A continuum of dimensional separability

Recent studies of children’s perception may be interpreted in terms of a developmental continuum from integrality to separability in the perception of multidimensional variation. Two experiments examined the existence of such a continuum in adult perception. The first experiment indicated that there are dimensional combinations that are neither clearly integral nor separable for adults. Rather, such a combination results in performance patterns intermediate between those found with integral and separable dimensions. The second experiment tested one conceptualization of a continuum of dimensional separability in a speeded classification task. By this conceptualization, the perceived structures of multidimensional variation are orderable by thedegree to which the component dimensions are differentiated. Consistent with this view, performances with three-dimensional combinations are shown to be differentially dependent on dimensional and wholistic relations. The importance of the joint consideration of developmental and adult issues in the perception of multidimensional variation is briefly discussed.     

Attitudinal versus ecological approaches to the characterization of institutional treatment environments

The relational and discriminative properties of attitudinal and ecological measures of environments were examined within the context of a state hospital for mentally retarted clients. Three hypotheses were advanced, and the results gave substantial support for one of these and partial support for a second: (a) that the correlations between attitudinal and ecological measures should not differ significantly from zero, and (b) that differences among hospital treatment programs and living units should be reflected in ecological but not in attitudinal measures. However, the results did not provide clear confirmation for a third hypothesis: that differences among staff demographic characteristics and employment history should be reflected in attitudinal but not in ecological measures. It was suggested that these background variables may not be appropriate measures of personality-linked attributes.     

Charismatic Leadership and Objective Performance Indicators

Recent empirical and theoretical work has advanced our understanding of charismatic leadership in organisations. Despite this progress, only a few studies have tested the hypothesis that charismatic leadership might be related to objective, organisationally relevant indicators. In order to address this research gap, the present study tested whether charismatic leadership was related to followers’ absenteeism, their training and development activities, as well as branch‐level profit. Charismatic leadership was defined according to Conger and Kanungo's (1998 ) theory. It could be demonstrated that facets of charismatic leadership were negatively related to followers’ absenteeism, but positively related to their training and development activity. Moreover, charismatic leadership showed a positive relationship to profit. In sum, the results contribute to theory and practice of charismatic leadership. Un travail empirique et théorique récent a fait progresser notre compréhension du leadership charismatique dans les organisations. Malgré ce progrès, seules quelques études ont testé l’hypothèse selon laquelle un leadership charismatique serait liéà des facteurs objectifs et pertinents pour l’organisation. Pour une compréhension plus approfondie des effets du leadership chatismatique, la présente étude teste si ce style de leadership est lié aux suiveurs, à l’absentéisme, aux activités de formation et de développement ainsi qu’aux bénéfices au niveau de la branche. Le leadership charismatique est défini en accord avec la théorie de Conger et Kanungo (1998). On a pu démontrer que les facettes du leadership charismatique sont liées négativement aux suiveurs, à l’absentéisme et positivement à l’activité de formation et de dévelpppement. En outre, le leadership charismatique montre une relation positive au profit. En somme, les résultats contribuent à la théorie et à la pratique du leadership charismatique.     

Evolution of Cultural Interbehavior in a Turn-Based Matching-to-Sample Procedure

The Psychological Record - Kantor’s (1982) analysis of cultural interbehavior focuses on shared stimulus–response functions that are conventional across individuals and established...     

Avoidance in Adolescence: The Balloon Risk Avoidance Task (BRAT)

Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment - A large body of work documents the utility of behavioral risk tasks for making inferences about adolescent risk-taking proclivities and...     

A structural examination of the Learning Experiences Questionnaire

The underlying factor structure of the Learning Experiences Questionnaire (LEQ; Schaub, 2004) was examined using data from 742 male and female college-age respondents. The LEQ items reflect a variety of learning experiences (generated based on Bandura's (1986, 1997) four sources of self-efficacy perceptions) that might occur in each of Holland's (1997) six RIASEC domains. The LEQ was expected to have a multi-dimensional factor structure, with dimensions representing both RIASEC context and learning experience type. A multi-trait multi-method framework was used to compare the relative fits of a series of models with different theoretically implied dimensionalities, estimated using confirmatory factor analysis. Results supported the proposed multi-dimensional structure. Results of follow-up tests of measurement invariance for men and women revealed that configural and partial factorial invariance held, implying that the LEQ measure functions similarly for men and women.     

Increased wait-list time predicts dropout from outpatient enhanced cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT-E) for eating disorders

Between 30 and 70% of patients with eating disorders drop out from outpatient treatment. However, research has been unable to identify factors that consistently predict dropout from eating disorder treatment. Most studies have exclusively investigated the role that individual patient characteristics play in dropout and have ignored more process-based factors such as expectations about treatment, the therapeutic alliance, or time spent on a treatment waiting list. This study aimed to investigate the roles of both individual patient characteristics and process-based factors in dropout from outpatient treatment for eating disorders. The study involved data collected from consecutive eating disorder referrals to the only public specialist eating disorder service for youth and adults in Perth, Western Australia. The standard treatment provided at this service is Enhanced Cognitive Behaviour Therapy on an individual basis. The study involved 189 patients referred to the service between 2005 and 2010. Forty five percent of this sample dropped out of treatment. Results showed that, in this sample, two individual factors, lowest reported weight and the tendency to avoid affect, and one process-based factor, time spent on the wait list for treatment, were significant predictors of dropout. These findings are valuable because a process-based factor, such as wait-list time, may be easier to address and modify than a patient's weight history or the trait of mood intolerance. Increased resources for eating disorder services may reduce waiting list times which would help to reduce dropout and maximize treatment outcomes.     

Modeling cross-situational word-referent learning: prior questions

Both adults and young children possess powerful statistical computation capabilities--they can infer the referent of a word from highly ambiguous contexts involving many words and many referents by aggregating cross-situational statistical information across contexts. This ability has been explained by models of hypothesis testing and by models of associative learning. This article describes a series of simulation studies and analyses designed to understand the different learning mechanisms posited by the 2 classes of models and their relation to each other. Variants of a hypothesis-testing model and a simple or dumb associative mechanism were examined under different specifications of information selection, computation, and decision. Critically, these 3 components of the models interact in complex ways. The models illustrate a fundamental tradeoff between amount of data input and powerful computations: With the selection of more information, dumb associative models can mimic the powerful learning that is accomplished by hypothesis-testing models with fewer data. However, because of the interactions among the component parts of the models, the associative model can mimic various hypothesis-testing models, producing the same learning patterns but through different internal components. The simulations argue for the importance of a compositional approach to human statistical learning: the experimental decomposition of the processes that contribute to statistical learning in human learners and models with the internal components that can be evaluated independently and together.