Epistemological and Moral Conflict Between Religion and Science

Debates about religion and educational attainment often assume that members of certain religious groups do not seek out knowledge of science because they are opposed to the use of the scientific method. Using the science module of the 2006 General Social Survey, the analysis indicates that no religious group differs from the nonreligious comparison group in its propensity to seek out scientific knowledge. A more subtle epistemological conflict may arise when scientists make claims that explicitly contradict theological accounts. Findings indicate that Protestants and Catholics differ from the comparison group only on the very few issues where religion and science make competing claims. A third possible source of conflict may not be epistemological, but rather derives from opposition to what is understood as the public moral agenda of scientists. Findings indicate that conservative Protestants are opposed to scientific influence in public affairs due to opposition to the scientists’ moral agenda.     

See what I mean? An ERP study of the effect of background knowledge on novel object processing

Two event-related potential (ERP) experiments were used to examine the representation of object feature information and background knowledge in semantic memory. Participants were trained on novel object categories with three features and were tested with new exemplars that were complete or were missing one to two features that were essential or nonessential to object function. In both a category membership judgment task (Experiment 1) and a parts detection task (Experiment 2), the N400, a functionally specific measure of semantic access, was graded with feature number but was insensitive to knowledge-based feature importance. A separable ERP effect related to knowledge was seen in Experiment 1 as an enhanced frontocentral negativity (beginning ∼300 msec) to exemplars missing a nonessential versus an essential feature, but this effect did not manifest when background knowledge was less task relevant (Experiment 2). Thus, similarity- and knowledge-based effects are separable, and the locus of knowledge effects varies with task demands but does not seem to arise from facilitated semantic access.     

A Review of Expectancy Theory Research in Selling

Abstract

Motivation of sales personnel is a major consideration of sales managers. Expectancy theory research holds promise of providing practical answers to certain motivation questions. The theory and empirical evidence is reviewed and synthesized, and strategic implications are discussed.     

Electrometric Studies of Sleep

The authors provided a differential test between stimulus-stimulus (S-S) and stimulus-response (S-R) theory predictions in regard to the roles that the constructs of expectancy and of fear play in maintaining classically conditioned fear responding within the context of a human conditioned-avoidance paradigm. After the participants had developed sustained avoidance responding, their shock electrodes and avoidance response apparatus were removed to enhance the cognitive expectancy that the conditioned stimulus (CS) would not be followed by the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). This manipulation of expectancy was successful in 96% of the participants. The study was conducted over a 2-day period and involved 1 experimental group and 3 control groups. During the test trials, the authors used autonomic and self-report indices of fear to assess the presence or absence of fear to the CS. The data disconfirmed the prediction of the S-S theory that fear to the CS would be extinguished. The authors discuss the implications of this finding for S-S theories and for approaches in cognitive behavior therapy.     

The Impact of Perceived Corporate Citizenship on Organizational Cynicism,OCB, and Employee Deviance

This study examines the effects of corporate citizenship at the individual employee level. Four distinct contributions beyond the existing literature are offered. First, the relationship between perceived corporate citizenship (PCC) and employee organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is further clarified. Second, the negative job behavior of employee deviance is considered as an outcome. Third, the attitude of organizational cynicism is positioned as a mediator of the relationships between PCC and the job related behaviors of OCB and employee deviance. Fourth, we disaggregate the PCC measure and explore its relationships with organizational cynicism, OCB and employee deviance. Findings illustrate that the four separate dimensions of PCC have differential relationships with the outcome variables.     

Small samples do not cause greater accuracy--but clear data may cause small samples: comment on Fiedler and Kareev (2006)

Fiedler and Kareev (2006) have claimed that taking a small sample of information (as opposed to a large one) can, in certain specific situations, lead to greater accuracy--beyond that gained by avoiding fatigue or overload. Specifically, they have argued that the propensity of small samples to provide more extreme evidence is sufficient to create an accuracy advantage in situations of high caution and uncertainty. However, a close examination of Fiedler and Kareev's experimental results does not reveal any strong reason to conclude that small samples can cause greater accuracy. We argue that the negative correlation between sample size and accuracy that they reported (found only for the second half of Experiment 1) is also consistent with mental fatigue and that their data in general are consistent with the causal structure opposite to the one they suggest: Rather than small samples causing clear data, early clear data may cause participants to stop sampling. More importantly, Experiment 2 provides unequivocal evidence that large samples result in greater accuracy; Fiedler and Kareev only found a small sample advantage here when they artificially reduced the data set. Finally, we examine the model that Fiedler and Kareev used; they surmised that decision makers operate with a fixed threshold independent of sample size. We discuss evidence for an alternative (better performing) model that incorporates a dynamic threshold that lowers with sample size. We conclude that there is no evidence currently to suggest that humans benefit from taking a small sample, other than as a tactic for avoiding fatigue, overload, and/or opportunity cost-that is, there is no accuracy advantage inherent to small samples.     

A comparison of the other-directed stigmatization produced by legal and illegal forms of affirmative action

Recent studies have begun to show that the stigma of incompetence sometimes directed toward the beneficiaries of affirmative action may be significantly reduced as the preferences granted to women and minorities become more moderate. The author examined whether the stigmatization of African Americans would differ under hiring policies that represented legal and illegal levels of racial preference according to federal regulations. Participants were 178 students and 161 corporate employees who rated fictitious Black and White target employees working under (a) an illegal policy of selection of unequal candidates, (b) a legal policy of selection of comparable candidates, or (c) equal opportunity. Participants rated Black targets' achievement-related traits lower than White targets only under the illegal policy. Under the legal policy, no such stigmatization was observed. Additional dependent measures and theoretical implications were explored.