Implicit temporal tuning of working memory strategy during cognitive skill acquisition

Complex cognitive tasks such as multiple-step arithmetic entail strategies for coordinating mental processes such as calculation with processes for managing working memory (WM). Such strategies must be sensitive to factors such as the time needed for calculation. In 2 experiments we tested whether people can learn the timing constraints on WM demands when those constraints are implicitly imposed. We varied the retention period for intermediate results using the well-known digit size effect: The larger the operands, the longer it takes to perform addition. During learning participants practiced multiple-step arithmetic routines combined with large or small digits. At transfer, they performed both practiced and novel combinations. Practice performance was affected by digit size and WM demands. However, the transfer performance was not fully explained by the digit size effect or the practice effect. We argue that participants acquired temporal tuning of the WM strategy to the implicit retention interval imposed by the digit size and kept using the tuning mode to unpracticed data set.     

Effects of repetition and foreknowledge in task-set reconfiguration

To examine the roles of executive control and automatic activation in task switching, we manipulated foreknowledge as well as task transitions. In Experiments 1 and 2, performance with foreknowledge was faster than performance with no foreknowledge, but the amount of switch cost did not depend on foreknowledge. This result suggests that switch costs primarily reflect persisting activation rather than inadequate preparation. In Experiment 3, switch cost was greater with foreknowledge about task transition alone than with foreknowledge about both task transition and identity, suggesting that foreknowledge about specific task identity did allow preparation for a switched task. We argue that task repetition and foreknowledge effects are independent. Although foreknowledge allows preparation for both repeated and switched tasks, repeating the same task has benefits over task switching regardless of foreknowledge.     

Effectiveness of Impression Management Tactics Across Human Resource Situations1

An experimental study was undertaken to explore the effectiveness of impression management tactics in various situations. To manipulate the variables of interest, 6 different scenarios were created by crossing 2 independent variables: impression management tactics (self-focused or other-focused) and situation (employment interview, performance appraisal, or training session). Respondents, 178 human resource professionals, were mailed a survey that contained 2 of the 6 scenarios. In each scenario, respondents rated the person described in the scenario on performance, provided their affective impressions, and determined the appropriateness of the impression management cues given the situation. Results indicated a significant interaction between the use of impression management and the situation. These findings are compared to past research, and suggestions for future directions for the study of impression management are outlined.     

Quantified Hintikka-style epistemic logic

This paper contains a formal treatment of the system of quantified epistemic logic sketched in Appendix II of Carlson (1983). Section 1 defines the syntax and recapitulates the model set rules and principles of the Appendix system. Section 2 defines a possible worlds semantics for this system, and shows that the Appendix system is complete with respect to this semantics. Section 3 extends the system by an explicit truth operatorT it is true that and considers quantification over nonexistent individuals. Section 4 formalizes the idea of variable identity criteria typical of Hintikkian epistemic logic.     

Using Motive Scores in the Psychobiographical Study of an Individual: The Case of Richard Nixon

ABSTRACT Content analysis measures of imagery for the achievement, affiliation-intimacy, and power motives were applied to Richard Nixon's 1969 first inaugural address The resulting motive profile–high achievement, high affiliation-intimacy, and average in power motivation–was validated through a systematic analysis of the course of Nixon's everyday behavior as reported in the memoirs of six aides, and was also used to explain several paradoxes of Nixon's political career     

Positive mood and helping behavior: a test of six hypotheses

Past research has shown rather consistently that positive mood states lead to increased helpfulness. In an expanded analysis of the published literature, we examined six distinct views about this relation: the focus of attention, objective self-awareness, separate process, social outlook, mood maintenance, and concomitance hypotheses. For each of 61 positive affect conditions in which it was possible to generate an effect-size estimate corresponding to the relative degree of helpfulness exhibited by positive mood subjects (compared with neutral affect subjects), judges assessed the contextual levels of variables relevant to each of the six hypotheses by reading the Method section of each article. Higher-order partial correlation coefficients were then calculated to isolate the independent contribution of each of the theoretically relevant variables to the variation among the 61 effect sizes. The results support the focus of attention, separate process, social outlook, and mood maintenance hypotheses, and partially support the objective self-awareness and concomitance hypotheses.