Explicit memory for unattended words: the importance of being in the "no"

Recognition tests in which participants indicate whether they recognize items using binary yes/no response options have typically yielded "yes" responses at equal rates for unattended old items and new items. Because most responses to unattended stimuli in such tests are "no" responses, we reasoned that a closer examination of "no" responses might reveal memory for unattended items. We modified a classic paradigm to allow participants to indicate high and low levels of confidence in their responses. As in earlier studies, the overall proportion of "yes" responses did not differ between unattended old items and new items. However, there was a crossover effect in the "no" responses: More high-confidence "no" responses were given for new items than for unattended old items, whereas more low-confidence "no" responses were given for unattended old items than for new items. These results indicate explicit memory for unattended material presented under high perceptual load. Our findings suggest that the null effects obtained in previous studies may not have stemmed from failures of perception or memory, but rather may have been due to insufficiently sensitive memory assessment.     

Anger and happiness in virtual teams: Emotional influences of text and behavior on others’ affect in the absence of non-verbal cues

Emotions carry social influence, as evident by emotion contagion - an unconscious process attributed to mimicking of non-verbal cues. We investigate whether emotion contagion can occur in virtual teams; specifically, the emotional influence of text-based and behavior-based cues on participants’ emotion in 4-person virtual teams. In a 2 × 2 design a confederate textually communicated anger or happiness, while behaving in a resolute or flexible pattern. The team task required negotiation offering a performance based reward. We demonstrate that emotion contagion occurs in teams even when communication is only text-based. We show that behaviors are perceived as emotionally charged, resolute behavior interpreted as a display of anger, and flexibility as a display of happiness. Moreover, we demonstrate that incongruence between text-based communication of emotion and emotionally charged behaviors elicits negative emotion in fellow teammates. Our findings extend the boundaries of emotion contagion and carry implications for understanding emotion dynamics in virtual teams.     

Hues of adjustment: Landsmanshaftn in inter-war New York and Tel-Aviv

Jewish immigrants in New York City and Tel-Aviv founded landsmanshaftn – local associations of those arrived from the same country, region, city or village. Comparing these civil organizations' goals, structures, and activities during the interwar period illuminates noteworthy aspects of emerging modern Jewish cultures. Landsmanshaftn advanced various forms of immigrant acculturation in New York and Tel-Aviv. They reflected and enhanced economic, social, political, religious and linguistic circumstances, as well as they unveiled differing urban attitudes, multi-layered national and ethnic identities, and divergent sentiments and ideologies regarding the East-European shtetl. Although Landsmanshaftn reveal distinct modes of adjustment in New York and Tel-Aviv, they also disclose similarities, responding in both cities to the immigrants' need for communal experience. Anat Helman: I would like to thank Eli Lederhendler for his interesting remarks and helpful suggestions.     

Distinctiveness Benefits Novelty (and Not Familiarity), but Only Up to a Limit: The Prior Knowledge Perspective

Novelty is a pivotal player in cognition, and its contribution to superior memory performance is a widely accepted convention. On the other hand, mnemonic advantages for familiar information are also well documented. Here, we examine the role of experimental distinctiveness as a potential explanation for these apparently conflicting findings. Across two experiments, we demonstrate that conceptual novelty, an unfamiliar combination of familiar constituents, is sensitive to its experimental proportions: Improved memory for novelty was observed when novel stimuli were relatively rare. Memory levels for familiar items, in contrast, were completely unaffected by experimental proportions, highlighting their insensitivity to list‐based distinctiveness. Finally, no mnemonic advantage for conceptual novelty over familiarity was observed even when novel stimuli were extremely rare at study. Together, these results imply that novel and familiar items are processed via partially distinct mechanisms, with (at least some facets of) novelty not providing a mnemonic advantage over familiarity.     

Interactive effects of traits on adjustment to a life transition

A longitudinal design was used to test theoretically derived interactive effects of traits on adjustment to relocation 1, 8, and 15 months after relocation of elderly women. Openness interacted with Neuroticism and with Extraversion in affecting changes in distress after relocation by amplifying the basic emotional tendencies of Neuroticism and Extraversion. These were delayed effects, occurring only 15 months after relocation. Openness also interacted with Neuroticism in predicting changes in psychological well-being with the effects occurring primarily early in postmove adjustment. In addition, Extraversion interacted with Conscientiousness and with Agreeableness in predicting changes in distress, such that the beneficial effects of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness were evident only for individuals low on Extraversion. These effects were consistent across time, showing long-term effects. Overall, the findings demonstrate the multiplicity of ways in which trait interactions predict dynamic adjustment to a life transition.     

From What to How: An Initial Review of Publicly Available AI Ethics Tools,Methods and Research to Translate Principles into Practices

Science and Engineering Ethics - The debate about the ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence dates from the 1960s (Samuel in Science, 132(3429):741–742, 1960....     

Prevention Rather Than Cure? Primary or Secondary Intervention for Dealing With Media Exposure to Terrorism

The authors examined the efficacy of primary versus secondary intervention in moderating state anxiety and state anger from media‐based exposure to terrorism. Two hundred participants, allocated to a terrorism or nonterrorism media exposure and to antecedent or subsequent therapeutic or control intervention, were assessed for state anxiety and state anger responses. Results confirmed that higher postexposure response in the terrorism media exposure group was successfully moderated by primary but not by secondary therapeutic intervention. Findings illuminate the need in this domain for intervention that is sensitively assessed for content and sequencing.     

Professionalism and Helping: Harmonious or Discordant Concepts? An Attribution Theory Perspective

In examining whether a leader's professionalism implies more or fewer helping behaviors for followers, this study designed a model integrating attributional theory explanations with professionalism to predict helping behaviors. Four distinct helping behaviors were conceptualized: supporting, motivating, referral, and rejection. Qualitative methods used in the study consisted of content analysis of interviews with 12 superiors at healthcare organizations concerning their means of helping staff, and the circumstances. Quantitative data were gathered by an experimental design in which four case studies were presented to each of 171 healthcare superiors, who were asked to deal with a distressed staff nurse whose stability and controllability of the distress were rated either high or low. Superiors' professionalism was assessed. Results indicated that the relationship between professionalism and helping was complex, and critically dependent upon the type of helping behaviors provided, the help provider's professionalism, and attributions of the help seeker's controllability and stability. The qualitative and quantitative results favor attribution explanations, and imply that highly professional superiors provide higher levels of supporting, motivating, and rejecting helping behaviors as means to maintain professionalism of staff.     

The Roles of Values,Behavior, and Value‐Behavior Fit in the Relation of Agency and Communion to Well‐Being

Four studies examined whether agency and communion values, behaviors, or an interaction between values and behaviors (value‐behavior fit) would predict well‐being. In addition, Study 2 examined whether agency and communion goals, behaviors, or goal‐behavior fit would predict well‐being. In all four studies, participants completed online questionnaires containing measures of agency and communion values, behaviors, and well‐being. In Studies 1 and 4, participants were recruited from the general population (respectively, N = 371, M_age = 37.49, and N = 133, M_age = 36.59). In Studies 2 and 3, participants were undergraduate students (respectively, N = 239, M_age = 20.8, and N = 242, M_age = 21.6). All four studies consistently found that agency and communion behaviors were significantly positively correlated with both subjective and psychological well‐being. There was no strong indication that either values were directly associated with well‐being. Neither was there any indication that well‐being was predicted by value‐behavior fit. The implications of these findings for theory and improving well‐being are discussed.