Researchers’ Perceptions of Ethical Authorship Distribution in Collaborative Research Teams

Science and Engineering Ethics - Authorship is commonly used as the basis for the measurement of research productivity. It influences career progression and rewards, making it a valued commodity in...     

Social anxiety and perceptions of likeability by peers in children

The current study aimed to investigate the discrepancy between self-reported and peer-reported likeability among children, and the relation with social anxiety, depression, and social support. In total, 532 children between 7 and 12 years completed questionnaires about social anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and social support, estimated their own likeability, and indicated how much they liked their classmates. Children with higher levels of social anxiety or depression overestimated their likeability less or even underestimated their likeability. Social anxiety symptoms, but not depressive symptoms, were significant predictors of the discrepancy. Social support was positively related to likeability and negatively related to social anxiety, but did not moderate the association between social anxiety symptoms and perception accuracy of likeability. These results are in line with cognitive theories of childhood social anxiety, and they stress the importance of using multi-informant measures when studying the relation between social anxiety and social functioning in children.     

Irrational Beliefs and Basic Assumptions in Bereaved University Students: A Comparison Study

Several authors have argued that the loss of a loved one triggers changes in people's beliefs and assumptions, and that these changes play a role in emotional problems after bereavement. The present study was an attempt to investigate these hypotheses. Thirty students who had been confronted with the death of a parent or sibling, on average nearly 3 years ago, were compared with 30 nonbereaved matched control subjects on different measures assessing basic assumptions and irrational beliefs as defined in REBT. In line with the notion that bereavement has an impact on people's basic assumptions, results showed that bereaved students had a less positive view of the meaningfulness of the world and the worthiness of the self than their nonbereaved counterparts. Also, in accord with the notion that the tendency to think irrationally is likely to increase after a stressful life event, the bereaved were found to have higher levels of irrational thinking. Furthermore, it was found that the degree to which bereaved individuals endorsed general as well as bereavement-specific irrational beliefs was significantly associated with the intensity of symptoms of traumatic grief. Conversely, none of the basic assumptions was associated with traumatic grief. Beliefs reflecting low frustration tolerance explained most variance in traumatic grief. Clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Conflict management styles and work-related well-being among higher education employees

The objective of the study was to assess the relationship between conflict management styles and work-related well-being of employees in a higher education institution in South Africa. Participants were academic personnel (n = 180) and support staff (n = 201), of which 59.9% were females and 29.9% were black African participants of a large South African university. They completed self-report measures of conflict management and work-related well-being. The data were analysed to predict work-related well-being from conflict management styles and to determine the differences between support staff and academic personnel regarding conflict management styles and work-related well-being. Findings indicated the conflict management style of compromise to predict lower levels of engagement and higher levels of disengagement. Support staff reported to utilise the compromising and dominating style more than did academic personnel. Diversity in conflict management styles may serve organisations better than a monolithic conflict management style.     

Name that percussive tune: Associative memory and amplitude envelope†

A series of experiments demonstrated novel effects of amplitude envelope on associative memory, with tones exhibiting naturally decaying amplitude envelopes (e.g., those made by two wine glasses clinking) better associated with target objects than amplitude-invariant tones. In Experiment 1 participants learned associations between household objects and 4-note tone sequences constructed of spectrally matched pure tones with either “flat” or “percussive” amplitude envelopes. Those hearing percussive tones correctly recalled significantly more sequence–object associations. Experiment 2 demonstrated that participants hearing percussive tones learned the associations more quickly. Experiment 3 used “reverse percussive” tones (percussive tones played backwards) to test whether differences in overall energy might account for this effect, finding they did not lead to the same level of performance as percussive tones. Experiment 4 varied the envelope at encoding and retrieval to determine which stage of the task was most affected by the envelope manipulation. Participants hearing percussive tones at both encoding and retrieval performed significantly better than the other three groups (i.e., flat at encoding/percussive at retrieval, etc.). We conclude that amplitude envelope plays an important role in learning and memory, a finding with relevance to psychological research on audition and associative memory, as well as practical relevance for improving human–computer interface design.     

The role of effort in perceiving distance

Berkeley proposed that space is perceived in terms of effort. Consistent with his proposal, the present studies show that perceived egocentric distance increases when people are encumbered by wearing a heavy backpack or have completed a visual-motor adaptation that reduces the anticipated optic flow coinciding with walking effort. In accord with Berkeley's proposal and Gibson's theory of affordances, these studies show that the perception of spatial layout is influenced by locomotor effort.     

Teaching for adaptive expertise in biomedical engineering ethics

This paper considers an approach to teaching ethics in bioengineering based on the How People Learn (HPL) framework. Curricula based on this framework have been effective in mathematics and science instruction from the kindergarten to the college levels. This framework is well suited to teaching bioengineering ethics because it helps learners develop “adaptive expertise”. Adaptive expertise refers to the ability to use knowledge and experience in a domain to learn in unanticipated situations. It differs from routine expertise, which requires using knowledge appropriately to solve routine problems. Adaptive expertise is an important educational objective for bioengineers because the regulations and knowledge base in the discipline are likely to change significantly over the course of their careers. This study compares the performance of undergraduate bioengineering students who learned about ethics for stem cell research using the HPL method of instruction to the performance of students who learned following a standard lecture sequence. Both groups learned the factual material equally well, but the HPL group was more prepared to act adaptively when presented with a novel situation.