Promoting Ethical and Prosocial Behavior: The Combined Effect of Ethical Leadership and Coworker Ethicality

Ethical leadership encompasses the personal conduct of the leader and the leader’s expectations that followers behave ethically. Building on social learning and social exchange theory, we propose that ethical leadership interacts with coworker ethicality to predict personnel’s ethical intentions and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Using data collected from a large organizational sample, we use moderated regression analysis to test the main and interactive effects of ethical leadership and coworker ethicality on ethical intentions and OCB as it relates to conscientiousness, civic virtue, and altruism. Study 1 examines how ethical leadership and coworker ethicality interact to predict ethical intentions using a sample of 1,551 military personnel. Study 2 extends the results of Study 1 by examining how ethical leadership and coworker ethicality interact to predict OCB using a combined sample of 3,363 military and civilian personnel. Consistent with social learning theory, we found positive relationships between ethical leadership and coworker ethicality with ethical outcomes (i.e., intentions and OCB). Consistent with social exchange theory, we found that perceptions of ethical leadership strengthened the relationship between coworker ethicality and ethical intentions and OCB, highlighting the importance of leaders in shaping the behavior of organizational members.     

Coach–Athlete Perceived Congruence Between Actual and Desired Emotions in Karate Competition and Training

Coaches can help athletes regulate emotions but would benefit from tools that help them accurately perceive athletes' emotions. In the present study, we investigated the use of video-recorded performances to compare 3 martial artists' ratings of desired and actual emotions with their coach's ratings. Results show how desired emotions progressively fluctuated throughout competition. Furthermore, desired and actual emotions differed between training and performance contexts. Finally, we report correlations between performance and perceived congruence in desired and actual emotions. Cumulatively, results offer support for the video-assisted recall of emotions as an intervention tool in developing emotion regulation abilities.     

A meta-analysis and systematic review of reactivity to judgements of learning

Judgements of learning (JoL) are often used in memory research as a means for assessing an individual’s metacognitive beliefs about their learning. JoL have been shown to reliably predict performance as well as learning behaviours and decisions . Participants may, however, modify their behaviour in response to performing JoL. There has, however, been little consensus as to the reliability and direction of the effect. We report on a meta-analyses that assesses the evidence that memory performance is reactive to JoL. The results indicate that overall providing JoL does not have a significant effect on memory performance (g?=?0.054, 95% CI ?0.027 to 0.135). However, sub-groups analysis showed that this effect depends on the nature of the stimuli to be recalled, with moderate positive reactivity observed for related word pairs (g?=?0.323, 95% CI 0.083 to 0.563) and word lists (g?=?0.384, 95% CI 0.146 to 0.622) but no reactivity when pairs were unrelated or a mixture of related and unrelated pairs. These results indicate that researchers should be aware that eliciting JoL may well influence participants’ underlying encoding processes, especially when using related word pairs or word lists.     

Long-term repetition priming in spoken and written word production: evidence for a contribution of phonology to handwriting

Although it is relatively well established that access to orthographic codes in production tasks is possible via an autonomous link between meaning and spelling (e.g., Rapp, Benzing, & Caramazza, 1997), the relative contribution of phonology to orthographic access remains unclear. Two experiments demonstrated persistent repetition priming in spoken and written single-word responses, respectively. Two further experiments showed priming from spoken to written responses and vice versa, which is interpreted as reflecting a role of phonology in constraining orthographic access. A final experiment showed priming from spoken onto written responses even when participants engaged in articulatory suppression during writing. Overall, the results support the view that access to orthography codes is accomplished via both the autonomous link between meaning and spelling and an indirect route via phonology.     

Reduced sensitivity to visual looming inflates the risk posed by speeding vehicles when children try to cross the road

Almost all locomotor animals respond to visual looming or to discrete changes in optical size. The need to detect and process looming remains critically important for humans in everyday life. Road traffic statistics confirm that children up to 15 years old are overrepresented in pedestrian casualties. We demonstrate that, for a given pedestrian crossing time, vehicles traveling faster loom less than slower vehicles, which creates a dangerous illusion in which faster vehicles may be perceived as not approaching. Our results from perceptual tests of looming thresholds show strong developmental trends in sensitivity, such that children may not be able to detect vehicles approaching at speeds in excess of 20 mph. This creates a risk of injudicious road crossing in urban settings when traffic speeds are higher than 20 mph. The risk is exacerbated because vehicles moving faster than this speed are more likely to result in pedestrian fatalities.     

Fractal fluctuations in gaze speed visual search

Visual search involves a subtle coordination of visual memory and lower-order perceptual mechanisms. Specifically, the fluctuations in gaze may provide support for visual search above and beyond what may be attributed to memory. Prior research indicates that gaze during search exhibits fractal fluctuations, which allow for a wide sampling of the field of view. Fractal fluctuations constitute a case of fast diffusion that may provide an advantage in exploration. We present reanalyses of eye-tracking data collected by Stephen and Mirman (Cognition, 115, 154-165, 2010) for single-feature and conjunction search tasks. Fluctuations in gaze during these search tasks were indeed fractal. Furthermore, the degree of fractality predicted decreases in reaction time on a trial-by-trial basis. We propose that fractality may play a key role in explaining the efficacy of perceptual exploration.     

Visual information underpinning skilled anticipation: The effect of blur on a coupled and uncoupled in situ anticipatory response

Coupled interceptive actions are understood to be the result of neural processing—and visual information— which is distinct from that used for uncoupled perceptual responses. To examine the visual information used for action and perception, skilled cricket batters anticipated the direction of balls bowled toward them using a coupled movement (an interceptive action that preserved the natural coupling between perception and action) or an uncoupled (verbal) response, in each of four different visual blur conditions (plano, +1.00, +2.00, +3.00). Coupled responses were found to be better than uncoupled ones, with the blurring of vision found to result in different effects for the coupled and uncoupled response conditions. Low levels of visual blur did not affect coupled anticipation, a finding consistent with the comparatively poorer visual information on which online interceptive actions are proposed to rely. In contrast, some evidence was found to suggest that low levels of blur may enhance the uncoupled verbal perception of movement.     

Interactions dominate the dynamics of visual cognition

Many cognitive theories have described behavior as the summation of independent contributions from separate components. Contrasting views have emphasized the importance of multiplicative interactions and emergent structure. We describe a statistical approach to distinguishing additive and multiplicative processes and apply it to the dynamics of eye movements during classic visual cognitive tasks. The results reveal interaction-dominant dynamics in eye movements in each of the three tasks, and that fine-grained eye movements are modulated by task constraints. These findings reveal the interactive nature of cognitive processing and are consistent with theories that view cognition as an emergent property of processes that are broadly distributed over many scales of space and time rather than a componential assembly line.     

Counselling in areas of armed conflict: the case of Jaffna, Sri Lanka

In this article counselling is discussed in relation to the traditional resources of the Tamil community for dealing with psycho-social and mental health problems. It describes some of the problems of clients affected by the armed conflict, the approaches of the local counsellors and mental health professionals, and the training offered to future Sri Lankan counsellors who want to work with people affected by the armed conflict on the island.