Understanding planning ability measured by the Tower of London: an evaluation of its internal structure by latent variable modeling

The Tower of London (TOL) is a widely used instrument for assessing planning ability. Inhibition and (spatial) working memory are assumed to contribute to performance on the TOL, but findings about the relationship between these cognitive processes are often inconsistent. Moreover, the influence of specific properties of TOL problems on cognitive processes and difficulty level is often not taken into account. Furthermore, it may be expected that several planning strategies can be distinguished that cannot be extracted from the total score. In this study, a factor analysis and a latent class regression analysis were performed to address these issues. The results showed that 4 strategy groups that differed with respect to preplanning time could be distinguished. The effect of problem properties also differed for the 4 groups. Additional analyses showed that the groups differed on average planning performance but that there were no significant differences between inhibition and spatial working memory performance. Finally, it seemed that multiple factors influence performance on the TOL, the most important ones being the score measurements, the problem properties, and strategy use.     

Psychological contract breach and outcomes: Combining meta-analysis and structural equation models

In this study, meta-analytic procedures were used to examine the relationships between psychological contract perceived breach and certain outcome variables, such as organizational commitment, job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB). Our review of the literature generated 41 independent samples in which perceived breach was used as a predictor of these personal and organizational outcomes. A medium effect size (ES) for desirable outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational trust, OCB and performance) was obtained (r=-.35). For undesirable outcomes (neglect in role duties and intention to leave), ES were also medium (r=.31). When comparing attitudinal (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational trust) and behavioural outcomes (OCB, neglect in role duties and performance), a stronger ES was found for attitudinal (r=-.24) than for behavioural outcomes (r=-.11). Potential moderator variables were examined, and it was found that they explained only a percentage of variability of primary studies. Structural equation analysis of the pooled meta-analytical correlation matrix indicated that the relationships of perceived breach with satisfaction, OCB, intention to leave and performance are fully mediated by organizational trust and commitment. Results are discussed in order to suggest theoretical and empirical implications.     

Differential effects of beta-adrenergic receptor blockade in basolateral amygdala or insular cortex on incidental and associative taste learning

The importance of central β-adrenergic system has been essentially investigated in aversive/emotional learning tasks. However, recent data suggest that the β-adrenergic system is also required for incidental taste learning. In the present study we evaluated in rats whether β-adrenergic receptor activity is required for taste habituation, an incidental taste learning, and also for conditioned taste aversion (CTA) learning, an associative learning. To address this issue, a low dose of the β-adrenergic antagonist propranolol was infused before learning in either the basolateral amygdala (BLA) or the insular cortex (IC), two forebrain areas reported to play a key role in taste memory formation. Incidental taste learning was assessed using a single presentation of the sweet taste saccharin 0.1%, which is sufficient to increase saccharin consumption (relative to water baseline) during a second presentation. CTA was assessed by pairing the first saccharin 0.1% presentation with a delayed gastric malaise, thus causing a decrease in saccharin consumption (relative to water baseline) during a second presentation. Propranolol infusion in BLA (1 μg/0.2μl) or IC (2.5 μg/0.5 μl) before the first taste exposure impaired incidental taste learning but did not affect CTA. These results highlight the important role played by the β-adrenergic receptor activation in cortical and amygdaloid structures during taste learning. Moreover, they are the first to suggest that incidental learning is more sensitive to blockade of noradrenergic system than associative learning.     

The impact of perceived effort–reward imbalance on workplace bullying: also a matter of organizational identification

Work environments characterized by inadequate work conditions have been widely recognized as being particularly prone to the occurrence and exacerbation of bullying behavior. Accordingly, this longitudinal study aimed to explore whether the impact of effort–reward imbalance (ERI) on workplace bullying was mediated by a lower perception of organizational justice, and whether the association between ERI and perceptions of justice was moderated by organizational identification. In the current study, a sample of N = 195 Spanish employees from different occupational sectors filled in an online questionnaire at two different times with a time lag of 8 months. In line with the hypothesized moderated mediation model, results showed that organizational justice mediated the impact of ERI on workplace bullying. Moreover, the effect of perceived ERI on organizational justice was stronger for employees with low organizational identification. Overall, this study can contribute to better understanding how and when ERI boosts the risk of workplace bullying. Accordingly, early intervention designed to buffer the negative effects of ERI should focus on increasing individual levels of organizational identification.     

Quality of Life (QoL) in a Brazilian Sample of Older Adults: The Role of Sociodemographic Variables and Depression Symptoms

The aim of the present study was to identify relevant variables associated with Quality of Life (QoL) in older adults. Older adults, up to 60 years old, were interviewed. Subjects were recruited through convenience sampling. 339 paticipants, who were stratified by gender, age, and subjective perception of health and illness, answered questions on sociodemographic issues, QoL (WHOQOL-100) and depressive symptomathology (Beck Depression Inventory—BDI). The multiple linear regression analysis showed associations of overall perception of QoL with depression levels, subjective perception of health status and gender. The individual analysis of each domain concluded that depression levels are correlated to all QoL domains, while health status was associated with physical, psychological, independence level and social relationship domains. Other variables were also assessed. The assessment of older adults concerning their QoL perceptions is associated with gender, age, marital status, social class, literacy rate, perception of health, and more substantially associated with depressive symptoms levels. Nevertheless, some limitations of this study and further ones are suggested.     

Role of muscarinic M1 receptors in inhibitory avoidance and contextual fear conditioning

The objective of the present study was to observe the effects of pre-training or post-training administration of dicyclomine, a M1 muscarinic antagonist, on inhibitory avoidance (IA) and contextual fear conditioning (CFC) and to investigate if the effects observed with the pre-training administration of dicyclomine are state-dependent. For each behavioral procedure (IA and CFC) groups of Wistar male rats were treated with saline or dicyclomine either 30 min before training (pre-training), immediately after training or 30 min before training/30 min before test (pre-training/pre-test). The animals were tested 24 h after training. The acquisition of IA and CFC was impaired by pre-training administration of dicyclomine. The consolidation of both tasks was not affected by dicyclomine given immediately after training. Pre-training/pre-test administration of dicyclomine impaired both tasks, an effect similar to that observed in the group which only received pre-training administration. Pre-test treatment induced dissociation between both tasks, impairing CFC retrieval, without interfering with the animals avoidance response. These results show that the dicyclomine did not affect IA and CFC consolidation, suggesting specific involvement of M1 muscarinic receptor only in acquisition these tasks, and these effects was not state-dependent. However, it is possible that the retrieval of these tasks may be mediated, at least in part, by different neurochemical mechanisms and may be dissociated by dicyclomine.     

Unified syntax in the bilingual mind

Are syntactic representations shared across languages, and how might that inform the nature of syntactic computations? To investigate these issues, we presented French-English bilinguals with mixed-language word sequences for 200 ms and asked them to report the identity of one word at a post-cued location. The words either formed an interpretable grammatical sequence via shared syntax (e.g., ses feet sont big – where the French words ses and sont translate into his and are, respectively) or an ungrammatical sequence with the same words (e.g., sont feet ses big). Word identification was significantly greater in the grammatical sequences – a bilingual sentence superiority effect. These results not only provide support for shared syntax, but also reveal a fascinating ability of bilinguals to simultaneously connect words from their two languages through these shared syntactic representations.

     

Social comparison and perceived breach of psychological contract: their effects on burnout in a multigroup analysis

This study focuses on the mediator role of social comparison in the relationship between perceived breach of psychological contract and burnout. A previous model showing the hypothesized effects of perceived breach on burnout, both direct and mediated, is proposed. The final model reached an optimal fit to the data and was confirmed through multigroup analysis using a sample of Spanish teachers (N = 401) belonging to preprimary, primary, and secondary schools. Multigroup analyses showed that the model fit all groups adequately.