Televised social interaction and object learning in 14- and 18-month-old infants

We examined object learning in infants who viewed a televised adult speaking about a novel toy in videos that varied in the social cues provided. Novelty preference in following test trials differed as a function of televised social cues in 18-month-old, but not 14-month-old infants.     

Joint attention and object learning in 5‐ and 7‐month‐old infants

We examined the effects of joint attention for object learning in 5‐ and 7‐month‐old infants. Infants interacted with an adult social partner who taught them about a novel toy in two conditions. In the Joint Attention condition, the adult spoke about the toy while alternating gaze between the infant and the toy, while in the Object Only condition, the adult looked to the toy and to a spot on the ceiling, but never at the infant. In the test trials following each social interaction, we presented infants with the ‘familiarization’ toy and a novel toy, and monitored looking times to each object. We found that 7‐month‐olds looked significantly longer to the novel toy following the Joint Attention relative to the Object Only condition, while 5‐month‐old infants did not show a significant difference across conditions. We interpret these results to suggest that joint attention facilitated 7‐month‐old infants' encoding of information about the familiarization object. Implications for the ontogeny of infant learning in joint attention contexts are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationships Between Attitudes Toward Organizations and Performance Appraisal Systems and Rating Behavior

Data collected in seven separate samples in three countries (the USA, Canada and Israel) were used to examine the relationships between perceptions of one’s organization (climate, commitment), beliefs about appraisal systems (self‐efficacy, uses of appraisal) and raters’ orientations to appraisal systems (confidence and comfort) and specific rating behaviors. We obtained good fits for structural models suggesting that attitudes and beliefs accounted for substantial variance in raters’ likelihood of giving high or low ratings, willingness to discriminate good from poor performers, and willingness to discriminate among various aspects of job performance when completing actual performance ratings. Proximal attitudes and beliefs (i.e., those directly related to the performance appraisal system) appear to have stronger links to rating behavior than do more distal attitudes (i.e., attitudes toward the organization in general).     

Children's engagement and competence in personal recollection: effects of parents' reminiscing goals

Parents' goal orientations in parent-child reminiscing were examined in this study, where 28 preschoolers (mean age = 46 months) experienced a standardized event. Dyads discussed the event that evening, with parents randomly assigned to either an "outcome-oriented" or a "process-oriented" condition. Outcome-oriented parents, who were told that children subsequently would be tested on event-related recall, were more controlling in these conversations compared with process-oriented parents, who were told that children's personal perspective would be assessed. Parents did not differ in their provision of structure. Children were interviewed 2 weeks later. Autonomy support in the parent-child conversation predicted children's engagement in the interview. Parental structure predicted children's recall of details and the coherence of their memories. Effects of parental reminiscing styles for children's memory and motivation to reminisce are discussed.     

Influence of vocal cues on learning about objects in joint attention contexts

An experimenter taught infants about a novel toy in two joint attention conditions, one with and one without vocal cues. In test trials, infants viewed the familiar toy and a novel toy. Infants in the Joint Attention plus Voice condition looked significantly longer to the novel toy.     

Tufted capuchins (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cebus apella</Emphasis>) attribute value to foods and tools during voluntary exchanges with humans

This research examined exchange and value attribution in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). We presented subjects with opportunities to obtain various foods and a tool from an experimenter in exchange for the foods or tool in the subjects' possession. The times elapsed before the first chow biscuits were expelled and/or an exchange took place were recorded as the dependent measures. Laboratory chow biscuits, grapes, apples, and a metal bolt (a tool used to probe for syrup) were used as experimental stimuli. The subjects demonstrated the ability to recognize that exchanges could occur when an experimenter was present with a desirable food. Results indicate that subjects exhibited significant variation in their willingness to barter based upon the types of foods that were both in their possession and presented by the experimenter. Subjects more readily traded chow biscuits for fruit, and more readily traded apples for grapes than grapes for apples. During the exchange of tools and food, the subjects preferred the following in descending order when the probing apparatus was baited with sweet syrup: grapes, metal bolts, and chow biscuits. However when the apparatus was not baited, the values changed to the following in descending order: grapes, chow, and metal bolts. These results indicate that tufted capuchins recognize opportunities to exchange and engage in a simple barter system whereby low-valued foods are readily traded for more highly valued food. Furthermore, these capuchins demonstrate that their value for a tool changes depending upon its utility.     

Work attitudes and decisions as a function of manager age and employee age

Research has shown the importance of employee age relative to coworker age in determining attitudes, performance, and career-related opportunities. The authors used chronological and subjective measures of employee and manager age to determine whether employee age relative to the manager has an impact on these same outcome variables. One hundred eighty-five managers and 290 employees completed surveys. The strongest and most consistent age effects were observed for interactions between employee and manager chronological age. Both the magnitude and pattern of the employee-manager age interactions varied by self- and manager-rated outcome measures of work attitudes, performance and promotability assessments, and developmental experiences. Results are discussed in light of the relational demography and career timetable literatures.