KNOWLEDGE ECOLOGIES, “SUPPLE” OBJECTS,AND DIFFERENT PRIORITIES ACROSS WOMEN'S AND GENDER STUDIES PROGRAMS AND DEPARTMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1970–2010

This article examines the evolving connections between local conditions and knowledge processes in women's and gender studies, a research field in the social sciences and humanities. Data are historical records from five early‐adopting women's and gender studies units in the United States and interviews with affiliated professors. In their formative years, these programs were consistent in their intellectual content. Scholars across sites defined the purpose of women's studies similarly: to address the lack of research on women and social problems of sex inequality. Gradually, scholars incorporated a range of analytic categories into women's studies’ agenda, including gender identities and masculinities, leading to diverse understandings and redefinitions of the central objects of analysis. Analytic shifts are reflected in differences in the institutional and intellectual composition of programs and departments. To explain how local departmental conditions affect the conception of core objects of study in gender research, the author builds on the literature on knowledge ecologies and introduces the concept of the “supple object.”     

Putting Everything in Context

In response to Casasanto, Brookshire, and Ivry (2015), we address four points: First, we engaged in conceptual replications of Brookshire, Casasanto, and Ivry (2010), not direct replications. Second, we did not question the validity of Brookshire et al.'s (2010) results, nor the similar findings of other researchers, but instead explained divergent findings within an integrated theoretical framework. Third, challenges to the construct of automaticity, including ours, were widespread, long before Brookshire et al.'s (2010) article. Fourth, the planned comparisons that we reported tested our theoretical claims and offered strong evidence for them.     

On Cognition,Need, and Action: How Working Memory and Need for Cognition Influence Leisure Activities

The present study examined the relationships among college students' need for cognition (NFC), their working memory capacity, and their preferred leisure activities. Results indicated that scoring higher on the NFC scale was related to participants engaging in cognitively higher load leisure activities (e.g., writing) than lower load leisure activities (e.g., watching TV). We did not find a relationship between participants' cognitive ability (as measured by an attentional capacity task) and their choice of leisure activities. In sum, personal dispositions contributed to the choice and complexity of people's leisure activities, whereas cognitive ability did not. These findings provide a theoretical framework for further exploring the relationships between disposition, cognition, and action. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What makes for a good break? A diary study on recovery experiences during lunch break

This study investigated the role of four recovery experiences during lunch break for employees’ afternoon well‐being. We hypothesized that lunch‐break recovery experiences (psychological detachment, relaxation, control, and relatedness) reduce afternoon exhaustion and enhance afternoon work engagement via replenished personal resources (i.e., state of being recovered immediately after break and subsequent self‐efficacy regarding the upcoming tasks in the afternoon). One hundred and nine employees provided daily survey data three times a day (i.e., start of work, after lunch break, end of work) over a period of two workweeks. Multilevel path analysis showed that relaxation, control, and relatedness during lunch break negatively predicted afternoon exhaustion and positively predicted afternoon work engagement via state of being recovered. For relaxation and relatedness, we additionally found positive serial indirect effects on afternoon work engagement via state of being recovered and self‐efficacy. Psychological detachment was not related to personal resources and afternoon well‐being. This study demonstrates that experiencing control over lunch break and using the lunch break to relax and to relate to others are indirectly associated with improved afternoon well‐being via replenished personal resources.

Practitioner points

• Relaxation, control, and relatedness constitute lunch‐break recovery experiences that indirectly foster feeling confident, replenished, and engaged in the afternoon.
• Employees should strive to spend their lunch breaks in ways that help them feel relaxed, related, and in control.
• Organizations should provide their employees with sufficient break control and offer environments that facilitate relaxation and socializing during lunch break.

     

Longitudinal Patterns of Self-Regulation among Ethnic Minority Children Facing Poverty

Early poverty is associated with a cumulative load of family and community risk factors that can impact the development of self-regulatory abilities and result in socio-emotional and achievement gaps which begin early and persist across the lifespan. Ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented among children living in poverty. The longitudinal trajectories of self-regulation are important to understand in this population, in order to best inform prevention efforts. This study examines patterns of self-regulation over time among young, ethnic minority children living in low income, urban households. A stratified, random sample of 555 children, ages 2 to 4 years, (46% Black, 46% Hispanic; 47% female) were followed over three waves (including 1 and 5 year follow-ups). Internalizing and externalizing behaviors at approximately age nine were predicted by children’s early self-regulation. Latent class analyses revealed low, medium, and high levels of self-regulatory abilities at wave 1 (mean age: 2.99, SD?=?.81) and low and high levels, 1 year later (mean age: 4.39 (SD?=?.94). A gender effect was found whereby girls were more likely than boys to be in the high self-regulation class relative to the low at both waves. Using Latent Transition Analysis, distal outcomes were examined approximately 5 years after the initial assessment (mean age: 8.83, SD?=?.93). Children who sustained a higher level of self-regulation over time had the lowest internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Transition to low self-regulation at wave 2, regardless of initial self-regulation status, was related to greater severity of internalizing symptoms. Implications for prevention and future research are discussed.     

The impact of aging on associative memory for preexisting unitized associations

Aging is accompanied by a decline in associative memory that can, however, be attenuated when associations are unitized at encoding, that is, when they form an integrated entity. Unitization is thought to promote familiarity-based recognition memory, which is preserved in aging. We examined whether preexperimentally unitized associations (compound words (CWs)) do indeed reduce age differences in memory, and whether preexperimental unitization promotes familiarity. In Experiment 1, we assessed the memory of 20 young and 20 older participants for compound versus unrelated word pairs using a yes/no recognition test with Remember/Know/Guess judgments. In Experiment 2, we tested 20 young and 20 older participants using the same procedure, except for the use of a two-alternative forced-choice recognition paradigm, which is thought to enhance the contribution of familiarity. The results of both experiments corroborated the greater contribution of familiarity to recognition of unitized associations. In Experiment 1, however, the use of CWs did not attenuate the age-related associative decline. We suggest that preexisting knowledge associated with recombined compounds induced high absolute familiarity and illusory recollection, leading to high false-recognition rates for the older adults. By contrast, the two groups performed similarly across both conditions in Experiment 2. Thus, the forced-choice procedure facilitates the use of familiarity in such a way that it improves older adults’ associative memory to the level of young participants. These results suggest that the modulation of associative memory in aging by preexisting unitization varies according to methodological parameters, such as the nature of the lures and the test format.     

Influence of early experience on processing 2D threatening pictures by European starlings (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sturnus vulgaris</Emphasis>)

Stimuli such as visual representations of raptors, snakes, or humans are generally assumed to be universally fear-inducing in birds and considered as a product of evolutionary perceptual bias. Both naïve and experienced birds should thus react to such stimuli with fear reactions. However, studies on different species have shown the importance of experience in the development of these fear reactions. We hypothesized that the responses of adult European starlings to fear-inducing visual stimuli may differ according to experience. We compared the reactions of Hand-raised adults with no experience of predators to those of Wild-caught adults, with potentially extensive experience with predators. Three visual stimuli (i.e. human, raptor, snake) were broadcast to 17 birds as 2D pictures (displayed via a LCD screen) with different modalities of presentation: degree of proximity and with or without movement. The results reveal that the birds were particularly sensitive to proximity and movement, with more attention towards moving stimuli and more withdrawal for close stimuli. The human stimulus elicited attention in both the distant and moving modalities but, like the other stimuli, mostly withdrawal when it was close. Developmental experience appeared to influence the emotional level, as the Hand-raised birds reacted strongly to all stimuli and all modalities, contrarily to the WC birds which performed withdrawals almost only for close stimuli and attention to moving stimuli. Stimuli proximity and movement seemed, therefore, relevant features that elicited negative reactions in Wild-caught birds. The Hand-raised birds were equally attentive to both distant and moving stimuli. Thus the young birds showed no real discrimination. Early and later experiences may, therefore, influence birds’ reactions. Starlings may require experience with real threats to develop adaptive responses, i.e. limiting unnecessary loss of energy by fleeing in front of non-dangerous stimuli.