The Malaise of the Soul at Work: The Drive for Creativity,Self-Actualization,and Curiosity in Education

Studies in Philosophy and Education - Franco “Bifo” Berardi tells us that the current transformation of every domain of social life into economy has led to “the subjugation of the...     

Leader-Follower Congruence in Need for Achievement and Work Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Leader-Member Exchange

While several studies have investigated the effect of employees’ need for achievement on their work-related outcomes, how leader-follower congruence in need for achievement is related to critical workplace outcomes remains underexplored. Integrating person-environment theory and similarity-attraction theory, this study investigated the influences of leader-follower congruence in need for achievement on followers’ job performance and job well-being through the mediating effect of leader-member exchange (LMX). Using cross-level polynomial regression and response surface analysis to analyze the data from 391 leaders and 1,124 followers, we found that leader-follower congruence in need for achievement had a positive effect on followers’ job performance and job well-being though the mediating role of LMX. The theoretical and managerial implications are further discussed.     

Long-term memory of haptic and visual information in older adults

ABSTRACT

The present study examined haptic and visual memory capacity for familiar objects through the application of an intentional free-recall task with three-time intervals in a sample of 78 healthy older adults without cognitive impairment. A wooden box and a turntable were used for the presentation of haptic and visual stimuli, respectively. The procedure consisted of two phases, a study phase that consisted of the presentation of stimuli, and a test phase (free-recall task) performed after one hour, one day or one week. The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicated that there was a main effect only for the time intervals (F (2,71) = 12.511, p = .001, η² = 0.261), with a lower recall index for the interval of one week compared to the other intervals. We concluded that the memory capacity between the systems (haptic and visual) is similar for long retrieval intervals (hours to days).     

Lateral masking as a determinant of global dominance.

The term compound letter refers to a large (global) letter made up of small (local) letters. Reaction time to identify local letters is longer when local and global letters are different than when they are the same (the global dominance effect). The possible contribution of lateral masking to this effect was investigated. Lateral masking denotes reduced probability of identifying a stimulus when it is closely surrounded by other stimuli (as is the case for the local items in a compound stimulus). Three experiments were conducted in which the dependent measure was percentage of correct responses, rather than reaction time. In experiment 1 compound letters were used; accuracy of performance yielded evidence of global dominance such as obtained with reaction time measures. In experiments 2 and 3 the strength of lateral masking in geometrical forms was varied by varying the density of their component items. In agreement with earlier suggestions based on indirect evidence, the results directly implicated lateral masking as an important determinant of global dominance. However, lateral masking could not account fully for the experimental outcome. Factors beyond lateral masking, such as global precedence in the processing sequence or inhibitory interactions among low and high spatial-frequency components of the compound images are required in order to provide a comprehensive account of global dominance effects.