The contextual role of subjective age in the chronological age/absenteeism relationship in blue and white collar teams

Organizations in the twenty-first century face the challenges of an increasingly ageing workforce, which have an effect on organizational health and productivity. As chronological age has shown to be an insufficient indicator of employees’ health and, in particular, absenteeism, we apply the subjective age concept (i.e., how old an employee feels) at the team-level to explain the average chronological age/average short-term absenteeism relationship. We develop a theoretical framework for underlying processes, combining the subjective age research with the socioemotional selectivity theory and team contagion processes. We test our predictions in a time-lagged team-level sample of 1,015 teams with 12,926 employees to find a significant interactive effect of average chronological age and average subjective age on average short-term absenteeism in teams. The relationship is negative and significant when average subjective age is low. Under high-average subjective age, the relationship is non-significant. Furthermore, this interactive effect (average chronological age/average subjective age) is moderated by job type (white versus blue collar) in the form of a three-way interaction, indicating that the effect is only significant among white collar teams. We hope to enrich the theoretical debate on age and absenteeism and provide organizations with a new perspective on ageing work teams.     

Anomalies in the detection of change: When changes in sample size are mistaken for changes in proportions

Detecting changes, in performance, sales, markets, risks, social relations, or public opinions, constitutes an important adaptive function. In a sequential paradigm devised to investigate detection of change, every trial provides a sample of binary outcomes (e.g., correct vs. incorrect student responses). Participants have to decide whether the proportion of a focal feature (e.g., correct responses) in the population from which the sample is drawn has decreased, remained constant, or increased. Strong and persistent anomalies in change detection arise when changes in proportional quantities vary orthogonally to changes in absolute sample size. Proportional increases are readily detected and nonchanges are erroneously perceived as increases when absolute sample size increases. Conversely, decreasing sample size facilitates the correct detection of proportional decreases and the erroneous perception of nonchanges as decreases. These anomalies are however confined to experienced samples of elementary raw events from which proportions have to be inferred inductively. They disappear when sample proportions are described as percentages in a normalized probability format. To explain these challenging findings, it is essential to understand the inductive-learning constraints imposed on decisions from experience.     

Scalar Implicatures Versus Presuppositions: The View from Acquisition

This paper reports an experimental investigation of presuppositions and scalar implicatures in language acquisition. Recent proposals (Chemla 2009; Romoli 2012, Romoli in J Semant 1–47, 2014) posit the same mechanisms for generating both types of inferences, in contrast to the traditional view. We used a Covered Box picture selection task to compare the interpretations assigned by two groups of children (4/5 and 7 year olds) and by adults, in response to sentences with presuppositions and ones with either ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’ scalar implicatures. The main finding was that the behavior of children and adults differed across inference types. This asymmetry is consistent with the traditional perspective, but poses a challenge for the more recent uniform accounts. We discuss how the latter could be amended to account for these findings, and also relate the findings to previous results on presupposition processing. Finally, we discuss an unexpected difference found between direct and indirect scalar implicatures.     

P300 amplitude variations,prior probabilities,and likelihoods: A Bayesian ERP study

The capability of the human brain for Bayesian inference was assessed by manipulating probabilistic contingencies in an urn-ball task. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in response to stimuli that differed in their relative frequency of occurrence (.18 to .82). A veraged ERPs with sufficient signal-to-noise ratio (relative frequency of occurrence > .5) were used for further analysis. Research hypotheses about relationships between probabilistic contingencies and ERP amplitude variations were formalized as (in-)equality constrained hypotheses. Conducting Bayesian model comparisons, we found that manipulations of prior probabilities and likelihoods were associated with separately modifiable and distinct ERP responses. P3a amplitudes were sensitive to the degree of prior certainty such that higher prior probabilities were related to larger frontally distributed P3a waves. P3b amplitudes were sensitive to the degree of likelihood certainty such that lower likelihoods were associated with larger parietally distributed P3b waves. These ERP data suggest that these antecedents of Bayesian inference (prior probabilities and likelihoods) are coded by the human brain.     

An argument against global no miracles arguments

Synthese - Howson famously argues that the no-miracles argument, stating that the success of science indicates the approximate truth of scientific theories, is a base rate fallacy: it neglects the...     

Clinical Ethics Consultation in the Transition Countries of Central and Eastern Europe

Science and Engineering Ethics - Since 1989, clinical ethics consultation in form of hospital ethics committees (HECs) was established in most of the transition countries of Central and Eastern...     

Personality Research and Assessment in the Era of Machine Learning

The increasing availability of high-dimensional, fine-grained data about human behaviour, gathered from mobile sensing studies and in the form of digital footprints, is poised to drastically alter the way personality psychologists perform research and undertake personality assessment. These new kinds and quantities of data raise important questions about how to analyse the data and interpret the results appropriately. Machine learning models are well suited to these kinds of data, allowing researchers to model highly complex relationships and to evaluate the generalizability and robustness of their results using resampling methods. The correct usage of machine learning models requires specialized methodological training that considers issues specific to this type of modelling. Here, we first provide a brief overview of past studies using machine learning in personality psychology. Second, we illustrate the main challenges that researchers face when building, interpreting, and validating machine learning models. Third, we discuss the evaluation of personality scales, derived using machine learning methods. Fourth, we highlight some key issues that arise from the use of latent variables in the modelling process. We conclude with an outlook on the future role of machine learning models in personality research and assessment.     

Exploring individual differences in reactions to mortality salience: does attachment style regulate terror management mechanisms?

Five studies examined the contribution of attachment style to mortality salience effects. In Study 1, mortality salience led to more severe judgments of transgressions only among anxious-ambivalent and avoidant persons but not among secure persons. In addition, whereas anxious-ambivalent persons showed immediate and delayed increases in severity judgments, avoidant persons showed this response only after a delay period. In Study 2, anxious-ambivalent persons showed immediate and delayed increases in death-thought accessibility after death reminders. Avoidant and secure persons showed this effect only after a delay period. Study 3 revealed that worldview defense in response to mortality salience reduced death-thought accessibility only among avoidant persons. Studies 4-5 revealed that mortality salience led to an increase in the sense of symbolic immortality as well as in the desire of intimacy only among secure persons, but not among avoidant and anxious-ambivalent persons.     

Team-Track: A tool for investigating tracking performance in teams

Team performance and coordination have gained considerable interest in disparate fields (e.g., aviation, process control, medicine, and wartime operations). Team-Track, a C program that allows controlled experimental manipulation of team conditions, was developed to meet the research needs resulting from this interest. Using Team-Track, one can manipulate task interdependence, team staffing, relative contributions of team members, communications, and informational displays in a low-cost environment. The dependent measure of performance generated by the program is the absolute tracking error along each dimension. The program is ideal for investigating team interactions as it allows for orthogonal manipulation of team variables, therefore accommodating a multitude of research paradigms.     

Sense of Closeness to Parents and Family Rules: A Study of Arab and Jewish Youth in Israel

The present study investigated adolescents' perception of closeness to their parents and family rules restricting their conduct, in Arab and Jewish Israeli samples. A total of 854 11th-grade high school students reported their perceptions by a self-report questionnaire. Overall, the results indicate that the Arab youths perceived more closeness toward their parents and more rules restricting their conduct, compared with their Jewish counterparts. In both cultures, girls reported more restrictions on dating and leaving home than boys. Among Israeli Arab adolescents a positive association was uncovered between closeness to parents and number of rules. No such pattern was evident among Israeli Jewish youth. These and additional findings are discussed within the context of Triandis' cross-cultural dimension of collectivism-individualism.