How to control a white bear? Individual differences involved in self-perceived and actual thought-suppression ability

Thought suppression is generally considered a maladaptive mental control strategy, leading to increased intrusions. In the experimental psychopathology literature, thought suppression is assigned a central role in anxiety and depression, disorders characterised by a high level of negative intrusive thoughts. We examined predictors of self-perceived and actual thought suppression ability in an undergraduate sample. It was found that self-perceived suppression ability was predicted by anxiety and depression scores, attentional control, and distraction strategies. Immediate and rebound effects of actual suppression were predicted by depression scores. Interestingly, higher levels of attentional control and distraction were related to more successful thought suppression on the questionnaires, yet were related to increased intrusions during suppression.     

A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study of sustained attention to local and global target features

Despite a long history of vigilance research, the role of global and local feature discrimination in vigilance tasks has been relatively neglected. In this experiment participants performed a sustained attention task requiring either global or local shape stimuli discrimination. Reaction time to local feature discriminations was characterized by a quadratic trend over time-on-task with performance levels returning to initial levels late in the task. This trend did not occur in the global shape discrimination task. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was utilized in this study as an index of cerebral activation. In both tasks there was increased right hemisphere relative to left hemisphere oxygenation and right hemisphere oxygenation increased with time-on-task. Left hemisphere oxygenation, however, decreased slightly in the global task, but increased significantly in the local task as task duration increased. Indeed, total oxygenation, averaging both right and left, increased more with time-on-task in the local discrimination task. Both the performance and physiological results of this study indicate increased utilization of bilateral cerebral resources with time-on-task in the local, but not the global discrimination vigil.     

Alternative Predictors for Dealing with the Diversity–Validity Dilemma in Personnel Selection: The constructed response multimedia test

In the context of the diversity–validity dilemma in personnel selection, the present field study compared ethnic subgroup differences on an innovative constructed response multimedia test to other commonly used selection instruments. Applicants (N = 245, 27% ethnic minorities) for entry‐level police jobs completed a constructed response multimedia test, cognitive ability test, language proficiency test, personality inventory, structured interview, and role play. Results demonstrated minor ethnic subgroup differences on constructed response multimedia test scores as compared to other instruments. Constructed response multimedia test scores were related to the selection decision, and no evidence for predictive bias was found. Subgroup differences were also examined on the dimensional level, with cognitively loaded dimension scores displaying larger differences.     

An Experimental Test of Whether Informants can Report About Child and Family Behavior Based on Settings of Behavioral Expression

Researchers and practitioners conduct multi-informant assessments of child and family behavior under the assumption that informants have unique perspectives on these behaviors. These unique perspectives stem, in part, from differences among informants in the settings in which they observe behaviors (e.g., home, school, peer interactions). These differences are assumed to contribute to the discrepancies commonly observed in the outcomes of multi-informant assessments. Although assessments often prompt informants to think about setting-specific behaviors when providing reports about child and family behavior, the notion that differences in setting-based behavioral observations contribute to discrepant reports has yet to be experimentally tested. We trained informants to use setting information as the basis for providing behavioral reports, with a focus on parental knowledge of children’s whereabouts and activities. Using a within-subjects controlled design, we randomly assigned 16 mothers and adolescents to the order in which they received a program that trains informants to use setting information when providing parental knowledge reports (Setting-Sensitive Assessment), and a control program involving no training on how to provide reports. Relative to the control program, the Setting-Sensitive Assessment training increased the differences between mother and adolescent reports of parental knowledge, suggesting that mothers and adolescents observe parental knowledge behaviors in different settings. This study provides the first experimental evidence to support the assumption that discrepancies arise because informants incorporate unique setting information into their reports.     

Instruction-based response activation depends on task preparation

An increasing number of studies have demonstrated that a response in one task can be activated automatically on the basis merely of instructed stimulus–response (S–R) mappings belonging to another task. Such instruction-based response activations are considered to be evidence for the formation of S–R associations on the basis of the S–R mappings for an upcoming, but not yet executed, task. A crucial but somewhat neglected assumption is that instructed S–R associations are formed only under conditions that impose a sufficient degree of task preparation. Accordingly, in the present study we investigated the relation between task preparation and the instruction-based task-rule congruency effect, which is an index of response activation on the basis of instructions. The results from two experiments demonstrated that merely instructed S–R mappings of a particular task only elicit instruction-based response activations when that task is prepared for to a sufficient degree. Implications are discussed for the representation of instructed S–R mappings in working memory.     

The Promotional Role of School and Community Contexts for Military Students

This article examines how supportive public school environments can serve as a promotional context for the development of children and adolescents from military families. The authors integrate theory and research from multiple research strands (e.g., human development, studies of at-risk youth, educational reform, goodness of fit theory, and school climate) to outline how public schools can support the development of all children and adolescents. This article provides further support for the supposition that school climates and the social-ecological contexts surrounding a school (e.g., universities, communities, school districts) have the potential to protect at-risk children and adolescents from an array of negative social, emotional, and psychological outcomes. The authors draw linkages between these research domains and the development of military children and adolescents. Promotional civilian school environments embedded within supportive and inclusive contexts can create a social infrastructure that supports the development of military children and adolescents. The authors argue that this conceptual approach can create a foundation for interventions and research that focuses on schools as normative supportive developmental settings for military children and youth during challenging times of war (e.g., deployments and multiple school transitions). This article concludes with a discussion of future directions in research on the development of military children and adolescents. Based on a heuristic conceptual model that outlines areas needing further research, the authors call for a deeper theoretical and empirical integration of school climate and external contextual factors surrounding the school. Investigating the social and organizational dynamics within these contexts can result in a more comprehensive picture of the development of military children and adolescents.     

Affective evidence that inhibition is involved in separating accessory representations from active representations in visual working memory

ABSTRACT

The multiple state theory of working memory suggests that representations are divided into two states: focused-on active representations and accessory memories held for later use. Here we tested two competing hypotheses regarding the neurocognitive mechanisms responsible for this separation: (1) that accessory memories undergo inhibition or (2) that accessory memories are amplified less than active representations. We explored whether accessory memories undergo affective devaluation, a known index of the involvement of inhibition in a visual task. On each trial participants memorized four items, were cued to focus on one, and then completed a visual search or an affective evaluation task. While search distractors matching the colour of an active item slowed search, those matching an accessory memory did not, replicating previous findings that only active items guide search. Also, accessory items were affectively devalued compared to baseline and active items, supporting the hypothesis that accessory memories undergo inhibition.     

Establishing a relational field that fosters learning processes: Some tentative propositions derived from trainee experiences

In this article, we look at the recent introduction of more relational-oriented learning principles and how they translate into practice by documenting the experiences of both trainees and instructors. It became clear that actors held different opinions and viewpoints on learning objectives and process ingredients for achieving these objectives. This divergence in opinions resulted in an “impoverished” learning trajectory. We suggest that remedying this situation implies introducing reflexivity regarding learning processes or, stated otherwise, addressing “meta-cognitions” that participants inevitably bring to the process as they affect the way in which people engage in the relational field that encompasses the learning trajectory. Despite some recent arguments in favour of a distinction between cognitive and meta-cognitive mediation, we argue for a similar approach with respect to both types of mediation. We end this article by suggesting that designing learning trajectories with this dual concern in mind might open the road to “learning to learn”.     

Shifts in Perceived Job Content during Early Employment

Abstract

This paper focuses on shifts in perceived job content among two occupational panels (office technology workers and machine operators) during the first year of their professional career. A shortened version of Fine's Functional Job Analysis is used to measure perceived job content, and at each of the two time stages (i.e. stage T1 and stage T2) the data related to the three domains of People, Things, and Data are optimally scaled and then recoded to a categorical indicator of job content complexity. Shifts in perceived job content are studied by application of log-linear analysis to the multidimensional contingency table obtained by the cross-tabulation of the T1 and the T2 data. The results indicate that there is no general progress or decline in job content activities over time, except for the Things domain. The findings also suggest that there is a substantial symmetry between job progression and degression, and that the bulk of content switches is to adjacent levels of complexity.     

When authorities influence followers' affect: The interactive effect of procedural justice and transformational leadership

The present research examined the effect of procedural justice and transformational leadership style on followers' affective responses: Self-esteem and emotions. It was predicted that procedural justice would positively influence both followers' self-esteem and emotions, but particularly so if the leader displayed a transformational style. Results from a scenario experiment, a laboratory experiment, and an organizational survey indeed showed that procedural justice and transformational leadership style interacted to influence followers' self-esteem and emotions, such that the positive relationships between procedural justice and the affective measures were more pronounced when the leadership style was high in transformational behaviour. Implications in terms of integrating the leadership and procedural justice literatures are discussed.