Recognizing creative leadership: Can creative idea expression negatively relate to perceptions of leadership potential?

Drawing on and extending prototype theories of creativity and leadership, we theorize that the expression of creative ideas may diminish judgments of leadership potential unless the charismatic leadership prototype is activated in the minds of social perceivers. Study 1 shows that creative idea expression is negatively related to perceptions of leadership potential in a sample of employees working in jobs that required creative problem solving. Study 2 shows that participants randomly instructed to express creative solutions during an interaction are viewed as having lower leadership potential. A third scenario study replicated this finding showing that participants attributed less leadership potential to targets expressing creative ideas, except when the “charismatic” leader prototype was activated. In sum, we show that the negative association between expressing creative ideas and leadership potential is robust and underscores an important but previously unidentified bias against selecting effective leaders.     

The Dialectics of Stigma,Silence, and Misunderstanding in Suicidality Survival Narratives

Modern suicidologists have noted a dearth of qualitative research on suicide. The first author conducted 20 in-depth interviews with formerly suicidal adults to understand how they accounted for their experiences contemplating or attempting suicide. According to participants, stigma necessitated impression management, which contributed to the production of silence and misunderstanding. Silence and misunderstanding reinforced stigma. This complex, dialectical, belief system about stigma yields insight into the interpretive culture of surviving suicidal ideation or a suicide attempt. These beliefs about suicide may serve as a barrier to individuals seeking help, recovering from suicidality, and larger social change regarding attitudes toward suicide.     

Quantitative Analyses of Schooling Effects on Executive Function in Young Children

Developmental studies have demonstrated the utility of select executive function (EF) tasks for the early diagnosis of specific learning-related problems (e.g., Snow, 1998). However, previous data demonstrating schooling effects on EF measures suggests potential pitfalls in clinical interpretation. In the present study three common EF measures, (Wisconsin Card Sort, Thurstone Word Fluency, and a mazes task) in addition to a VIQ estimating task, were administered to a cross-section of 115 children aged 7 to 9. Using a school-entrance cut-off design the unique contributions of formal schooling versus age-related changes to performance on the EF measures were examined. Schooling effects were both task and age-dependent supporting the conclusion that the proper use of EF measures with children in this age range depends upon consideration of factors beyond that usually depicted in net-effect models.     

Interference suppression vs. response inhibition: An explanation for the absence of a bilingual advantage in preschoolers’ Stroop task performance

The well-documented advantage that bilingual speakers demonstrate across the lifespan on measures of controlled attention is not observed in preschoolers’ performance on Stroop task variations. We examined the role of task demands in explaining this discrepancy. Whereas the Color/Word Stroop used with adult participants requires interference suppression, the Stroop task typically used with preschoolers requires only response inhibition. We developed an age-appropriate conflict task that measures interference suppression. Fifty-one preschool children (26 bilinguals) completed this new Bivalent Shape Task and the Day/Night task used in previous research. Bilingual in comparison to monolingual children performed better on incongruent trials of the Bivalent Shape Task, but did not differ on other measures. The results indicate that the discrepancy between preschoolers and older individuals in performance on Stroop task adaptations results from characteristics of the task rather than developmental differences. Further, the findings provide additional support for the importance of interference suppression as a mechanism underlying the bilingual advantage.     

Intermittent stimulation of binocular disparatecolors and central color fusion

Two experiments were conducted to determine the relationships between the various parameters of intermittent stimulation and the occurrence of binocular color fusion. Numerous combinations of on and off durations were presented, some synchronously and some asynchronously. Three Os were asked to report all colors experienced during the 15-sec viewing period. Experiment ] showed that fusion can be reliably obtained with on durations of less than 100 msec in combination with off durations of more than 100 msec. Experiment 2 indicated that the limit of dichoptic onset asynchrony within which color fusion reliably occurs is 25 msec. Two possible alternative hypotheses consistent with the data are discussed.     

An optimization approach for mapping and measuring the divergence and correspondence between paths

Many domains of empirical research produce or analyze spatial paths as a measure of behavior. Previously, approaches for measuring the similarity or deviation between two paths have either required timing information or have used ad hoc or manual coding schemes. In this paper, we describe an optimization approach for robustly measuring the area-based deviation between two paths we call ALCAMP (Algorithm for finding the Least-Cost Areal Mapping between Paths). ALCAMP measures the deviation between two paths and produces a mapping between corresponding points on the two paths. The method is robust to a number of aspects in real path data, such as crossovers, self-intersections, differences in path segmentation, and partial or incomplete paths. Unlike similar algorithms that produce distance metrics between trajectories (i.e., paths that include timing information), this algorithm uses only the order of observed path segments to determine the mapping. We describe the algorithm and show its results on a number of sample problems and data sets, and demonstrate its effectiveness for assessing human memory for paths. We also describe available software code written in the R statistical computing language that implements the algorithm to enable data analysis.