Can survival processing enhance story memory? Testing the generalizability of the adaptive memory framework

Research from the adaptive memory framework shows that thinking about words in terms of their survival value in an incidental learning task enhances their free recall relative to other semantic encoding strategies and intentional learning (Nairne, Pandeirada, & Thompson, 2008). We found similar results. When participants used incidental survival encoding for a list of words (e.g., "Will this object enhance my survival if I were stranded in the grasslands of a foreign land?"), they produced better free recall on a surprise test than did participants who intentionally tried to remember those words (Experiment 1). We also found this survival processing advantage when the words were presented within the context of a survival or neutral story (Experiment 2). However, this advantage did not extent to memory for a story's factual content, regardless of whether the participants were tested by cued recall (Experiment 3) or free recall (Experiments 4-5). Listening to a story for understanding under intentional or incidental learning conditions was just as good as survival processing for remembering story content. The functionalist approach to thinking about memory as an evolutionary adaptation designed to solve reproductive fitness problems provides a different theoretical framework for research, but it is not yet clear if survival processing has general applicability or is effective only for processing discrete stimuli in terms of fitness-relevant scenarios from our past.     

Demands,Resources, Well-Being and Strain: Meta-Analyzing Moderator Effects of Workforce Racial Composition

Racial diversity in the U.S. workforce is increasing, and many organizations are more racially diverse than ever before. Racial minority employees experience the ecosystem of work demands and resources differently to white employees; including perceiving higher demands, lower control and support, greater stress and psychological strain, and less well-being. However, there remains little research on how relationships between these work characteristics and well-being and strain, and interrelationships differ across more racially diverse versus homogeneous (e.g., predominantly white) workplaces. This limits understanding of optimal job redesign practices as workplaces continue to become more racially diverse. Through the lens of the job demands, control, support (JDC[S]), and the job demands-resources (JD-R) frameworks, we build on previous meta-analyses by examining workplace racial composition as a moderator of demand-resource relationships with well-being and strain, and interrelationships, in 63 studies of U.S. workers (N_{(Individuals)} = 93,974). Our findings show several moderation effects. For example, as the proportion of racial minority employees increases, the positive control and well-being relationship increases, and the positive relationship between supervisor support and well-being decreases. Further, as the proportion of African-American employees (versus white and all other racial subgroups) increases, the positive control and supervisor support relationship decreases, as does the positive coworker support and well-being relationship. Our results offer new insights into the role of workplace racial composition on how work is experienced, and job design recommendations in a time of increasing workplace racial diversity.

     

The beliefs that underlie autonomy-supportive and controlling teaching: A multinational investigation

We investigated the role of three beliefs in predicting teachers’ motivating style toward students—namely, how effective, how normative, and how easy-to-implement autonomy-supportive and controlling teaching were each believed to be. We further examined national collectivism–individualism as a predictor of individual teachers’ motivating style and beliefs about motivating style, as we expected that a collectivistic perspective would tend teachers toward the controlling style and toward positive beliefs about that style. Participants were 815 full-time PreK-12 public school teachers from eight different nations that varied in collectivism–individualism. All three teacher beliefs explained independent and substantial variance in teachers’ self-described motivating styles. Believed effectiveness was a particularly strong predictor of self-described motivating style. Collectivism–individualism predicted which teachers were most likely to self-describe a controlling motivating style, and a mediation analysis showed that teachers in collectivistic nations self-described a controlling style because they believed it to be culturally normative classroom practice. These findings enhance the literature on the antecedents of teachers’ motivating styles by showing that teacher beliefs strongly predict motivating style, and that culture informs one of these beliefs—namely, normalcy.     

Drop the Small Talk When Establishing Baseline Behaviour in Interviews

The present experiment investigated the behavioural patterns of interviewees when comparing their baseline behaviour, prior to the interview, with their behaviour during the investigative interview. Similar to what has been advised in the police literature, the truthful baseline behaviour was established prior to the interview through non‐threatening questions. The investigative part of the interview then followed in which the interviewee was aware that they would be assessed on whether they were lying. During the investigative part, interviewees either discussed the job that they had (truth tellers, n = 128) or pretended to have (liars, n = 115). Findings revealed that both liars and truth tellers' behavioural patterns differed between the baseline behaviour and the investigative part of the interview. The findings suggest small talk should not be used as a baseline comparison with the investigative part of the interview when determining if the interviewee is being deceitful. An alternative way of using a baseline lie detection method, the comparable truth method, is discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parental Involvement in Primary School Education: its Relationship with Children’s Academic Performance and Psychosocial Competence through Engaging Children with School

The benefits of parental involvement in children’s education have been well established but increasing evidence suggests that overparenting may have adverse effects on children. The question of whether excessive parental involvement hinders children’s academic and psychosocial development warrants further investigations. This study examined the associations of parental educational involvement at home and in school with academic performance and psychological health of 507 Chinese Grade 3 schoolchildren in Hong Kong. Parents reported on their level of involvement in children’s schooling and their children’s psychosocial issues. Children were surveyed to determine their school engagement, and their Chinese language and mathematics attainment was assessed. We also explored the underlying mechanism by testing children’s engagement with school as a mediator of the relationships. Our results showed that home-based parental educational involvement was positively associated with children’s language competence and psychosocial wellbeing, and the associations were linked through engaging children with school. However, the benefits reached a plateau at higher level of parental involvement in children’s learning at home. School-based parental involvement had an indirect effect on children’s prosocial behavior through school engagement. These findings highlight the significance of optimal level of parental involvement in children’s education at home for children’s development.     

Partner Support and Grandparent Support as Predictors of Change in Coparenting Quality

Young ethnic minority parents may lack psychological and financial resources to handle parenthood, increasing the risk of negative psychosocial and parenting outcomes. Partner support has been associated with positive coparenting, although findings have been mixed. Support from young parents’ own parents (“grandparents”) has been linked to adaptive family outcomes and may be particularly protective for African American and Latino parents whose cultures espouse interdependence. This study examined partner support and grandparent support as individual predictors of change in coparenting quality, and tested whether grandparent support moderated the relationship between partner support and change in coparenting quality over the first postpartum year. Participants were 136 African American and Latina adolescent mothers (age range?=?15–21 years) and their babies’ fathers (15–41 years). Partner and grandparent support were measured at 6 months postpartum. Coparenting quality was measured at 6 and 12 months postpartum, and change in coparenting quality was measured using latent change scores. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis that the relationship between partner support and change in coparenting quality would be moderated by grandparent support. Fit indices indicated a well-fitted model. Results demonstrated that the moderator term (partner support?×?grandparent support) significantly predicted change in coparenting quality. Specifically, partner support was positively associated with changes in coparenting quality when grandparent support was high; however, that association became weaker and changed direction for lower levels of grandparent support. Findings highlight the need to assess parents’ social support networks and grandparents’ impact on the coparenting quality of this at-risk population.     

The Effect of Type of Feedback in Multiple-Choice Testing on Long-Term Retention

We investigated how different types of feedback in multiple-choice testing influence long-term retention. Participants completed an initial multiple-choice test on general-knowledge questions. Then, they were randomly placed into one of the following four conditions: feedback displaying the original question and four alternative options including the correct answer (Feedback 1); feedback displaying the original question and the correct answer (Feedback 2); feedback displaying only the correct answer (Feedback 3); and no feedback (Control). On the final test two days later, participants in the feedback conditions showed improved retention—even participants who received Feedback 3 outperformed the control group, regardless of whether feedback followed correct or incorrect responses. There was no difference between the feedback conditions when feedback followed correct responses, but Feedback 1 was superior to Feedback 3 when feedback followed incorrect responses. The function of feedback in multiple-choice testing is to maintain correct responses and to correct erroneous responses.     

International Doctoral Students in Counselor Education: Coping Strategies in Supervision Training

This study explores 8 international doctoral students' perceptions of coping strategies used in supervision training in counselor education programs. Using human agency as a conceptual framework, the authors found 3 categories: (a) personal and professional self‐directed strategies as personal agency, (b) support and care from mentors as proxy agency, and (c) networking among international doctoral students and/or graduates as collective agency. Implications for counselor educators are discussed. Este estudio explora las percepciones de 8 estudiantes internacionales de doctorado sobre las estrategias de afrontamiento usadas en la capacitación de supervisión en programas de educación para consejeros. Usando la agencia humana como marco conceptual, se hallaron 3 categorías: (a) estrategias autodirigidas personales y profesionales como agencia personal, (b) apoyo y cuidados recibidos de mentores como agencia delegada y (c) creación de redes de contactos entre estudiantes internacionales de doctorado y/o doctores como agencia colectiva. Se discuten las implicaciones para educadores de consejeros.     

Is the genetic structure of human personality universal? A cross-cultural twin study from North America, Europe, and Asia

This study examined whether universality of the 5-factor model (FFM) of personality operationalized by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory is due to genetic influences that are invariant across diverse nations. Factor analyses were conducted on matrices of phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations estimated in a sample of 1,209 monozygotic and 701 dizygotic twin pairs from Canada, Germany, and Japan. Five genetic and environmental factors were extracted for each sample. High congruence coefficients were observed when phenotypic, genetic, and environmental factors were compared in each sample as well as when each factor was compared across samples. These results suggest that the FFM has a solid biological basis and may represent a common heritage of the human species.