to-standing condition in which the table also moved up, performance was poor. Only in the sitting-to-standing condition in which the spatial relation between the hand and apparatus was altered were infants successful. These outcomes demonstrate that perseveration effects are likely to occur at the level of reach planning rather than at the level of execution, thereby narrowing the gap between explanations of improvements in AB performance with age that emphasize prefrontal maturation as opposed to improvements in reaching ability.     

The contribution of rapid visual and auditory processing to the reading of irregular words and pseudowords presented singly and in contiguity

This study examined the relative involvement of rapid auditory and visual temporal resolution mechanisms in the reading of phonologically regular pseudowords and English irregular words presented both in isolation and in contiguity as a series of six words. Seventy-nine undergraduates participated in a range of reading, visual temporal, and auditory temporal tasks. The correlation analyses suggested a general timing mechanism across modalities. There were more significant correlations between the visual temporal measures and irregular word reading and between the auditory measures and pseudoword reading. Auditory gap detection predicted pseudoword reading accuracies. The low temporal frequency flicker contrast sensitivity measure predicted the accuracies of isolated irregular words and pseudowords presented in contiguity. However, when a combined speed-accuracy score was used, visible persistence at both low and high spatial frequencies and auditory gap detection were active in the reading of pseudowords presented in contiguity. Sensory processing skills in both visual and auditory modalities accounted for some of the variance in the reading performance of normal undergraduates, not just reading-impaired students.     

Influence of a tone's tonal function on temporal change detection

Music cognition research has provided evidence that the tonal function of a musical event influences perception and memory. Our study investigated whether tonal function influences a basic temporal judgment, notably the detection of a temporal change disrupting a sequence's regularity. The sequences consisted of six musical events presented in isochrony (or with the fifth event occurring earlier or later): Three chords (instilling a tonal context) were followed by a tone (repeated three times). The tones fulfilled one of two tonal functions in the tonal context. Participants had to detect whether the sequence contained a temporal change and were not informed about tonal manipulations. Discrimination performance (as measured by d') showed an influence of tonal function on temporal change detection: Performance was better for the tonic tone (having the most important tonal function in the key) than for the unstable leading tone, the less stable mediant tone, and even than the stable dominant tone. The outcome shows the influence of listeners' tonal knowledge on a perceptual time judgment and suggests that processing of tonal and temporal structures interact at some stage of processing.     

Emotion recognition and expression in young obese participants: preliminary study

This study of the presence of alexithymic characteristics in obese adolescents and preadolescents tested the hypothesis of whether they showed impaired recognition and expression of emotion. The sample included 30 obese young participants and a control group of 30 participants of normal weight for their ages. Stimuli, 42 faces representing seven emotional expressions, were shown to participants who identified the emotion expressed in the face. The Level of Emotional Awareness Scale was adapted for children to evaluate their ability to describe their emotions. Young obese participants had significantly lower scores than control participants, but no differences were found in recognition of emotion. The lack of words to describe emotions might suggest a greater prevalence of alexithymic characteristics in the obese participants, but the hypothesis of a general deficit in the processing of emotional experiences was not supported.     

Imagery intervention in open and closed tennis motor skill performance

To assess use of imagery intervention in performance of two tennis motor skills the quasi-experimental design included a pre- and posttest and a control group. The tennis service shot and service receiving skill were selected as representative of open and closed skills, respectively. 48 subjects, male tennis players, whose ages ranged from 16 to 18 yr. (M = 17.2), were divided into two groups: (1) Technical practice only which was used as control group and (2) Imagery group who received both imagery and technical practice. Analysis of covariance showed a significant main effect for the imagery intervention on the closed skill (p = .002). Findings suggest that imaging a positive outcome may be more powerful in improving performance of closed skill movements than of open skill movements.