How crucial is the response format for the testing effect?

Combining study and test trials during learning is more beneficial for long-term retention than repeated study without testing (i.e., the testing effect). Less is known about the relative efficacy of different response formats during testing. We tested the hypothesis that overt testing (typing responses on a keyboard) during a practice phase benefits later memory more than covert testing (only pressing a button to indicate successful retrieval). In Experiment 1, three groups learned 40 word pairs either by repeatedly studying them, by studying and overtly testing them, or by studying and covertly testing them. In Experiment 2, only the two testing conditions were manipulated in a within-subjects design. In both experiments, participants received cued recall tests after a short (~19 min) and a long (1 week) retention interval. In Experiment 1, all groups performed equally well at the short retention interval. The overt testing group reliably outperformed the repeated study group after 1 week, whereas the covert testing group performed insignificantly different from both these groups. Hence, the testing effect was demonstrated for overt, but failed to show for covert testing. In Experiment 2, overtly tested items were better and more quickly retrieved than those covertly tested. Further, this does not seem to be due to any differences in retrieval effort during learning. To conclude, overt testing was more beneficial for later retention than covert testing, but the effect size was small. Possible explanations are discussed.     

Sexist Behavior Undermines Women’s Performance in a Job Application Situation

Can sexist behavior in a job application context threaten women and cause them to underperform on a subsequent cognitive ability test? In a simulated job interview, 46 women and 46 men -- undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Heidelberg, Germany -- were confronted with either sexist (dominant and physically close) behavior by a male interviewer or non-sexist (friendly and neutral) behavior by the same confederate. Participants then solved math items and language-related items from a German standard intelligence test. In accordance with our hypothesis, the results indicated that female participants in the sexist condition performed significantly worse on the mathematical test than female participants in the control condition. The performance of female participants on the language-related test and male participants on both the math and language-related tests did not differ by experimental condition. After the sexist job interview, women’s impaired performance, occurring on the math items only (i.e., specific to the domain in which women are negatively stereotyped), suggests an influence of psychological and interpersonal processes on seemingly objective test outcomes.     

High Thrill and Adventure Seeking Is Associated with Reduced Interoceptive Sensitivity: Evidence for an Altered Sex‐specific Homeostatic Processing in High‐sensation Seekers

The personality trait of sensation seeking (SS) has been traditionally linked to the construct of exteroception, that is, sensing of the outside world. Little is known about the relationship between SS and interoception, that is, sensing originating in the body. Interoceptive sensations have strong affective and motivational components that may influence behaviours such as risk taking in SS. This investigation examined whether interoceptive differences contribute to different behavioural characteristics in SS. Using an inspiratory resistive load breathing task, the response to an aversive interoceptive stimulus as a basic homeostatic process was studied in 112 subjects (n = 74 women and 38 men). A linear mixed‐model approach was used to examine the influence of thrill and adventure seeking (TAS) on the interoceptive response across three levels of breathing resistances (10, 20, and 40 cm H₂O/L/second). High‐TAS relative to low‐TAS individuals were less responsive in evaluating intensities of perceived choking with increasing inspiratory resistive loads. This effect was driven by male, but not female, high‐TAS individuals and was particularly associated with reduced interoceptive sensitivity in men. The conceptualization of SS as primarily driven by exteroceptive stimuli can be expanded to a view of an altered homeostasis in SS, specifically in men. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology     

The Role of Subsidies in Coordination Games with Interconnected Risk

Can subsidies promote Pareto‐optimum coordination? We found that partially subsidizing the cooperative actions for two out of six players in a laboratory coordination game usually produced better coordination and higher total social welfare with both deterministic and stochastic payoffs. Not only were the subsidized players more likely to cooperate (choose the Pareto‐optimum action), but the unsubsidized players increased their expectations on how likely others would cooperate, and they cooperated more frequently themselves. After removal of the subsidy, high levels of coordination continued in most groups with stochastic payoffs but declined in deterministic ones. This carry‐over disparity between the deterministic and stochastic settings was consistent with the economic theories that agents were more likely to keep the status quo option under uncertainty than without uncertainty. Hence, players with stochastic payoffs were more likely to keep the high coordination level (status quo) brought by the subsidy in the previous subsidy session. A post‐game survey also indicated that with stochastic payoffs, players focused on risk reduction. Temporary subsidies promoted lasting coordination because even after subsidy was removed, players still assumed that others players would prefer reduced risks from cooperation. With deterministic payoffs, however, the subsidy might crowd out other rationales for coordination, with many players indicating that the subsidy was the only reason for anyone to cooperate. Hence, the coordination level dropped when the subsidy was removed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of a spiritual retreat on perceived stress of Nigerian Catholic immigrant sisters in the United States

Stress among immigrants may be due to loss of familiar environment and experience of discrimination. Spiritual retreats may be one way to manage stressful life situations. The present study examined whether participation in a six-day spiritual retreat results in changes in perceived stress and whether changes in perceived stress depend on participant’s demographic characteristics. A total of 88 Nigerian Catholic immigrant sisters completed the Perceived Stress questionnaire pre-retreat, day three, and immediately after a spiritual retreat. Friedman Two-way ANOVA by rank was used to determine if there are mean changes in perceived stress over the three-time period, while Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA was used to determine if there were demographic differences in perceived stress. There were no differences in perceived stress at baseline, but there was a significant reduction in perceived stress at Time 2 and 3. There were no differences in perceived stress for the demographic variables except age.     

Why Managerial Women are Less Happy Than Managerial Men

Women with managerial careers are significantly less satisfied with their life than their male counterparts. Why? In a representative German panel dataset (GSOEP) we find biological constraints and substitutive mechanisms determining the subjective well-being of female managers. Women’s terminated fertility has a negative impact on women’s life satisfaction between the ages of 35 and 45, when managerial careers usually take off. Money and spare time can compensate for this biological difference. But to maintain an equivalent level of happiness, women need to be compensated by much more income for each hour of spare time given up than men do. So, in order to reach better gender equality in leadership positions, women must be either paid higher incomes (on average around 10%) or must be incentivized with more spare time than men. In the conclusion, we speculate on a new mix of carrots and sticks for advanced careers in order to boost female representation in leadership positions.     

Stability of complement and substitute relationships in time usage among discretionary activities

This research evaluates the stability of time usage relationships among discretionary activities. Traditional economists view products or services as substitutes if both can satisfy the same need of the consumer; they are complements if they are consumed jointly in order to satisfy some particular need. Complementary activities are grouped together in activity sets defined on an a priori basis. Several research questions are developed to investigate the following issues: (a) the stability over time of overall relationships between activities, in terms of visual representation using multidimensional scaling maps, and (b) the validity and stability of a priori classification of activities in activity sets. The results from multidimensional scaling maps are validated using structural equation modeling. The results suggest that time usage relationships are temporally stable. The broad needs of respondents, as represented by interrelationships between activities in sets, were found to be stable. We present reasons for believing that the conclusions of stability are comprehensive and can be used in the real‐world.     

Auditory attention switching and judgment switching: Exploring multicomponent task representations

An auditory attention-switching paradigm was combined with a judgment-switching paradigm to examine the interaction of a varying auditory attention component and a varying judgment component. Participants heard two dichotically presented stimuli—one spoken by a female speaker and one spoken by a male speaker. In each trial, the stimuli were a spoken letter and a spoken number. A visual explicit cue at the beginning of each trial indicated the auditory attention criterion (speaker sex/ear) to identify the target stimulus (Experiment 1) or the judgment that had to be executed (Experiment 2). Hence, the attentional selection criterion switched independently between speaker sexes (or between ears), while the judgment alternated between letter categorization and number categorization. The data indicate that auditory attention criterion and judgment were not processed independently, regardless of whether the attention criterion or the judgment was cued. The partial repetition benefits of the explicitly cued component suggested a hierarchical organization of the auditory attention component and the judgment component within the task set. We suggest that the hierarchy arises due to the explicit cuing of one component rather than due to a “natural” hierarchy of auditory attention component and judgment component.     

Do procedures really matter when rewards are more important? A Pakistani perspective on the effects of distributive and procedural justice on employee behaviors

Introduction

Researchers agree that procedural justice and distributive justice interact so that high procedural fairness reduces the negative consequences of distributive unfairness.