Transpersonal Efficacy: How Efficacy Perceptions of Single Others Influence Task Performance

In addition to self-efficacy, efficacy perceptions of others within a task environment influence task performance. I define such efficacy perceptions of single others as transpersonal efficacy and investigate it in two studies. The first shows transpersonal efficacy can drive performance. The second then builds upon the first by investigating how self- and transpersonal efficacy jointly influence task performance. Further, the role of the focal other within the task environment, as an outcome interdependent or noninterdependent partner, or as an opponent, is shown to moderate these relationships. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of investigating transpersonal efficacy due to the increasingly complex problems facing modern organizations necessitating task environments involving multiple individuals.     

Patterns of Silent Reading Rate and Comprehension as a Function of Developmental Status,Genre, and Text Position

This study examined how comprehension-based silent reading rate (CBSRR) is affected by grade, genre, and text position. Second and fourth graders read 2 grade-specific passages (one narrative, one informational) in 4 sections, each followed by 4 comprehension questions. Analyses of rate with a criterion level of comprehension showed higher performances on informational than narrative texts and better performances as students moved through sections of a text. Percentages of students attaining CBSRR decreased across the four sections of both genres and at both grade levels. Implications of findings are discussed and question are raised about text complexity and silent reading patterns.     

Using prequestions to enhance learning from reading passages: the roles of question type and structure building ability

ABSTRACT

Answering questions before learning something (“prequestions”) enhances learning. However, these benefits usually occur for information that was asked in the prequestions (i.e. prequestioned material), and not for non-prequestioned material. We reasoned that this narrow benefit may be due to the fact that studies typically use fairly simple prequestions that have a clear answer within one part of the learning material – isolative prequestions. We explored the effects of integrative prequestions that required participants to make connections across different parts of a reading passage. Experiment 1 showed the usual benefit of isolative prequestions on prequestioned but not on non-prequestioned material, but no benefit of integrative prequestions. However, in Experiment 2 when participants were given instructions to seek the answers while reading, integrative prequestions benefited learning of both prequestioned and non-prequestioned material. Individual differences in structure building positively predicted performance, but did not interact with the effects of prequestions.     

Dual-target search for high and low prevalence X-ray threat targets

Recent studies have shown that the prevalence of target presentation in visual search has an impact on target detection rates, and also that searching for two targets leads to a decrement in performance (the “dual-target cost”). In the present experiments, we added to previous work that has examined the interaction between the prevalence effect and dual-target cost, and also to previous work that has examined a full range of prevalence levels. We found no interaction between the dual-target cost and prevalence effect, though the response criterion in dual-target search did interact with target prevalence in an unexpected manner. Furthermore, we detected anasymmetry in the prevalence effect: It was more marked for high than low prevalence. Implications for real-world tasks are discussed.     

Dual brain,creativity, and health

Abstract

The importance of the specialized functions of the right and left hemispheres is reviewed, with applications to education, treatment, creativity, and research duly noted. Experimental studies serve as indications of how alexithymia and creativity of the so‐called dual brain has been examined. Patients with com‐missurotomies, patients in psychotherapy, priests, creative subjects, and normal controls have been compared through a variety of experimental methods in terms of hemispheric specialization. The results indicate that creative and healthy subjects tend to have freer access to mutual interaction of both hemispheres without marked inhibitory or disinhibitory effects from either cerebral hemisphere.     

Pharmaceutical Ethics and Physician Liability in Side Effects

We review Side Effects, a 2013 film involving bioethics, pharmaceuticals, and financial conspiracies. After the main character Emily unsuccessfully attempts suicide, she begins receiving care from a psychiatrist, Dr. Banks. Following numerous events, she is placed on a fictional antidepressant, Ablixa, which leads her to suffer from sleepwalking. During an episode of sleepwalking she commits a serious crime. The film poses an interesting dilemma: How responsible would the physician be in this instance? We analyze this question by applying numerous ethical principles.     

Stage of physical activity and approach-avoidance achievement goals in university students

ObjectivesThe main purpose of the present investigation was to examine approach-avoidance achievement goal patterns across stages of physical activity participation. In addition, sex differences in the approach and avoidance goals were examined as well as goal contrast scores (i.e., approach minus avoidance) as secondary purposes.DesignThe research was cross-sectional in design.MethodParticipants were 804 university students who completed a questionnaire assessing their stage of physical activity, 2 × 2 achievement goals, and demographics.ResultsMANOVA results revealed hypothesized and significant (p < .001) physical activity stage differences in the mastery and performance approach goals as well as significant (p's < .05) gender differences in both performance goals. A significant (p < .01) gender by physical activity stage interaction emerged for the performance goals and surprisingly, was found mainly in the advanced exercise stages (i.e., action, maintenance, and long-term maintenance). Last, significant (p < .001) gender and physical activity stage main effects emerged for the achievement goal contrasts. Males endorsed both the mastery and performance contrasts more than females. Collapsed for both sexes, the contrast scores were greater in the physically active than the non-active stages.ConclusionsFindings suggested that interventions targeting physical activity in university students should emphasize approach goals relative to the avoidance goals. Particular attention should be paid to the performance goals in the maintenance and long-term maintenance stages as they appeared theoretically inconsistent for the female participants. Last, the split in the preparation stage (active, non-active) should be incorporated into future stage based investigations as the split demonstrated two meaningfully different subgroups.     

Knowledge as a thick concept: explaining why the Gettier problem arises

The Gettier problem has stymied epistemologists. But, whether or not this problem is resolvable, we still must face an important question: Why does the Gettier problem arise in the first place? So far, philosophers have seen it as either a problem peculiar to the concept of knowledge, or else an instance of a general problem about conceptual analysis. But I would like to steer a middle course. I argue that the Gettier problem arises because knowledge is a thick concept, and a Gettier-like problem is just what we should expect from attempts at analyzing a thick concept. Section 2 is devoted to establishing the controversial claim that knowledge is thick, and, in Sect. 3, I show that there is a general problem for analyzing thick concepts of which the Gettier problem is a special instance. I do not take a stand on whether the Gettier problem, or its general counterpart, is resolvable. My primary aim is to bring these problems into better focus.     

Grouping Effects on Spatial Attention in Visual Search

In visual search tasks, spatial attention selects the locations containing a target or a distractor with one of the target's features, implying that spatial attention is driven by target features (M.S. Kim & K. R. Cave, 1995). The authors measured the effects of location-based grouping processes in visual search. In searches for a color-shape combination (conjunction search), spatial probes indicated that a cluster of same-color or same-shape elements surrounding the target were grouped and selected together. However, in searches for a shape target (feature search), evidence for grouping by an irrelevant feature dimension was weaker or nonexistent. Grouping processes aided search for a visual target by selecting groups of locations that shared a common feature, although there was little or no grouping by an irrelevant feature when the target was defined by a unique salient feature.     

Children's Perceptions of Unfair Reward and Punishment

Being able to judge the fairness of a personal encounter and having an appreciation of the associated feelings are important components of prosocial development. This study explored a common feature of everyday experience: unfair reward and unfair punishment. Scenarios depicting 4 possible variants of unfairness were read to children aged 9 to 11 years, who then made judgments regarding the degree of unfairness and the nature and strength of the feelings experienced by the characters. Our hypothesis that children with classroom conduct problems would judge the non-receipt of a deserved reward as worse than the receipt of an undeserved punishment was not confirmed. This differentiation, however, did prove to be characteristic of boys in general, but not girls. Being asked to think of unfair things that had actually happened did not appear to influence the children's responses to hypothetical unfair situations, but did reveal that children experience and remember a variety of unfair events in everyday family contexts. This study provides evidence that children actively monitor the receipt of social reward and punishment according to their perception of fairness.