Trajectories of scholastic well-being: The effect of achievement emotions and instructional quality in the first year of secondary school (fifth grade)

Social Psychology of Education - Due to their connections with positive educational outcomes, the maintenance of good health and scholastic well-being are highly relevant topics. However, to date,...     

A General Family of Preferential Belief Removal Operators

Most belief change operators in the AGM tradition assume an underlying plausibility ordering over the possible worlds which is transitive and complete. A unifying structure for these operators, based on supplementing the plausibility ordering with a second, guiding, relation over the worlds was presented in Booth et al. (Artif Intell 174:1339–1368, 2010). However it is not always reasonable to assume completeness of the underlying ordering. In this paper we generalise the structure of Booth et al. (Artif Intell 174:1339–1368, 2010) to allow incomparabilities between worlds. We axiomatise the resulting class of belief removal functions, and show that it includes an important family of removal functions based on finite prioritised belief bases.     

The impact of premature childbirth on parental bonding

The development of an affectionate parent-infant bond is essential for a newborn infant's survival and development. However, from evolutionary theory it can be derived that parental bonding is not an automatic process, but dependent on infants' cues to reproductive potential and parents' access to resources. The purpose of the present study was to examine the process of bonding in a sample of Dutch mothers (n = 200) and fathers (n = 193) of full-term (n = 69), moderately premature (n = 68), and very premature infants (n = 63). During the first month postpartum parents completed the Pictorial Representation of Attachment Measure (PRAM) and Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ). Longitudinal analyses revealed that mothers' PRAM scores decreased after moderately preterm delivery, whereas decreases in PRAM scores occurred in both parents after very preterm delivery. As lower PRAM scores represent stronger feelings of parent-infant connectedness, our findings suggest a higher degree of bonding after premature childbirth. Results of the PBQ analysis were in line with PRAM outcomes, as parents of preterm infants reported less bonding problems compared to parents of full-terms. These findings support the hypothesis that in affluent countries with adequate resources, bonding in parents of preterm infants on average may be higher than in parents of full-term infants.     

Dynamic properties of an ultrafine-grained Mg–Zn–Zr alloy

The effect of ultrafine-grained structure formation in Mg–Zn–Zr alloy ZK60 on its mechanical response was investigated at strain rates ranging from quasi-static to dynamic regimes. The study demonstrated that the strength characteristics of the material rise significantly with increasing strain rate, while its ductility is reduced. These effects are particularly pronounced in the dynamic loading regime, at strain rates in the (1?5)?×?10²?s^?1 range. In the ultrafine-grained alloy ZK60, the energy absorption per unit volume, W, is enhanced by grain refinement by a factor as high as eight for the highest strain rate of 5?×?10²?s^?1 investigated. The analysis is focused on the microstructure features that bring about the observed improvement of the tensile characteristics, as well as the deformation and fracture modes prevalent at different strain rates. The results obtained contribute to the exploration and understanding of dynamic behaviour of magnesium alloys.     

Measuring the role of conditioning and stimulus generalisation in common fears and worries

Common and persistent fears may emerge through learning mechanisms such as fear conditioning and generalisation. Although there have been extensive studies of these learning processes in healthy but also psychiatric samples, many of the tasks used to produce conditioning and assess generalisation either use painful and aversive stimuli as the unconditioned stimuli (UCS), or suffer from poor belongingness between the conditioned stimuli and the UCS. Here, we present novel data from a paradigm designed to examine fear conditioning and generalisation in healthy individuals. Two female faces served as conditioned threat cue (CS+) and conditioned safety cue (CS?) respectively. The CS+ was paired repeatedly with a fearful, screaming face (unconditioned stimulus). Generalisation included intermediate faces which varied in their similarity to the CS+ and CS?. We measured eyeblink startle reflex and self-reported ratings. Acquired fear of the CS+ generalised to intermediate stimuli in proportion to their perceptual similarity to the CS+. Our findings demonstrate how fears of new individuals may develop based on resemblance to others with whom an individual has had negative experiences. The paradigm offers new opportunities for probing the role of generalisation in the emergence of common and persistent fears.     

Temporal characteristics of the surprise reaction induced by schema-discrepant visual and auditory events

Abstract

Two experiments investigated the effects of a schema-discrepant event on the surprise reaction. Schema-discrepancy concerned a physical feature of irrelevant distractor words that were presented while the subjects performed a choice reaction time task. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the distractors and the task-relevant stimuli was manipulated in both experiments. The occurrence of the schema-discrepant event led to subjective feelings of surprise and enhanced recall of the stimulus material. In Experiment 1, the presentation of a schema-discrepant auditory event resulted in a pronounced increase of reaction time (RT) with a 0.2sec SOA but not with a 1.5sec SOA. In Experiment 2, the effects of both fixed and variable SOAs of four different lengths (simultaneous onset, 0.5sec, 1sec, or 2sec SOA) were investigated within a visual task context. The increase of RT was found to be most pronounced with SOAs of 0.5sec and lsec respectively, and more pronounced with variable than with fixed SOAs, especially with a simultaneous onset. These results provide information about the temporal characteristics of the inhibitory component of the surprise reaction, and suggest that the inhibitory effects of surprise depend considerably on the subjects' state of preparation for the experimental task.     

When beliefs are not enough: Examining the interaction of diversity faultlines,task motivation,and diversity beliefs on team performance

Diversity faultline strength – the extent to which diversity attributes within a group converge in such a way that they split a group into homogeneous subgroups – can decrease group performance. Based on the categorization–elaboration model (CEM) of workgroup diversity, we assumed that task motivation can overcome the detrimental effects of faultlines. We further assumed that this effect is contingent on the groups' diversity beliefs and that it is mediated by the elaboration of task-relevant information. Forty-three student groups worked on a computer-simulated complex problem solving scenario. The group faultline strength was calculated over the attributes gender, age and educational background. Information elaboration was elicited by means of behavioural coding. Results revealed a three-way interaction of faultline strength, diversity beliefs and task motivation: groups overcame the detrimental effects of faultlines only if they exhibited pro-diversity beliefs and high task motivation. The three-way interaction of faultline strength, diversity beliefs and task motivation was partly mediated by information elaboration. Practical and theoretic implications are discussed.     

On a simple‐minded definition of creativity

In this study, 909 5th- and 6th-grade children were recruited as participants, and questionnaires were used to investigate the relationships between migration to urban settings and children's creative inclinations. The study was broken down to 2 parts. Study 1 compared scores on measures of creative inclinations among migrant, rural, and urban children, and further compared measures of creative inclinations among children with varying migration durations. Study 2 used path analysis to explore factors potentially mediating the effects of migration on children's creative inclinations. The results suggest that migration to urban settings is meaningfully related to creative inclinations, but the relationship seems more nuanced than initially hypothesized. When openness to new experiences, intelligence, and classroom climate were entered into the prediction equation, migration shows some indirect effects on creative inclinations. The results are discussed in terms of the significance of the study and the need for further research.     

An Inter-Rater Reliability Study for the Rorschach Performance Assessment System

Summary: Presented definitions for the construct of ambiguity tolerance. The measun: of ambiguity tolerance (MAT-50) had high internal reliability (r = .88) and high test-retest reliability (r = .86) over a 10-to-12 week period. A content analysis of the measure and a subjective imalysis by 20 graduate students indicated adequate content validity. A multivariate comparison with two other ambiguity measures, two rigidity measures, and a short dogmatism measure provided strong evidence for criteria-related validity. Finally, four independent empirical studies showed good construct validity.     

Moral Ambition

The paper opens with an account of moral ambition which, it argues, is both a coherent ideal and an admirable trait. It closes with a discussion of some of the ways in which this trait might differ from traditional virtues such as temperance, courage, or benevolence.