The Mediating Effects of Adaptive Skill on Values-Performance Relationships

Researchers posit that adaptability is an important contributor of performance and that it mediates the effects of distal predictors on performance. As limited empirical evidence supports these relationships, the present research examined whether adaptive skill mediated the effects of values on performance for military leaders. We found that adaptive skill was a distinct construct which uniquely contributed to overall performance. Further, we found that adaptive skill fully mediated the effects of values on technical-administrative behaviors and partially mediated the effects of values on contextual performance and leader behaviors. We discuss the need to further test the nomological network of KSAO–adaptability–performance relationships.     

Book reviews

Arvind Sharma, The Philosophy of Religion and Advaita Vedānra: A Comparative Study in Religion and Reason. University Park, Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995, viii+232 pp., £29.50, $32.50. ISBN 0 271 01032 0.

Niels C. Nielsen Jr (ed.), Christianity After Communism: Social, Political and Cultural Struggle in Russia. Boulder, Westview Press, 1994, ix+171 pp., £37.00, $49.95. ISBN 0 8133 2365 7.

Mary Pickering, Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography, Volume 1, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993, xi+744 pp., £45.00, $49.95. ISBN 0 521 43405 X.

Christopher Herbert, Culture and Anomie: Ethnographic Imagination in the Nineteenth Century. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1991, 312 pp., $48 (hardback) ISBN 0 1226 32738 8, $16.95 (paperback) ISBN 0 226 32738 6.

Clifford Geertz, After the Fact: Two Countries, Four Decades, One Anthropologist. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1995, 198 pp., $27.50. ISBN 0 674 00871 5.

William Hamilton, A Quest for the Post-Historical Jesus. New York, Continuum, 1994, 304 pp., $27.50. ISBN 0 8264 0641 6.

Valerie J. Hoffman, Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt. University of South Carolina Press, 1995, 377 pp.+ notes and index. ISBN 1 57003 055 3.

Margaret H. Case (ed.), Heinrich Zimmer: Coming Into His Own. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1994, vi+ 148 pp., $24.95. ISBN 0 691 03337 4.

Tessa J. Bartholomeusz, Women Under the Bō Tree: Buddhist Nuns in Sri Lanka. (Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions 5.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994, xx+284 pp., £37.50, $59.95. ISBN 0 521 46129 4.

Philip C. Almond, Heaven and Hell in Enlightenment England. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994, xiii+ 218 pp., £35. ISBN 0 521 45371 2.

George W. Stocking, Jr., After Tylor: British Social Anthropology 1888–1951. Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, London, Athlone Press, 1996, xx+441 pp., $40. ISBN 0 485 30072 9.

P. F. Kornicki and I. J. McMullen (eds), Religion in Japan: Arrows to Heaven and Earth. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996, xxv+315 pp., £40. ISBN 0 521 55028 9.

Michael Angold, Church and Society in Byzantium under the Comneni 1081–1261. 605 pp., $89.95 (cloth). ISBN 0521 26432 4.

David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1996, ix+301 pp., $29.95, £23.95. ISBN 0 691 03375 7.     

Prolepsis and the Physics of Retrocausality

Ted Peters has emphasized the theological concept of prolepsis and a “retroactive ontology” in which God creates from the future. We consider here possible connections between prolepsis and scientific theories about transmission of signals backwards in time. After considering objections to time travel, we discuss putative means of achieving it—tachyons, “time machine” solutions of Einstein's equations, waves in dark energy, and advanced solutions of wave equations. We then reflect on ways those theoretical constructs, if realized, might be of theological interest. Applications to the resurrection of Jesus, predictive prophecy and the creation of the universe will be discussed.     

Direction of association between targets in a RSVP task influences priming at very short but not long SOAs

When two targets are presented using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) and the interval between the targets is 200–500 ms, detection or identification of the second target is impaired. This impairment in second target report is known as the attentional blink (AB). This study sought to examine the impact of the direction of target association on priming during an AB task using very short and long SOAs. Two experiments were conducted using dual-stream RSVP tasks and targets that either shared an associative relationship or were unrelated to one another. The direction of association between the targets was also varied so that associatively related targets were presented in the forward (strongest association from target 1 to target 2) or backward directions of association (strongest association from target 2 to target 1). In Experiment 1 very short SOAs between targets (27–213 ms) were used. Priming was evident at the same SOAs for both targets presented in the backward direction of association. However, for targets presented in the forward direction of association, priming occurred for target 1 and target 2 at different SOAs. Experiment 2 used longer SOAs between targets (107 to 535 ms) and it was determined that while direction of association between the targets did not affect priming, there was a larger priming effect for target 2 than for target 1. The results of the two experiments indicate that direction of association between targets influences priming in RSVP tasks that use very short but not long SOAs. The results are discussed in relation to the two-stage response competition model of Potter et al. (J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 28:1149–1162, 2002).     

The effect of performance setting and individual differences on the anxiety-performance relationship for elite cyclists

Fifty-three national level cyclists completed competitive rides under both laboratory and field conditions to investigate the relationship between pre-competition anxiety and performance. A total of 39 males and 14 females participated in the study, ranging in age from 19 to 26. The objectives of the study were to, (a) measure the relationship between state anxiety and performance, (b) investigate differences in the anxiety-performance relationship under laboratory versus field conditions, and (c) examine the effect of trait anxiety on the state anxiety-performance relationship. State anxiety was measured using the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2; Martens, Vealey, & Burton, 1990), and trait anxiety with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970). Results indicated that anxiety was strongly correlated with performance on the field test, but that the anxiety-performance relationship was weaker under laboratory conditions. Results also showed that trait anxiety interacted with the relationship, as low and high trait-anxious subjects had differential response patterns to pre-competition anxiety. The findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for both practitioners and researchers.     

Disgust sensitivity and fear of animals: Effect of exposure to violent or revulsive material

Subjects were asked to rate their fear of four categories of animals both before and after viewing one of three brief video films. Subjects watched either (a) a video depicting extreme violence, (b) a video depicting revulsive scenes from a hospital operation, or (c) a video showing neutral landscape scenes. The results suggested that exposure to violent material produced an increase in fear ratings for animals in the Hi Fear/Hi Predatory category (e.g., lion, tiger, shark) which was significantly different from a decrease in fear ratings recorded for all other categories of animals. However, exposure to revulsive material produced an increase in fear ratings to animals in both the Hi Fear/Lo Predatory category (e.g., rat, spider, snake) and the Hi Revulsion category (e.g., slug, maggot, snail) which was significantly different to the decrease in fear ratings recorded for animals in the remaining categories. The neutral landscape scenes produced a decrease in mean fear ratings for all categories of animals. These results are considered further support for a disease-avoidance model of common animal fears, and suggest a causal link between disgust sensitivity and fear of certain fear-relevant animals.     

Investigating the Role of Emotion in Science Center Visitor Learning

ABSTRACT

A number of investigators have argued that emotion plays an important role in free-choice learning in settings such as museums, science centers, zoos, and aquariums, particularly given the relationship between emotion and cognition. Despite considerable research on the cognitive aspects of visits, empirical studies on emotion in such settings are virtually non-existent. This study investigated the role that emotion plays in facilitating and enhancing learning at a science center. Three major research questions were addressed: (a) Can emotion be measured using Russell's Affect Grid in a non-laboratory setting such as an interactive science center? (b) If so, do different types of science center experiences create measurably different levels of emotional arousal and/or valence in visitors? and (c) If so, was there evidence that elevated arousal and/or valence enhanced or retarded visitors' long-term cognitive science learning? The study provided evidence that emotion could be measured using a modified Affect Grid technique and that a particular traveling exhibition generated arousal levels above baseline levels as determined by a control group. Findings suggest a relationship between emotional arousal and positive changes in visitor long-term cognition, attitudes, and behaviors.     

Dating Violence Perpetration: The Predictive Roles of Maternally versus Paternally Perpetrated Childhood Abuse and Subsequent Dating Violence Attitudes and Behaviors

This study investigated both young men's and young women's perpetration of physical, sexual, and psychological forms of dating violence, examining predictors of violence including maternally or paternally perpetrated forms of various types of child maltreatment, as well as attitudes toward dating violence and dating violence victimization. Results of hierarchical linear regressions found that childhood experiences of maternal neglect predicted men's physical perpetration, and childhood sexual abuse predicted women's sexual perpetration and men's psychological perpetration. Further, positive attitudes toward dating violence predicted women's physical, psychological, and sexual perpetration, as well as men's sexual perpetration, and experiences of dating violence victimization were the strongest predictors of most forms of dating violence perpetration, particularly among women. Implications for future research and prevention initiatives are discussed.     

Action influences spatial perception: Neuropsychological evidence

We present neuropsychological evidence indicating that action influences spatial perception. First, we review evidence indicating that actions using a tool can modulate unilateral visual neglect and extinction, where patients are unaware of stimuli presented on one side of space. We show that, at least for some patients, modulation comes about through a combination of visual and motor cueing of attention to the affected side (Experiment 1). Subsequently, we review evidence that action‐relations between stimuli reduce visual extinction; there is less extinction when stimuli fall in the correct colocations for action relative to when they fall in the incorrect relations for action and relative to when stimuli are just associatively related. Finally, we demonstrate that action relations between stimuli can also influence the binding of objects to space, in a patient with Balint's syndrome (Experiment 2). These neuropsychological data indicate that perception–action couplings can be crucial to our conscious representation of space.     

Pictorial rehearsal effects in younger and older adults

Abstract

In three studies, we examined pictorial rehearsal effects in younger and older adults. Concrete and abstract line drawings that varied in the amount of pictorial detail were presented for study under different presentation conditions. In the pictorial rehearsal condition, each picture was followed by a blank rehearsal interval where the picture was no longer presented. In all three experiments, the poststimulus interval enhanced picture recognition for both age groups, relative to a control condition where no rehearsal interval occurred. These findings suggest that older adults, like younger adults, form and maintain visual images across a blank rehearsal interval. Implications of these findings for current views on imaginal processes in older adults are discussed.