Perceiving distance: a role of effort and intent

Perceiving egocentric distance is not only a function of the optical variables to which it relates, but also a function of people's current physiological potential to perform intended actions. In a set of experiments, we showed that, as the effort associated with walking increases, perceived distance increases if the perceiver intends to walk the extent, but not if the perceiver intends to throw. Conversely, as the effort associated with throwing increases, perceived distance increases if people intend to throw to the target, but not if they intend to walk. Perceiving distance combines the geometry of the world with our behavior goals and the potential of our body to achieve these goals.     

Development and validation of a standardized measure of employee turnover risk

This article describes the development, reliability, and initial validation of the Tenure Scale. The scale was designed as an attitudinal predictor of turnover risk to be used for pre-employment selection. Two validation studies are reported. In study one, significant results were obtained between Tenure Scale scores and self report measures of: a) past and present job tenure; b) intentions to quit; c) job search behaviors; and d) intentions to remain committed to one's job. In study two, significant relationships were established between Tenure Scale scores and on-the-job measures of turnover risk, including work performance, absenteeism rates, and length of employment. No adverse impact was found against any protected group in study two. The relationship of these results with job turnover theory is discussed, and future validation research is suggested.Portions of this research study were presented at the 1988 Annual Conference of the Association of Human Resources Management and Organizational Behavior, Long Beach, California, October 26–29.     

The Good Behavior Game: a best practice candidate as a universal behavioral vaccine

A behavioral vaccine provides an inoculation against morbidity or mortality, impacting physical, mental, or behavior disorders. An historical example of a behavioral vaccine is antiseptic hand washing to reduce childbed fever. In current society, issues with high levels of morbidity, such as substance abuse, delinquency, youth violence, and other behavioral disorders (multiproblems), cry out for a low-cost, widespread strategy as simple as antiseptic hand washing. Congruent research findings from longitudinal studies, twin studies, and other investigations suggest that a possibility might exist for a behavioral vaccine for multiproblem behavior. A simple behavioral strategy called the Good Behavior Game (GBG), which reinforces inhibition in a group context of elementary school, has substantial previous research to consider its use as a behavioral vaccine. The GBG is not a curriculum but rather a simple behavioral procedure from applied behavior analysis. Approximately 20 independent replications of the GBG across different grade levels, different types of students, different settings, and some with long-term follow-up show strong, consistent impact on impulsive, disruptive behaviors of children and teens as well as reductions in substance use or serious antisocial behaviors. The GBG, named as a best practice for the prevention of substance abuse or violent behavior by a number of federal agencies, is unique because it is the only practice implemented by individual teachers that is documented to have long-term effects. Presently, the GBG is only used in a small number of settings. However, near universal use of the GBG, in major political jurisdictions during the elementary years, could substantially reduce the incidence of substance use, antisocial behavior, and other adverse developmental or social consequences at a very modest cost, with very positive cost-effectiveness ratios.     

The Heterogeneity of Truancy among Urban Middle School Students: A Latent Class Growth Analysis

This longitudinal study explores heterogeneity of middle school students by identifying subgroups of youth characterized by distinct truancy trajectories and by determining disability profiles that distinguish these subgroups. Participants comprised an entire 7th through 9th grade student population, with approximately 58,000 students, in a large urban school district. Latent class growth analysis was used to identify subgroups of truant youth. This analysis yielded five distinct truant subgroups: Very-Low (37 %), Low (43.4 %), Declining (3.3 %), Rising (12.8 %), and Chronic (3.6 %). Further, differential disability profiles were found in each subgroup with the control of demographic characteristics (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, free/reduced lunch, Limited English Proficiency, grade, and prior school absences), students with serious emotional disturbance and learning disabilities demonstrated amplified risks of being classified in the Chronic or Rising subgroups, which show chronic or incremental upward truant trajectories over time. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for future research.     

Migrant Organisations in Humanitarian Action

This article applies the term ‘migrant humanitarianism’ for the hitherto neglected humanitarian activities of migrant organisations (MOs). First, it assesses the state-of-the-art on MOs in migration research and recognises common shortcomings within the existing literature. Second, it reviews humanitarian studies literature on aid actors and shows that local or non-Western forms of aid, as well as MOs have so far received only limited attention. Third, it presents the development studies on MOs’ role in their members’ country of origin, which focus mainly on remittances and the migration-development nexus. Fourth, it examines organisational studies which offer frameworks for analysing MOs in multiple countries and crises. Fifth, it discusses how neo-institutional and associational theory, as well as the transnational approach, can help fill gaps in research on MOs in humanitarian action. It then applies these theories to the Islamic Community Milli Görüs (IGMG) as a case study of MOs in humanitarian action. It shows that IGMG is a strong, autonomous actor, despite the fact that it does not fully adhere to the traditional humanitarian principles. Finally, it indicates themes for further research.     

Cross-cultural similarities and differences in North Americans’ geographic location judgments

We examined some potential causes of bias in geographic location estimates by comparing location estimates of North American cities made by Canadian, U.S., and Mexican university students. All three groups placed most Mexican cities near the equator, which implies that all e influenced by shared beliefs about the locationthree groups wers of geographical regions relative to global reference points. However, the groups divided North America into different regions and differed in the relative accuracy of the estimates within them, which implies that there was an influence of culture-specific knowledge. The data support a category-based system of plausible reasoning, in which biases in judgments are multiply determined, and underscore the utility of the estimation paradigm as a tool in cross-cultural cognitive research.     

Socially Valued Roles,Self‐Determination,and Community Participation among Individuals Living with Serious Mental Illnesses

Decades after deinstitutionalization, individuals living with serious mental illnesses remain isolated, socially disengaged, and devalued members of communities. Burgeoning research and services need conceptual clarity to improve such social conditions. This qualitative inquiry used grounded theory and participatory approaches to conduct an in‐depth exploration of community participation for individuals living with serious mental illnesses based on key stakeholder perspectives (n = 45). Results revealed that community participation is a multifaceted construct with layers of meaning for individuals living with serious mental illnesses. Overarching themes are contextualized in Self‐Determination Theory and presented with deidentified illustrations. Implications for services, research, and policy are discussed.     

Effects of an adapted physical education training package on special education teacher instruction

This study investigated the impact of an adapted physical education training package on functional motor skill instruction of three special education teachers who instructed secondary students with low‐incidence disabilities. The training package emphasized teachers' use of systematic prompting and specific reinforcement teaching strategies plus adapted physical education consultation. We used a multiple baseline design and collected data on the three teachers' use of systematic prompting and specific reinforcement plans during videotaped teaching trials. We also collected data on how teachers documented their instructional strategies, and we analyzed personal reflections that teachers wrote in the journals. Results indicated that with each of the three teachers, correctly implemented functional motor skill instructional performance improved after they completed the training package.     

Semantic detail in the developing verb lexicon: An extension of Naigles and Kako (1993)

Verbs are often uttered before the events they describe. By 2 years of age, toddlers can learn from such an encounter. Hearing a novel verb in transitive sentences (e.g. The boy lorped the cat), even with no visual referent present, they later map it to a causative meaning (e.g. feed) (e.g. Yuan & Fisher, 2009 ). How much semantic detail does their verb representation include on this first, underinformative, encounter? Is the representation sparse, including only information for which they have evidence, or do toddlers make more specific guesses about the verb's meaning? In two experiments (N = 76, mean age 27 months), we address this using an event type studied by Naigles and Kako ( 1993 ); they found that when toddlers hear a novel transitive verb while simultaneously viewing a non‐causative referent—a contact event such as patting—they map the verb to the contact event. In Experiment 1 we replicated this basic result. Further, toddlers’ representations persisted over a 5‐minute delay, manifesting again during a retest. In Experiment 2, toddlers heard the verbs while watching two actors converse instead of while seeing contact events. At test, they showed no evidence of mapping the verbs to contact events, either initially or after a 5‐minute delay, despite that in prior work they mapped verbs to causative events under identical circumstances. We infer that on hearing a novel verb in a transitive frame, absent a relevant visual scene, toddlers posit a more specific representation than the evidence requires—one that incorporates causative semantics. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/aRCqSTbr6Bw