Team Climate Inventory with a merged organization

The present study examines the team climate for innovation in work teams within a newly merged organization. Four teams working at a regional head office of a Social Insurance organization answered the Team Climate Inventory. The results were compared to those of a study by Agrell and Gustafson of more stable teams. The comparison showed that participative safety and support for innovation were rated lower and that vision was rated higher in the newly merged teams. The 38-item original inventory was used and based on the results, a 1999 proposed shortened version of 14 items by Kivim?ki and Elovainio was compared with the original one. Analysis indicated that the short version can be a valid alternative to the original version but that further testing of the short version is needed.     

Perception of acceleration with short presentation times: can acceleration be used in interception?

To investigate whether visual judgments of acceleration could be used for intercepting moving targets, we determined how well subjects can detect acceleration when the presentation time is short. In a differential judgment task, two dots were presented successively. One dot accelerated and the other decelerated. Subjects had to indicate which of the two accelerated. In an absolute judgment task, subjects had to adjust the motion of a dot so that it appeared to move at a constant velocity. The results for the two tasks were similar. For most subjects, we could determine a detection threshold even when the presentation time was only 300 msec. However, an analysis of these thresholds suggests that subjects did not detect the acceleration itself but that they detected that a target had accelerated on the basis of the change in velocity between the beginning and the end of the presentation. A change of about 25% was needed to detect acceleration with reasonable confidence. Perhaps the simplest use of acceleration for interception consists of distinguishing between acceleration and deceleration of the optic projection of an approaching ball to determine whether one has to run backward or forward to catch it. We examined the results of a real ball-catching task (Oudejans, Michaels, & Bakker, 1997) and found that subjects reacted before acceleration could have been detected. We conclude that acceleration is not used in this simple manner to intercept moving targets.     

The influence of chromatic and achromatic variability on chromatic induction and perceived colour

Judgments of the colour of a surface are influenced by the colour of the surrounding. To determine whether only the average colour of the surrounding matters, or also the chromatic variability, judgments in colourful scenes are often compared with ones in which a target is surrounded by a plain background that provides the same average physical illumination of the retina as the colourful scene. The variability sometimes makes a difference (eg Shevell and Wei, 1998 Vision Research 38 1561-1566), and sometimes it does not (eg Brenner and Cornelissen, 1998 Vision Research 38 1789-1793). Is this because of the nonlinearity in cone responses? We designed scenes that stimulated the cones in an equivalent manner, both on average and in terms of variability, and yet differed markedly in chromatic variability. The more colourful surroundings had considerably less influence on subjects' colour judgments. We conclude that early cone-specific regulation of sensitivity cannot be responsible for the change in perceived colour, and deduce that chromatic induction takes place after contrast gain control.     

The Rorschach Index of Repressive Style and Scale Checking Style: A Study of Sex Differences

Males and females, subdivided into contrasting groups on the Rorschach Index of Repressive Style (RIRS), completed semantic differentials using themselves and their own art productions as the objects rated. Analysis was made of the relationship between sex and verbal style, and a scale checking style (use of end points versus use of intermediate points) believed to reflect a dimension of rapid, extreme decisions versus careful consideration of nuances. Results showed that males characterized by rich and fluid verbal processes tended toward cautious ratings (use of intermediate points) while females who were verbally free exhibited more extreme ratings (use of end points). It is concluded that a test variable may have different predictive significance in males and females, even though there is no sex difference in the magnitudes of the variables involved. There may be sex differences in the organization of cognitive processes.     

Visuo-Proprioceptive Matching Errors Are Consistent with Biases in Distance Judgments

People make systematic errors when matching the location of an unseen index finger with that of a visual target. These errors are consistent over time, but idiosyncratic and surprisingly task-specific. The errors that are made when moving the unseen index finger to a visual target are not consistent with the errors when moving a visual target to the unseen index finger. To test whether such inconsistencies arise because a large part of the matching errors originate during movement execution, we compared errors in moving the unseen finger to a target with biases in deciding which of two visual targets was closer to the index finger before the movement. We found that the judgment as to which is the closest target was consistent with the matching errors. This means that inconsistencies in visuo-proprioceptive matching errors are not caused by systematic errors in movement execution, but are likely to be related to biases in sensory transformations.     

Continuous visual control of interception

People generally try to keep their eyes on a moving target that they intend to catch or hit. In the present study we first examined how important it is to do so. We did this by designing two interception tasks that promote different eye movements. In both tasks it was important to be accurate relative to both the moving target and the static environment. We found that performance was more variable in relation to the structure that was not fixated. This suggests that the resolution of visual information that is gathered during the movement is important for continuously improving predictions about critical aspects of the task, such as anticipating where the target will be at some time in the future. If so, variability in performance should increase if the target briefly disappears from view just before being hit, even if the target moves completely predictably. We demonstrate that it does, indicating that new visual information is used to improve precision throughout the movement.     

Judgments of reachability are independent of visuomotor adaptation

The furthest distance that is judged to be reachable can change after participants have used a tool or if they are led to misjudge the position of their hand. Here we investigated how judged reachability changed when visual feedback about the hand was shifted. We hoped to distinguish between various ways in which visuomotor adaptation could influence judged reachability. Participants had to judge whether they could reach a virtual cube without actually doing so. They indicated whether they could reach this virtual cube by moving their hand. During these hand movements, visual feedback about the position of the hand was shifted in depth, either away from or toward the participant. Participants always adapted to the shifted feedback. In a session in which the hand movements in the presence of visual feedback were mainly in depth, perceived reachability shifted in accordance with the feedback (more distant cubes were judged to be reachable when feedback was shifted further away). In a second session in which the hand movements in the presence of visual feedback were mainly sideways, for some participants perceived reachability shifted in the opposite direction than we expected. The shift in perceived reachability was not correlated with the adaptation to the shift in visual feedback. We conclude that reachability judgments are not directly related to visuomotor adaptation.     

Timing the moment of impact in fast human movements

The reported resolution of timing the moment of impact in fast human movements differs widely depending on the task. Surprisingly, better timing is reported for the demanding task of batting a ball than for the much simpler task of tapping in synchrony with two hands. We wondered whether this is because a sizeable part of timing variability arises from misjudging the distance in the direction of one's own movement, so that moving faster (as the bat does when moving toward a ball) improves timing. We found that moving faster does indeed improve timing in both the above-mentioned tasks. After removing the proposed contribution of misjudging the distance in the direction of one's own movement, we estimated that the remaining standard deviation in timing is just over 6ms for both tasks.     

Self-Report Measures to Identify Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and/or Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Associated Symptoms in Military Veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)

Individuals serving in Iraq and Afghanistan sustain injuries associated with physical and psychological trauma. Among such injuries, mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are common. Self-report measures are frequently used to identify mTBI and/or PTSD and symptoms associated with these conditions. In addition to providing information regarding mTBI and PTSD, the goal of this literature review was to identify and present information on the psychometric properties of measures used to obtain information regarding these common conditions among Veterans who have returned from Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). A comprehensive review of studies in which self-report measures were used to evaluate mTBI, PTSD, and associated symptoms among OEF/OIF Veterans is presented. Findings suggest that additional work is needed to identify psychometrically sound and clinically useful self-report measures that assess mTBI and PTSD and associated symptoms among OEF/OIF Veterans.