DEVELOPING STRATEGIC READERS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

The goal of this paper is to examine the effect of strategic reading instruction in conditions not previously studied. The reading behavior of two third-grade classes of Navajo learners was tested over the course of a year. One class received instruction designed to foster the use of reading strategies; the second class did not. The results from the data collected suggest that strategy instruction positively affected the behavior of the students in the first class. This finding is of interest in that this form of instruction has not previously been utilized with the participants, Navajo learners, or in the small-scale context investigated here.     

Conscientiousness,Its Facets,and the Prediction of Job Performance Ratings: Evidence against the narrow measures

This study empirically tested the predictions of the three basic perspectives on the bandwidth debate about the relationship between personality and job performance, regarding the validity of conscientiousness and its facets. The sample consisted of 226 police officers. Conscientiousness and three facets (order, industriousness, and self‐control) were correlated with three performance criteria (overall job performance, task performance, and orderliness). A Schmid–Leiman transformation made it possible to residualize the variance of the facets and to isolate their unique contribution to the prediction of performance measures. The results showed that conscientiousness predicted the three criteria (true validities of.25,.28 and.37, respectively) and that the facets neither predicted job performance nor showed incremental validity over conscientiousness. Finally, the implications of the findings for theory and practice are commented on, and future research is suggested.     

Development and validation of a standardized measure of employee turnover risk

This article describes the development, reliability, and initial validation of the Tenure Scale. The scale was designed as an attitudinal predictor of turnover risk to be used for pre-employment selection. Two validation studies are reported. In study one, significant results were obtained between Tenure Scale scores and self report measures of: a) past and present job tenure; b) intentions to quit; c) job search behaviors; and d) intentions to remain committed to one's job. In study two, significant relationships were established between Tenure Scale scores and on-the-job measures of turnover risk, including work performance, absenteeism rates, and length of employment. No adverse impact was found against any protected group in study two. The relationship of these results with job turnover theory is discussed, and future validation research is suggested.Portions of this research study were presented at the 1988 Annual Conference of the Association of Human Resources Management and Organizational Behavior, Long Beach, California, October 26–29.     

Inhibitory attentional control in patients with frontal lobe damage

The performance of a group of frontal lobe lesion and a group of frontal lobe dementia patients was compared with the performance of their respective matched normal control groups on two tests of inhibitory attentional control-the stop-signal reaction time task and a negative priming task. Both patient groups responded significantly slower than their respective normal control groups, but they showed only marginally significant selective impairments on the measures of inhibition. The data suggest that the specific inhibitory processes evaluated by these two tests are, in general, spared in patients with focal frontal lobe lesions or frontal lobe degeneration.     

Hope as a Moderator of the Associations Between Common Risk Factors and Frequency of Substance Use Among Latino Adolescents

Ample research suggests that delinquency, depressive symptoms, and peer substance use are common risk factors associated with adolescent substance use. However, the factors that may help to buffer the deleterious effects of these risk factors on adolescent substance use, such as hope, have yet to be examined. The current study evaluated hope as a moderator of the associations between these common risk factors and frequency of substance use (alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana) in a sample of Latino high school students (M _age ?=?16.14 years, SD?=?1.30; 55 % female). Findings indicated that the influence of delinquency on frequency of tobacco and marijuana use depended on levels of hope, with delinquency only positively associated with frequency of use when levels of hope were low. Additionally, hope moderated the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use, such that depressive symptoms were only positively associated with frequency of alcohol use when levels of hope were low. Results and their implications for intervention are reviewed.     

Self‐efficacy or perceived behavioural control: Which influences consumers' physical activity and healthful eating behaviour maintenance?

This research investigated the role of a commercial program, Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation (MB12WBT), that uses a variety of tools including social support to influence weight management behaviours such as exercising and eating healthfully. The need for research into weight management remains current given obesity rates have continued to increase in recent decades. Weight management is a complex behaviour that for many consumers involves barriers that influence their commitment to continue exercising and eating healthily. The Theory of Planned Behaviour is frequently used to explain, and to a lesser extent predict, behaviours such as physical activity and healthy eating; however, there is much debate as to whether a perceived behavioural control variable or self‐efficacy is the best predictor of behaviour. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse data from a sample of 724 respondents who answered a baseline and three month follow‐up survey. The analysis revealed self‐efficacy and perceived behavioural control were two distinct constructs. Self‐efficacy was a better predictor of behaviour than perceived behavioural control variables as suggested in the original Theory of Planned Behaviour. Furthermore, self‐efficacy had a significant impact on exercising and eating healthfully behaviour. The findings and implications for both behaviour change theory and practice are discussed.     

Presaccadic target competition attenuates distraction

Although it is well known that salient nontargets can capture attention despite being task irrelevant, several studies have reported short fixation dwell times, suggesting the presence of an attentional mechanism to “rapidly reject” dissimilar distractors. Rapid rejection has been hypothesized to depend on the strong mismatch between distractor features and the target template, but it is unknown whether the presence of strong feature mismatch is sufficient, or if the presence of a target at a competing location is also necessary. Here, we investigated this question by first replicating the finding of rapid rejection for dissimilar distractors in the presence of a concurrent target (Experiment 1); manipulating the onset of the target stimulus relative to the distractor (Experiment 2); and using a saccade-contingent display to delay the target onset until after the first saccade was initiated. The results demonstrate that the speed of distractor rejection depends on the presence of target competition prior to the initiation of the first saccade, and not after the saccade. This suggests that stimulus competition for covert attention sets a “saccade priority map” that unfolds over time, resulting in faster corrective saccades to an anticipated object with higher top-down attentional priority.     

Simple lines and shapes are associated with,and communicate,distinct emotions

We investigated whether lines and shapes that present face-like features would be associated with emotions. In Experiment 1, participants associated concave, convex, or straight lines with the words happy or sad. Participants found it easiest to associate the concave line with happy and the convex line with sad. In Experiment 2, participants rated (valence, pleasantness, liking, and tension) and categorised (valence and emotion words) two convex and concave lines that were paired with six distinct pairs of eyes. The presence of eyes affected participants’ valence ratings and response latencies; more congruent eye–mouth matches produced more consistent ratings and faster reaction times. In Experiment 3, we examined whether dots that resembled eyes would be associated with emotional words. Participants found it easier to match certain sets of dots with specific emotions. These results suggest that facial gestures that are associated with specific emotions can be captured using relatively simple shapes and lines.     

Projection of Own on Others' Job Characteristics: Evidence for the False Consensus Effect in Job Characteristics Information

The present study is an examination of the influence of rater characteristics as a source of bias in job characteristics information, as gleaned from the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS). Participants (N=133) completed an initial JDS for own job characteristics. Non‐incumbents (n=104) then completed a secondary JDS in order to rate incumbents' job characteristics. Non‐incumbents' personality dimensions, own job characteristics, job satisfaction level, and incumbent satisfaction level were hypothesized as predictors of ratings of job characteristics of incumbents. Results indicate that two characteristics, job autonomy and dealing with others, were influenced by non‐incumbents standing on these characteristics, and demonstrated evidence of the false consensus effect. Limitations and implications for interpreting job information are discussed.