Bizarreness effects in verbal tasks and subject-performed tasks

Abstract

Recognition and cued recall of ordinary action phrases (e.g. “open the book”) and bizarre ones (e.g. “plant the hammer”) were compared under two encoding conditions: in verbal tasks (VTs), subjects learned the phrases by simply listening to them; in subject-performed tasks (SPTs), subjects learned the phrases by performing the denoted actions (without real objects). Memory performance was better after SPTs than after VTs in recognition and cued recall. In addition to this already established finding, it was observed that recognition was better for bizarre phrases than for ordinary ones after VTs and that bizarreness was unrelated to recognition after SPTs. Cued recall, on the other hand, depended on bizarreness after VTs as well as after SPTs and, in contrast to the recognition findings, ordinary phrases were recalled better than bizarre phrases. This pattern of findings was explained by the assumptions that lexical and conceptual information is encoded after VTs and motor information is additionally encoded after SPTs, and that different kinds of information are used in recognition and cued recall, and after VTs and SPTs.     

The Philosophy of Interdisciplinarity: Sustainability Science and Problem-Feeding

Traditionally, interdisciplinarity has been taken to require conceptual or theoretical integration. However, in the emerging field of sustainability science this kind of integration is often lacking. Indeed sometimes it is regarded as an obstacle to interdisciplinarity. Drawing on examples from sustainability science, we show that problem-feeding, i.e. the transfer of problems, is a common and fruitful-looking way of connecting disparate disciplines and establishing interdisciplinarity. We identify two species of problem-feeding: unilateral and bilateral. Which of these is at issue depends on whether solutions to the problem are fed back to the discipline in which the problem originated. We suggest that there is an interesting difference between the problem-feeding approach to interdisciplinarity and the traditional integrative perspective suggested by among others Erich Jantsch and his colleagues. The interdisciplinarity resulting from problem-feeding between researchers can be local and temporary and does not require collaboration between proximate disciplines. By contrast, to make good sense of traditional integrative interdisciplinarity we must arguably associate it with a longer-term, global form of close, interdisciplinary collaboration.     

Playing for the thrill and skill. Quiz games as means for mood and competence repair

ABSTRACT

Recent studies have found that digital games can be used to improve the players’ mood, especially after emotionally unpleasant experiences. We introduce competence repair as an extension of previous work on mood repair. To investigate the effects of digital games on both mood and competence repair, we conducted 3 studies using quiz games. In the quasi-experimental Study 1 (N = 143), we manipulated the necessity for repair via a false feedback task (positive vs. negative), and looked at the impact of in-game success (victory vs. defeat). In the experimental Studies 2 (N = 91) and 3 (N = 109), we aimed at conceptually replicating and extending the findings on the impact of in-game success by varying participants’ success over a series of 4 matches (Study 2: close game outcomes, Study 3: clear victory/defeat). The results of these studies indicate that the efficacy of digital games for mood repair, as well as competence repair, depends on the necessity for repair, as well as success in the game. However, competence repair occurred even after participants were defeated repeatedly in a series of close matches. These results are discussed in light of the potential of digital games for fulfilling (previously thwarted) psychological needs.     

Individual‐ and group‐level effects of social identification on workplace bullying

A study of 494 employees nested in workgroups from 19 different organizations revealed group identification to be an important factor influencing work-related bullying at both the individual and the group level. Results show that the more employees identified with their group, the less likely they were victims of bullying, which is in line with previous social identity-based analyses of work stress. More importantly, the higher the average level of group identification in the organization, the lower the odds of being a victim versus not being a victim. The latter effect constituted a genuine context effect. These findings redress a neglect of the social bases of workplace bullying and suggest that bullying needs to be understood within a broader perspective of workgroup identities.     

Main and moderating effects of self-control,organizational justice,and emotional labour on counterproductive behaviour at work

Abstract

Considerable attention has been devoted recently to changes in the psychological contract and the implications for HRM. However, much of our understanding of both the socio-cognitive processes involved in the contracting process and the ability of national HRM systems to accommodate the new demands of psychological contracting is accultural or unicultural. This article reviews the content, process, and context of changes in the contract within Europe. A model of the relationship between national culture and other cross-national factors and the process of contracting is developed.     

Noise on, voicing off: Speech perception deficits in children with specific language impairment

Speech perception of four phonetic categories (voicing, place, manner, and nasality) was investigated in children with specific language impairment (SLI) (n = 20) and age-matched controls (n = 19) in quiet and various noise conditions using an AXB two-alternative forced-choice paradigm. Children with SLI exhibited robust speech perception deficits in silence, stationary noise, and amplitude-modulated noise. Comparable deficits were obtained for fast, intermediate, and slow modulation rates, and this speaks against the various temporal processing accounts of SLI. Children with SLI exhibited normal “masking release” effects (i.e., better performance in fluctuating noise than in stationary noise), again suggesting relatively spared spectral and temporal auditory resolution. In terms of phonetic categories, voicing was more affected than place, manner, or nasality. The specific nature of this voicing deficit is hard to explain with general processing impairments in attention or memory. Finally, speech perception in noise correlated with an oral language component but not with either a memory or IQ component, and it accounted for unique variance beyond IQ and low-level auditory perception. In sum, poor speech perception seems to be one of the primary deficits in children with SLI that might explain poor phonological development, impaired word production, and poor word comprehension.     

A new method to evaluate order and accuracy of inaccurately and incompletely reproduced movement sequences

Studying imitation learning of long sequences requires the evaluation of inaccurately and incompletely reproduced movement sequences. In order to evaluate the movement reproduction, it has to be assigned to the original stimulus. We developed an assignment algorithm that considers the Spatial Neighborhood and Order of reproduction (SNOA). To evaluate the features of this analysis it was applied to human performance during learning of long pointing sequences under two conditions: stimulus-guided reproduction with high spatial accuracy and imitation learning with low spatial accuracy. The results were compared with a simple assignment considering Spatial Neighborhood only (SNA) and with a Manual Assignment (MA). In the stimulus-guided reproduction the error measures did not differ between the algorithms. In contrast, with imitation learning, SNOA and MA generated higher estimates of order and omission errors than SNA. The results show that SNOA can be used to automatically quantify the similarity of both movement structure and metric information between long target sequences and inaccurate and incomplete movement reproductions.     

“… the art of shaping a democratic reality and being directed by it …”—philososophy of science in turbulent times

This article has three objectives: First, it revises the history of the reception of Ludwik Fleck??s monograph Entstehung und Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Tatsache (1935, Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact). Contrary to the established picture, Fleck??s book was largely discussed in the years before the outbreak of World War II. What becomes clear when reading these early reviews and especially Fleck??s comments to those written by representatives of Nazi Germany is, second, the political dimension of his epistemology. In this respect, Fleck??s emphasis on the genuinely democratic character of science will be discussed in some detail. And third, Fleck??s notion of ??Denkstil????thought-style??shall be examined more closely since, as we will claim, it can be understood as a notion indicating where the democratic dimension of science encounters its limits.     

Stottern

Stuttering is a fluency disorder with a point prevalence of approximately 1%. Stuttering begins in childhood and is characterized by frequently occurring breaks in the flow of speaking. These fluency breaks are repetitions of words and syllables, prolongations of sounds and pauses. Many people who stutter show avoidance behaviors, social anxiety, shame and social withdrawal. Empirical studies point to genetic origins of the disorder; however, distinct physical deficits causing stuttering are not yet known. While most children outgrow stuttering before adolescence those who do not typically continue to stutter throughout their life. The severity of stuttering as well as its impact on the quality of life can be reduced by a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy and speech-language therapy.