Coarse guidance by numerosity in visual search

In five experiments, we examined whether the number of items can guide visual focal attention. Observers searched for the target area with the largest (or smallest) number of dots (squares in Experiment 4 and “checkerboards” in Experiment 5) among distractor areas with a smaller (or larger) number of dots. Results of Experiments 1 and 2 show that search efficiency is determined by target to distractor dot ratios. In searches where target items contained more dots than did distractor items, ratios over 1.5:1 yielded efficient search. Searches for targets where target items contained fewer dots than distractor items were harder. Here, ratios needed to be lower than 1:2 to yield efficient search. When the areas of the dots and of the squares containing them were fixed, as they were in Experiments 1 and 2, dot density and total dot area increased as dot number increased. Experiment 3 removed the density and area cues by allowing dot size and total dot area to vary. This produced a marked decline in search performance. Efficient search now required ratios of above 3:1 or below 1:3. By using more realistic and isoluminant stimuli, Experiments 4 and 5 show that guidance by numerosity is fragile. As is found with other features that guide focal attention (e.g., color, orientation, size), the numerosity differences that are able to guide attention by bottom-up signals are much coarser than the differences that can be detected in attended stimuli.     

Why are there eccentricity effects in visual search? Visual and attentional hypotheses

In standard visual search experiments, observers search for a target item among distracting items. The locations of target items are generally random within the display and ignored as a factor in data analysis. Previous work has shown that targets presented near fixation are, in fact, found more efficiently than are targets presented at more peripheral locations. This paper proposes that the primary cause of this “eccentricity effect” (Carrasco, Evert, Chang, & Katz, 1995) is an attentional bias that allocates attention preferentially to central items. The first four experiments dealt with the possibility that visual, and not attentional, factors underlie the eccentricity effect. They showed that the eccentricity effect cannot be accounted for by the peripheral reduction in visual sensitivity, peripheral crowding, or cortical magnification. Experiment 5 tested the attention allocation model and also showed that RT X set size effects can be independent of eccentricity effects. Experiment 6 showed that the effective set size in a search task depends, in part, on the eccentricity of the target because observers search from fixation outward.     

Family Formation and Returning to Institutional Religion in Young Adulthood

Institutional religious involvement wanes during young adulthood, but evidence suggests life‐course factors such as family formation bring people back to religion. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Waves 1, 3, and 4), we examine how often young adults who were involved in institutional religion as adolescents return—measured by religious service attendance and religious affiliation—after leaving in emerging adulthood, and how this return is patterned by family formation. The majority of young adults who leave do not return to regular religious service attendance, regardless of their family formation. But single parents, married parents, and childless married individuals are more likely, and childless cohabiting couples less likely, to return to religious communities than those who are both single and childless. Only married parents are more likely than childless singles to reaffiliate, though there is marginal evidence that childless married adults may also be more likely. Thus, the institutions of religion and family are still linked, even though overall levels of religious return are not as high as expected.     

Economic Pressure,Individual and Family Processes,and Children’s Reticence in Romanian Families

Using Conger’s family stress model as a theoretical framework, a series of mediated associations among economic hardship, perceived economic pressure, parental depression, marital conflict, psychologically controlling parenting, and children’s reticent behaviors in Romanian families were studied. The sample consisted of 121 Romanian mothers and fathers of 4–5-year-old children. Children’s kindergarten teachers living in urban and rural locations evaluated child reticence. Findings generally support the family stress model. Structural equation modeling showed that after controlling for living in a rural location, economic pressure was indirectly linked with marital conflict through depression. Depression was indirectly related to psychological control through marital conflict, and marital conflict was indirectly linked to child reticence through psychological control. Directions for future research and recommendations for interventions and public policy are described.     

Perceived ethical leadership: Its moderating influence on employees’ organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviours

This study investigated the extent to which employees’ perception of ethical leadership moderated their organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour. A non-probability purposive sample (N = 839; females = 32%) of employees in a railway organisation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) participated in the study. They completed the following measures: the Organisational Commitment Scale (OCS), the Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Questionnaire (OCBQ) and the Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS). Stepwise hierarchical regression analysis was utilised to determine the influence of employees’ perceptions of the relationships between their self-reported organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour. The results indicated employee perceptions of the integrity, fairness and honesty aspects of ethical leadership to explain their affective, continuance and normative aspects of organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour. The results also showed that employee perceptions of high ethical leadership influenced their willingness to engage in positive organisational commitment such as psychological attachment, work continuance, normative commitment and also their organisational citizen behaviours such as altruism, conscientiousness, courtesy and civic virtue. By implication, leaders with high ethical conduct have the potential to positively stimulate the commitment of employees towards supporting the organisational values and mission.     

Workplace ethics culture and work engagement: The mediating effect of ethical leadership in a developing world context

This study examined the mediating effect of ethical leadership on the relationship between workplace ethics culture and work engagement among employees in a railway transport organisation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The sample consisted of permanently employed staff in a railway organisation in the DRC (n = 839; females = 32%). The employees were required to complete the Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS), the Ethical Corporate Virtue model (ECV) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Mediating regression analyses were conducted to predict work engagement from workplace ethics culture, partialling out ethical leadership. The results show that workplace ethics culture had a significantly positive effect on work engagement. The results further indicated that workplace ethics culture, through the mediation of perceived ethical leadership, had a significantly positive effect on the work engagement dimensions of vigour, dedication and absorption. The findings provide evidence that ethical leadership plays a crucial role in shaping workplace ethics culture and employees’ level of work engagement in an emerging country work setting.