Team adaptation to an unforeseen system failure: Limits of the potential aids of shared knowledge and standardized communication

The present study investigates the potential benefits of a team’s shared knowledge and standardized communication in adapting to an unforeseen change by combining literature on adaptation and team performance. Each of 20 teams performed a dynamic team task and was suddenly confronted with a simulated partial system breakdown. Results show that a methodological framework designed to describe performance adaptation to an unforeseen change in individuals can also be used to model performance adaptation in teams. The system failure was followed by a performance drop and a subsequent period of gradual performance recovery. Accuracy of teams’ shared knowledge correlated positively with performance before and after the change, confirming and extending the literature on shared mental models. However, the amount of knowledge similarity did not aid teams in adapting to the unforeseen system breakdown. In addition, improving teams’ standardized communication had no damping effect on the sudden performance drop and neither helped them during the subsequent recovery period. These results show that even though shared knowledge and efficient communication are of high value to team performance and success, these characteristics are limited in aiding adaptive team performance after unforeseen unique changes that force team members to update their strategies.     

Configurations of unemployment,reemployment, and psychological well-being: A longitudinal study of unemployed individuals in Portugal

This study examined how four different configurations of unemployment and reemployment (defined by history of past unemployment and unemployment/reemployment 3 years later) related to changes in psychological well-being. The longitudinal sample consisted of 566 Portuguese men and women who were unemployed at the beginning of the study. Using true change score models, we found that individuals who reported a long period of unemployment at T1 but were reemployed at T2 showed meaningful gains in positive affect and life satisfaction compared to those who had a shorter history of unemployment and were reemployed. An examination of gender differences revealed that the women who were reemployed after a long history of unemployment showed the greatest relative gains in positive affect. We conclude by noting limitations of this research and suggesting future research to address these limitations.     

The number line effect reflects top-down control

Recent evidence indicates that central directional stimuli, such as eyes and arrows, trigger rapid, reflexive shifts of spatial attention. A study by Fischer, Castel, Dodd, and Pratt (2003) suggested that a similar effect might also apply to central numbers, as if a digit's meaning causes attention to be oriented to its relative position on a left-to-right mental number line. However, unlike central eyes and arrows, the orienting effect for central digits emerges slowly, suggesting that top-down endogenous processes may be mediating this effect. Here, we report a series of three experiments that strongly support this hypothesis. Experiment 1 replicated Fischer et al.'s left-to-right number line effect. Experiment 2 showed that this effect could be completely reversed by merely asking participants to imagine a number line running from right to left. Experiment 3 showed that a left-to-right number line effect could be abolished by presenting targets above and below central fixation, as well as to the left and right of center. Experiment 3 also showed that other mental sets, such as imagining a clock, result in attention's being oriented in accordance with where the central digits are represented on a clock face. Together, these data indicate that the spatial representations and attentional orienting related to the perception of digits are both fragile and flexible and depend critically on the top-down spatial mental sets adopted by individuals.     

Pilot programs in newborn screening

The term "pilot study" has been used over the years to describe the evaluation of the many elements involved in deciding whether a proposed condition should be added to a newborn screening (NBS) panel, and until recently, was unilaterally used to describe the evaluation of the assay to be used before the condition was officially adopted by a state for its newborn screening panel. Since Guthrie's introduction of screening for PKU, each time a new condition was added to the panel, the screening assay itself was validated through a population-based trial, in which the test was performed with de-identified samples to avoid association between the test result and the infant. This is considered by the laboratory as the "pilot phase" of adding a new condition. To advance the science of NBS, especially to accommodate new technologies that may provide new types of information (genetic versus physiological) for each new condition, pilot programs are essential. Involvement of the clinical community serves to improve these evaluations and provides the needed clinical validation of decisions made as a result of it. This paper describes the historical context of pilot programs in population-based NBS that utilize laboratory-based markers as indicators of concern; specifically, three applications that demonstrate different approaches to the use of pilots in adding conditions to a NBS panel are described.     

The concept of risk and responsible conduct of research

Assessment of risk is one of the key issues in the field of responsible conduct of research which covers discourses of research ethics and research integrity. The principle of minimizing risks and balancing of risks and benefits is one of the main requirements of research ethics. In addition, the content of informed consent that is another fundamental principle of research ethics derives from the assessment of risks and benefits related to a particular research project. Risk assessment also plays a crucial role in methodological design of the research project. This is an important point where research ethics and research integrity discourses overlap. Firstly, because the choice of a control group (e.g., placebo control) is a key ethical issue related to the protection of the research subjects' interests. Secondly, because the quality of the research data, that is one of the key elements of research integrity, is closely connected to the choice of research methodology as well. The problem of biased interpretation or manipulation of risk related features of biomedical research should also be taken into account. Despite the importance of the concept of risk to the field of biomedical research, its relevance has not yet attracted a sufficient attention in the responsible conduct of research debate.     

Teaching ethics: More than an honor code

An honor code is certainly a good place to start teaching engineering students about ethics, but teaching students to live honorably requires far more effort than memorizing a code of ethics statement or applying it just to academic performance. In the School of Engineering at Grand Valley State University, we have followed the model provided by the United States Military Academy at West Point. For our students this involves an introduction to the Honor Code as part of a larger Honor Concept at the very beginning of their studies and then making it an integral part of their preparation as engineers. The challenge is significant because the culture at large does not support living with an Honor Concept. This paper will begin with a discussion of the cultural context in which we must teach, because that context has changed significantly in the years since many faculty members were students themselves. The rest of the paper will detail the approach that we have taken to teach ethics as an engineer’s way of life. “The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be. All human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.” Plato An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2005 conference, Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology, Linking Workplace Ethics and Education, co-hosted by Gonzaga University and Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 9–10 June 2005.