Going global: The functions of autobiographical memory in cultural context

This special issue of Memory brings together research from around the globe, from Japanese, Chinese and East Indian cultures, to American and European societies, to the Caribbean, to Turkey and to Australia and New Zealand, which examines how and why people, from childhood to old age, remember the personal past in daily life. This journey highlights the important role of the cultural context in shaping the functional usages of autobiographical memory. We illuminate six major contributions of cross-cultural research to a broader and deeper understanding of the functions of autobiographical memory, and call attention to the filed that memory research must “go global.”     

Knowledge of memory functions in European and Asian American adults and children: The relation to autobiographical memory

This study investigated explicit knowledge of autobiographical memory functions using a newly developed questionnaire. European and Asian American adults (N = 57) and school-aged children (N = 68) indicated their agreement with 13 statements about why people think about and share memories pertaining to four broad functions—self, social, directive and emotion regulation. Children were interviewed for personal memories concurrently with the memory function knowledge assessment and again 3 months later. It was found that adults agreed to the self, social and directive purposes of memory to a greater extent than did children, whereas European American children agreed to the emotion regulation purposes of memory to a greater extent than did European American adults. Furthermore, European American children endorsed more self and emotion regulation functions than did Asian American children, whereas Asian American adults endorsed more directive functions than did European American adults. Children's endorsement of memory functions, particularly social functions, was associated with more detailed and personally meaningful memories. These findings are informative for the understanding of developmental and cultural influences on memory function knowledge and of the relation of such knowledge to autobiographical memory development.     

Towards a better understanding of the relationship between executive control and theory of mind: an intra‐cultural comparison of three diverse samples

Previous research has consistently indicated that theory of mind (ToM) is associated with executive control in the preschool years. However, interpretation of this literature is limited by the fact that most studies have focused exclusively on urbanized Western cultural samples. Consequently, it is not clear whether the association between ToM and executive control reflects the specific features of this particular cohort or instead reflects a universal pattern. The present study provides the first empirical assessment of these two constructs in three diverse groups of Iranian children. Participants were 142 preschoolers (4–5 years old) from high–socioeconomic status (SES) urban (n = 33), low–SES urban (n = 37) and rural villages (n = 77). The results show that there is a robust association between ToM and executive control in all three groups, and that executive control contributes significant unique variance to ToM understanding, even after controlling for a range of variables that have been proposed as potential confounders of this relationship. However, although the three groups were equated in ToM, significant differences in executive control were evident. Moreover, cluster analysis identified three distinct clusters that were relatively homogeneous with respect to executive control and SES. One of these clusters was characterized by both low SES and low executive functioning, and showed little evidence of ToM understanding. Taken together, these findings provide possibly the clearest evidence to date that the association between ToM and executive control is not dependent on children's previous experiences on the tasks, or their family and cultural background. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxh_-3gCB8o     

胡塞尔论感知意识的视域结构

视域性是意识行为的一个本质特征。目前学界对感知意识之视域结构的研究主要集中于内视域和外视域。本文将依据新近出版的胡塞尔著作,结合新近有关"弱想象"的研究成果,力图呈现一幅关于感知视域的更全面的图景。本文第一部分将展示感知意识视域结构和功能的基础:滞留和前摄;第二部分分析由感知的本质构成要素"动感"所构成的身体权能的视域,胡塞尔在此区分的动感的两种基本功能对于接下来的阐述具有根本性的指导意义;第三部分分析视域意向性与身体权能性视域的共同作用,内视域和外视域即是由这种共同作用形成的一种视域的可能性;第四部分引入由"弱想象"构成的情景式想象的视域,最后将考察上述几种视域共同作用时的情形。     

An actor–partner interdependence model of employees’ and coworkers’ innovative behavior,psychological detachment,and strain reactions

In an extension of the existing paradigm on the benefits of innovative behavior for organizations, this study addresses the negative effects of innovative behavior. Guided by psychological detachment theory, we propose that both displaying innovative behavior and witnessing others’ innovative behavior make it difficult for workers to psychologically distance themselves from innovation matters, engendering strain reactions (e.g., sleep problems, hostility). Those with more proactive personalities may be more likely to experience these detachment difficulty problems after displaying or witnessing innovative behavior. To test these premises, we conducted two studies. In the pilot study (N = 104 employee–coworker dyads), we gathered both quantitative and qualitative data to show that innovative behavior predicts detachment difficulty above and beyond other job behaviors. In the main study, we collected data from 257 employee–coworker dyads over 5 weeks and analyzed them with an actor–partner interdependence model. The results are generally supportive, suggesting that further investigation of the unintended consequences of innovative behavior is warranted.     

Can a Supportive Workplace Impact Employee Resilience in a High Pressure Performance Environment? An Investigation of the Chinese Banking Industry

Resilience is one of the positive emotions that will enhance employees’ ability to cope in adverse conditions, such as work intensification, organisational change, and work stress. Despite growing research interest in the employee resilience area, there is limited knowledge of the process through which critical social support at workplaces, such as supportive leadership and co-worker support, affects employees’ ability to cope in challenging situations. This study, underpinned by the theory of conservation of resources and social cognitive theory, examines the role of supportive leadership and co-worker support in employee resilience, and how this may be moderated by work pressures in the context of the Chinese banking industry. Using a sample of 2,025 Chinese banking workers, we tested four hypotheses. Our findings demonstrate that supportive leadership and co-worker support are positively associated with employee resilience. High work pressure moderates the relationship between both supportive leadership and co-worker support and employee resilience, such that the relationship between these conditions is stronger when perceived performance pressure is high. Our study raises important implications for both the theoretical development of employee resilience and for management practices with respect to fostering employee resilience in organisations.