One night of sleep deprivation affects reaction time, but not interference or facilitation in a Stroop task

The Stroop color-naming task is one of the most widely studied tasks involving the inhibition of a prepotent response, regarded as an executive function. Several studies have examined performance on versions of the Stroop task under conditions of acute sleep deprivation. Though these studies revealed effects on Stroop performance, the results often do not differentiate between general effects of sleep deprivation on performance and effects specifically on interference in the Stroop task. To examine the effect of prolonged wakefulness on performance on the Stroop task, we studied participants in a 40-h "constant routine" protocol during which they remained awake in constant conditions and performed a Stroop color-naming task every two hours. We found that reaction time was slowest when the color and word did not match (incongruent), fastest when the color and word did match (congruent), and intermediate when participants named the color of the non-word stimulus (neutral). Performance on all three trial types degraded significantly as a function of time awake. Extended wakefulness did not significantly change the additional time needed to respond when the color and word did not match (Stroop interference), nor did it change the amount of facilitation when color and word matched. These results indicate that one night of sleep deprivation influences performance on the Stroop task by an overall increase in response time, but does not appear to impact the underlying processes of interference or facilitation. The results suggest that the degree to which an "executive function" is affected by sleep deprivation may depend on the particular executive function studied and the degree to which it is subserved by the prefrontal cortex.     

The criterion validity of the Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children in an adolescent inpatient setting

The purpose of the current study was to examine the criterion validity of the Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children (BPFS-C) by assessing the performance of the self-report and a newly developed parent report version of the measure (BPFS-P) in detecting a borderline personality disorder (BPD) diagnosis in adolescent inpatients. This study also examined parent-child agreement and the internal consistency of the BPFS subscales. An inpatient sample of adolescents (n = 51) ranging from ages 12-18 completed the BPFS and were administered the Child Interview for DSM-IV Borderline Personality Disorder (CI-BPD) by trained clinical research staff. ROC analyses revealed that the BPFS-C has high accuracy (AUC = .931; Se = .856; Sp = .840) in discriminating adolescents with a diagnosis of BPD, as measured by the CI-BPD, while the BPFS-P has moderate accuracy (AUC = .795; Se = .733; Sp = .720). Parent-child agreement on total scores was significant (r = .687; p < .005). Cronbach's alphas suggested internal consistency for the four subscales of the BPFS. These findings support the criterion validity of this measure, particularly the self-report version, in adolescent inpatient settings.     

To Aggregate or Not to Aggregate: Steps for Developing and Validating Higher-Order Multidimensional Constructs

The use of higher-order multidimensional constructs (i.e., latent constructs comprised of standalone variables) in the organizational psychology and behavior literatures is becoming commonplace. Despite their advantages (e.g., greater parsimony and bandwidth), the development and validation of such constructs often unfolds in an indiscriminant fashion. It is not surprising, then, that much debate has arisen regarding the viability of many higher-order constructs. In this article, we outline ten recommendations for improving the construct- and criterion-related validity of higher-order constructs. Chief among these recommendations include the need for researchers to specify precise theoretical and empirical inclusion criteria, to rule out alternative explanations for the emergence of a higher-order factor and to assess incremental and relative importance. To illustrate how these recommendations play out, we apply them to core self-evaluation as an example. We believe that higher-order constructs may offer unique insight into work-relevant phenomena, provided they are established via rigorous means.     

HR Interventions that Go Viral

What causes one Human Resource (HR) intervention to thrive while another dies? The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of HR interventions that are not only self-sustaining, but adapt and gain momentum over time. Based on a review of the literature, a case study, and 16 critical incident interviews with senior Industrial-Organizational (I–O) and HR professionals, several characteristics of the organization, the intervention, and the leader consistently emerged as important in creating sustainable HR programs, suggesting several new directions for future research.     

“Smart inhibition”: electrophysiological evidence for the suppression of conflict-generating task rules during task switching

A major challenge for task switching is maintaining a balance between high task readiness and effectively ignoring irrelevant task rules. This calls for finely tuned inhibition that targets only the source of interference without adversely influencing other task-related representations. The authors show that irrelevant task rules generating response conflict are inhibited, causing their inefficient execution on the next trial (indicating the presence of competitor rule suppression[CRS];Meiran, Hsieh, & Dimov, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 36, 992–1002, 2010). To determine whether CRS influences task rules, rather than target stimuli or responses, the authors focused on the processing of the task cue before the target stimulus was presented and before the response could be chosen. As was predicted, CRS was found in the event-related potentials in two time windows during task cue processing. It was also found in three time windows after target presentation. Source localization analyses suggest the involvement of the right dorsal prefrontal cortex in all five time windows.     

学述钩沉与残篇稽考——现代西方的前苏格拉底哲学家文献整理与考释

本文介绍西方19世纪末以来对前苏格拉底思想家文献的搜集、整理、编辑以及研究的现状.第尔斯通过对自亚里士多德开始直至中世纪希腊语文献的梳理,提出了撰述前苏格拉底思想家的学述传统,钩沉学述文献并编撰了前苏格拉底思想家残篇的标准版本.20世纪以来西方学界在此基础上使用现代语言深入、细致地对前苏格拉底思想家整体以及学派、人物的残篇文献详加考证、注疏、阐释,产生了许多成果,并对第尔斯建立学述传统的方法及其成果做出了批判性的发展,古典学与哲学史史料、哲学问题等多领域合作形成了前苏格拉底哲学家的文献整理成果.     

心算加工中tie effect的加工机制

tie effect主要表现为tie比nontie更快更准确解决,以及tie/nontie与问题大小的交互作用,较大题目的tie比nontie具有更明显的反应时优势,tie的问题大小效应比nontie要小的多。有关tie effect加工机制的解释主要有基于编码的理论和基于结果通达的理论。目前的研究主要通过操作问题呈现方式以及报告加工策略的方法分别考察编码方式及加工策略的影响,今后研究应开拓新的研究范式以加深对其加工机制的认识。     

Salience of physical appearance characteristics among young women in Thailand

Our aim in the present study was to identify key components of physical appearance among young Thai women. Free listings, focus groups and pile sorting were used. One-hundred twenty young women generated 78 unique physical appearance characteristics. Ninety-four nursing students validated these characteristics in focus groups and then sorted them into piles that reflected separate domains of physical appearance and labeled them. Salience analysis revealed that facial appearance (e.g., bright facial skin, high nose bridge, big eyes) was the most important domain, followed by body weight and shape, skin color and texture, hair (color, texture, length), and ‘other’ physical appearance (e.g., slender neck, slim fingers). This is the first study to identify aspects of physical appearance that are most salient to young Thai women and that may differ from women in other cultural contexts. These findings could be used to develop culturally grounded measures of physical appearance in Thai women.     

Discriminating between the effects of valence and salience in the Implicit Association Test

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is the most widely used indirect measure of attitudes in social psychology. It has been suggested that artefacts such as salience asymmetries and familiarity can influence performance on the IAT. Chang and Mitchell (2009) proposed that the ease with which IAT stimuli are classified (classification fluency) is the common mechanism underlying both of these factors. In the current study, we investigated the effect of classification fluency on the IAT and trialled a measure-the split IAT-for dissociating between the effects of valence and salience in the IAT. Across six experiments, we examined the relationship between target classification fluency and salience asymmetries in the IAT. In the standard IAT, the more fluently classified target category was, all else being equal, compatible with pleasant attributes over unpleasant attributes. Furthermore, the more fluently classified target category was more easily classified with the more salient attribute category in the split IAT, independent of evaluative associations. This suggests that the more fluently classified category is also the more salient target category.     

An empirical analysis of online gamers' perceptions of game items: modified theory of consumption values approach

The aims of this article are (1) to propose a modified theory of consumption values (MTCV) for investigation of online gamer perceptions of the value of purchasable game items and (2) to apply the developed MTCV to multiple game genres and player age groups. To address these aims, 327 valid questionnaires were obtained and analyzed. The original theory of consumption values (TCV) was modified to apply to the specific characteristics of online games. The original TCV specifies five types of consumption values: functional value, social value, emotional value, conditional value, and epistemic value. After revising the TCV to apply to the examination of online games, we proposed that the MTCV be composed of character competency value, enjoyment value, visual authority value, and monetary value. The validity of the MTCV was proven by statistically analyzing the responses provided by the 327 valid questionnaires. To examine the second aim, experiments were conducted to examine the MTCV in three online game genres-massive multiplayer online role-playing games, first-person shooters games, and casual games. The second aim was also studied via questionnaires that examined the ages of online gamers. It was determined that massive multiplayer online role-playing games players regard visual authority value and monetary value as more important than do casual gamers. It was also determined that younger gamers tend to be more interested in visual authority, whereas older gamers tend to be more interested in character competency. This research provides a foundation for future studies to extend the MTCV to consider other user factors, such as cultural effects.