How the brain blinks: towards a neurocognitive model of the attentional blink

When people monitor a visual stream of rapidly presented stimuli for two targets (T1 and T2), they often miss T2 if it falls into a time window of about half a second after T1 onset-the attentional blink (AB). We provide an overview of recent neuroscientific studies devoted to analyze the neural processes underlying the AB and their temporal dynamics. The available evidence points to an attentional network involving temporal, right-parietal and frontal cortex, and suggests that the components of this neural network interact by means of synchronization and stimulus-induced desynchronization in the beta frequency range. We set up a neurocognitive scenario describing how the AB might emerge and why it depends on the presence of masks and the other event(s) the targets are embedded in. The scenario supports the idea that the AB arises from "biased competition", with the top-down bias being generated by parietal-frontal interactions and the competition taking place between stimulus codes in temporal cortex.     

A Norwegian adaptation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire: factor structure, reliability, validity and norms

A Norwegian version of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) was administered to 304 undergraduate students together with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Inventory (MOCI). The PSWQ was also administered to a community sample comprising 879 subjects, together with the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI II) and the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI). Structural equation modeling showed that a three-factor solution of the PSWQ gave the best goodness of fit. The Norwegian version of the PSWQ demonstrated adequate psychometric properties in terms of reliability and validity in both samples. Females scored higher than males on PSWQ.     

Gratitude and hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in Vietnam war veterans

Little information exists on the contribution of psychological strengths to well-being in persons with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Data from other populations suggest that gratitude, defined as the positive experience of thankfulness for being the recipient of personal benefits, may have salutary effects on everyday functioning. We investigated whether dispositional gratitude predicted daily hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in combat veterans with and without PTSD. We also examined associations between daily gratitude and daily well-being across time. Veterans with PTSD, compared to those without PTSD, exhibited significantly lower dispositional gratitude; no differences were found on daily gratitude. Dispositional gratitude predicted greater daily positive affect, percentage of pleasant days over the assessment period, daily intrinsically motivating activity, and daily self-esteem over and above effects attributable to PTSD severity and dispositional negative and positive affect in the PTSD group but not the non-PTSD group. Daily gratitude was uniquely associated with each dimension of daily well-being in both groups. Although preliminary, these results provide support for the further investigation of gratitude in trauma survivors.     

Transformational leadership and moral reasoning

Terms such as moral and ethical leadership are used widely in theory, yet little systematic research has related a sociomoral dimension to leadership in organizations. This study investigated whether managers' moral reasoning (n = 132) was associated with the transformational and transactional leadership behaviors they exhibited as perceived by their subordinates (n = 407). Managers completed the Defining Issues Test (J. R. Rest, 1990), whereas their subordinates completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (B. M. Bass & B. J. Avolio, 1995). Analysis of covariance indicated that managers scoring in the highest group of the moral-reasoning distribution exhibited more transformational leadership behaviors than leaders scoring in the lowest group. As expected, there was no relationship between moral-reasoning group and transactional leadership behaviors. Implications for leadership development are discussed.     

Citizen participation,perceived control,and psychological empowerment

The research integrates the citizen participation literature with research on perceived control in an effort to further our understanding of psychological empowerment. Eleven indices of empowerment representing personality, cognitive, and motivational measures were identified to represent the construct. Three studies examined the relationship between empowerment and participation. The first study examined differences among groups identified by a laboratory manipulation as willing to participate in personally relevant or community relevant situations. Study II examined differences for groups defined by actual involvement in community activities and organizations. Study III replicated Study II with a different population. In each study, individuals reporting a greater amount of participation scored higher on indices of empowerment. Psychological empowerment could be described as the connection between a sense of personal competence, a desire for, and a willingness to take action in the public domain. Discriminant function analyses resulted in one significant dimension, identified as pyschological empowerment, that was positively correlated with leadership and negatively correlated with alienation.     

Criterion-related validity of self-report measures of female heterosocial functioning

Common measures of female heterosocial functioning, the Survey of Heterosocial Interactions for Females (SHI-F) and dating frequency questions, were validated against the criterion of male liking, i. e., how well men like a woman. The SHI-F was unrelated to the criterion and to the other measures of heterosocial activity. The dating frequency and satisfaction questions were moderately related to the criterion. It was concluded the self-reported ability to initiate contact with men (as measured by the SHI-F) may not be related to female heterosocial functioning. Self-reported dating frequency and satisfaction appear to be a valid measure of female heterosocial functioning.The data were collected while the first author was at Louisiana State University.