Becoming team players: team members' mastery of teamwork knowledge as a predictor of team task proficiency and observed teamwork effectiveness

The authors explored the idea that teams consisting of members who, on average, demonstrate greater mastery of relevant teamwork knowledge will demonstrate greater task proficiency and observed teamwork effectiveness. In particular, the authors posited that team members' mastery of designated teamwork knowledge predicts better team task proficiency and higher observer ratings of effective teamwork, even while controlling for team task proficiency. The authors investigated these hypotheses by developing a structural model and testing it with field data from 92 teams (1,158 team members) in a United States Air Force officer development program focusing on a transportable set of teamwork competencies. The authors obtained proficiency scores on 3 different types of team tasks as well as ratings of effective teamwork from observers. The empirical model supported the authors' hypotheses.     

Die Selektion dimensionaler räumlicher Präpositionen: automatisch und nicht ressourcenadaptierend

The selection of dimensional spatial prepositions: automatic and not resource adaptive Summary. Speakers were required to generate dimensional spatial expressions in order to specify the position of a to-be-localized object (LO) relative to a reference object (RO). Placing LO in different positions around RO enabled us to establish the areas of application for the different German spatial terms. Canonical expressions (to the right of/ to the left of or above/ below) were only used if LO was placed horizontally or vertically aligned with RO. In all other directions combined expressions, e.g. 'rechts oben' (to the right and above) were used, which are common in German. These areas of application were of the same shape when subjects were under time pressure (Experiment 1). Additionally, a concurrent secondary task which was proven having high cognitive demands (Experiment 2) did not influence the area of application (Experiment 3). We conclude from these results that the selection of dimensional prepositions is automatic and that it is not resource adaptive. Zusammenfassung. SprecherInnen sollten ein zu lokalisierendes Objekt (LO) relativ zu einem Referenzpunkt (RO) sprachlich durch dimensionale räumliche Ausdrücke lokalisieren. LO wurde in unterschiedlichen Richtungen um RO platziert, sodass sich die Anwendbarkeitsräume für die verschiedenen räumlichen Ausdrücke im Deutschen bestimmen ließen. Die kanonischen Bezeichner (rechts von /links von oder über/unter) wurden praktisch nur bei direkt horizontaler oder vertikaler Lage von LO gewählt, in allen anderen Fällen wurden kombinierte Ausdrücke (z.B. rechts oben) benutzt. Diese Anwendbarkeitsräume änderten sich nicht, wenn die Personen unter Zeitdruck produzierten (Experiment 1). Eine gleichzeitig zu bearbeitende Nebenaufgabe, die das kognitive System stark belastet (Experiment 2), führte ebenfalls zu keiner Änderung der Anwendbarkeitsräume (Experiment 3). Wir schließen daraus, dass die Selektion der räumlichen Ausdrücke automatisch erfolgt und dass sie nicht ressourcenadaptierend ist.     

Assessing Deictic Relational Responding in Individuals With Social Anxiety Disorder: Evidence of Perspective-Taking Difficulties

The Psychological Record - The present study uses a relational frame approach (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, and Roche, 2001) to perspective taking for individuals suffering from social anxiety disorder...     

Longitudinal Effects of OCB on Cadre Selection and Pursuing a Career as Militia Cadre in the Swiss Armed Forces

In the present investigation longitudinal data obtained from recruits undergoing basic military training in the Swiss Armed Forces were used to examine the effects of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) on a subsequent cadre selection and the willingness to voluntarily pursue a career as militia cadre. Results of the hierarchical logistic regression controlling for demographic variables, cadre recommendation, and allocation to the desired branch of service showed OCB predicted both the selection as cadre and the voluntariness to pursue a career as militia cadre. These effects show to what extent OCB may predict significant additional effort. Results are discussed with regard to further examination of the effects of OCB on career outcomes and selection decisions.     

Enactment supports unitisation of action components and enhances the contribution of familiarity to associative recognition

Memory for actions is usually better following subject-performed tasks (SPT) than verbal tasks (VT). We hypothesised that enactment unitises the components of actions such that familiarity can support associative recognition following SPT. To examine this hypothesis, participants studied verb–object pairs in a SPT or VT condition. During testing, they discriminated between intact, recombined and new items and made Remember/Know judgments; additionally, their EEGs were recorded. Associative recognition was better following SPT than VT. Early frontal event-related potentials (ERPs) were graded according to the item status following SPT, but no such effects were found after VT. Similarly, the late parietal ERPs were graded following SPT, whereas these effects were smaller and did not differ between intact and recombined items following VT. We conclude that enactment unitised the action and object so that familiarity could contribute to associative recognition and that recollection became sensitive to the amount of the matching associative information.     

An Unconscious Universal in the Mind is Like an Immaterial Dinner in the Stomach. A Debate on Logical Generalism (1914–1919)

The debate on the a fortiori and the universal that took place between April 1914 and April 1919 in the journal Mind has a double interest for argumentation theorists. First, the discussion is an example of a philosophical polylogue that exhibits the characteristics of a quasi-engaged dialogue (Blair Blair, J. A. (2012 [1998]). “The Limits of the Dialogue Model of Argument”. Argumentation 12, pp. 325–339. Reprinted in J.A. Blair, Groundwork in the Theory of Argumentation, pp. 231–244. Dordrecht: Springer, 2012.), confirming Blair’s hypothesis that journal papers and scholarly monographs can be analyzed as turns in non-engaged or quasi-engaged dialogues. It could be said that philosophical argumentation is dialectical but not dialogical. Second, the debate is a discussion in argumentation theory. Generalism in the theory of argument claims that the very possibility of arguing depends on a suitable supply of general rules that specify what kinds of conclusions can be drawn from what kinds of data, while particularism denies this. Although the terminology may be alien, I will also show that the debate on the a fortiori and the universal was a debate on generalism and particularism.

     

How chunks, long-term working memory and templates offer a cognitive explanation for neuroimaging data on expertise acquisition: a two-stage framework

Our review of research on PET and fMRI neuroimaging of experts and expertise acquisition reveals two apparently discordant patterns in working-memory-related tasks. When experts are involved, studies show activations in brain regions typically activated during long-term memory tasks that are not observed with novices, a result that is compatible with functional brain reorganization. By contrast, when involving novices and training programs, studies show a decrease in brain regions typically activated during working memory tasks, with no functional reorganization. We suggest that the latter result is a consequence of practice periods that do not allow important structures to be completely acquired: knowledge structures (i.e., Ericsson and Kintsch's retrieval structures; Gobet and Simon's templates) and in a lesser way, chunks. These structures allow individuals to improve performance on working-memory tasks, by enabling them to use part of long-term memory as working memory, causing a cerebral functional reorganization. Our hypothesis is that the two brain activation patterns observed in the literature are not discordant, but involve the same process of expertise acquisition in two stages: from decreased activation to brain functional reorganization. The dynamic of these two physiological stages depend on the two above-mentioned psychological constructs: chunks and knowledge structures.