The contagious leader: impact of the leader's mood on the mood of group members, group affective tone, and group processes

The present study examined the effects of leaders' mood on (a) the mood of individual group members, (b) the affective tone of groups, and (c) 3 group processes: coordination, effort expenditure, and task strategy. On the basis of a mood contagion model, the authors found that when leaders were in a positive mood, in comparison to a negative mood, (a) individual group members experienced more positive and less negative mood, and (b) groups had a more positive and a less negative affective tone. The authors also found that groups with leaders in a positive mood exhibited more coordination and expended less effort than did groups with leaders in a negative mood. Applied implications of the results are discussed.     

Effect of low gravitational stimulation on the perception of target elevation: role of spatial expertise

To examine the interindividual differences in the judgment of the visually perceived eye level (VPEL-upright position) and of the visually perceived apparent zenith (VPAZ-supine position) when the subject is subjected to low gravitational-inertial force (GIF), we independently altered GIF in two different populations: control subjects and spatial experts. Subjects were instructed to set a luminous target to the eye level while they were in total darkness and motionless or undergoing low radial acceleration with respect to the threshold of the otolithic system (0.015-1.67 m/sec2 for the VPEL and 0.55-2.19 m/sec2 for the VPAZ, respectively). Results showed that (1) low GIFs, close to those met during daily life, induced an eye level lowering in the upright and supine positions for the control group, and (2) the spatial expertise modified the influence of low GIF. Whereas an oculogravic illusion was found for the control group, this phenomenon was absent (VPAZ) or weaker (VPEL) for the spatial experts. Thus, the relations that the subjects maintain with their spatial environment and the knowledge acquired through experience modify the processing of sensory information and the perceptive construction resulting from it. The interindividual differences in sensitivity to the oculogravic illusion are discussed in terms of sensory dominance and of a better efficiency in the use of the available sensory information.     

Word length effect in early reading and in developmental dyslexia

Vocal reaction times were measured in Italian dyslexics and in proficient readers while they read single words. Three groups of control participants (for a total of 79) were tested. All were in the first, second or third grade of elementary school. Nine third graders with a low level of reading ability when assessed by standard reading procedures were also tested. Results indicated that vocal RTs of control participants were faster and less sensitive to word length as a function of age; also, there was a particularly marked change between first and second graders. Dyslexics' vocal RTs and errors were much worse than those of peer control participants and resembled those of first grade controls. It is suggested that normal readers in an orthographically transparent language (Italian) adopt a lexical strategy quite early in their learning. On the contrary, dyslexics seem unable to learn this mode of processing and continue to use a sub-lexical reading procedure.     

Perceptual organization and artificial attention for visual landmarks detection

In biological vision systems, attention mechanisms are responsible for selecting the relevant information from the sensed field of view, so that the complete scene can be analyzed using a sequence of rapid eye saccades. In recent years, efforts have been made to imitate such attention behavior in artificial vision systems, because it allows optimizing the computational resources as they can be focused on the processing of a set of selected regions. In the framework of mobile robotics navigation, this work proposes an artificial model where attention is deployed at the level of objects (visual landmarks) and where new processes for estimating bottom-up and top-down (target-based) saliency maps are employed. Bottom-up attention is implemented through a hierarchical process, whose final result is the perceptual grouping of the image content. The hierarchical grouping is applied using a Combinatorial Pyramid that represents each level of the hierarchy by a combinatorial map. The process takes into account both image regions (faces in the map) and edges (arcs in the map). Top-down attention searches for previously detected landmarks, enabling their re-detection when the robot presumes that it is revisiting a known location. Landmarks are described by a combinatorial submap; thus, this search is conducted through an error-tolerant submap isomorphism procedure.     

One More Datum on Rorschach Form Quality

The central purpose of this work is to examine to what extent Form Quality (FQ) scoring of Rorschach responses, using Exner's (2003) Table A, is the reason for lower FQ to often be found in normative data outside the United States. The Rorschach protocols of 180 Portuguese boys and girls between 6 and 10 years of age were codified with respect to Form Quality in accordance with Exner's table of objects classified as ordinary, unusual, and minus, based on frequencies seen among U.S. adults and on an analogous Portuguese table (Table P) constructed from the protocols of 400 nonpatient children. Mean differences between the various FQ variables of the 2 tables were found to be insignificant. However, use of Janson's (2003) iota coefficient to evaluate agreement between the 2 approaches to scoring on the same protocols revealed that the more striking differences occurred in the FQu variable when agreement was assessed on the basis of each individual response. In view of these results, the authors recognize the possibility of Rorschach normative data to be universally applied, but still consider the possible advantage of each country or culture to build its own FQ table that will permit preservation of its particularities.     

Optimism predicting employees' creativity: The mediating role of positive affect and the positivity ratio

We examine how optimism predicts creativity both directly and through the mediating role of positive affect and the positivity ratio (the ratio between the frequency of positive and negative affective states). Five hundred and ninety five employees reported their positive and negative affect, as well as their optimism. Their creativity was reported by supervisors. The main findings are the following: (1) optimism predicts creativity both directly and through the mediating role of positive affect and the positivity ratio; (2) the relationship between the positivity ratio and creativity is curvilinear, in such a way that an “excessive” ratio is detrimental to creativity. The findings stress the relevance of optimism both for individuals and organizations, and suggest that examining positivity ratios is fruitful in the creativity domain, as it has been in other domains, and that negative affect should not be viewed simply as an obstacle when studying employees' creativity.     

Retail employees' self-efficacy and hope predicting their positive affect and creativity

The study shows how retail employees' self-efficacy and hope predict their creativity, both directly and through the mediating role of positive affect. Five hundred and seven retail employees reported their hope, self-efficacy, and positive affect, their supervisors reporting their creativity. Three main findings are: (1) hope and self-efficacy predict creativity; (2) positive affect also predicts creativity; (3) positive affect partially mediates the relationship between both dimensions of positive psychological capital (self-efficacy and hope), and creativity. The study suggests that retail organizations may foster employees' creativity by encouraging conditions that cultivate employees' hope and self-efficacy, as well as their positive affect.     

Semiotic Regulation through Inhibitor Signs: Creating a Cycle of Rigid Meanings

This study aims to analyze the process of semiotic regulation in youth transition to adulthood from the perspectives of cultural developmental psychology and dialogical self theory. The focus is on the transformations that occur in youth’s self-system configurations during a critical developmental period. In this paper, we will advance the idea that semiotic regulation may lead to the construction of strong signs (i.e. those signs that bring rigidity to personal meaning systems)—and more specifically, of strong inhibitor signs—that block the emergence of alternative meanings, leading to rigidity in the self-system. We present a longitudinal case study of a young man who participated in a social project in Salvador, Bahia to illustrate the process. Data was collected through two rounds of in-depth interviews at ages 18 (1st round) and 21 (2nd round) years. Analysis followed a mapping of positions and counter-positions, as well as emerging tensions and their resolution over time and in different spheres of life (i.e. work, school, and family life). The idea is to show how negotiations of self-positions evolve and activate a mechanism of inhibition of hierarchical integration and construction of alternative future meanings, in which rigid meanings are created and do not allow for emergence of alternative life trajectories.     

Temporal Aspects of Team Cognition: A Case Study on Concerns Sharing Within Basketball

This case study investigated team cognition in basketball. The focus was on how concerns in a real match situation were shared among teammates and how the sharedness evolved. The activity of five basketball players (M age = 17.60, SD = 0.89) was studied. The data were collected and processed according to a procedure defined for course-of-action analysis (Theureau, 2003). The results indicated that the instances when all the teammates shared the same typical concern were relatively rare, but temporal analysis revealed two kinds of convergence phenomena (simultaneous and progressive). In conclusion, shared understanding emerged within this team as essentially “local sharing of understanding.”