Extraversion and job performance: How context relevance and bandwidth specificity create a non-linear,positive, and asymptotic relationship

The personality factor of extraversion has been associated with performance in some occupations (e.g., sales), and it has been one of the most consistent personality predictors of leadership. Recent research indicates that extraversion could have a non-linear relation with performance. At the same time, many researchers have contended that scholars should utilize measures of personality narrower than factors and that the bandwidth and relevance of personality should fit both the criterion and the context of a study. We argue and find that by examining an aspect of extraversion (i.e., social potency) in a particular vocational context (i.e., enterprising job demands), non-linear, asymptotic (diminishing marginal benefits) effects will be demonstrated on a relevant type of performance (i.e., enterprising job performance). We review implications, limitations, and avenues for future research.     

Underlying Spatial Skills to Support Navigation Through Large,Unconstrained Environments

Studies of spatial navigation in real‐world settings have been limited to neighborhoods, campuses, and buildings. These locations have structural components, such as roads or hallways, which may direct navigation. The current study assessed navigational skills within a large‐scale forested environment that contained few pre‐established paths. Participants were asked to find flags using only a map and compass; dependent variables included target‐finding accuracy and efficiency. In addition, measurements of sense of direction, strategy, and working memory were taken to identify how these cognitive abilities influence performance. The results demonstrate the expected correlations between sense of direction and navigational success. An unexpected correlation between spatial working memory and navigational success was also found, which was the only significant predictor of performance when all measures were regressed together. These results suggest that studies should not forget basic cognitive abilities, which may predict success more than measures of sense of direction. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Partial Verbal Redundancy in Multimedia Presentations for Writing Strategy Instruction

Multimedia instructional materials require learners to select, organize, and integrate information across multiple modalities. To facilitate these comprehension processes, a variety of multimedia design principles have been proposed. This study further explores the redundancy principle by manipulating the degree of partial redundancy between written and narrated content. Ninety high school students learned about cohesion via animated lesson videos from the Writing Pal intelligent tutoring system. Videos were crafted such that narrated and onscreen written content overlapped by 10%, 26%, or 50%. Across conditions, students gained significantly in their knowledge of cohesion‐building strategies and the effects of cohesion on writing quality. However, degree of redundancy did not influence learning gains. Additionally, although more‐skilled readers outperformed less‐skilled readers, reading skill did not interact with the degree of redundancy. These results provide evidence that a broad range of partially redundant multimedia materials may be viable instructional tools that benefit diverse learners. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Specificity Matters: Criterion-Related Validity of Contextualized and Facet Measures of Conscientiousness in Predicting College Student Performance

To enhance the predictive validity of self-report personality measures, 2 distinct ways of increasing specificity of personality measures have been proposed in the literature—contextual specificity (i.e., providing a contextual referent) and content specificity (i.e., focusing on more specific constructs such as the Big Five facets). This study extends this line of research by examining whether there is an optimal way to configure, align, or integrate contextual and content specificity using measures of conscientiousness to predict college student success. A sample of 478 undergraduate students completed 4 measures of conscientiousness that varied in the level of content and contextual specificity. These forms of specificity were crossed to yield 4 distinct measures of conscientiousness. We then evaluated and compared the relative importance and the incremental importance of these different measures in the prediction of academic success. Superior predictive validity was found for both contextualized and facet measures of conscientiousness compared to a measure of global conscientiousness in predicting grade-point average and a broader behavioral criterion of student performance. When contextual and content specificity approaches were compared and combined, we observed the strongest predictive validity when the level of specificity is appropriately matched between predictor and criterion.     

Bi-Directional Relationship Between Self-Regulation and Improved Eating: Temporal Associations With Exercise,Reduced Fatigue,and Weight Loss

ABSTRACT. Severely obese men and women (body mass index ≥ 35 ≤ 55 kg/m²; M_age = 44.8 years, SD = 9.3) were randomly assigned to a 6-month physical activity support treatment paired with either nutrition education (n = 83) or cognitive-behavioral nutrition (n = 82) methods for weight loss. Both groups had significant improvements in physical activity, fatigue, self-regulation for eating, and fruit and vegetable intake. Compared to those in the nutrition education group, participants in the behavioral group demonstrated greater overall increases in fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity. These group differences were associated with changes that occurred after Month 3. Increased physical activity predicted reduced fatigue, β = ?.19, p =.01. A reciprocal relationship between the mediators of that relationship, which were changes in self-regulation and fruit and vegetable intake, was identified. There was significantly greater weight loss over six months in the behavioral nutrition group when contrasted with the nutrition education group. Self-regulation for eating and fruit and vegetable intake were significant predictors of weight loss over both three and six months. Findings enabled a better understanding of psychosocial effects on temporal aspects of weight loss and may lead to more effective behavioral treatments for weight loss.     

Understanding the effects of one's actions upon hidden objects and the development of search behaviour in 7‐month‐old infants

Infants' understanding of how their actions affect the visibility of hidden objects may be a crucial aspect of the development of search behaviour. To investigate this possibility, 7‐month‐old infants took part in a two‐day training study. At the start of the first session, and at the end of the second, all infants performed a search task with a hiding‐well. On both days, infants had an additional training experience. The ‘Agency group’ learnt to spin a turntable to reveal a hidden toy, whilst the ‘Means‐End’ group learnt the same means‐end motor action, but the toy was always visible. The Agency group showed greater improvement on the hiding‐well search task following their training experience. We suggest that the Agency group's turntable experience was effective because it provided the experience of bringing objects back into visibility by one's actions. Further, the performance of the Agency group demonstrates generalized transfer of learning across situations with both different motor actions and stimuli in infants as young as 7 months.     

Parental socioeconomic status and the neural basis of arithmetic: differential relations to verbal and visuo‐spatial representations

We examined the relation of parental socioeconomic status (SES) to the neural bases of subtraction in school‐age children (9‐ to 12‐year‐olds). We independently localized brain regions subserving verbal versus visuo‐spatial representations to determine whether the parental SES‐related differences in children's reliance on these neural representations vary as a function of math skill. At higher SES levels, higher skill was associated with greater recruitment of the left temporal cortex, identified by the verbal localizer. At lower SES levels, higher skill was associated with greater recruitment of right parietal cortex, identified by the visuo‐spatial localizer. This suggests that depending on parental SES, children engage different neural systems to solve subtraction problems. Furthermore, SES was related to the activation in the left temporal and frontal cortex during the independent verbal localizer task, but it was not related to activation during the independent visuo‐spatial localizer task. Differences in activation during the verbal localizer task in turn were related to differences in activation during the subtraction task in right parietal cortex. The relation was stronger at lower SES levels. This result suggests that SES‐related differences in the visuo‐spatial regions during subtraction might be based in SES‐related verbal differences.     

The development of route learning in Down syndrome,Williams syndrome and typical development: investigations with virtual environments

The ability to navigate new environments has a significant impact on the daily life and independence of people with learning difficulties. The aims of this study were to investigate the development of route learning in Down syndrome (N = 50), Williams syndrome (N = 19), and typically developing children between 5 and 11 years old (N = 108); to investigate use of landmarks; and to relate cognitive functions to route‐learning ability in these groups. Overall, measures of attention and long‐term memory were strongly associated with route learning, even once non‐verbal ability was controlled for. All of the groups, including 5‐ to 6‐year‐old TD children, demonstrated the ability to make use of all landmark types to aid route learning; those near junctions, those further from junctions, and also distant landmarks (e.g. church spire, radio mast). Individuals with WS performed better than a matched subset of TD children on more difficult routes; we suggest that this is supported by relatively strong visual feature recognition in the disorder. Participants with DS who had relatively high levels of non‐verbal ability performed at a similar level to TD participants.