Verbal and cognitive distractors in driving performance while using hands-free phones

This study investigated the effect of different types of distractions related to use of a hands-free phone on driving performance. The study used three types of verbal distractors: casual conversation, simple arithmetic number guessing, and number adding, in the phone conversation. 12 adults were instructed to follow a lead vehicle on a closed-course highway in a fixed-based driving simulator. The results showed that use of a hands-free cellular phone involving verbal and cognitive distractions impaired driving performance and skill. Types of distraction produced significantly different effects on several dependent variables: the driving speed, headway (distance between the lead car and the manipulated car), brake reaction time, and number of collisions with the lead car. In general, the higher the cognitive load involved in the dialogue, the worse the driving performance.     

Gratitude Enhances Change in Athletes’ Self-Esteem: The Moderating Role of Trust in Coach

Self-esteem is a positive evaluation of oneself that can facilitate optimal functioning. However, little research has focused on its antecedents in sport. Accordingly, we adopted an interactionism perspective and proposed that gratitude, a dispositional factor, will enhance an athlete's self-esteem and affective trust in coach, a situational factor, will strengthen such a positive effect. Athletes completed measures of gratitude, affective trust in coach, and self-esteem at Time 1 and self-esteem at Time 2 after 6 months. Results showed that athletes with higher levels of gratitude increased their self-esteem over time when they had higher affective trust in their coaches.     

A Measuring Device for the Galvanic Reflex

Twenty words were scaled according to their reinforcing value. Ss rated the words according to whether they would like or dislike to have a respected person say the word after S performed a task. A frequency table was compiled which indicated the number of times each word was chosen. Items in the frequency table with a high numerical value were denoted as liked and positive; items with a low numerical value were denoted as disliked and negative. One each of the positive, negative, and neutral reinforcers was used in a verbal conditioning experiment. After “I-We” sentences, Ss—depending upon the group to which they were assigned—were given orally one of the three reinforcing words by the E. The positive reinforcer produced a rapid progressive increase in the rate of responding; the negative reinforcer, a successive decreasing rate of responding; the neutral reinforcer produced at first an increasing rate of responding, then a decreasing reinforcing characteristic. Comparison of the initial set of I-We sentences revealed that conditioning did occur in the direction the numerical values indicated.     

The Multigroup Multilevel Categorical Latent Growth Curve Models

Longitudinal data describe developmental patterns and enable predictions of individual changes beyond sampled time points. Major methodological issues in longitudinal data include modeling random effects, subject effects, growth curve parameters, and autoregressive residuals. This study embedded the longitudinal model within a multigroup multilevel framework and allowed for autoregressive residuals. The parameter in the new model can be estimated using the computer program WinBUGS, which adopts Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms. Two simulation studies were conducted. An empirical example was raised and established based on models generated by the results of empirical data, which have been fitted and compared.     

Educational Hospitality and Trust in Teacher�CStudent Relationships: A Derridarian Visiting

This paper explores the meaning of teacher?Cstudent relationships in the light of Derrida??s notions of hospitality and trust. Drawing on Derrida, the author delineates two aspects of educational hospitality: hospitality without determinacy and hospitality as self-surrender. It is argued that educational hospitality is underpinned by trust. A sound teacher?Cstudent relationship, the paper concludes, consists in educational hospitality and embedded trust.     

Comparison Facilitates Children's Learning of Names for Parts

Learning names for parts of objects can be challenging for children, as it requires overcoming their tendency to name whole objects. We test whether comparing items can facilitate learning names for their parts. Applying the structure-mapping theory of comparison leads to two predictions: (a) young children will find it easier to identify a common part between two very similar items than between two dissimilar items (because the similar pair is easier to align); (b) close alignments potentiate far alignments: children will be better able to extend a novel part name to a dissimilar object after having extended it to a similar object. In three studies, 227 preschool children mapped novel part terms to new animals or objects. Both predictions were confirmed. Children more accurately extended novel part terms to objects that were similar to the standard than to objects that were dissimilar (Experiments 1 and 2), and children more accurately extended novel part names to dissimilar objects after having extended them to similar objects (Experiment 3). We conclude that structure-mapping processes can support part learning.     

Do incompatible arguments cause extensive processing in the evaluation of arguments? The role of congruence between argument compatibility and argument quality

Previous studies have demonstrated that arguments incompatible with prior beliefs are subjected to more extensive refutational processing, scrutinized longer, and judged to be weaker than arguments compatible with prior beliefs. However, this study suggests whether extensive processing is implemented when evaluating arguments is not decided by argument compatibility, but by congruence between two evaluating tendencies elicited by both argument compatibility and argument quality. Consistent with this perspective, the results of two experiments show that relative to congruent arguments, participants judged arguments eliciting incongruent evaluating tendencies as less extreme in strength, spent more time, and felt more hesitant generating strength judgments for them. The results also show that it is mainly incongruent arguments, not congruent arguments, whose strength ratings were more closely associated with the perceived personal importance of the issue, which intensified the tendency to evaluate arguments depending on argument compatibility. These results suggest that it is the incongruity between argument compatibility and argument quality, and not simply the argument compatibility, that plays a more important role in activating an extensive processing in the evaluation of arguments.     

Are “We” Good? A Longitudinal Study of <Emphasis Type="Italic">We</Emphasis>-Talk and Stress Coping in Dual-Earner Couples

We applied the linguistic approach and a longitudinal design to investigate how dual-earner couples address work–family stress and how they reasoned with communal coping to reduce work–family stress. Although previous research indicated that we-talk may be a marker for communal coping, we argued that gender may differ in the psychological meanings of we-talk. We hypothesized that gender moderated the relationships between we-talk and satisfaction in both work and marriage. Thirty-one dual-earner couples were interviewed about how they coped with work–family stress. The data concerning work and marital satisfaction were collected twice, once during the interview and once 2 years later. The results indicated significant interactions between gender and we-talk in regard to both marital and work satisfaction. Specifically, we-talk that was used by wives increased their husbands’ work and marital satisfaction. In contrast, we-talk that was used by husbands decreased their wives’ work satisfaction. Our findings highlighted that the psychological meanings of we-talk were dependent on the talking context. The applications for reducing work–family stress were discussed.     

Conversation as a resource for influence: evidence for prototypical arguments and social identification processes

Members of eight single‐sex groups each consisting of three pro‐ and three anti‐capital punishment adherents discussed their views for 30 minutes, and afterwards individually rated ingroup and outgroup members on social influence ranking, prototypicality, and social attractiveness. From the intragroup hypothesis that speaking turns are a resource for influence (Ng & Bradac, 1993), we predicted and found that turns were correlated strongly with influence in the intergroup context. Further, using self‐categorization theory (SCT; Turner, 1985), we hypothesized that social identity processes would interact with turns, especially with turns obtained through interruptions. Interruptions encoded in prototypical utterances were more strongly correlated with social influence and prototypicality, but not social attraction, than interruptions encoded in non‐prototypical utterances. Further, interruption attempts enacted in prototypical utterances were found to be more likely to be successful than unsuccessful in obtaining turns, while those enacted in non‐prototypical utterances were more likely to be unsuccessful than successful. Additionally, interruption turns were longer when enacted in prototypical over non‐prototypical utterances. Overall, the findings suggest that the power/influence of language is interactively organized and constructed around salient self‐categorizations. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.