Algebraic models for integration of painful and nonpainful electric shocks

Subjects rated the average intensity of two sequentially presented electric shocks, which were either painful (intensity range from 1 to 4 mA, Experiment 1) or nonpainful (intensity range from .6 to .9 mA). In both experiments, stimuli were presented in a 4 by 4 factorial design to allow tests of algebraic models of the integration process under analysis of variance (Anderson, 1970, 1974). Both sets of data were fit by the equation R_{i j}=w₁s₁+w₂+s₂, (w₁+w₂=1), where R_{i j}is the rating scale response, s₁ and s₂ the scale values for the first and second stimuli, respectively, and w₁ and w₂ associated weights. When stimuli were painful, w₁=w₂, and when stimuli were nonpainful, w₁< w₂. Subjective scale values as a function of stimulus intensity appear to increase nonlinearly for painful stimuli and linearly for nonpainful stimuli. Some implications of the results for pain research are discussed.     

Suicide Attempt Self-Injury Interview (SASII): development, reliability, and validity of a scale to assess suicide attempts and intentional self-injury

The authors describe the development of the Suicide Attempt Self-Injury Interview (SASII), an instrument designed to assess the factors involved in nonfatal suicide attempts and intentional self-injury. Using 4 cohorts of participants, authors generated SASII items and evaluated them with factor and content analyses and internal consistency statistics. The final measure was assessed for reliability and validity with collateral measures. The SASII assesses variables related to method, lethality and impulsivity of the act, likelihood of rescue, suicide intent or ambivalence and other motivations, consequences, and habitual self-injury. The SASII was found to have very good interrater reliability and adequate validity.     

Contextual cues aid recovery from interruption: the role of associative activation

A series of experiments introduced interruptions to the execution phase of simple Tower of London problems and found that the opportunity for preparation before the break in task reduced the time cost at resumption. Retrieval of the suspended goal was facilitated when participants were given the opportunity to encode retrieval cues during an "interruption lag" (the brief time before engaging in the interrupting task) but was impeded when these visual cues were subsequently altered following interruption. The results provide useful support for the goal-activation model (E. M. Altmann & G. J. Trafton, 2002), which assumes that context--at the points of both goal suspension and goal retrieval--is critical to efficient interruption recovery.     

Exploration or imitation? The effect of music on 4-week-old infants' tongue protrusions

In a newborn imitation paradigm, an auditory stimulus--music--replaced the standard adult behavioral model. Alternating intervals of music and silence affected 4-week-old infants' rates of tongue protruding--evidence that tongue protruding is a general response to interesting distal stimuli.     

Higher order pattern structure influences auditory representational momentum

Representational momentum refers to the phenomenon that observers tend to incorrectly remember an event undergoing real or implied motion as shifted beyond its actual final position. This has been demonstrated in both visual and auditory domains. In 5 pitch discrimination experiments, listeners heard tone sequences that implied either linear, periodic, or null motions in pitch space. Their task was to judge whether the pitch of a probe tone following each sequence was the same or different from the final sequence tone. Results suggested that listeners made errors consistent with extrapolation of coherent pitch patterns (linear, periodic) but not with incoherent (null) ones. Hypotheses associated with internalized physical principles and pattern-based expectations are discussed.     

Measuring the value of nonwage employee benefits: building a model of the relation between benefit satisfaction and value

Researchers have commonly assumed benefits that employees view as more valuable have a greater influence on their attitudes and behaviors. Researchers have used 2 common methods to measure benefit value: attaching a monetary value to benefits and using self-reports of benefit importance. The present authors propose that the 2 approaches are conceptually distinct and have different implications. They use a social exchange perspective to justify this distinction and integrate both approaches and benefit satisfaction into a more comprehensive model of benefit perception. Results suggest that both measures have practical applications depending on the nature of the exchange relationship between the organization and employees. However, this relationship depends on the specific benefit and on employee satisfaction with that benefit. Some benefits lend themselves to a monetary estimate, whereas others lend themselves more to a nonmonetary valuation.     

Leadership, collective personality, and performance

By viewing behavior regularities at the individual and collective level as functionally isomorphic, a referent-shift compositional model for the Big 5 personality dimensions is developed. On the basis of this compositional model, a common measure of Big 5 personality at the individual level is applied to the collective as a whole. Within this framework, it is also hypothesized that leadership (i.e., transformational, transactional, and passive) would predict collective personality and that collective personality would be significantly related to collective performance. The results supported these hypotheses using a sample of franchised units. On the basis of recent research at the individual level, several interactions among the various personality dimensions were hypothesized and supported. Implications are discussed.