Fruitful visual search: Inhibition of return in a virtual foraging task

Inhibition of return (IOR) has long been viewed as a foraging facilitator in visual search. We investigated the contribution of IOR in a task that approximates natural foraging more closely than typical visual search tasks. Participants in a fully immersive virtual reality environment manually searched an array of leaves for a hidden piece of fruit, using a wand to select and examine each leaf location. Search was slower than in typical IOR paradigms, taking seconds instead of a few hundred milliseconds. Participants also made a speeded response when they detected a flashing leaf that either was or was not in a previously searched location. Responses were slower when the flashing leaf was in a previously searched location than when it was in an unvisited location. These results generalize IOR to an approximation of a naturalistic visual search setting and support the hypothesis that IOR can facilitate foraging. The experiment also constitutes the first use of a fully immersive virtual reality display in the study of IOR.     

Spiritual care as eHealth: a systematic review

A systematic review was undertaken of the literature on the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT's) in the provision and support of religious and spiritual care in healthcare. Indexes such as Medline, PsychoINFO and Proquest Religion were searched. The review found little systematic study of the effectiveness of the Internet and other ICT's in religious and spiritual care. It is believed that the results of this review provide a basis for promise spiri care in the further explora of the potential and of ICT's for tual healthcare.     

Avoiding the death risk of avoiding a dread risk: the aftermath of March 11 in Spain

Abstract-After the airplane attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States, many Americans drove instead of flying, to avoid the risk of terrorism. As a result, there were extra car accidents in which many people died. This study tested whether a similar effect occurred in Spain after the train bombings of March 11, 2004, in Madrid. Data on train travel, highway traffic, and fatal highway accidents were analyzed for the months immediately following March 11. Results show that, like Americans, Spaniards avoided the dread risk of terror attacks, but unlike Americans, they did not confront the death risk of fatal accidents instead. A sociopolitical interpretation for these findings is offered.     

THE EFFECT OF EXPERIMENTER FACIAL ORIENTATION DURING IMITATION MAINTENANCE1

The training and maintenance of imitative responding has become an important therapeutic process with language-handicapped children, as indicated by Garcia and DeHaven (American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1974, 79 , 169–178). Typically a training “package” is used, that might entail the use of operant shaping, fading, reinforcement, and punishment techniques designed to increase correct imitation and decrease incorrect responding. Only recently have studies begun to concentrate on the components of these training “packages”. Steinman (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1970, 3 , 159–167) highlighted the roles played by less conspicuous but functionally important components of these packages. The present study attempted to provide a systematic extension of this work within an applied context. Using subjects who were responding at high levels during an imitation-maintenance procedure, experimenter facial orientation (experimenter's eyes and head oriented towards the subject's face and head), was systematically manipulated for experimentally determined “types” of imitative behavior. Differential responding within these parameters provided an evaluation of facial orientation as a functional component within this training package. Three retarded children participated in the study. Two types of topographically different imitative responses were defined for experimental purposes (“standing” and “sitting”). Each subject progressed through four conditions of the study, which called for the reinforcement of all imitative responses. But during preselected conditions, experimenter facial orientation was removed from the therapeutic package for one of the two topographical types of imitation. Results indicated that imitation of the two topographical types of models was dependent on the presence of experimenter facial orientation within the experimental procedure.     

No evidence of other-race effect for Chinese faces in Malaysian non-Chinese population

The other-race effect (ORE) reflects poor recognition of faces of a different race to one's own. According to the expertise-individuation hypothesis, this phenomenon is a consequence of limited experience with other-race faces. Thus, similar experience with own and other-race faces should abolish the ORE. This study explores the ORE in a multi-racial country (i.e., Malaysia) by comparing Malaysian observers' face recognition for faces of a predominant racial group in Malaysia (i.e., Chinese) with faces from an uncommon group (i.e., Caucasian). Malaysian Chinese, Malays, and Malaysian Indians completed the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) and the CFMT-Chinese. Compared with the normative scores, Malaysian observers showed poor performance in the CFMT-Caucasian. Interestingly, Malays and Malaysian Indians observers' performance was identical to that of Malaysian Chinese in the CFMT-Chinese and to the normative scores of the test. These results demonstrate the relevance of experience in shaping the ORE.     

Understanding the link between work engagement and job satisfaction: Do role stressors underlie this relationship?

Drawing upon Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, most research on hindrance demands has focused on the antecedent role of work engagement. However, no studies have analysed the potential effects of hindrance demands as moderators in the engagement-job satisfaction link. The objective of this study was to examine the moderator effect of role stressors (conflict and ambiguity) as hindrance demands in the relationship between work engagement and job satisfaction in a Spanish working sample. The sample was composed of 634 Spanish workers from different Southern service organizations. Hierarchical multiple regression results showed that the association between work engagement and job satisfaction decreased when role stress (particularly ambiguity) increased. These results underline the need to clarify goals, specify norms about work and member roles in organizations and determine the deleterious effect of hindrance demands even in engaged workers.     

Grooming and yawning trace adjustment to unfamiliar environments in laboratory Sprague-Dawley rats (Rattus norvegicus)

The authors studied grooming and yawning caused by mild stress in laboratory Sprague-Dawley rats (Rattus norvegicus). Two groups received 3 and 6 sequences of 5 foot shocks at random intervals (RI) and fixed intervals (FI), respectively. A 3rd group was not shocked (NS). The groups were exposed for 60 min twice. Grooming did not differ among groups, but yawning diminished with RI. Yawning increased and grooming decreased with the 2nd exposure, except in RI in which grooming increased. In NS and FI, grooming prevailed during the first 20 and 30 min, respectively, whereas yawning dominated the remainder of the time. In RI, grooming occurred more than yawning. An upward shift on this scale causes grooming to substitute yawning, whereas a downward shift causes the reverse effect.     

In sight, out of mind: the role of eye movements in the rapid resumption of visual search

Three experiments investigated the role of eye movements in the rapid resumption of an interrupted search. Passive monitoring of eye position in Experiment 1 showed that rapid resumption was associated with a short distance between the eye and the target on the next-to-last look before target detection. Experiments 2 and 3 used two different methods for presenting the target to the point of eye fixation on some trials. If eye position alone is predictive, rapid resumption should increase when the target is near fixation. The results showed that gaze-contingent targets increased overall search success, but that the proportion of rapid responses decreased dramatically. We conclude that rather than depending on a high-quality single look at a search target, rapid resumption of search depends on two glances; a first glance in which a hypothesis is formed, and a second glance in which the hypothesis is confirmed.     

The relationship between campus diversity, students' ethnic identity and college adjustment: a qualitative study

The present study was a qualitative exploration into the meaning of ethnic identity and its association with college adjustment in students attending ethnically diverse university campuses. The sample consisted of 103 participants recruited from 2 ethnically diverse universities in southern California. A constant comparative analysis of the interview data revealed 9 themes as being relevant to students' experiences of ethnicity within a multiethnic campus that reflect both the positive aspects and the negative aspects associated with campus diversity. Students' experiences with campus diversity varied by ethnic background and type of institution attended, as did the overall frequencies of reported positive and negative themes associated with diversity. The implications of these findings for ethnic identity, campus climate, and interethnic relations are discussed.     

Why do Managers Engage in Trustworthy Behavior? A Multilevel Cross‐Cultural Study in 18 Countries

Drawing on theories of generalized exchange and the norm of indirect reciprocity, we conceptualize subordinates’ organizational citizenship behavior directed toward the organization (OCBO) and directed toward peers (OCBI) as antecedents of managerial trustworthy behavior and examine how managers’ affective trust in subordinates mediates this relationship. We also investigate the extent to which this mediation is moderated by the level of collectivism in a society. Data were collected from 741 managers and 2,111 subordinates in 18 countries representing all major cultural regions of the world. We find support for our hypothesized moderated mediation in that managers’ affective trust in subordinates mediates the relationships between both subordinates’ OCBO and managerial trustworthy behavior, and subordinates’ OCBI and managerial trustworthy behavior across the different countries studied. Further, managers’ affective trust in subordinates only mediates the relationships between both types of citizenship behavior and managerial trustworthy behavior when collectivism is low to medium but not when it is high. Implications for research on cross‐cultural psychology, trust, and organizational citizenship behavior are discussed.