I Cannot Afford to Have a Life: Employee Adaptation to Feelings of Job Insecurity

This study examines the links between employee perceptions of job insecurity, the work–nonwork interface, and stress‐related outcomes. Drawing on an adaptation perspective, we expect employees feeling greater job insecurity to engage in adaptive work behaviors including less use of work–nonwork support programs and greater willingness to let work permeate into one's personal life, which in turn will associate with greater work–nonwork conflict and emotional exhaustion. Data were collected from employees within a large energy company at 2 points in time. Results support the model, offering important insights into employee behavioral responses to job insecurity and key mechanisms through which insecurity may foster diminished employee well‐being.     

Contracting,equal, and expanding learning schedules: The optimal distribution of learning sessions depends on retention interval

In laboratory and applied learning experiments, researchers have extensively investigated the optimal distribution of two learning sessions (i.e., initial learning and one relearning session) for the learning of verbatim materials. However, research has not yet provided a satisfying and conclusive answer to the optimal scheduling of three learning sessions (i.e., initial learning and two relearning sessions) across educationally relevant time intervals. Should the to-be-learned material be repeated at decreasing intervals (contracting schedule), constant intervals (equal schedule), or increasing intervals (expanding schedule) between learning sessions? Different theories and memory models (e.g., study-phase retrieval theory, contextual variability theory, ACT-R, and the Multiscale Context Model) make distinct predictions about the optimal learning schedule. We discuss the extant theories and derive clear predictions from each of them. To test these predictions empirically, we conducted an experiment in which participants studied and restudied paired associates with a contracting, equal, or expanding learning schedule. Memory performance was assessed immediately, 1 day, 7 days, or 35 days later with free- and cued-recall tests. Our results revealed that the optimal learning schedule is conditional on the length of the retention interval: A contracting learning schedule was beneficial for retention intervals up to 7 days, but both equal and expanding learning schedules were better for a long retention interval of 35 days. Our findings can be accommodated best by the contextual variability theory and indicate that revisions are needed to existing memory models. Our results are practically relevant, and their implications for real-world learning are discussed.     

Discussion of Slade “Imagining Fear”

This discussion addresses the importance of fear as a key feature of attachment, examining some of the implications of Slade’s argument both for clinical work and for understanding of developmental process. The discussion also is focused on the kinds of genetic and evolutionary theories most useful in thinking about interactive effects, namely epigenetics, the study of genes in context. Finally the discussion identifies relational theory, which focuses on fear as an implicit dimension of attachment. Bromberg’s work on dissociation is cited as an example of work in which fear plays a prominent role.     

Social emotional ability development (SEAD): An integrated model of practical emotion-based competencies

Motivation and Emotion - Social emotional abilities (i.e., specific skills), defined as the set of cognitive abilities, emotion-based knowledge, and behavioral competencies (i.e., skill levels)...     

Book reviews

Miles, T. R., & Miles, E. (1990). Dyslexia: A hundred years on. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. pp. 214. ISBN 0-335-09541-0. £32.50 (hardback); ISBN 0-335-09540-2. £10.99 (paperback).

Altmann, G.T.M. (Ed.) (1990). Cognitive models of Speech processing: Psycholinguistic and computational perspectives. Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books/MIT Press. Pp. 552. ISBN 0-262-01117-4. £49.50.

Watt, R. (1991). Understanding vision. London: Academic Press. Pp. 301. ISBN 012-738501-0. £18.95.

Hunt, R.W.G. (1991). Measuring Colour (second edition). Chichester: Ellis Horwood. Pp. 313. ISBN 0-13-567686-X. £55.50.

Davidoff, J. (1991). Cognition through color. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Pp. 217. ISBN 0-262-04115-4. £24.95.     

The relationship between cerebral lateralization and cognitive ability: suggested criteria for empirical tests

Many recent investigations in cognitive neuropsychology have been devoted to a fundamental question: are individual differences in cerebral lateralization reliably associated with differences in cognitive ability? The results have been highly inconsistent and inconclusive, with some studies showing a relationship, others not. We propose that research on this question has been hampered by inadequate clarification of the criteria required for a proper test. We suggest what these criteria should be, and, for purposes of illustration, we evaluate representative tests of the lateralization--cognition hypothesis in light of these criteria. We conclude that studies that meet our criteria lend at least a modest measure of support for the hypothesis.