Organizational self-evaluation: An emerging frontier for organizational improvement

The authors have been working to improve clients’ institutional performance through a framework for institutional assessment and self-assessment. In this framework, performance is defined in terms of mission fulfillment, efficiency, and ongoing relevance (the extent to which the organization adapts to changing conditions in its environment). The framework implies that certain contextual forces drive performance: the internal capacities and motivation of an organization and its external environment. The article presents the framework as well as case studies of several institutions that are using the framework to assess themselves.     

The impact of generic word choices: An empirical investigation of age- and sex-related differences

Previous studies of receivers' responses to generic words have found that adults generally develop masculine imagery for neutral words and that men do this more than women. The present investigation of school-aged children (n=471) found that they, like adults, develop sex-specific masculine imagery in response to apparently neutral messages. Early adolescents, however, reported significantly more inclusive imagery than 6–7-year-olds. Different pronoun conditions elicited different mental imagery for the receivers of the messages with he/she eliciting more of a balance between male and female images and they eliciting more inclusive imagery.This work was supported by a grant from the Indiana University—Purdue University at Fort Wayne Research and Instructional Development Support Program.     

“Higher” and “lower”: Comparative and categorical interpretations by children

Three-, four-, and five-year-old children's categorical and comparative understanding of high and low were examined in two experiments. Categorical knowledge was assessed by presenting subjects with a single object at varying heights (from 0 to five feet above the ground), and asking if the object was high or low. Comparative understanding of the terms was assessed by showing children two objects at a time and asking which was higher or lower. We observed two patterns of performance in children's categorical treatments: younger children in particular defined disjoint categories for high and low such that they only labelled the extreme heights as high or low, and maintained that middle heights were neither high nor low. Older children defined either-or categories such that all heights were labelled either high or low. We also found that children who defined either-or categories made correct comparative judgments across the entire range of variation whereas children who defined disjoint categories could only judge which of two objects was higher if the objects were not low (at 0 and 1 feet) and which of the objects was lower if the objects were not high (at 4 and 5 feet). The results were interpreted as reflecting a lack of appreciation that the terms are interdefined as negations of each other, and were discussed in terms of the similar semantic-congruity effects found in adults.     

SENTIMENT D'AUTO-EFFICACITÉ ET EXERCICE DES PROCESSUS D'AUTORÉGULATION CHEZ DES ÉTUDIANTS DE NIVEAU COLLÉGIAL*

This study examines the influence of self-efficacy on the self-regulatory mechanisms exercised during a verbal concept formation task. High or low-self-efficacy is experimentally induced among sixty four college students who subsequently have to solve, aloud, different problems of concept formation. Self-regulation was examined based on the utilization of the cognitive strategies required to solve the task, the monitoring strategies applied over the cognitive enterprise and the metacognitive experiences emerging along the resolution. Both groups exhibite similar cognitive strategies, yet some of their monitoring strategies and metacognitive experiences are affected by their self-efficacy judgments. The nature of self-efficacy should be considered when studying the relationship between metacognitive knowledge and self-regulation as applied during the task resolution.     

Relationship between conjugate lateral eye movements, brain organization, and cognitive style

The relationship between individual differences in conjugate lateral eye movements (CLEMs) and inferential reasoning was investigated in two experiments. Subjects were given inference tasks in sentence and pictorial form and were later tested for recognition of correct inferences as well as literal recognition of the acquisition items. In Experiment 2, for example, subjects were given logical syllogisms during acquisition. Theoretically, right-eye movement/left-hemispheric (REM/LH) subjects should have excelled at this highly logical task but no significant differences between eye-movement groups were found. However, support for previous research showing the moderating effects of gender on hemispheric activation (measured by CLEMs) and hemispheric competence came from the memory data of Experiment 2. These data indicated that male REM/LH subjects recognized more acquisition sentences than the other eye movement/gender groups. It was suggested CLEMs and other measures of hemispheric activation and competence, coupled with data collected using complex cognitive tasks, can eventually lead to explanatory brain models of cognitive processing.     

Development of visuomanual tracking in 5- to 9-year-old boys

Visuomanual sinusoidal tracking is investigated in 5- to 9-year-old children. The proportion of successful performances steadily increases with age, but adult proficiency is never attained even by those who can perform the task. Moreover, the progress in proficiency—as measured by systems analysis techniques—is not monotonic and suggests the presence of distinct stages in the development of visuomotor coordination. Qualitative analysis of unsuccessful performance demonstrates that failures cannot be ascribed only to insufficient motor coordination and emphasizes the role of cognitive and representational factors even in such a simple task.     

Manual Movement in Sign Languages: One Hand Versus Two in Communicating Shapes

In sign languages, the task of communicating a shape involves drawing in the air with one moving hand (Method One) or two (Method Two). Since the movement path is iconic, method choice might be based on the shape. In the present studies we aimed to determine whether geometric properties motivate method choice. In a study of 17 deaf signers from six countries, the strongest predictors of method choice were whether the shape has any curved edges (Method One), and whether the shape is symmetrical across the Y‐axis (Method Two), where the default was Method One. In a second study of ASL dictionary entries for which the movement path of the sign is iconic of an entity's shape, the same predictors surfaced. These tendencies are captured in the Lexical Drawing Principle, which is coherent with biological constraints on movement in general. Drawing in the air with two hands, however, is costly, both cognitively and biomechanically. Furthermore, it distinguishes signers from non‐signers, who draw shapes with only one hand. Signers assume this extra cost in the lexicon because of the enhanced iconicity the possibility of two hands offers; they assume it in drawing shapes in the air because they apply the same linguistic principle they use in the lexicon. Additionally, having a choice of methods allows the signer to benefit from over‐specification in providing redundant information about the shape, enhancing comprehensibility and resolving ambiguity.     

Lean and mean rats: Some effects of acute changes in the food supply upon territorial aggression

In experiment 1, individually housed rats subjected to short-term food restriction displayed more territorial aggression toward conspecific intruders than controls maintained on a free-feeding diet. In experiment 2, small groups of three adult male rats had access to either a standard laboratory diet or the standard diet plus sucrose. Groups with the sucrose supplement were significantly less aggressive toward intruders than controls. Sucrose availability did not produce appreciable gains in body weight but it did reliably decrease within-colony weight variation. The results suggest the existence of an effective dietary mechanism that enables a social species such as Rattus norvegicus to tolerate each other in dense feeding aggregations when food is abundant. Conversely, when food is limited, social intolerance increases and serves to limit the development of large feeding groups.