The effect of observational learning on students’ performance,processes, and motivation in two creative domains

Background . Previous research has shown that observation can be effective for learning in various domains, for example, argumentative writing and mathematics. The question in this paper is whether observational learning can also be beneficial when learning to perform creative tasks in visual and verbal arts. Aims . We hypothesized that observation has a positive effect on performance, process, and motivation. We expected similarity in competence between the model and the observer to influence the effectiveness of observation. Sample . A total of 131 Dutch students (10^th grade, 15 years old) participated. Method . Two experiments were carried out (one for visual and one for verbal arts). Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions; two observational learning conditions and a control condition (learning by practising). The observational learning conditions differed in instructional focus (on the weaker or the more competent model of a pair to be observed). Results . We found positive effects of observation on creative products, creative processes, and motivation in the visual domain. In the verbal domain, observation seemed to affect the creative process, but not the other variables. The model similarity hypothesis was not confirmed. Conclusions . Results suggest that observation may foster learning in creative domains, especially in the visual arts.     

Temporal distribution of favourite books,movies, and records: Differential encoding and re-sampling

The reminiscence bump is the effect that people recall more personal events from early adulthood than from childhood or adulthood. The bump has been examined extensively. However, the question of whether the bump is caused by differential encoding or re-sampling is still unanswered. To examine this issue, participants were asked to name their three favourite books, movies, and records. Furthermore, they were asked when they first encountered them. We compared the temporal distributions and found that they all showed recency effects and reminiscence bumps. The distribution of favourite books had the largest recency effect and the distribution of favourite records had the largest reminiscence bump. We can explain these results by the difference in rehearsal. Books are read two or three times, movies are watched more frequently, whereas records are listened to numerous times. The results suggest that differential encoding initially causes the reminiscence bump and that re-sampling increases the bump further.     

How to get radical creative ideas into a leader’s mind? Leader’s achievement goals and subordinates’ voice of creative ideas

In the present research we investigated when and why leaders tend to oppose or adopt radical creative ideas voiced by their subordinates. In a field study (Study 1, N = 127) we showed that leaders’ performance goals were positively related to their tendency to oppose radical creative ideas, whereas leaders’ mastery goals were positively related to their tendency to adopt them. We replicated these findings in an experimental study (Study 2, N = 90), in which we showed that performance goal leaders were more likely to oppose radical creative ideas voiced by their subordinates than mastery goal leaders, whereas mastery goal leaders were more likely to adopt those ideas than performance goal leaders. In Study 2, we further showed that the effects of leaders’ achievement goals on their oppose and adopt responses were mediated by the leaders’ interest in exploration. Finally, in Study 3 (N = 91), we experimentally demonstrated that oppose and adopt responses of performance goal leaders, rather than mastery goal leaders, were sensitive to the behavioural mode by which subordinates voiced their radical creative ideas. That is, performance goal leaders were less likely to oppose and more likely to adopt radical creative ideas when subordinates voiced them in a considerate mode rather than an aggressive mode.     

How are inflectional affixes organized in the mental lexicon?: evidence from the investigation of agreement errors in agrammatic aphasics

Recent psycholinguistic studies have provided evidence that regularly inflected words are decomposed into stems and affixes, both of which have their own representations in the mental lexicon. Specific models of the lexical organization of inflectional affixes have, however, only rarely been investigated in psycho- or neurolinguistic work. We test two recently proposed theoretical models: a representation of affixes (i) in default inheritance trees (Corbett and Fraser, 1993) and (ii) in underspecified paradigms (Wunderlich, 1996). Based on an analysis of agreement errors in elicited speech-production data of German agrammatic aphasics, we argue that affixes are organized with respect to the morphosyntactic features they encode. Specifically, our data indicate that inflectional affixes are best captured within an underspecified paradigm.     

The reminiscence bump in autobiographical memory: effects of age, gender, education, and culture

We investigated the age distribution of autobiographical memories with the Galton-Crovitz method through the Internet. Almost 2000 participants in the United States and the Netherlands aged between 11 and 70 years participated. They were presented with 10 cue words, and were asked to recall and date autobiographical memories. We found strong evidence for a "reminiscence bump" in all participant groups at all ages, with peaks at ages 15--18 for men and 13--14 for women. This peak could be localised more precisely than in previous studies due to our large sample size. We were able to remove the forgetting effect from the empirical age distribution with a method that allows separate estimation of memory encoding and forgetting. American participants showed a tendency to report older memories than the Dutch. Age group and level of education did not influence the lifetime encoding function.     

Somatoforme autonome Funktionsstörungen in der Urologie

Zusammenfassung Unter "somatoformen autonomen Funktionsstörungen des Urogenitalsystems" werden Störungen gefasst, die mit der Harnproduktion und der Harnausscheidung zusammenhängen, wie Harnverhalten/-inkontinenz, die Reizblase und das vegetative Urogenitalsyndrom. Neben Störungen der Harnausscheidung stehen diffuse Schmerzen und Missempfindungen im Nieren- und Unterbauchbereich im Vordergrund, ohne dass pathologische somatische Befunde erhoben werden können. Stattdessen wirken sich psychische Spannungszustände dysfunktional auf das Zusammenspiel der Blasen- und der Beckenbodenmuskulatur aus: hierbei können Verspannungen und Myalgien als Affektäquivalente aufgefasst werden. Die therapeutischen Ansätze beziehen sich auf die Erarbeitung eines biopsychosozialen Krankheitsmodells, das Erkennen funktionaler Aspekte der Störung in einem interaktionellen Kontext sowie die Förderung von Selbstmanagementkompetenzen.     

Regulatory focus theory: Disentangling goals and strategies

The purpose of this research was to develop and test the Regulatory Goals and Strategies Questionnaire (RGSQ) to promote conceptual and empirical clarity in the literature on regulatory focus theory (RFT). According to RFT, construing an end-state as a maximal goal (ideal, gain, and advancement) elicits the adoption of an eager promotion-focused strategy, whereas construing an end-state as a minimal goal (ought, non-loss, and security) elicits the adoption of a vigilant prevention-focused strategy. This means that promotion-focused eagerness and prevention-focused vigilance can be elicited by various goals and that eager and vigilant strategies are in fact separate from goals. However, extant measurement instruments have not treated them as such. The RGSQ was developed to distinguish various maximal and minimal goals and to separate these goals from promotion- and prevention-focused strategies of eagerness and vigilance. Across three studies that combine six samples (total N = 1848), we examined the factor structure and nomological network of the RGSQ (Study 1: four samples of students and adults) and its predictive validity in a task context (Study 2) and working sample (Study 3). Overall, we found support for the RGSQ's validity and demonstrated that the RGSQ operationalizes regulatory focus in accordance with the theory's core assumptions.     

The representation of inflectional morphology: evidence from Broca's aphasia.

Dualistic models of inflection assume a qualitative distinction between affix-based regular forms and stored irregular forms, predicting that the two distinct mechanisms can be selectively affected in language disorders. We present data on German participle formation from 11 agrammatic Broca's aphasics which show that irregular participles can be selectively affected in agrammatism. Moreover, the distribution of errors reveals a frequency effect for irregular but not for regular participles. Both findings argue for a dualistic representation of inflection. Moreover, we want to propose a modification of dualistic models by suggesting that both regularity and irregularity are better conceived of as scalar.