Cognitive Ability Tests and the Situational Interview: A Test of Incremental Validity

This study investigated the validity and incremental validity of a situational interview beyond that of a composite measure of cognitive ability. Forty-seven factory service technicians underwent an interview and took four cognitive ability tests. Supervisors rated the performance of these subjects in a concurrent validation study. The interview was found to be a valid predictor of a supervisor rating of performance (r = 0.32, p < 0.05 uncorrected), however, was unable to show incremental validity over ability tests (Incremental R²= 0.05, n.s.). Limitations of the present study and directions for future research are discussed.     

元记忆监测研究综述

元记忆监测是元记忆能力的重要部分,元记忆监测能力是元记忆能力的关键。近年来元记忆监测引起越来越多人的研究兴趣,这种研究兴趣渗透到心理学的不同领域,如记忆心理学、认知神经心理学和社会心理学等。本文探讨了元记忆监测的含义、类型、机制理论和研究方法,也指出了存在的问题并进行了展望。     

An exploration of the attitudinal and perceptual dimensions of body image among male and female adolescents from six Latin American cities

Using survey methodology, this exploratory study examined the attitudinal and perceptual dimensions of body image among 1,272 eighth- and ninth-grade males and females from higher and lower socioeconomic backgrounds in Buenos Aires, Argentina (n = 195), Guatemala City, Guatemala (n = 212), Havana, Cuba (n = 213), Lima, Peru (n = 218), Panama City, Panama (n = 195), and Santiago, Chile (n = 239). The two dimensions of body image were assessed by showing the participants nine male and nine female silhouettes depicting body sizes ranging from extremely thin (#1) to extremely obese (#9). Approximately 50% of the male and female adolescents chose silhouette #3 as best depicting the attractive male body. Silhouette #2 was chosen by 45% of the females as best depicting feminine attractiveness, while 45% of the males chose silhouette #3. When identifying the silhouette that best depicted the healthy male body, 26% of the participants chose silhouette #2, 41% chose #3, and 19% chose #4. Silhouette #2 was selected by 33% of the adolescents as best depicting the healthy female body, 38% chose #3, and 14% chose #4. In all cities, the effect of body mass index (BMI) on body satisfaction was highly significant (p < 0.001). Almost 40% of the middle weight adolescents indicated a preference to be thinner, even though 72% of the males and 84% of the females in this subgroup already perceived themselves as thin. Similarly, 89% of the heavier weight participants indicated a preference to be thinner, even though only 10% of the males and 2% of the females in this subgroup perceived themselves as heavy. In five of the six cities, a significantly higher (p < 0.05) percentage of females than males desired to be thinner, the exception being Havana, where the distribution of desired change in body size was almost identical for males and females. Findings suggest a need for culturally sensitive, age- and gender-specific preventive interventions focusing on the importance of achieving a healthy weight during adolescence to promote body size acceptance among adolescents who are at a healthy weight.     

Gender, Physical Attractiveness, and Electability: An Experimental Investigation of Voter Biases

In an examination of the impacts on electoral success of candidate gender, candidate physical attractiveness, prestige and responsibility of office sought, and voter characteristics, 219 college students evaluated six challengers to an incumbent in either a mayoral or county clerk's race. Challengers represented men and women of high, moderate, and low physical attractiveness. Male, but not female, voters discriminated against female candidates. While physical attractiveness accentuated perceptions of masculinity in a man and femininity in a woman, the appeal of an attractive (i.e., more feminine) woman seeking a masculine-stereotyped position was not damaged by the so-called "beauty is beastly" effect. However, attractiveness was less consistently an asset for female candidates than it was for male candidates. Male, but not female, candidates directly benefitted from being physical attractive and were also more positively evaluated to the extent that they were perceived as highly masculine. These findings not only contribute to understanding of the joint impacts of sex-role and attractiveness stereotypes, but call into question survey findings pointing to the demise of sexism in electoral politics.     

Available but unattended conceptual information in working memory: temporarily active semantic content or persistent memory for prior operations?

In 2 experiments, the authors investigated available but unattended information following working memory task demands. The experimental task presented a memory set containing exemplars from 2 conceptual categories. Following instructions to focus attention on only 1 category, priming of both categories was assessed with category comparisons of exemplar pairs. Priming was greatest for the focused category and for exemplars from the memory set (direct priming). Priming also extended to new exemplars of both categories (indirect priming) and showed little decline over more than 1 min of intervening processes. Finally, changing between category exemplars and features across memory set and comparison phases eliminated the indirect priming. These results support a persistent, operation-specific, procedural account of available but unattended conceptual information in working memory.     

Helping and proactive extra-role behaviors: The influence of motives, goal orientation, and social context

We explore how two motivational orientations (communion and status striving) influence three extra-role organizational behaviors: proactive engagement, providing help, and seeking help. We propose and confirm intervening mechanisms, in the form of (a) goal orientations and (b) attitudes toward coworkers. Proactive behaviors are predicted by status striving, through the intervening mechanisms of both learning and performance proving goal orientations. Providing help is, in turn, motivated by communion striving, and the relationship is mediated by goal orientations (learning and performance avoiding) and by satisfaction with and commitment to coworkers. Finally, seeking help is a function of communion striving, which influences the outcome through learning goal orientation and satisfaction with and confidence in coworkers.     

Overestimation of the projected size of objects on the surface of mirrors and windows

Four experiments investigated judgments of the size of projections of objects on the glass surface of mirrors and windows. The authors tested different ways of explaining the task to overcome the difficulty that people had in understanding what the projection was, and they varied the distance of the observer and the object to the mirror or window and varied the size of the mirror. The authors compared estimations of projected size with estimations of the physical size of the object that produced the projection. For both mirrors and windows, observers accurately judged the physical size of objects but greatly overestimated the projected size of the same objects. Indeed, judgments of projected size were more similar to physical than to projected size. People were also questioned verbally about their knowledge of projected size relative to physical size. The errors produced for these conceptual questions were similar to those found in the perceptual estimation tasks. Together, these results suggest that projections of objects on mirrors and windows are treated in the same way and that observers cannot perceive such projections as distal objects.     

Taking human life

Alan Donagan's position regarding the morality of taking innocent human life, that it is impermissible regardless of the wishes of the victim, is criticized by Brock who argues for a rights-based alternative. His argument appeals to the nature of persons' actual interest in life and gives them an additional element of control which they lack if a nonwaivable moral duty not to kill prevails. The author rejects Donagan's view that stopping a life-sustaining treatment, even when a competent patient has consented, is morally wrong and that there is no moral difference between killing and allowing to die. A rights-based position permits stopping treatment of incompetent patients based on what the patient would have wanted or what is in his or her best interest, and allows the withholding of treatment from a terminally ill person, with the patient's consent and for a benevolent motive, to be evaluated as morally different from killing that patient.     

Workplace justice outcomes as a function of adversaries' gender composition: A field assessment

There is extensive documentation that the sex of organizational members may bias a wide variety of managerial decisions and workplace outcomes. While such effects have been persuasively demonstrated, the sex context of these effects has received little attention. It is argued here that it is not merely the sex of the actor, but the nature of the dyadic match (male/male; female/female; male/female; female/male) that is a critical influence on outcomes. This hypothesis is strongly supported by gross differences in workplace justice outcomes based on the dyadic composition of the actors involved in dispute proceedings (n=369) in a field setting. These results are tempered, however, inasmuch as analysis also indicates differences in the severity of disputed issues across these dyadic compositions.