An attempt to discriminate different types of executive functions in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

This study examined the roles of the phonological working memory and the central executive in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test by altering the materials and the procedure of the task and using a dual-task design, in which cognitive abilities of normal participants were manipulated by performance of the secondary tasks selectively taxing the phonological loop or the central executive. The present study used three novel versions of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, namely the WCST-4 stimuli, the WCST-12-stimuli, and the WCST-12-stimuli-box, in all of which the participants were given the exact sorting criterion. So the tasks did not involve processes such as maintenance of inferences about the sorting criterion which would require phonological memory load. However, the tasks were assumed to require the executive process of response inhibition. In the WCST-4-stimuli condition no change was made to the WCST materials. In the other two conditions, relying on the assumption that the three-dimensional nature of the cards triggers inappropriate responses, unidimensional stimulus cards were used instead of the four normal three-dimensional WCST stimulus cards. The difference between these two conditions was that, in the WCST-12-stimuli-box condition, boxes were used to conceal the response cards previously sorted. The results supported Dunbar and Sussman's (1995) argument that some executive processes in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test require the use of phonological store, and the present design was able to differentiate the type of executive functions that do not involve the use of a phonological loop from the ones that do. In addition, the results concerning manipulations of the visual aspects of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test suggest that the three-dimensional nature of the WCST stimulus cards leads to an increase in the number of inappropriate responses produced with the executive secondary task interference.     

Temporary employees in Singapore: what drives them?

In this study the authors provide an empirical analysis of the job attitudes and behavior of temporary workers in Singapore, compiling and categorizing the various reasons individuals choose temporary jobs, in an effort to provide a clear and comprehensive understanding of why people choose this work arrangement. A profile of temporary employees showed that job attitudes are affected by the importance of the various reasons given for being a temporary worker. This exploratory study provides a foundation on which more complex relationships between these variables can be examined.     

An exploratory study on the career anchors of educators in Singapore.

In this exploratory study, the authors adopted an empirical approach to determine the various primary career anchors possessed by Singapore educators, the impact of the degree of congruency between teaching and the career anchors on intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction, and turnover intentions. A number of hypotheses were supported and provided the 1st step in understanding this group of important individuals who nuture the future generation of human capital for the workplace.     

The burden of filial piety: A qualitative study on caregiving motivations amongst family caregivers of patients with cancer in Singapore

Objective. This study explores (1) the motivations and challenges facing family caregiving for cancer in Singapore and (2) suggests a possible framework to guide culturally sensitive future work on caregivers.

Design. Twenty caregivers of patients being treated for cancer at a public hospital in Singapore were interviewed. A semi-structured interview format and inductive thematic analysis were used to analyse the data. Caregivers were asked about their motivations for caregiving and the challenges they faced.

Results. Caregivers’ motivations grouped into three categories: personal value and fulfilment, giving care because of societal expectations such as filial piety, and practical need. Challenges were grouped into interpersonal challenges, disclosure and finding balance. Caregivers with different primary motivations varied in their responses to these challenges. More autonomous caregivers cited learning points and reprioritised more effectively than less autonomous caregivers, who reported more internal conflict and less control over their situation.

Conclusions. In Singapore and Asia, sociocultural values of family caregiving are not uniformly experienced as positive, and may be burdensome for caregivers who give care primarily for extrinsic motivations. As family caregiving needs increase, targeted psychosocial support for caregivers with less autonomous behavioural orientations may pre-empt caregiver burnout and burden.     

Improving judgment accuracy by sequential adjustment

Judging an object’s value based on relevant cues can be challenging. We propose a simple method to improve judgment accuracy: Instead of estimating a value after seeing all available cues simultaneously, individuals view cues sequentially, one after another, making and adjusting their estimate at each step. The sequential procedure may alleviate computational difficulties in cue integration, leading to higher judgment accuracy. We tested this hypothesis in two real-world tasks in which participants judged either the price of diamonds or the fuel economy of cars. Two studies with professional jewelers and car salespeople show that most participants indeed judged more accurately with a sequential than with a simultaneous procedure. Another two studies with college students further support this finding and show additionally that the sequential procedure could raise the judgment accuracy of inexperienced students to the same level as that of professionals judging with the simultaneous procedure.

     

Teaching Engineering Ethics using BLOCKS Game

The aim of this study was to investigate the use of a newly developed design game called BLOCKS to stimulate awareness of ethical responsibilities amongst engineering students. The design game was played by seventeen teams of chemical engineering students, with each team having to arrange pieces of colored paper to produce two letters each. Before the end of the game, additional constraints were introduced to the teams such that they faced similar ambiguity in the technical facts that the engineers involved in the Challenger disaster had faced prior to the space shuttle launch. At this stage, the teams had to decide whether to continue with their original design or to develop alternative solutions. After the teams had made their decisions, a video of the Challenger explosion was shown followed by a post-game discussion. The students’ opinion on five Statements on ethics was tracked via a Five-Item Likert survey which was administered three times, before and after the ethical scenario was introduced, and after the video and post-game discussion. The results from this study indicated that the combination of the game and the real-life incident from the video had generally strengthened the students’ opinions of the Statements.