Reaping the Rewards of Diversity: The Role of Identity Integration

How does diversity affect individuals and the groups in which they are embedded? This article examines this question using recent theory and research on Identity Integration (II). II refers to an individual's perceptions about whether two distinct social identities, or social groups to which individuals belong, are viewed as compatible (high II) or not (low II). A review of extant research suggests that individuals with high II are better at simultaneously accessing multiple identities and identity‐related knowledge and have improved well‐being and social outcomes. Expanding on this work, we argue that individuals who have higher II, and social collectives that foster II within their members, are more likely to reap the benefits of diversity.     

More efficient parameter estimates for factor analysis of ordinal variables by ridge generalized least squares

Data in psychology are often collected using Likert‐type scales, and it has been shown that factor analysis of Likert‐type data is better performed on the polychoric correlation matrix than on the product‐moment covariance matrix, especially when the distributions of the observed variables are skewed. In theory, factor analysis of the polychoric correlation matrix is best conducted using generalized least squares with an asymptotically correct weight matrix (AGLS). However, simulation studies showed that both least squares (LS) and diagonally weighted least squares (DWLS) perform better than AGLS, and thus LS or DWLS is routinely used in practice. In either LS or DWLS, the associations among the polychoric correlation coefficients are completely ignored. To mend such a gap between statistical theory and empirical work, this paper proposes new methods, called ridge GLS, for factor analysis of ordinal data. Monte Carlo results show that, for a wide range of sample sizes, ridge GLS methods yield uniformly more accurate parameter estimates than existing methods (LS, DWLS, AGLS). A real‐data example indicates that estimates by ridge GLS are 9–20% more efficient than those by existing methods. Rescaled and adjusted test statistics as well as sandwich‐type standard errors following the ridge GLS methods also perform reasonably well.     

Religious and Spiritual Beliefs of Physicians

The aim of this study is to describe religious and spiritual beliefs of physicians and examine their influence on the decision to pursue medicine and daily medical practice. An anonymous survey was e-mailed to physicians at a large, multidisciplinary tertiary referral center with satellite clinics. Data were collected from January 2014 through February 2014. There were 2097 respondents (69.1 % men), and number of practicing years ranged from ≤1 to ≥30. Primary care physicians or medical specialists represented 74.1 %, 23.6 % were in surgical specialties, and 2.3 % were psychiatrists. The majority of physicians believe in God (65.2 %), and 51.2 % reported themselves as religious, 24.8 % spiritual, 12.4 % agnostic, and 11.6 % atheist. This self-designation was largely independent of specialty except for psychiatrists, who were more likely report agnosticism (P = 0.003). In total, 29.0 % reported that religious or spiritual beliefs influenced their decision to become a physician. Frequent prayer was reported by 44.7 % of physicians, but only 20.7 % reported having prayed with patients. Most physicians consider themselves religious or spiritual, but the rates of agnosticism and atheism are higher than the general population. Psychiatrists are the least religious group. Despite the influence of religion on physicians’ lives and medical practice, the majority have not incorporated prayer into patient encounters.     

English Orthographic Learning in Chinese-L1 Young EFL Beginners

English orthographic learning, among Chinese-L1 children who were beginning to learn English as a foreign language, was documented when: (1) only visual memory was at their disposal, (2) visual memory and either some letter-sound knowledge or some semantic information was available, and (3) visual memory, some letter-sound knowledge and some semantic information were all available. When only visual memory was available, orthographic learning (measured via an orthographic choice test) was meagre. Orthographic learning was significant when either semantic information or letter-sound knowledge supplemented visual memory, with letter-sound knowledge generating greater significance. Although the results suggest that letter-sound knowledge plays a more important role than semantic information, letter-sound knowledge alone does not suffice to achieve perfect orthographic learning, as orthographic learning was greatest when letter-sound knowledge and semantic information were both available. The present findings are congruent with a view that the orthography of a foreign language drives its orthographic learning more than L1 orthographic learning experience, thus extending Share’s (Cognition 55:151–218, 1995) self-teaching hypothesis to include non-alphabetic L1 children’s orthographic learning of an alphabetic foreign language. The little letter-sound knowledge development observed in the experiment-I control group indicates that very little letter-sound knowledge develops in the absence of dedicated letter-sound training. Given the important role of letter-sound knowledge in English orthographic learning, dedicated letter-sound instruction is highly recommended.     

Where do desires come from? Positivity offset and negativity bias predict implicit attitude toward temptations

Temptations elicit both appetitive and aversive responses because they offer hedonic gratification on the one hand and impede long-term goal pursuit on the other hand (Fujita, Personality and Social Psychology Review 15(4):352–366, 2011). In this paper, we investigate how people’s affective responses toward temptations are regulated by the appetitive and aversive motivational systems. We employ the mini Motivated Action Measure (miniMAM; Lang et al., Communication Methods and Measures 5(2):146–162, 2011) to measure the signature patterns with which the two systems regulate affective activation: positivity offset and negativity bias. We found that positivity offset and negativity bias predict unique variance (5.5%) of dieters’ (N?=?312) implicit attitude toward tempting foods, over and above predictors related to behavioral regulation (BIS/BAS: Carver, White, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67:319–333, 1994; BSC: Tangney et al., Journal of Personality 72(2):271–324, 2004). By contrast, positivity offset and negativity bias did not predict dieters’ behavioral intentions for tempting foods. Investigating how the appetitive and aversive systems regulate affective activation apart from behavioral responses offers unique insights into people’s desires towards temptations.     

Collinear masking effect in visual search is independent of perceptual salience

Searching for a target in a salient region should be easier than looking for one in a nonsalient region. However, we previously discovered a contradictory phenomenon in which a local target in a salient structure was more difficult to find than one in the background. The salient structure was constructed of orientation singletons aligned to each other to form a collinear structure. In the present study, we undertake to determine whether such a masking effect was a result of salience competition between a global structure and the local target. In the first 3 experiments, we increased the salience value of the local target with the hope of adding to its competitive advantage and eventually eliminating the masking effect; nevertheless, the masking effect persisted. In an additional 2 experiments, we reduced salience of the global collinear structure by altering the orientation of the background bars and the masking effect still emerged. Our salience manipulations were validated by a controlled condition in which the global structure was grouped noncollinearly. In this case, local target salience increase (e.g., onset) or global distractor salience reduction (e.g., randomized flanking orientations) effectively removed the facilitation effect of the noncollinear structure. Our data suggest that salience competition is unlikely to explain the collinear masking effect, and other mechanisms such as contour integration, border formation, or the crowding effect may be prospective candidates for further investigation.     

Action Dynamics in Intertemporal Choice Reveal Different Facets of Decision Process

Two experiments were conducted to examine decision process in intertemporal choice with spatial and temporal action dynamic measures generated from cursor movement. The effects of the context valence (gain and loss) and magnitude of the payoffs (small and large) were investigated. Other factors examined were differences between decisions made at versus away from the indifference point and response variability dependent on what was selected (delayed versus non‐delayed/less‐delayed payoff). Using principal components analysis, decision process is described with three orthogonal components. General decision difficulty is encompassed by two components: (1) Conflict, depicted by Idle time and deviations from a direct choice path, and (2) decision uncertainty or Wavering, described by left‐right directional flips. A general Locomotion factor was also present. In Experiment 1, Conflict was best at capturing the gain/loss and magnitude context effects. Greater Conflict was observed in the loss context and the small magnitude condition. When choices were closer to the indifference point, Wavering was most salient. In Experiment 2, when selecting larger, delayed payoffs, both Conflict and Wavering increased suggesting that controlling the temptation of selecting the sooner, smaller reward entails effort. By analyzing trajectories, the study advances knowledge of the construct validity of different action dynamic measures and supports the distinction of decision uncertainty and decision conflict. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

具身化空间四卡问题解决的内容效应

利用三个实验探讨了左右、前后(实验1,2)具身化空间四卡问题解决的内容效应,同时探讨了条件推理后件类型(二分变量与连续性变量)对具身化内容效应的影响(实验3)。结果发现:(1)三个实验均表现出在自我参照空间四卡问题解决中,肯定前件和否定后件同时被选择的比率(P-Q)显著高于在经典四卡问题或环境参照空间四卡问题中P-Q卡被选择的比率,从而表现出四卡问题解决存在具身化内容效应;(2)具身化内容效应仅限于后件类型是二分变量的四卡问题;(3)在三个实验中被试均表现出"证真偏向"。具身化空间四卡问题解决的内容效应支持了条件推理领域特异性理论。     

Grounding the Symbols for Place Value: Evidence From Training and Long-Term Exposure to Base-10 Models

Two experiments examined whether concrete models support place value learning. In Experiment 1 (N = 149), 7-year-olds were trained with either a) symbols alone or b) symbols and base-10 blocks. Children in both groups showed significant growth overall, but there were specific effects favoring one training type over another. Symbols-only training led to higher scores on a number line estimation task and was particularly effective among high-ability students, whereas blocks training led to better understanding of base-10 structure and was particularly effective among low-ability learners. In Experiment 2 (N = 68), Montessori students, for whom concrete models play a major role in mathematics instruction, also demonstrated better understanding of base-10 structure than did their matched peers enrolled in mainstream elementary schools.     

A brief version of the geriatric depression scale for the chinese

Elderly persons (N=310) attending outpatient psychiatric clinics were given an interview on the 30-item Geriatric Depression Scale (T. L. Brink et al., 1982; J. A. Yesavage et al., 1983) and received an independent psychiatric evaluation. A 3-step binary logistic regression showed that 2 items measuring positive affect and 2 others measuring negative affect combined to produce diagnostic performance comparable with the full scale. This result was cross-validated on a different sample (N=134). A hierarchical measurement model in which the 4 items tapped 2 first-order factors (positive and negative affect), which in turn tapped a higher order construct of depression, provided excellent fit to the data.