Backing up behaviors in teams: the role of personality and legitimacy of need

In this article, the authors developed several hypotheses regarding both the main and interactive effects of 2 types of team inputs on backing up behaviors in teams: (a) team composition characteristics in terms of the personality of the members of the team and (b) team task characteristics in terms of the extent to which the nature of the task is one that legitimately calls for some members of the team to back up other members of the team. Results from a study of 71 4-person teams performing a computerized tactical decision-making task suggest that the legitimacy of the need for back up has an important main effect on the extent to which team members provide assistance to and receive assistance from each other. In addition, the legitimacy of the need for back up also has important interactive effects with both the personality of the back up recipient and the personality of the back up providers on backing up behaviors in teams.     

Construct validity of the relationship profile test: a self-report measure of dependency-detachment

This study evaluated the construct validity of the Relationship Profile Test (RPT; Bornstein & Languirand, 2003), a 30-item self-report measure of dependency-detachment that yields three subscale scores: (a) destructive overdependence, (b) dysfunctional detachment, and (c) healthy dependency. Scores on the RPT subscales generally showed the expected patterns of intercorrelations and gender differences, and comparison of RPT scores with scores on other tests supported the convergent and discriminant validity of each RPT subscale. Results of internal and retest reliability analyses were generally supportive as well, and suggested that the three RPT subscales assess aspects of the traits they purport to measure     

Implicit learning of complex information in amnesia

Implicit learning abilities of nine amnesic patients were explored by using an artificial grammar learning task in which the test strings were constructed in such a way that grammaticality judgments could not be based on a simple knowledge of bigrams and trigrams (chunks). Results show that amnesic patients and controls performed at the same level during the classification task, whereas amnesic patients performed worse than controls in an explicit generation task. Moreover, there was no correlation between the implicit and explicit measures. These results are compatible with the existence of two kinds of representation intervening in artificial grammar learning. The first one based on processes leading to fragment-specific knowledge (the chunks, which can be accessed explicitly), and the second based on the learning of simple associations and more complex conditional relations between elements.     

Neural correlates of age-related declines in the formation and realization of delayed intentions

Neural correlates of age-related declines in prospective memory were studied by using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in a task in which individuals formed and later realized simple intentions. The behavioral data revealed that prospective responding was less accurate and slower in older than in younger adults. The electrophysiological data revealed age-related differences in the amplitude of modulations of the ERPs associated with the encoding of intentions, the detection of cues, and disengagement from the ongoing activity. These findings support the hypothesis that age-related declines in prospective memory result from a reduction in the efficiency with which older adults encode intentions and detect cues.     

Developmental origins of sociality in brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater)

Five variables were studied relating to the emergence of sociality in hand-reared cowbirds (Molothrus ater): proximity, sex assortment, reactions to adults, head-down displays, and vocalizations. The authors were especially interested in female sociality because adult female birds influence male courtship, song content, and use through proximity, attention, and displays. The authors found that young female birds failed to show same-sex affiliation typical of the species at any point in the study. Brief introduction of adults did not affect social patterns. Adults used more head-down displays than juveniles, who used more displays with familiar peers. Directed and undirected singing emerged concurrently; directed singing was positively correlated with earlier hatching. This is the first demonstration of the need for early learning in the development of female sociality.     

Phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories for social and non-social events in social phobia

Previous studies failed to show clear differences between people with social phobia and non-anxious individuals regarding the specificity and affective intensity of their autobiographical memories for social events. However, these studies did not assess the subjective experience associated with remembering. In this study, people with social phobia and non-anxious control participants recalled social and non-social events, and rated the phenomenal characteristics of their memories. The memories of people with social phobia for social events contained fewer sensorial details but more self-referential information than controls' memories. In addition, people with social phobia remembered social situations from an observer perspective, viewing themselves as if from outside, to a greater extent than controls. By contrast, the two groups did not differ concerning their memories for non-social events. These findings are discussed in relation to cognitive models of social phobia.     

Structural contingency theory and individual differences: examination of external and internal person-team fit

This article develops and tests a structurally based, integrated theory of person-team fit. The theory developed is an extension of structural contingency theory and considers issues of external fit simultaneously with its examination of internal fit at the team level. Results from 80 teams working on an interdependent team task indicate that divisional structures demand high levels of cognitive ability on the part of teammembers. However, the advantages of high cognitive ability in divisional structures are neutralized when there is poor external fit between the structure and the environment. Instead, emotional stability becomes a critical factor among teammembers when a divisional structure is out of alignment with its environment. Individual differences seem to play little or no role in functional structures, regardless of the degree of external fit.     

The Positive and Negative Suicide Ideation (PANSI) inventory: psychometric evaluation with adolescent psychiatric inpatient samples

In this study, we evaluated the factor structure of the Positive and Negative Suicide Ideation (PANSI) Inventory (Osman, Gutierrez, Kopper, Barrios, & Chiros, 1998) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The PANSI assesses the frequency of negative risk and protective factors that are related to suicidal behavior. Participants (n = 195) were adolescent psychiatric inpatients, ages 14 to 17 years, in the CFA. Results of the CFA supported the fit for the 2-factor oblique model as the best fitting model. The internal consistency reliability estimates of the 2 subscales, the PANSI-Negative (alpha = .96) and the PANSI-Positive (alpha = .89) were high. Scores on the PANSI scales differentiated between suicide attempters and controls and those at severe risk for suicide and controls. Correlational analyses provide strong support for the concurrent validity of the scales. The results of the logistic regression analyses provide support for the use of this new inventory as a risk measure of suicide-related behaviors: Scores on the PANSI scales (n = 54) also showed satisfactory evidence for test-retest reliability over a 2-week period.     

Multidimensional adaptive testing with constraints on test content

The case of adaptive testing under a multidimensional response model with large numbers of constraints on the content of the test is addressed. The items in the test are selected using a shadow test approach. The 0–1 linear programming model that assembles the shadow tests maximizes posterior expected Kullback-Leibler information in the test. The procedure is illustrated for five different cases of multidimensionality. These cases differ in (a) the numbers of ability dimensions that are intentional or should be considered as nuisance dimensions and (b) whether the test should or should not display a simple structure with respect to the intentional ability dimensions.