Independence of serial position and response conflict in pre-planned manual response sequences

The present study investigates the effect of spatial stimulus–response correspondence (i.e. Simon effect) in pre-planned manual response sequences. Participants performed pre-cued response sequences consisting of three (Experiment 1) or four (Experiments 2 and 3) key-presses at different locations. Importantly, participants performed each response to a visual go signal, which appeared at a location corresponding to one response in the sequence. This task allowed investigating interference gradients across spatially noncorresponding conditions. We observed a Simon effect at each serial position, that is, RT for the corresponding condition was always shorter than RT for each noncorresponding condition. However, we failed to observe interference gradients from both preceding and subsequent responses in the sequence. These results are inconsistent with (1) a primacy gradient of activations representing serial order and (2) the temporary suppression of an executed response as a mechanism for preventing response repetitions. However, results provide indirect evidence for positional models of serial order.     

Schedule control, supervisor support and work engagement: A winning combination for workers in hourly jobs?

The changing natures of both work and the lives of the U.S. workforce have created an array of challenges for organizations attempting to foster work engagement. To accommodate the work and family needs of an increasingly diverse workforce, many firms are offering flexible work solutions to employees. However, the distribution of these types of organizational resources is unequal, with workers in lower-wage hourly jobs having the least access to any form of flexibility. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of schedule control, as a form of flexible work practice, and work engagement among workers employed in hourly retail jobs. Authors tested a model whereby the relationship between schedule control and work engagement is mediated by schedule satisfaction and perceived supervisor support. A sample of 1343 full-time hourly retail workers was used to address the study's purpose. Hypothesized relationships were fully or partially supported. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Public understanding of climate change in the United States

This article considers scientific and public understandings of climate change and addresses the following question: Why is it that while scientific evidence has accumulated to document global climate change and scientific opinion has solidified about its existence and causes, U.S. public opinion has not and has instead become more polarized? Our review supports a constructivist account of human judgment. Public understanding is affected by the inherent difficulty of understanding climate change, the mismatch between people's usual modes of understanding and the task, and, particularly in the United States, a continuing societal struggle to shape the frames and mental models people use to understand the phenomena. We conclude by discussing ways in which psychology can help to improve public understanding of climate change and link a better understanding to action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).     

Metatheoretical Structuralism: a General Program for Analyzing Science

In spite of the ‘experimental turn’ now fashionable in the philosophy of science, the question of the structure and identity criteria of scientific theories continues to be a central issue for the philosophical analysis of empirical science. We need a precise metatheory of empirical theories to deal with this issue. Metatheoretical structuralism appears to offer the most adequate approach in this sense so far. First, some basic intuitions about what empirical theories are, and how they are structured, are laid out. Then, the main notions used by metatheoretical structuralism to analyze theories are explained, and they are illustrated by applying them to an example of a simple physical theory. Finally, it is argued that the picture of the structure and identity of empirical theories coming out of structuralistic analysis adequately corresponds to the basic intuitions stated at the beginning.     

Enhanced learning by posttrial injection of H1-but not H2-histaminergic antagonists into the nucleus basalis magnocellularis region

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of histaminergic antagonists on memory upon injection into the region of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM). In experiment 1, rats with chronically implanted cannulae were trained on the uphill avoidance task, which involves a punishment of a high-probability turning response on a tilted platform (negative geotaxis). Immediately after the training trial, that is, after a tail shock was administered upon performing the response, rats received one microinjection (0.5 microliter) of H1-receptor blocker chlorpheniramine (dose range 0.1 to 20 microgram) or the H2-receptor blocker ranitidine (same dose range) or saline into the NBM region. When tested 24 h later, rats treated with chlorpheniramine (20 micrograms) had significantly longer uphill latencies than vehicle controls and ranitidine-treated animals, indicative of superior learning of the avoidance response. In experiment 2, a test for possible proactive effects of posttrial chlorpheniramine on performance during the retention trial was performed. Animals were injected with either 20 micrograms chlorpheniramine or saline immediately after the training trial of the uphill task. One chlorpheniramine control group was treated with a delay of 5 h. Additional groups which received chlorpheniramine or vehicle after the training trial but no trail shock were included. When tested 24 h later, rats injected with 20 micrograms chlorpheniramine again exhibited significantly longer uphill latencies than did vehicle-injected rats. Retention latencies for the rats of the chlorpheniramine 5-h delayed group did not differ from those of the vehicle-injected rats, ruling out proactive effects of chlorpheniramine on performance. In summary, the histaminergic H1-blocker chlorpheniramine can enhance mnemonic functioning in addition to its reinforcing effects upon NBM injection as reported previously.     

Action planning in sequential skills: relations to music performance

The hypothesis that planning music-like sequential actions involves anticipating their auditory effects was investigated in a series of experiments. Participants with varying levels of musical experience responded to each of four colour-patch stimuli by producing a unique sequence of three taps on three vertically aligned keys. Each tap triggered a tone in most experimental conditions. Response-effect (key-to-tone) mapping was either compatible—taps on the top, middle, and bottom keys triggered high, medium, and low pitched tones, respectively—or incompatible—key-to-tone mapping was scrambled, reversed, or neutral (taps on different keys triggered the same tone). The results suggest that action planning was faster with compatible than with incompatible mappings (and faster than with no tones). Furthermore, the size of this compatibility effect grew with increasing musical experience, which suggests that improvements in auditory imagery ability that typically accompany musical training may augment the role of anticipatory auditory-effect representations during planning.     

Jugendgewalt als Lebensbewältigungsprozess

Aggression und Gewalt bei Jugendlichen stilisieren sich zum Sinnbild für unsere „kranke Gesellschaft“. Was sich bei jüngeren Jugendlichen noch – oft als Lausbuben-Verhalten bagatellisiertes – Herumschubsen und Rangeln im Pausenhof ?u?ert, tritt in Form von Bullying und Mobbing immer st?rker zutage. Jugendliche, die trinken, stehlen, Drogen zu sich nehmen, Mitschüler oder Gruppenmitglieder bedrohen und Gegenst?nde ?ffentlichen Gutes besch?digen etc., stehen auf der Tagesordnung. Selbst Erpressung von Mitschülern ist kein Einzeldelikt mehr.     

The Impact of Team Identification on Biased Predictions of Player Performance

The Psychological Record - The current investigation examined sport fans’ impressions of an athlete described as a potential member of their team or a potential member of a rival team. In...     

Response selection and response execution in task switching: evidence from a go-signal paradigm

The present study used a go/no-go signal delay (GSD) to explore the role of response-related processes in task switching. A go/no-go signal was presented at either 100 ms or 1,500 ms after the stimulus. Participants were encouraged to use the GSD for response selection and preparation. The data indicate that the opportunity to select and prepare a response (i.e., long GSD) resulted in a substantial reduction of task-shift costs (Experiment 1) and n-2 task-repetition costs (i.e., backward inhibition; Experiment 2) in the current trial. These results suggest that interference from the preceding trial can be resolved during response selection and preparation. Furthermore, the shift costs and the n-2 repetition costs after no-go trials with long GSD (i.e., response selection but no execution) were markedly smaller than after go trials. These findings suggest that the interference that gives rise to shift costs and n-2 repetition costs is related not solely to response selection but also to response execution. Thus, the present study demonstrates dissociable contributions of response selection and response execution to interference effects in task switching.