A simplified technique for conditioning respiratory mouth movements in fish

This report describes a simple technique and restraining device for investigating classically conditioned inhibition of respiration in the fish. The restraining device is seen as having wide applicability for investigations which necessitate the immobilization of the S.     

Work planning and performance review as a basis for merit pay decisions: An evaluation

The Work Planning and Performance Review (WPPR) System, developed in a midwestern state as a basis for pay-for-performance decisions in the state government, is described. The WPPR's job relevance was evaluated in one state agency by comparing WPPR scores with scores on a behavioral checklist developed for that purpose. Supervisor and subordinate perceptions of the relevance of the two systems are described. Comparison and perception data indicate the WPPR lacks content validity. Probable impact on the merit pay system is discussed.     

PARENT EDUCATION PROJECT III: INCREASING AFFECTION AND RESPONSIVITY IN DEVELOPMENTALLY HANDICAPPED MOTHERS: COMPONENT ANALYSIS,GENERALIZATION, AND EFFECTS ON CHILD LANGUAGE

We evaluated the effects of a parent training program consisting of verbal instruction, modeling, and feedback on the affection and responsivity of 3 developmentally handicapped mothers towards their children. The results indicated the following: First, the training package increased maternal physical affection, praise, and imitation of child vocalizations. These parenting skills increased to levels found in comparison groups of nonhandicapped mothers. Second, the training package was more effective than verbal instruction alone, the latter being the predominant method presently used by social service workers. Third, most maternal gains were maintained over a 3- to 18-month follow-up period, although one mother required a reinforced maintenance procedure. Fourth, instructing mothers to generalize served to increase the generalization of newly acquired skills from play times (the training context) to child-care tasks (e.g., diapering, feeding). Fifth, teaching the parents to imitate child vocalizations was related to gains in both the frequency and quality of verbal behavior of the two language delayed children as measured by standardized developmental tests and in vivo comparisons with age-matched children (who had nonhandicapped parents). These results show that behavioral instruction can improve important child-rearing skills of developmentally handicapped mothers, with corresponding benefits to their children.     

How Social Norms Promote Misleading Social Feedback and Inaccurate Self‐Assessment

Self‐assessments are often prone to error. Past research has identified cognitive and motivational biases that lead self‐assessments astray. In the present paper, we discuss how behavior shaped by social norms leaves the negative information that people require for accurate self‐assessments invisible. First, social norms lead people to suppress critical feedback in favor of more positive evaluations. Although people recognize that they prefer to provide positive feedback to others, they fail to consider that they might be the recipient of incomplete feedback. As a result, they are left with overconfident self‐impressions. Second, social norms lead people to hide their own negative emotional experiences from others. Again, people are aware that this positivity norm influences their own behavior but do not apply this knowledge to their understanding of others. As a result, people regard their own negative emotions as more socially aberrant than is actually the case.     

An Introduction to Issues of Gender in Stalking Research

Stalking research has increased substantially in the past 20?years. This special issue is intended to contribute to this literature by using gender as a focus point in 1) applying new theoretical perspectives that incorporate the role of gender to the study of stalking perpetration (Davis et al. 2010; Duntley and Buss 2010), 2) addressing divergent findings regarding gender in experiences of victims (Sheridan and Lyndon 2010) and perpetrators (Thompson et al. 2010), and 3) furthering the study of how gender influences perceptions of stalking (Cass and Rosay 2011; Dunlap et al. 2011; Sinclair 2010; Yanowitz and Yanowitz 2010). To place this special issue in context of the current state of knowledge on gender and stalking, we review the state of the existing research as it relates to the domains covered by articles present in this issue.     

Workplace duties or opportunities? Challenge stressors,regulatory focus,and creativity

Previous research has produced contradictory findings about the impact of challenge stressors on individual and team creativity. Based on the challenge–hindrance stressors framework (LePine, Podsakoff, & LePine, 2005) and on regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997), we argue that the effect of challenge stressors on creativity is moderated by regulatory focus. We hypothesize that while promotion focus strengthens a positive relationship between challenge stressors and creativity, prevention focus reinforces a negative relationship. Experimental data showed that high demands led to better results in a creative insight task for individuals with a strong trait promotion focus, and that high demands combined with an induced promotion focus led to better results across both creative generation and insight tasks. These results were replicated in a field R&D sample. Furthermore, we found that team promotion focus moderated the effect of challenge stressors on team creativity. The results offer both theoretical insights and suggest practical implications.     

Heidegger: The Role of Logic in his Thought

Since his inaugural lecture at Freiburg in 1929 in which Heidegger delivered his most celebrated salvo against logic, he has frequently been portrayed as an anti-logician, a classic example of the obscurity resultant upon a rejection of the discipline of logic, a champion of the irrational, and a variety of similar things. Because many of Heidegger's statements on logic are polemical in tone, there has been no little misundersanding of his position in regard to logic, and a great deal of distortion of it. All too frequently the position which is attacked as Heidegger's is a barely recognizable caricature of it. We shall, therefore, attempt to determine precisely what Heidegger understands by logic. When he “attacks” logic, as he did in the inaugural lecture, as well as in many other of his writings, what “logic” is he attacking? The word “logic” is, after all, placed in quotation marks which would seem to indicate some special sense. This paper will argue that if one takes logic as it has traditionally been understood and practiced that one is forced to the conclusion that it is incompatible with Heidegger's “way of thought” (Denkweg). This rejection of logic, however, does not deliver him up to irrationalism or the enthronement of blind instinct in place of reason, as some of his critics have charged. Neither is it a self-indulgent refusal to achieve clarity and precision which ends in a kind of mystical pseudo-poetry. Rather, it will be argued, it represents a quite valid, and indeed rich, approach to Being, though certainly not a “logical” one in the traditional sense.     

Aging and self-reported internal and external memory strategy uses: The role of executive functioning

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of advanced age on self-reported internal and external memory strategy uses, and whether this effect can be predicted by executive functioning. A sample of 194 participants aged 21 to 80 divided into three age groups (21-40, 41-60, 61-80) completed the two strategy scales of the Metamemory in Adulthood (MIA) questionnaire, differentiating between internal and external everyday memory strategy uses, and three tests of executive functioning. The results showed that: (1) the use of external memory strategies increased with age, whereas use of internal memory strategy decreased; (2) executive functioning appeared to be related only to internal strategies, the participants who reported the greatest use of internal strategies having the highest executive level; and (3) executive functioning accounted for a sizeable proportion of the age-related variance in internal strategy use. These findings suggest that older adults preferentially use external memory strategies to cope with everyday memory impairment due to aging. They also support the view that the age-related decrease in the implementation of internal memory strategies can be explained by the executive hypothesis of cognitive aging. This result parallels those observed using objective laboratory memory strategy measures and then supports the validity of self-reported memory strategy questionnaire.     

Positive psychological states and anxiety: the mediating effect of proactive coping

The current study examined the mediating role of proactive coping in the relationship between positive psychological states like optimism and self-esteem and trait anxiety. 204 undergraduate students completed measures of optimism, self-esteem, and trait anxiety, together with the proactive coping subscale of the Proactive Coping Inventory (PCI). Mediated effects were explored using a series of regression analyses and were confirmed through bootstrapping procedures. Results revealed that proactive coping was a partial mediator in the relationship between both optimism and self-esteem and trait anxiety. Findings indicated that proactive coping enhances a perspective on life that involves a positive attitude toward future events in the form of optimistic expectancies and enhanced feelings of self-worth. Implications of the findings for clinical practice and mental health promotion are discussed.     

Extending the job design perspective on individual innovation: Exploring the effect of group reflexivity

Extending previous research on group reflexivity as a group level predictor of individual innovation, we examined group reflexivity as a possible moderator of the effect of job control and task complexity on individual innovation. We obtained data on job and group characteristics from 135 members of software development teams; line managers provided ratings on individual innovation. Data were analysed using hierarchical linear modelling. Results lend further support to a positive effect of job design on individual innovation, but no effect was found for group reflexivity. The interplay between job design and group reflexivity reveals a more complex picture. While the positive effect of job control is augmented in the presence of high reflexivity, in contrast, task complexity is negatively associated with innovation in teams with high reflexivity. Results are discussed from a time and cognitive resource perspective. Furthermore, the development of context‐specific models on group reflexivity is proposed.